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Title: Launch

Subtitle: Solaria Online, Book 1

Author: Ryan Koskey

Narrator: David Stifel

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-26-17

Publisher: Ryan Koskey

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 45 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Three days before his high school graduation, Jacob Milroy learns that the military draft has been reinstated. With a war raging on the other side of the world, he realizes that he might soon be thrust into battle.

But then a groundbreaking contest within the immersive virtual reality game, Solaria Online, is announced by its visionary creator, a man who has grand plans for the human race. The prize for four lucky winners: recruitment into the Mars Colonization Initiative (and exemption from the draft).

Will Jacob be able to assemble his dream team in time to compete in the first round of the contest? With so much at stake and so many players vying for the adventure of a lifetime, he'll have to rely on his wit and ingenuity to have a fighting chance.

Launch is the first book of an exciting new LitRPG series!

Members Reviews:

this could turn into a great series down the road

Launch: Solaria Online is the first book in a new literary role-playing game (LitRPG) series written by Ryan Koskey. The book has potential but it will need to step up its game in the rest of the series to make a name for itself in this category. The book is not only the first in an undetermined number of books, but also the first published work by the author himself. The audiobook is very well narrated by David Stifel who has narrated a number of acclaimed books such as the Awaken Online series.

The account follows the well-beaten and routinely taken path of other books in its genre by blending a coming of age story, family troubles, bully issues, and a grand battle to be the winner of a real-world prize. This prize can be theirs only if their characters succeed first in the virtual game world. In this story, the prize is two-fold, a trip to mars and the ability to get out of the upcoming military draft. For an initial published work, the book was tolerable, but does not reach the level many have come to expect in this class of fiction. If you are someone who enjoys literary RPG stories and can deal with a few bumps and bruises along the way, you may find the book enjoyable. It is difficult to recommend it when so many other books are available to scratch this itch.

Solaria literally launches to great excitement and quickly becomes the game many of the younger crowd play when not doing their homework or other out of game activities. Players use a VR (virtual reality) headset to enter a game consisting of multiple fantasy locations. The book includes some near-futuristic technology such as automated lighting and computer tablets used for accomplishing homework. I liked Mark the personal assistant of our main character which today would be similar to Alexa, Siri, etc. but slightly advanced. In many ways, the book reminded me more of a modern take on the Ferris Bueller's Day Off story if they were tossed into a virtual fantasy world.

Jacob has many of the same issues a boy growing up in a broken home may experience during high school. Both his parents work menial jobs not earning enough money to live in their own house, so they depend on grandparents for housing. Adults are often out and about or meddling with the kids lives so the main character tries to escape this physical world by becoming something in this newly created virtual world.