Eric Jason Martin

'New Arcadia: Revolution' is one of the most fun, funny, clever well acted books I have ever listened to. I was offered this from the publisher as I had read the precursor 'New Arcadia: Stage One' which I really enjoyed. I liked 'New Arcadia: Revolution' even better. The humor is hilarious and as I listened to these talented narrators I had to laugh out loud several times. The nineties humor and word play was amazing, a total blast from the past. And Satan's Pantry Community Center and show more Punching Institute - genius!
The story is based on nineties arcade beat-em up action games that are being used to try to get a world shut down from a global pandemic to reunite people virtually. The powers that be don't believe people will act appropriately after being locked down in their homes for three years and have come up with an immersion virtual world for beta testers to learn how to interact with each other again. John Chambers, (Blaze) the chief beta tester is sent back in to New Arcadia by the inventor of the game with his team to stop the production and distribution of DrugX throughout the population. DrugX is highly addictive and can make users relive the terrible and sad moments of their childhoods, a dangerous and mind altering effect.
The year is 199X and all the references to nineties products and history are very, very funny. For example a 'Game Boy' becomes a 'Game Friend' and 'Coca Cola' becomes 'Ebola Cola'. I would highly recommend the audio book version. It was extremely well acted with great sound effects and music. All the narrators were top notch. You don't have to be a gamer to enjoy this gem. Very highly recommended. show less

I enjoyed this book so much that I signed up for an audible free trial to get the audio book. Its a fast-paced read with a lot of action scenes, and it seems like it was written to BE an audio book or movie. Some of the jokes are funnier out loud delivered by a voice actor than they are in your head. This is something I noticed as a reader who doesn't typically listen to audio books, and it wasn't surprising to learn that the author is, in fact, a voice actor. it's noticeable enough that if show more you enjoy audio books, I would recommend the audio book over the paper copy.

There are a lot of good references to old video games. Since I don't play new video games, I enjoyed this. The pawn shop dealer coming in to save the day was very reminiscent of the unnamed police officer in Streets of Rage, for example. I won't get into that further because I don't want to spoil it, but Streets of Rage was one of my favorite games as a kid, so I appreciated this book for that reason in particular. show less

This volume picks up right where the previous volume left off with our heroes trying to beat the game, because if they can the Chum corporation will use it to re-socialize humanity and will release a cure for the deadly disease that's kept everyone isolated for years. In this volume, the game rolls out a Dance Dance Revolution style alternative way to play, which our heroes must learn to defeat the evil executive intent on stopping the game project. It's good fun.

This is a a GameLit novel that's not LitRPG. Instead, it's about an old fashioned beat 'em up only in virtual reality and with a few RPG elements tacked on. The book is set in 2023 in a world where the pandemic got even worse and everyone is apparently either living a Mad Max existence in the wilderness or is living in isolation while working for a company called Chum, which is a pretty thinly veiled Amazon. The story follows one of the chum workers who gets picked to help beta test a new show more game. Like a lot of the early LitRPG novels, it shows signs of having been influenced by Ready Player One with its rather annoyingly stupid main character (who is supposed to be funny but usually isn't) and it's constant, grating pop culture references. Despite this, I actually enjoyed it overall. show less