Travis Bagwell

Jason logs into Awaken Online fed-up with reality. He's in desperate need of an escape, and this game is his ticket to finally feeling the type of power and freedom that's so sorely lacking in his real life. Awaken Online is a brand new virtual reality game that just hit the market, promising an unprecedented level of immersion. Yet Jason quickly finds himself pushed down a path he didn't expect. In this game, he isn't the hero. There are no damsels to save. There are no bad guys to vanquish. In fact, he might just be the villain. (This novel contains graphic violence and language. If books had ratings, it would be rated "M" for Mature)

Catharsis

Awaken Online

Kevin Maschke

******* SOME KIND OF SPOILERS *******

So far the ending of Tarot wasn't bad, but honestly not as good as the main series. There's a few things I didn't like. 
On the one hand it seems slow paced compared to Jason's story, this I think is mostly noticed in this last book. There's even some moments I got bored.

Thorn and the Orders appearance surprised me, but at least we know we're they come from. But I didn't like their role in this one. They're so strongly against anything god related and end up being convinced by one of the gods avatars to go after Jason... That easy? Oh and in Dominion Thorn says he's the leader of the Order, but here the leader seems to be Eldawin. Weird, I think.

Then Bilel, the big bad superpowerful enemy and God hater. So much power he could easily have destroyed Finn's army, Lahab and probably half the continent in a blink of his eyes, and he gets messed around with that easily? It gave me the impression Travis Bagwell either ran out of ideas here or just rushed through it to get to a timeline. And the last combat against Bilel... And how Finn takes over the staff? Way too easy and fast for what the other books showed in terms of problems.

Then they talk about hacking websites and forums to delete all evidence of Lahab... That could maybe go through if I didn't work as a systems engineer myself. But hacking Cerillion Entertainment servers? We know from the other books how much technology Cerillion has, how much security, and what people work there. Just suggesting that I think is kinda not well though through...

Then there's also the matter of basically no story outside of AO. A few chapters inside Finn's house, and a few of his memories, but that's it. Nothing more, no Cerillion Entertainment, who is monitoring and watching everything. Which brings me to the next point. In the other books Cerillion is on top of everything, watching, monitoring, recording. But here? With all that happens in Lahab, the dead, the catastrophes, the storm, the war, the players killed upon spawning at the mage guild... And nothing, not a sign of Cerillion.

I like how the AIs are introduced in this trilogy, how they're used, and how technology is mixed in Tarot, in a medieval magic desert world. I like how Daniel is used and evolves, and the Forge was an interesting twist, although it went on for too long and got repetitive.

I like how Tarot shows more about the gods, explains more about them and what they do, but the Seer just gets annoying in my opinion.

It's a bit weird that these books came out so late, when they're based before and during Evolution.

And Finn.... Mixed feelings. I like his character, his logic and clinical way of analysing and doing things. But I hate his emotional side, his living in the past, being so depressive and blaming himself the whole time. Always saying everything is "for Rachel"... She's dead. She's been dead for a long time. Just live with it, get on with your life. I just find that part really annoying about him.

And then I like the use of body augments, but self doing these? "Oh let me take my eyes out and replace them with metal sticks", "oh let me fuse this metal to my arm"...

And lastly, none of the main characters dies a single fricking time since leaving the mage guild. Really? It's a game, everyone dies at some point. Alexion dies, Jason dies, Frank dies... All died at some point. But Finn and his group? They're always doing crazy stuff and by miracle always stopping at 1% health? Really?

Awaken Online Catharsis

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