Temple of Sorrow

This first book of the series has a strong female main character and a compelling story. The near-future setting isn't far from what we have today, and the in-game setting has both standard tropes and interesting features - especially the snarky AI and creative magic.

The story starts off with a bang, describing one of the last big battles of an MMORPG, which leads our main character to this new game and also provides the possibility of previous friends showing up in the future. After that (and occasionally throughout) her out-of-game life is the focus, and this is somewhat better than other books I have read in this genre. The world building is solid, and the reader gets a good feel for both the worlds described here.

There are a few minor things that I didn't like. The description of the pain problem was a bit confusing, especially towards the end of this book. This story also foreshadows an evil AI, but that entity doesn't otherwise show up in the book. Perhaps it would have been better to flash back to these events in a later book - not sure.

This was suggested by a friend of mine, and I quite liked it. I am also adding it to my personal challenge - read a book by 24 female science fiction/fantasy/horror authors I haven't read (ever, or at least the last 10 years). One of my favorite parts of this story shows the threat to her community from other players in the game - and this threat is only likely to grow as the game gets more popular. I picked up the second book in e-form, and look forward to reading it in the near future.