Great story

Takes awhile for the main characters to grow on you (I grew to like them much more in the sequels), but some of the side characters have tons of personality and are very likeable.

A strong performance from Jason Segal and a strong middle will more than make up for it.

The Sequel is very strong! if you're looking for a trilogy and liked the preview this is a series that gets stronger and more is explored.

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Christian Anti-Video Game Propaganda

Let me begin by saying I have no issue with books featuring Christian values in the forefront, my biggest issue with Otherworld is how surface-level the commentary is. To be fair, it is subtle enough that I didn't notice at first, beyond a few clues. One such 'clue' was when one of the characters mentioned the city of Mammon's name comes from the bible; a stereotypical 'gamer' responds that "nothing from the bible" could be in Otherworld, because its a video game. This made me immediately think of the Mammon machine from Chrono Trigger, and a dozen other biblical references from games I could name off the top of my head. This is important, as it shows that if the authors do have any genuine interest in video games, it is likely very surface level.

While often compared to Ready Player One, which was also very simple, Otherworld beats it in commentary on technology. In addition to virtual reality, Otherworld has a lot to say about AI, and begins to touch on augmented reality technology bridging the gap between the digital and reality. I'm making it sound cooler than it is, most of the arguments on AI are "they act alive so whatever", yes they should be treated as alive the there are deeper questions about the nature of human vs artifical consciousness to ask here. The Augmented reality scenes are also very surface but that does not take away from the main plot as it is likely setting up for a sequel will Augmented reality technology will take center stage, judging from the title "Otherearth". Reality is questioned in a single line of a side character musing if we're in a constructed reality.

The main character, Simon, is completely insufferable. He seems to think himself capable of murder, thinking many times that he "knows" he could kill his tormentors, but cowers whenever physical confronted outside of Otherworld. He felt childish, and this was not helped by the books first-person perspective, as I found myself putting myself in Simon's shoes, and anticipating plot points far ahead of him. The amount of time he needed simple situations explained to him, or blurted out information that nearly gets him killed have me muttering "moron" under my breath more then downtown drivers, as i listen in my car.

Jason Segel's performance was great, no complaints. Only reason i didn't give his voice acting 5 stars is because I just listened to Willful Child and MacLeod Andrews changed what 5 stars means to me.

So why did I pick up this audiobook? Well my friends, I was looking for Tad William's Otherland! The beginning was good enough for me, if a bit boring as character introductions dragged on. I was going to quit 3/4 of the way through, but decided I wanted the catharsis of writing this complete review I was actually about to give the story 1 stars before I read back that line; I almost didn't finish it, but I did out of spite. Sorry if you enjoyed it i guess, i don't like giving low review but i have to go where my heart tells me. Overall, everythign Otherworld says has been said before, argued better, even when targeted at younger audiences. Hopefully my next review will be a positive account of Otherland, fingers crossed!

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1 person found this helpful

Easy read, great narration

I love Jason Segel and video games so this was right up my alley.

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Enjoyed the book

Each book in this series is amazing and will be enjoying them for years
Hope you feel the same

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Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I loved the book so much. There were a couple times Jason used the wrong voice for a line in the second half of the blood but it was nothing that took away from the experience.

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amazing but

i loved this book and highly recommend it. the only downside is at times i felt like there were extremely obvious answers to questions the main characters couldn’t figure out.

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Get It

Just get it. That's all I have to say at this moment in time because I need to listen to the second one.

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Cringy

I liked the story, very sword art online without any of the combat, horrible fight scenes. I don’t know why an actor can’t read what he wrote in a less boring way but I wish a talented voice actor read this instead. Don’t get me wrong I love Jason segel but his voice work and cringy hero ruins this for me. Good story tho may not get the next book

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Jason Segel at his best

Amazing story. The imagery was so clever and real. I felt like I was in Otherworld hanging out with Simon and Kat. I loved how Jason did all the voices for different people and stayed consistent. Looking forward to the next one

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Great Idea - Easy Read

The story was very interesting! The writing was a little simple though. Would still recommend.

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