Dodge Tank (Crystal Shards Online, #1) By Rick Scott

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There's only one rule...don't get hit.



Ryan's life sucks.

His brother is a jerk, his mom is sick, and his legs are next to useless thanks to a neurological disorder. Plus the world ended two centuries ago from nuclear war. Now, what's left of humanity live below ground, with the only escape from reality being the massive VR world of Crystal Shards Online.

But even ingame, Ryan's life sucks. Unable to play a combat class due to his condition, he works as a miner, earning barely enough to get by and not nearly enough to afford the operation that will save his mom's life.

When Ryan discovers an item that grants the ability to dodge any attack, however, he has the chance to become one of the game world's most elite and sought after players: a Dodge Tank.

But for someone who's never played a combat class, success isn't so easily had.

To save his mom, Ryan will have to overcome his disability and level his way to the top. But the real-world consequences are more far reaching than he ever could have imagined and the fate of not just his mother, but humanity itself, may be resting in his hands...

WARNING: Contains RPG mechanics, detailed party combat and giant boss fights. If these things do not interest you, then this is not the book for you!

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Liked the premise. Maze runner meets Litrpg. Nice plot twists at the end. Rick Scott Was OK

This is definitely just another YA book. The MC is an absolute moron. I think the author tried to pull off the lovable buffoon but the MC just comes across as plain stupid and naive. Also the characters just happens to become BFFs after knowing each other for minutes, which to me happens way too often in YA books. They basicly skip the good parts about gaining trust, aligned goals and everything else that makes people friends.

What makes the book OK is the MCs motivations and his family dynamic. The post-apocalyptic kind of setting was definitely a big plus for me. The actual game itself is set in a typical fantasy but felt lackluster and small scale.

Will not read the sequel. Rick Scott I sincerely wish I had not read the last pages of this book, but I did.
Up until then, it was one of the better LitRPG I have read, reasonably original without being hard to get, with a good forward momentum, intuitive game mechanics, believable characters and especially a believable main character who was motivated by the needs of his real-world family. It was not hard to cheer this guy on, and his moral choices were poignant and realistic. The semi-dystopian real-life setting was consistent and done in a way that added to the main (in-game) part of the story rather than detracting from it. Things sped up a bit toward the last part of the book, with the expected climax coming sooner than expected, by characters as well as the reader.

And then, in the last few pages, the book changes genre from LitRPG to generic dystopia. But more importantly, we learn that everything that motivated the main character was meaningless: Even though he had succeeded against impossible odds through desperate dedication, it actually didn't matter, because [spoiler].

But hey, it was fun while it lasted, and the writecraft was good. Aspiring writers could do worse than study this. And if you're a fan of bit plot twists at the end of books, you may actually enjoy this. Me, I am not amused. In all fairness, it is better than stories that end with the viewpoint character warking up and it was all a dream. More like a romance novel where the couple finally gets together and then nuclear war breaks out, to be continued in the next book. Thanks, but no thanks. I have already read the part that interested me, and I don't need that kind of escalation. Rick Scott 3.75☆ Rick Scott Entertaining book, but not really “good”

It kept me entertained, but there was no point where i really felt it clicked. The relationship with the high level protagonist is strained and takes abrupt turns, and the story line ends up in a utter free fall nearing the end. I liked it, but i cant claim it was all that great. Rick Scott

I absolutely loved it. Maybe I was just in a great mood but it reminded me in a good way of Ready Player One and I just tore through the audio. Rick Scott * * *
3 / 5

~review to come~

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Fun and whimsical, Dodge Tank is an easy to read and well written LitRPG novel. It was a bit too casual considering some of the serious plot elements (terminally sick mother, brother who seems to be in danger, MC is paraplegic at the beginning), but the ending really knocked it out of the park for me! Amazing! Rick Scott Notes:

Fun YA LitRPG

Great Narration, Engaging Story Rick Scott So, read this review.

Ok, first off, I just about quit when the author tried to explain stats and the game. I mean, in an apocalyptic society... they play a ninja version of WOW? And the main was super retarded for at least 10 or 20 chapters before he got slightly less retarded... and then...

PURE FRIGGIN MAGIC

Suddenly a plot appeared. Suddenly... everything came together with a snap and I couldn’t stop reading. This instantly went from a “well... that was a strange WOW clone” to an excellent book. Drama, love, betrayal, drive, flaws, character development, sacrifice, and twists worth opening.a fly trap for.

Some of it was predictable, but most were a pleasant surprise.

Anyways, this is worth reading. Just skip the stats stuff while knowing that he goes max DEX and AGI. It honestly doesn’t impact the story at all. The title is more of a spoiler than if I’d put his full stat sheet in this review.

You’ll enjoy this book if you like LITRPG. You’ll wonder what you are reading if you don’t. Rick Scott This review encompasses books 1-3 of the Crystal Shards Online series.

