Emerilia Book One: Trapped Mind Project

The Trapped Mind Project: Emerilla Book 1 explores a world in which MMORPGs and reality mix in a spectacular journey of Dave, a half-dwarf and the virtual reality game Emerilla. It all starts with Austin Zane, an billionaire who made his fortune by running RB Corp, a space mining company that provides metals to earth.

Responsibility overtook his free time and left him with no personal life. His private life was non-existent because of who he was and everyone wanting just a bit more of him for their own personal games. Hearing of a new virtual reality immersive simulator called Emerilla offering an escape from the woes of his life, he leaves the company and his life for a virtual escape.

That’s when the story takes a dive in the reverse, when he begins questioning what is real and what isn’t as the lines between which world is a simulation and which world is a reality begin to cross. All he wanted to do was build a house and be alone in the woods, but Zane, now Dave, was not destined for that life. He gets drawn into a bizarre series of events propelling him once again to greatness in an epic battle between aliens, Gods and other players for the very future of humanity

This was my first romp into Lit-RPG and I wasn’t aware of the genre until I listened to this audiobook. I was shocked when I heard the stats read out and didn’t know how to take it. At first, I thought it was annoying, but then I slowly took to it and found myself fully engage in the mechanics of the leveling process and the world itself. The book began making me wish there was a game exactly like Emerilia. No effort was spared by the author in crafting a world that could be a real actual video game, from the details about the characters to the finely crafted world(s).

The world comes to life with each chapter was it’s well described and detailed giving you wonderful mental images of the environment the characters appear in. It is surprising to see an author describe everything so well that you can imagine the land itself in the story, not just the characters and their actions.

The character development is outstanding and gives you a connection with the characters that is often times lacking on other works. You come to care about the characters and rejoice in their success and join them in their sorrow as they are put through trials and tribulation. I am not used to caring so much about characters in a book and the last time I was drawn into characters to this extent was with Harry Potter when I was younger.

The story progression was a little slow at first but does pick up and it is worth the wait for the story to really pick. Many authors have difficulty in making the very beginning of a book engaging and this book is no different but the author makes up for it ten times over with this enthralling series.

This book is a must read and great addition to any library. This is a story you will want to hear over and over again and every time you do you will discover more things you had missed in the previous reads.

The Trapped Mind Project: Emerilia, Book 1