Black Sand Baron (The Ripple System series 2)

I recommended this series to a buddy of mine recently, and he brought up the point that there is a whole lot of MMORPG (Games like World of Warcraft) raiding that goes on. It’s definitely a quirky feature in these LitRPG books to treat game elements like other fiction, but I don’t personally find that too much harder than caring about the peril of a hobbit or elf or other fantasy creature. That being said, this book has a whole lot of battle scenes that I found myself skimming through.

The writing in Black Sand Baron is fine, although not as strong as Shadeslinger. As mentioned above, there is a lot of content that I found myself skimming through. There is not much growth or development in any of the major characters from the first book, which I have mixed feelings about. The predictability of the characters and storylines is probably an intentional feature in this series, but there is a thin line between comfortable and stale with the dialogue feeling somewhat rehashed from the first book.

There is one new, memorable feature in this story. Black Sand Baron introduces a new villain, Tyrann, to the Ripple System. He’s not a particularly nuanced character, but he succeeds at his job of giving the protagonists a non-game character to compete against.

Overall, I remembered this book more fondly than it deserved. It’s still a fine book and gets a 5 out of 10, but I don’t like the feeling of slogging through what is supposed to be the most mindless of mindless reads.