Anomaly

Somnia Online, Book 2

De: K.T. Hanna

Narrado por: Andrea Parsneau

As Murmur reels in the wake of the secret her friends tried to keep, her grip on what is real and what is virtual begins to slip. What's more, she's no longer sure whom she can trust.

Stalked across the continent by a rogue with a vendetta, Murmur is forced to dig deep and develop her abilities before she finds a knife in her back.

Suspicion surrounds the AIs as well. Their behaviors are too human, their reports too perfect. Shayla and Laria must uncover the truth before the system raises concerns and Murmur is lost forever.

©2018 Katie Hanna (P)2018 Katie Hanna

More of the same, and that's a good thing

Honestly there isn't much to say I didn't wen I reviewed the first book, because this one continues in the same track for better or worse. To me it's a good thing, but if you were on the fence with the first book, this might be the place to stop the series.

We have further world building that only makes me want for more
We have more character development that makes them even more fleshed out
The RPG system continues to work and be fleshed out in interesting ways

As to Andrea...
with the things she does to my earholes it's a good thing I'm not married or I might feel like I was cheating, because wooooheeee does she sound amazing.
Every character has their own distinct voice and by now you know which character is speaking just by that.

wonderful

I would love to be in s similar situation as murmur. Reality is highly overrated. Looking forward to the next one.

Murmur Lives!

I really enjoyed the second book in the Somnia Online series. the real life segments we're especially well written and relate to the in game story. Andrea Parsneau was an excellent casting choice and brings Murmur to life. I am very much looking forward to the third book in this series.

Moving ahead, but needs second wind

I am going to caveat this review by saying that I am not a huge fan of slice of life books. I try to love them, but they really do very little for me. In my eyes a book needs a real direction. For example, I don’t believe Lord of the Rings would have been all that popular if it was just a buddy road trip tale about Sam, Frodo, Pip, and Merri flouncing across the countryside as they sort of made their way to drop off a ring. This is my big problem with Neil Gaiman’s American God’s novel. It was whole lot of tire spinning to get to an ending that could have been accomplished in a lot less pages. So, me and Slice-of-life don’t get along, unless it involves Dexter Morgan.

K.T. Hanna has released her second book in the Somnia Online series, and this is one of those tire spinning numbers that I get hung up about so often. Remember how I felt about Daniel Schinhofenn’s latest Apocalypse Gates book? Well, I have to say this kind of mirrors that in that it does a lot of tire spinning but not a lot of story advancement. Murmur, Sin, and the others all get together to kind of figure out the situation now that our MC has been clued into the fact about her situation. We do get a bit of a reveal as to what happened to the corporate boss once he entered the game, and why one of the AI’s has Murmur picking up chunks of black rocks all over the area.

The rest of the time we see Murmur’s mother and boss IRL trying to figure out what happened and how to help murmur, or we get Murmur having a hissy fit over her condition and the way the others all kept things from her. I think she and Sin have an apology and reconciliation at least twice over the same thing, and Murmur snaps on her team numerous times even though she knows that what they did they did to protect her. That is pretty much the entire story. Murmur advance some levels, takes umbrage with her condition in some way, and vents on those around her. Then makes up or apologizes.

Now, while this sounds a bit lackluster I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the story or the character’s, and how they progressed. I also thing we will be seeing an AI go rogue and the non-villain from the first book grow into the role of a villain proper. I also standby my assessment in my first review that at some point that Sin is going to confess her romantic love for Murmur, which will throw yet another kink in the gears for poor Mur. It hasn’t happened yet, but I think it is only a matter of time before this comes to light.

I did enjoy Murmur growing in power, but I felt that it was odd adding in a druidic element to her powers and giving her a “pet” as well. I think that her psionicist class was interesting enough on its own, and the only reason I can see her getting Snowy (the wolf) is so when Sin does confess her feelings that she has someone to talk to that won’t judge her. So, did I hate the book? No. But I certainly felt a sophomore slide as the tale itself really didn’t progress much other than it the ways I have already stated. I could have really used some more fights, the guild clash was fun, but it didn’t have as much impact as the train scene in the first book. Train scene? Not what you think! MMORPG type of train. Really people!

Andrea Parsenau continues to do her magic here. She conveys a ton of varying bits of emotional expressions from each character, for example, Tell is deeply concerned in a fatherly way with Murmur, whereas Sin definitely acts much more clingy and tied to Murmur. She makes the AI that is seeking the black stones seem like he is slowly becoming more treacherous with each appearance and will be developing into the real heavy of the story. The only thing I didn’t get, and this is just a minor thing that I noticed; the female AI is supposed to be mysterious and a little unstable. I’d have almost wanted her played out like Harley Quinn, so that when she was serious then you’d know that something bad was really happening. Again, Andrea is great here, but I think the female AI needed a bit more instability in the way she spoke just to convey how her siblings saw her. She seemed more like a fey queen, which might be what Hanna wanted.

The story is rock solid, just like last time, but there was really no forward motion, and it felt like it was riding on the big reveal at the end of book one to carry this book onward. There are great characterizations, but I don’t think that anything happens in either world that wasn’t from the actions in the first book. Slice of life is fine if you have a point, for example, the big reveal was enough for the last book. Here we completely miss that, and it was sorely needed Final Score is 8 stars. I still look forward to book 3.

Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. Getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

If this review helped, please press the YES below. Thank you immensely!!!

As seen on the LITRPG AUDIOBOOK PODCAST, please check it out on Youtube.com

Sad it's over

I loved this so much!! The storyline is crazy good. I am drawn to Rav more and more. I hope he doesn't disappoint as time goes on. Can't wait til the next book.

Very good book to listen to.

This is a great book and a wonderful series thus far. Before I finished this book I had already purchased book three. The narrator does a great job. The books had me wanting more. I had thought to myself this is an mmo that I would totally play. The way the characters develop and the world of Somnia develops is an amazing idea.

Loved every minute!

loved every minute of the story and the progressing complexity of Murmur's situation. I'm intrigued to find out how things develop and the eventual solution. I'm also looking forward to the group finding some keys toward end game content!

Great

I absolutely loved this one. the mental anguish and the struggle to grasp her situation make this awesome on top of all the other great parts of this book

excellent series

love the book very addicting. if you love oils like this you should listen to dodge tank.

A wonderful sequel

K. T. Hanna set the bar extraordinarily high after Initializing and she knocked it out of the park. With the second installment of the Somnia Online series the characters develop in their roles and the world becomes more vibrant.