The first book was interesting enough that I purchased the next 2 of the series before I was finished reading it.

I hate reading/listening to a book that is fun/interesting/captivating, and then the author makes inexcusable mistakes and ruins all of the enjoyment.

The Good:
The first book was not bad; the game world was interesting enough and the real-world story was also okay. These kinds of books (LitRPG) are fairly predictable, but I enjoy them on the level of What weird and wacky ideas of future tech are we thinking about in relation to full immersion VR gaming? So, I'm not too critical when it comes to the actual setup as far as game world and the character's in-game vs real-world story. They are usually predictable, but I'm always looking for the cool new ideas that might set them apart. Even the mediocre books I've read/listened to in this genre have been enjoyable for me… for the most part. So my criticisms of this series have little to do with that.

The Bad:
The bad here has nothing to do with the genre, it has everything to do with the author's writing ability. There are a few things that will set me off, and in this book it is one of the greatest failures an author can make. Characters have to be believable! The setting, the tech, the bending of physics and such are all expected; we are pre-disposed to enjoy the sci-fi imaginings of the author, and as such the content in the book can fudge a little in the laws of the universe, but more so we expect to be immersed in the author's view of what future tech may hold for us. Here too Rick Scott, the author, has created an interesting enough setting for his books. However, this is not enough if you want to be an author! One has to be able to create believable characters. If you are a fiction author, please take note. If you create a smart character, then make sure your character doesn't make stupid mistakes… that just kills the immersion in the story. If you create a character of a certain age, then understand how that age affects his/her decisions. There is more to this, but if you start there and continue to ask questions about how this character would think and act then you are well on to creating a story character. Ignore this and destine yourself to the archives of unreadable literature.

**Spoiler**
The failure of this story happens in the second book. Ryan, who is 17, his first and new girlfriend, Gilly, his older brother and their friends get captured by an evil player character. So the bad player, puts everyone under a spell that forces them to do whatever he tells them to do. Then tells Ryan that the girls will join his harem. So, this bad guy intends to rape his new girlfriend as well as his other friend. In what scenario would a 17 year old, ever, not kill that bad guy if he had the chance? His youth would make him impulsive, his hormones would make him angered and jealous beyond belief, and in that instance there is no scenario where the bad guy and Ryan's team could share the same world. The bad guy already set the stakes. So when Ryan has the opportunity to kill this guy, he has a crisis of conscious because he does not want to be a murderer… he completely ignores that the situation is kill or be killed, and Scott completely ignores temperament of teenage boys. Scott ignores the intense feelings of first love; Scott ignores our human nature to protect one's tribe (especially when one is the most qualified and able to do so).

There were so many ways to believably write this part of the story: have the bad guy rescued and brought back from the brink of death, after Ryan makes his best attempt at killing him. Then, long after the confrontation, Ryan could brood on whether or not his intention to kill the guy makes him an evil person… that would almost be believable, but the stopping in the heat of the moment to feel mercy for this insane bad guy… no, you can't sell that. I don't believe Gandhi would have had that control and introspection at 17.

I lost it at this point. That mindset is not human and such reflections are true fantasy (in the sense of fantasy lacks all reality). Even a truly good person would kill in these circumstances because it is the only good that can be done in such circumstances.

Was Rick Scott trying to define good or innocence as the inability to experience the extreme emotional gambit and impulsivity of teenagers? In what human DNA exists the possibility of a teenager with the means to stop an avowed rapist from carrying out his plan to rape his girlfriend and enslave his friends, yet not act on this to save everyone he cares about? I'll grant that this is a possibility, but against all probability. Evolution does not suffer idiots and we as readers don't want authors writing about such idiots as heroes. I couldn't take the book seriously after that.

Scott attempts to justify this action, but it just made his creation the least believable character ever conceived. Even sillier, the bad guy was not even a pivotal character in the plot. Everything the bad guy did later in the book could have been done by introducing another villain. The world he writes about is dangerous and the dangers and adventures which happened after Ryan's crisis of conscious could have just as well been the actions of another villainous character had Ryan done what any other teenager would have done, kill the rapist slaver to protect everything that is precious in his life.

The third book did not redeem Scott's attempt (or lack of attempt) to create believable characters, but the third book failed additionally, in that the plot made no progress. The group is no nearer their goal than they were at the start of the book. Yes, stuff happened, but it was just filler to allow for another worthless book in a series of unbelievable character development.

Once again, to authors and would be authors, when you define a character as an author, your character must act within bounds you have created. Young characters can make unwise decisions through impulsivity, jealousy, inexperience etc. and these poor choices can be integrated into a story in a very believable way. There are, however, always limitations on what actions and choices a well written character will make.

There are many other inconsistencies in the series, but continuing this criticism won't help anyone looking for a recommendation to read or not to read this series.
Rick Scott