The Bookwyrm's Review of Winter Harvest by Dawn Chapman

Author: Dawn Chapman

Length: 484 Pages/ 13 Hours, 23 Minutes (Audio)

Publisher: Mountaindale Press

Release Date: April 24, 2020

Narrator: Neil Hellegers

Series: Space Seasons, Book One

Genre: LitRPG/Sci-Fi

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Amazon Purchase Link

I've gotten a chance to review read some LitRPG lately, and I have been really enjoying it. When I got a chance to do a review of Dawn Chapman's new LitRPG title, I jumped, since I am such a fan of her sci-fi work. It turns out she has written a seamless hybrid of LitRPG and space opera that kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what came next.

PLOT SUMMARY

In a future where your final school test scores determine whether you go on to a life working in a technologically advanced society, comfortably working for one of the corporations that run things, or end up downloaded into a VR body, fighting a war with hostile aliens on the far side of the galaxy, Kyle is all set. He's smart, determined and prepared for the tests. When the results come back, though, he is shocked to see that he has failed, and he must report for download while his body is disposed of. 

Resigned to his fate, Kyle gets uploaded, only to find himself downloaded onto the wrong planet, one with experienced troops, as opposed to a noob area where he should have been downloaded. He also finds he has special tech that allowed him to keep all his memories, while hiding his stats and abilities from other troops. He is almost immediately in over his head, as the area he spawned in is under threat from an alien race of giant wolfman like aliens, and the combat is only heating up. Making some allies in the fight, Kyle still ends up dying and re-spawning, finding the cost is a small percentage of his memories each time he dies and re-spawns. It doesn't help that he apparently has a bounty on his head, and some of the other troops will do anything to collect. 

Determined to try and survive, Kyle gets into the mech shop and figures out how to bypass the security and level overrides on a couple mechs, and he and one of his allies start training to use them, only to have an attack his the base that moment, forcing them to use their mechs to help repel the opposing forces, even if their hacking the mechs could result in their own side erasing them. They end up in a pitched battle and even find some incredible new uses for the mechs, and Kyle finds that one of his antagonists might not be what he seems, and that the world they're all fighting for may be much different as well.

Winning a combat test to win a slot on the team that has been trying to kill him for the bounty, Kyle finds their leader, Taito, has an agenda of his own. They make plans to try and escape the world they are on, while taking out the biggest threat to them all: Saskia, their ruthlessly efficient killer teammate. They manage to aquire a broken down ship that Kyle sets to fixing up, but this leads him into direct conflict with Saskia and her new team of killers, leading to a showdown which ends in ways they didn't see coming, leaving Kyle wounded and set into a healing tank as they depart.

Waking in the tank, Kyle sees blood on the outside of the tank, and opening it, finds the ship has been boarded and Taito fighting for survival. Realizing there is only one way to save Taito, Kyle sacrifices himself by jettisoning himself and a boarder out of the ship, allowing Taito to escape. Waiting in space, Kyle's specialized tech keeps him alive, but he slowly passes out, awaking on an alien world, naked and freezing, not having re-spawned but having landed somehow. Meeting up with a new team, who decide to help him, he finds they are much higher levels than he is, and that he is way off course from where he was trying to get to. 

Realizing that Kyle is dead meat if they don't get him leveled up, they take him on a crash course of grinding, basically letting him level up just by being part of their team, and getting him some specialized gear in the process. This all leads to the climactic battle which has far reaching implications for not only Kyle, but for so many other people stuck in the VR, since Kyle has found out secrets that weren't supposed to be known by anyone, and that the company in charge of the VR, Arndale Corp., will do anything to keep from coming out.

CHARACTERS AND WORLD BUILDING

Being a LitRPG world, anything is possible, but the author keeps things grounded in a science fiction reality of just a relatively believable sci fi world. You can actually see a lot of what she  has written as possible, given technological breakthroughs with nano tech, robotics and weapons tech. The LitRPG elements are fairly standard, being mid-level crunchy, meaning there is stats and level/character building, but not overwhelmingly so. Its definitely a world I'd like to go gaming in, as long as I could get out at the end.

Characters are a definite strength of this story. Kyle especially has an interesting character arc, having to face the loss of his life's ambitions and make a new life in the VR, finding out along the way who he truly is, and having to determine which paths to take for success. He didn't start off the usual callow youth who grows into the role, but a competent young man who's skills allow him to flourish in a situation he never expected to be in. The secondary characters are an interesting bunch, with some coming on to the story briefly and moving on, and some being much more integral, and being more heavily detailed. Taito and Saskia especially get some attention, as their characters dynamics affect a lot of what Kyle does in the beginning and middle of the story, and Saskia turning out to be one of the antagonists and a part of a larger conspiracy was a major turning point in the story.

NARRATION

The narration is performed by one of my favorite top five narrators, Neil Hellegers. He has an amazing range of voices, using various tones, accents and cadences to differentiate the characters, bringing them each to their own life. His narrative pacing is excellent, never being monotone, but paced in such a way as to keep the listener engaged. I'd consider this some of his best work.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I really enjoyed this story. It was a nice blending of sci-fi/space opera and LitRPG elements, which is nice in a genre that usually focuses on fantasy elements. It had engaging characters, excellent action sequences and an underlying conspiracy, which is a favorite trope of mine. I do like a story where characters actions have broader consequences to the larger world. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for quality read with great world building and characters. It should appeal to a lot of different readers.