Star Divers is a LitRPG, and follows a 16yr old orphan who was living on the streets in a dystopian future, his name is Breq. He is picked up one day by a guy called Damien, after a bit of an encounter in the street, and Damien tries to help him out, and as a result, gets him a gig as a ‘Corpse Diver’ in an online game called Bane. To play the game, you are hooked up and fully immersed in a sensory pod, initially developed for the Military, but now available to everyone.
Corpse Divers have a special role in the game, and one that not many like to play (there are several classes of character to choose from, and from these, multiple sub-classes you can branch off into as specialties, like in most RPG games)
Breq is a Scout, but his job is a Corpse Diver, and together as a team, they find players that have been killed in Dungeons or on Ship Hulks. Players killed can leave an ‘Echo’, which is a unique artefact that has been dropped by that Player upon their death. This ‘Echo’, is surrounded by things called ‘Hollows’, which are ghostlike things, or spirits of the dead players, and can kill you if the touch you. They guard the artefacts or Echo’s.
Companies hire Corpse Divers to retrieve these Artefacts as they are usually rare or unique objects of immense power in the game, weapons, armour, a rare gem – all that convey higher powers than normal or very rare and unique versions of a weapon that are incredibly powerful for game use and thus can have massive value.
Because so many people play Bane now, ‘Value’, carries a different meaning, in that it obviously has a high game value, but that value also translates to money in the real world as well, and that is where Corpse Divers make a name for themselves. However, when you die in the game, you are reduced back to a level 1, and you lose everything.
That is of course, until Breq’s friend dies in the game, and his party is also killed, not just in the game, but their real world bodies die to. This is supposed to be impossible (unless you already have a medical condition such as a heart condition etc).
Star Divers is kind of a multi-faceted story, in that we are following Breq’s life as a Corpse Diver, and through his main story, we are told these other stories of the life of a Corpse Diver and the game of Bane, the main story of the death of Damien, and the subsequent investigation into his death by a group of characters, as well as the sub-stories of several other characters as seen through Breq’s eyes.
These are the other major characters in the story, and include the members of Breq’s Corpse Diving Team, there is Damien’s girlfriend, and Breq’s friend Cass, another scout, she is the soul of the team, and seems to keep Breq grounded a lot. There is Nel, Breq’s A.I. robot assistant, who helps him on missions, but also pilot’s ships for him. Nel is brilliant, (I’m not really sure of gender, but ‘it’ seems more of a she than anything?), She has this habit of telling Breq the odds of things, but whereas with C3-PO it was kind of annoying, with Nel, it is rather amusing, as she does it at humorous times, and in funny ways. Nel is just hilarious, with one liners and comments that for the gang, are just totally inappropriate, but for the reader, leave you in stitches.
One of my favourite characters in the story is Lady Gray, the leader of Breq’s team, in fact, she owns multiple teams, and they work out of one of her starships. She is a super powerful character who runs one of the organisation’s in game (and a family name outside the game – rich and powerful in both worlds), and there are a couple of times she shows how powerful she is, and it is pretty awesome. But it is the times where she is being the trusted advisor that you really see the depth of the character writing, and just how exceptional the character writing really is in this book.
Each and every character has had so much thought, so much time and effort put into them, Landry has put so much creativity and depth into everyone of these characters, making them so individual, the time it must have taken is astounding.
And that goes for everything in this book. The world building is just inspired. It is extraordinary, everything, and I mean everything has had so much thought put into it, as I said, the characters, the massive item list, the 77 levels, all with their own history, there is a full-on set of clan’s with histories and rivalries in the game, classes of ships, from little 1-2 seaters all the way up to orbital battle stations that hold in the hundred of thousands. There are numerous races. It is just fantastic, totally compelling and captivating .My only complaint, and, I know that this has been fixed to some extent as there are more books coming, is that this book, could possibly have been spread out into 2 maybe 3 books, there is so much in it, but it is just so good, that it works as it is, it is probably me just being greedy and wanting more as I loved it so much.
As hinted at earlier, the story is mainly about Breq and his team (I won’t tell you who as this will give away some of the story), going to find out who killed Damien, and how Damien was able to be killed for real in game. It has all of the expected LitRPG stuff, there is the levelling up, and stats etc, but unlike a lot of them at the moment, it does not overwhelm the story, and you don’t spend half the book having to read stat cards, or discussing how the character is going to spend points. It is just straight forward and to the point. Again, Landry has spent a lot of time giving his ‘in-game’ engine a lot of thought so that the dynamics of it work well, and run well. The RPG element is such that I would love to play the game of Bane if it existed.
Overall, this is one of the best Sci-Fi LitRPG’s I have ever read. I have the Audiobook of it as well, and have re-listened to it a couple of times since, as I just loved it. If you want a good read (or listen), then you can’t go past Star Divers, it is just Brilliant.
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Reviews with images
Constant Action, ever escalating stakes, and no shortage of awesome weapons!
Star Divers is author Stephen Landry's entry into the emerging LitRPG genre. Backed by Connor Kostick's (Epic) brand new imprint, Level Up Publishing, Landry is sure to cement himself at the forefront of the genre as it makes it's way into the mainstream.Star Divers follows Breq, an orphaned teenager who has found his freedom working as a Corpse Diver in the virtual world of Bane. He dives into the world's many dungeons to retrieve dropped loot from fallen player-characters; some of which fetch a hefty price in the real world. Everything changes when he finds out his best friend Damien, who rescued him from the streets and got him this job in the first place, has been killed.Breq quickly gets in over his head as he scours dungeon after dungeon looking for clues as to how a character death could have caused the death of the player in the real world. The secrets he uncovers will ultimately change the world of Bane forever.From fighting near-invincible Guardians against all odds, to competing in deadly races on backwater planets, Breq finds his private quest for answers (and possibly revenge) spiraling out of control as his strings are being pulled by his enigmatic boss, Lady Gray. She quickly proves she's not afraid to cause mass player-character casualties in pursuit of her goals, but stays far away from the line of fire herself, despite being a virtually god-tier player.From the opening chapter the action never slows down, and there's plenty of stats and lore sprinkled throughout to keep super-nerds (like me) happy without slowing the pace. At the center of all the action, the heart of the story beats strong with the relationships forged between the unique band of characters that join with Breq on his mission. Through it all, Landry expertly handles the ramifications of death, both for characters in the game and players in 'the real'.For fans of sci-fi, this is an endlessly entertaining must-read journey through a rich and vibrant virtual reality world. For those new to LitRPG, Star Divers will make an excellent introduction to the game-inspired mechanics that define the genre.I absolutely enjoyed every page of Star Divers, and I can't wait to read more stories from the world of Bane!
Top reviews from other countries
Elias Dantas
Interesting premise, confusing execution and plot
Reviewed in Canada on August 20, 2019
MARK LUSARDI
Very high quality!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 14, 2019
