Viridian Gate Online: Vindication

The Alchemic Weaponeer, Book 1

By: James A. Hunter, N.H. Paxton

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

The end of the world is not such a bad thing for Russian weapons engineer Vlad Nardoir.

Really his world ended six months ago when his wife died, and ever since then, things have been downhill. Soul-crushing medical debt. Favors to the Russian mafia. Now, asteroid. For Vlad, this is life in a nutshell.

But, in a wild twist of fate, he has found a way out. A chance to start fresh in a brand-new ultra-immersive MMORPG called Viridian Gate Online. Making the leap might kill him, but again, death is not such a bad thing for a man with nothing to live for. Even in the virtual world, however, old grudges burn true, and the past is not as far gone as it seems. He must use his quick wits, rugged persistence, and peculiar set of skills as a weapons engineer to make a place for himself in this new world or be forcibly dragged back into the very life he fought so hard to escape.

©2019 James A. Hunter and Shadow Alley Press, Inc. (P)2025 Tantor Media

Viridian Gate Online

I have enjoyed this book, as well as the main story. I also enjoyed the Firebrand side storyline.

Vlad is the best

I am so glad that someone decided to explore this wonderful character further. Vlad is one of the most intriguing characters in the series.

Loved the MC

Play white world building and all the stuff that they do a lot of fun to listen to

another absolutely amazing book in the series.

All of the VGO books are amazing and this on is no different simply put it's phenomenal. Vlad was always one of my favorite characters in the Core series so this is awesome to read can't wait to read more.

Expert Role

I really like this book, though it did have some of the same issues as the first Firebrand book in repeating the same scene which feels weird to me having just come from those scenes recently. However, there are less of those scenes because Vlad is simply not as much in those first couple books as Abby is, and a lot more of what I really like from these side stories: showing scenes that were implied to happen but not shown before.
It’s a pretty big change going from Firebrand to Alchemical weaponeer because they are kind of at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to personality in a lot of ways, even if fundamentally there are a lot of similarities. Vlad has one of the most… extravagant personalities in the series, more so than any of the main charecters I’ve read so far, including Jack.
I liked that this book, like it’s title implies, focuses on crafting aspects of the game and I hope to see more in the next book.