- Title:
- Test Environment: A LitRPG fantasy book (Pixelate, #1)
- By:
- Xavier P. Hunter
- Pages:
- 346
- Rating:
- 5
If you can’t beat the computers, BE the computer.Freshly unemployed gamer Arnold O’Connor is short on cash and facing eviction. When an indie game developer advertises looking for participants in a brain study to help revolutionize enemy AI, he’s not thinking about the benefits to his hobby, just his bank account.But things get weird once the trials start. Neuroscientists monitor his brain waves as Connor performs a variety of tasks, culminating in venturing into a testing version of the very game they’re hoping to develop. The tests mess with his sense of reality, seeing things he can’t touch and deafened to some sounds but not others. The game world operates on the same principles, forcing Arnold to wonder whether he’s inside the game or just playing it.The only way to find out for sure is to reach the end victorious!Test Environment is the first book in the Pixelate series. Pixelate is a LitRPG fantasy series that follows the adventures of Arnold O’Connor as his digital self, delving into the secrets of a world that feels as real as his own body. The Pixelate series will appeal to fans of classic tabletop RPGs, World of Warcraft, and Lord of the Rings Online. It touches on themes of self and reality, style vs. stats, and how to kill dragons through the superior application of math.It’s a book you won’t be able to log out of! Grab a copy and try for yourself.
I always say I’m not a big Litrpg fan, which is true; I don’t read much of it. But I do seem to very much enjoy the books in the genre I have read! I pre-orderd the second of these on the way to work this morning, so that holds true here, too. And great author alias to boot.
I think the shock reveal at the end of chapter 36 was my favourite. Connor as a character is interesting, and the whole idea is, if not quite a refreshing take on the genre, certainly a very nicely handled execution. I didn’t want to put it down, picked it up in my lunch break, and am not looking forward to wait an entire month for the next one!