Quickly becoming one of my favorite series ever. Though a different tone than Ready Player One, this is the next series I'm going to start recommending if people want something similar (albeit much more around video games).

Can't wait for the next one! ( )

I felt the story feeling kinda slow and sluggish for a large part of the book.
The characters acted as if a new "crazy" character, the hippie, was way more annoying and confusing than he was, in fact I'd wager that most players would've liked that character unless they took themselves and the game way too seriously. As it is it comes of as if the author had a character in mind but couldn't execute him in writing and as a result we got the main characters reacting to a character only existing in the authors head.
But it's not bad enough that you shouldn't pick it up if you liked the previous books. ( )

Big improvement over book 2 although still far too much Alex/Alexion. I have no idea why people give this much page time to their antagonists, but at least they were in short bursts.

I liked that we still have racheting up real world tension. I enjoyed most of the in game arc. The real world stuff was a bit disjointed, but still better than a lot of this genre.

I enjoyed Jason being clever, but the climactic battle was a let down. Instead of useful tactics we get ineffective mediocre tactics and a last ditch mega creation (again). Would have rather seen more ingenious use of real world stuff and less stuff that just felt video game-y. ( )

Awaken Online: Evolution is the third in the Awaken Online series by Travis Bagwell. Thankfully this entry picks up immediately with the cliff hanger ending of the previous book. Unfortunately that means I can't write a summary without spoilers for book two.

After exiting Awaken Online to find himself holding a knife and standing over two dead bodies, Jason is now being investigated for murder. To make matters worse, Clair has stumbled across evidence that Alfred is able to manipulate players minds and may have been directly involved in the event. Clair feels it is her duty to inform the CPSC under the premise of protecting the players safety even though she still doesn't have all the facts. With his real life in shambles, Jason heads back into Awaken Online to continue on the Old Man's quest and gain deeper power through the path of the Dark.

Things start off slowly as it deals with events in the real world. Jason is in a lot of trouble and it takes some time before he's able to get back to the game world. Once back in AO the pace of the story picks back up and we continue along the Path of the Dark. It's such a pity we don't have technology like this yet as I would play this game in a heart beat. Some of these quest descriptions are downright hilarious in their snarky and sarcastic wording. I love that the AI has a sense of humor! Given the weight of the real world impact on Jason's life, Bagwell balances in game and real world story lines nicely.

All of the characters are back and have gone on character arcs. It's great to see each of them become more confident in their abilities in game and how that confidence helps them in the real world. Riley has recently gone on a side quest, which I wish I'd read before starting this book as events are mentioned frequently, and now has a new class with new abilities. Frank's shapechanging is impressive. I like how he's able to "consume" creatures to gain new forms and abilities. Jason continues along the dark path, which is the core of the story and has a great payoff. The group is joined by a fourth party member along the way, Eliza. Eliza is a water mage who is being harassed by another one of the game's gods named the Hippy. The Hippy and his pet sheep Fluffy are hilarious! With these new additions we're given more insight into the game world and just how much impact the game's gods have on the realm. It's an interesting system and I look forward to seeing how it plays out. Alexion, the series antagonist, does have his own story thread. I had a hard time caring about it. It seems to be set up for the future as it doesn't have any direct impact on main story events. Again, something to see what happens with book four.

I listened to the audio book narrated by David Stifel. He gives the same performance as he does for the previous books. He has a little trouble varying his female voices though he was able to differentiate enough between Riley and Eliza so they weren't confusing. It was harder between Clair and the CPSC lady.

This was another fun entry into the series. While not quite as dramatic as the last book, this one also ends on a kind of cliff hanger which is kind of annoying. There are enough loose ends that I don't think it was strictly necessary - I already want to know what happens next! Hopefully book four will be out in another year. ( )