Book Tour Review Conquest A Dystopian GameLit Saga Ascension by R.M. Mulder

I was given a copy to review via ZooLoo’s Book Tours as part of their book tour. My reviews are always honest and all opinions are my own. #Ascension #RMMulder #ZooLooBookTour #BookTourReview #BookTour   #BookReview

At the risk of showing my inner geek I have to say the Conquest Sage started out by giving me some very .Hack// (both videogame, manga and anime) vibes mixed in with SwordArt Online and even a little Ready Player One (although I have only seen the film). Since .Hack// is one of my favourite franchises I was very excited to see how this went and I have to say R.M. Mulder has created a brilliant start to a saga and made it their own as well.

In Ascension we meet Allan Young who is an Attorney by day and a gamer by night. Planning to escape his responsibilities he travels to the virtual world of conquest until his HUD starts glitching out. When he finds that his neurological implant has fried yet again he begrudgingly decides to join reality and go to the office before he is fired. That is when things seem to take a deadly turn.

Meeting up with a client of one security contract he hopes will make his entire career he ends up surviving an assassination attempt due to unnatural means when a halo of protection surrounds him and his attacker evolves into something right out of Conquest. The next day he believes to have been suffering from a bad dream and series of bad luck only to meet a vagrant who claims to have seen visions and prophecies about him but before Allan can come to terms with the bizarre happening he is transported through a portal to a world patterned after the game Conquest but he has no access to his HUD or inventory. What is going on with Allan and will he be able to survive this on his wits and knowledge as a gamer alone?

Well what can I say? This was one hell of a way to start a saga! Like I said I was already excited with the idea of GameLit but Mulder manages to grab you from the start. If you love fantasy, scifi and thrillers (and of course dystopian fiction) you are sure to love this and get hooked right away. I will say I wasn’t sure I was going to like Allan and while I didn’t instantly warm to him he was great protagonist and the story surrounding him soon made me like him.

Speaking of the story it’s paced perfectly and blends it’s genres well to create something that is fun, entertaining and also believable. Of course with the genre sometimes you are expected to suspend disbelief but Mulder makes a world that is so believable you hardly have to since we are transported to the world alongside the characters.

It is clear that Mulder knows games, gamers and what readers of GameLit want and he delivers. I also love how we learn with the characters and are given just enough information to keep us guessing as we go along. I am definitely going to finish the sage and am looking forward to the next books.  

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