Welcome dear friends, to the Virtual Reality Full Immersion System called Bookworld Online!
Your name is David Drake and you are a 10 year old slave to the Marsh Hag. You were bought from your parents when you were only a small child at two years old. You don't really remember your old family at all. That's a good thing, since you would hate them on sight for selling you to her. All you've know for your whole life is pain. You are usually quickly healed and receive a lot of training and experience as her unofficial apprentice.
It's unofficial because she would never pay to have you registered as an actual apprentice. To everyone else, you are just the boy she took pity on and brought into her home. What they don't know is that you are much more than that. So much more.
You are her food. She uses you as her own personal buffet and she indulges herself quite often. You even have the permanent scars to prove it. You have learned many things from her, mostly without her knowing, since you have been helping more and more with her spell work the last few years and her potion making. The only parts you can't do are the magic condensing rituals that her potions require and the mana infusions that a lot of her other creations need.
Do you wish to initiate the Main Storyline with these parameters?
Please Note: I publish daily.
Second Note: I changed this story to a fan fiction. It is based on Swamp Boy (https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/4342/swamp-boy). The old story (on another site) is about 4 years old and was dropped after 19 long chapters. The author hasn't been online since then, so I figured it was safe to do my own take on it.
- 320 EpilogueOct 21, 2021
- 319 The HagOct 21, 2021
- 318 The End Is HereOct 20, 2021
- 317 The End Is NighOct 19, 2021
- 316 Home Is Where the Heart IsOct 18, 2021
- 315 The Hunt Is OnOct 17, 2021
- 314 The Truth RevealedOct 16, 2021
- 313 The Start of SuppressionOct 15, 2021
- 312 If You Build It, You Will ConquerOct 14, 2021
- 311 My Old New SelfOct 13, 2021
- 310 To YumaOct 12, 2021
- 309 Helping HandsOct 11, 2021
- 308 Innovations Invite Destruction ConclusionOct 10, 2021
- 307 Innovations Invite Destruction Part TwoOct 9, 2021
- 306 Innovations Invite Destruction Part OneOct 8, 2021
- Content Warning
All Rights Reserved- Completed
- 839 reading
- 108 plan to read
- 61 completed
- 15 paused
- 43 dropped
Detailed world, complex characters, strong but damaged MC and that damage is carried through the sotry and not forgotten or waved off. During some of the darker parts, the 'bath ritual' was some of the best unintentional comedy I've ever read.
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If you're not scared off by the synopsis, then you might enjoy this book. The grammar is excellent, the characters are interesting* and vibrant, the worldbuilding holds together, and the epilogue has a twisted ending that made me smile.
It doesn't say it, but this story revolves around the Choose Your Own Adventure book concept, or branching storyline plots in video games. Periodically, the person living through this VR story will be given choices to pick from. Some of which are silly, useless, or just plain bizarre. Which shouldn't be a surprise, as the weird choices are sometimes the most fun.
For the most part, I found this story to be a 5 star book. But a couple things jumped out at me that dropped my rating.
1. For a significant chunk of the story, no story options are given. It very much could have been on purpose, but it reads as if the author simply forgot he had this world mechanic.
*2. The last 50 or so chapters contain a lot of
meaningless and damaging s*x. The main character doesn't even TRY to say no, but is disgusted by nearly every woman he has s*x with. He also blames them for not considering his wants and needs, but never makes any attempt to stop them or inform them of those needs until AFTER he is pissed off with them and is punishing them.
3. I will admit that all of these particular women in the story are in the wrong. They should have asked. They should have learned from their mistakes when he points them out. And when he sends them away, they definitely do make decisions that make things worse for them. But so many of them? All at once? And none of them learn? It feels like the author is just blatantly dumping a bunch of side characters.
For anyone who didn't read the spoiler, #2 and #3 (hidden by the spoiler tag) hold together from a character design standpoint, but only just barely. I understand that there are people out there like that and I understand that those decisions can and do happen. But when a section of the story is little more than just a solid mass of this happening multiple times, it is immersion-breaking. It no longer feels real.
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The first 15 chapters are a little difficult to stomach because of the story content, but it gets better and better past that point, and is all-around very well written.
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