Background
AlterWorld, by D. Rus, is a LitRPG book series that overall is fairly standard among others in its genre, however it still has a few of its own unique traits that saturate its storytelling. The story is about a full dive VR game, Alterworld, in which a person can become a “perma” (aka permanent player) in the game and be completely unable to leave the game, even if their body were to die in the real world. Our main character’s life is pretty horrible back on Earth, so he decides to (illegally) become one of these “permas” to escape Earth. The aspect to this story that causes its format of storytelling fundamentally different that the majority of all other LitRPGs is reality the emphasis and authority reality has throughout the story.
Just like my other reviews, spoiler warning
The Significance of Reality
On the surface, this aspect seems incredibly odd to mention as most genre’s don’t have any other setting in which they take place, and if they do its mostly a “side-setting” used for more minor plot points. However, in the LitRPG genre, this is incredibly unusual in that many other stories completely transition their main setting into some sort of Alternate Universe or Game World which prevents the main character from leaving and therefore cuts off any, if not all, communication. Earth is almost always used to set up some background, and then is thrown away at some point in the story to force the main character to progress the point in the new world. In the Play to Live series, however, Earth is portrayed more mystically than the one our main character traverses as he casually uses magic.
The author does this by making Earth an unreachable spot for the main character, as he is stuck in this AlterWorld just like the cliché, however, making almost all the characters around him source their motivations, problems, and goals around what is going on back in Earth. The reader is told stories and has to rely on word of mouth to learn about what is happening back on Earth throughout the book, just like other stories in different genres would have mystical lands only have rumors surrounding them.
In the book, you have the Veterans, a clan of retired soldiers who long to rejoin the battlefield back on Earth, but have to settle for one virtually felt through them going into the other world. The main love interest in the book is trying to get build up enough influence and money in the other world, in hopes of one day hiring a hitman to help her take revenge on a politician who killed her sister. There are plenty of other examples throughout with similar connections to Earth and play integral roles in the plot. This setup of Earth as this place that is just barely out of reach for the main character is capitalized on by allowing the author to drive up suspension in some scenes dramatically.
For example, in the main love interest’s quest to take revenge she personally wants to pull the trigger to complete her quest so she needs to temporarily goes back into the real world and take the shot. This scene allows for a great amount of suspension to build as all the power and influence the main character has built in the other world is practically useless to her in the real one, and so the readers and him just have to wait, with no way of getting any information on this major plot point going on off camera.
Overall, the series does an great job of incorporating Earth into its storytelling, however, the plot inside the game is a bit too average for me to give my full recommendation as it just has a few too many deus ex machina scenes for it to be considered anything more than what it is.
LitRPG may not be my cup of tea, but I can certainly appreciate how in depth some of its details seem to be. You did a great job analyzing the idea of Earth in these novels. For an author introducing a new world, it can be difficult to make it seem normal or like our own Earth. However, your point about making Earth an “unreachable spot” was exactly what I thought needed to be done. Earth’s flaws need to be brought up in order to make the new world seem like more of a paradise or more of a reward. A good author will be able to write this into existence which seems to be the case for AlterWorld. Keep up the good work!
I’ve never heard of this series specifically, but I have read a few books that blend the lines between reality and fiction. However, I found it interesting how the author actually makes Earth the place that seems out of reach and fantastical; it’s a lot different than other books where I feel there is a clear divide between reality (Earth) and fiction. Based on your description, it seems like the author did a great job of blending the line between reality and fiction and keeping readers on the edge of their seats. This sounds like an interesting read and I will definitely have to give it a go!