I enjoyed Sentenced to Troll so I was happy to check out these two books. While I enjoyed this book the similarities to Ready Player One in plot and characters and even environments are really hard to miss. I’m showing this book came out six years later so which influenced which seems obvious.

Death and Axes

Pangea Online #1

By S.L. Rowland

Self-published

2017

But to be clear, a pastiche is a work that imitates not plagiarizes another work. So I am not saying that. And, I’m also not saying it’s a rehash. It just seems clear that this imitates RPO.

How? Both MCs grow up in the stacks/boxes. Both are super poor. Both have a best friend in the game they’ve never met. Both have a love interest met online. Both have a huge immersive MMORPG with many worlds, each having its own rules (science, magic, pirates, 3tc). Both have a huge contest with three phases and leaderboards showing standings. [SPOILERS] Both end with the MC becoming owner/part owner of the game. [END SPOILERS]

However, it was enjoyable. And unlike RPO, this is much more LitRPG with stats, spells and level ups. There also wasn’t an evil corporation trying to take over, so that was nice.

In the end, I enjoyed it like this author’s other work and will definitely read number two.