Awaken Online: Precipice Kindle Edition

A great tale, and after the second read I can say it's only improved. Not my usual genre, but so happy I found Mr. Bagwell : ) Thank you for the great books, Travis!

I thought the first book was good, Then boom I picked up this book, and it expanded so much more on the story I have grown to love. Highly recommend this book. Don’t recommend drinking soda while reading it though. I spilled soda all over the last 60 pages, and I have never been sadder.

“Awaken Online: Precipice” is the second book in Travis Bagwell’s AO series. I’m not sure how many books are planned for the series, but at this point there are two main books and then a shorter side quest book that follows Riley’s character. The first book was well done and was different than anything I had ever read before. The second book builds on the first, but feels even darker than that first episode (which is saying a lot). “Precipice” takes place just days after the events of the first book. In this one, Jason has been tasked with finding a way to defend his new dark city against future invasions. He quickly realizes that he must come up with a way to add to the population of his city if he has any chance of defending it. In typical Jason fashion, he executes (pun intended) an unconventional and brutal plan to bring more population into his growing undead army. While working the plan, Jason starts to understand what it means to have people depending on you – and the need to depend on other people as well. Unfortunately, while Jason is taking care of business in the game, he faces an enemy who is willing to work outside of AO to take Jason down for good.This book is dark. It’s probably the darkest book I’ve ever read that wasn’t categorized as “horror”. Jason’s brutal efficiency and practicality in addressing the needs of his city make for quite a conundrum for the reader – as you want to pull for Jason as a protagonist, but are forced to ride along with him as he kills again and again and again. Even his somewhat loveable cast of co-conspirators Riley and Frank (along with his NPC characters) all embrace the dark to help Jason accomplish his ends. Travis Bagwell has given us a story that truly turns things on its head as we are somewhat forced to pull for Jason despite the fact that (in the game at least) he is a merciless killer.This story moves at much the same pace as the first book and anyone who enjoyed that first episode will undoubtedly like this one as well. The ending caught me completely off guard and I need the third book to come out soon so I can see what happens.My concerns with this book and the series are not necessarily anything that has happened yet, but potentially what Bagwell does with it in the future. He has spent much time developing Jason’s character, but the other characters (Frank, Riley, and Alex in particular) remain vastly under-developed in comparison. Will he take the time to expand on those secondary characters enough to fill out the story, or will they remain mere tokens when compared to the time and effort spent exploring Jason’s mind and motives? I would argue that even Alfred is a better developed piece of the story at this point than Riley, Frank, or Alex. My last concern is what Bagwell intends to do with Jason. Will there be some balance between Jason the person and Jason the “gamer” or will he choose to have Jason lost permanently to the darkness in both the game and in real life? Those questions for me will go a long way to determining the enjoyment level of the series overall. That said, I can’t knock this book. It certainly holds your attention and Bagwell has without a doubt created a level of concern for the characters.Another nicely done effort. 5 out of 5 again.

This author is spitting hot fire up in these pages frfr no cap 💯 spoiler alert= the final boss is the black cat

The second book in the Awaken Online series has all of the things that made the first book so enjoyable. It focuses on an outcast protagonist who has to grow inside and outside of the game if he is to continue to hold his life together. The villain of the piece is a man everyone thinks is great but we, the reader, know to be a sociopath who is truly evil. This is the basic juxtaposition that makes this series work. The hero plays the villain in the game, but actually shows more basic humanity than the true villain, who plays a hero in the game even as he makes dastardly moves against his enemies. He’s the sort of person who takes game problems into the real world with no fear of consequence.So our protagonist, Jason, has to grow quickly both in game power and real world savvy to survive to the end of the game. A real-world bounty has been placed on his game head and lots of self-righteous players are anxious to have some fun making some money hunting him down. Jason, for his part, seems to relish the role of villain, coming up with exciting strategies to stay one step ahead of the opposition. To help him he has recruited two friends, but he doesn’t know how to be a friend and it’s another area where he really has to work on real-world growth.All that being said, this book was slower moving than the first as Bagwell never succeeds in making the breakthrough moments of the first book replicate in this sequel. In many ways I felt like we were just setting pieces in motion for the next book in the series—an idea that was reinforced by its cliffhanger ending.

Jason continues his playing of Awaken Online, the massive multiplayer online RPG. Now the ruler of a city of zombies, he has more concerns than simply levelling up his skills and getting new loot. I was worried this change in fortunes might lead to a more boring, admin-focused book (much like what happened with Phil Tucker's Euphoria Online). Thankfully this is not the case, as Jason hits on a way to keep his undead population count up, but also have some fun, by venturing into some unexplored dungeons. He does this with his real-world friends Frank and Riley, which adds a different element to the action, as he can use and rely on other people and their skills added into the mix make for a much more interesting sequence of conflicts. We are treated to a number of large-scale battles on the way to the dungeon, and within it. The way Jason's strategy is worked out and implemented make it a truly immersive, thrilling read. As with the first book, the start of each chapter contains an excerpt of someone else's view, either the game developers, or other players. This adds context to Jason's story and allows you to see consequences and foresee some issues. As well as this, we see Jason in the real world, though less than in the first book. There are moments where decisions made in-game have real world consequences, either impacting friendships or leading to nastiness and bullying. The fact that Jason decides to become "the villain" is a little hard to take, as apart from the very early stages, all of his decisions have been made out of him trying to do the right thing for himself/others and this is even more the case in this book. Aside from a few grammer crimes, continuity errors and head-scratching game mechanics, this was a very enjoyable exciting read.

After the conclusion to the first book I wondered where he could take this story to keep the power growth litRPG candy going without Jason ending up too overpowered. Travis Bagwell managed it, Jason's enemies have multiplied but he has team mates now, all with interesting arcs - even the NPC's have engaging backstories. Since this is book 2 its ending promises much more to come - whilst still giving a finished story . Addictive reading.

Amazing story. Even better than the first. I couldn't put the book down. Story took a few unexpected turns. Ending was interesting. Im looking forward to reading the rest of the series. I would highly recommend reading this.

Great read, solid follow on to the first book. Read the first two in a matter of days, looking forward to the rest of the adventure

Fantastic follow up book to Jason and his friends. Absolutely brilliant story and one of my favourite litrpg series