Timeless (Awaken Online #7)

Just in case you don’t know it yet: Awaken Online is a series of books about people playing the titular virtual reality game, and their adventures inside and outside that game. The first 13 books cover three main story arcs, which then all merged in the previous book Armageddon, which ended with mayhem and a server shutdown.

Timeless picks up right after the server is shut down - well shut down for almost everyone… as Jason and (new character) Cady are still in the game and meet up. Cady, who orchestrated the shutdown, has her own motivations for working for the game company - and who then pulls Jason into a long adventure. Cady’s character can travel through time, which lends itself to a whole new set of plot devices.

As is now standard for the series, the battles get even more grandiose than in the (aptly titled) Armageddon, and we uncover more about Cady, a bit more about Jason, and also some fun side arcs about Finn, Julia, and Eliza from the previous books. Some parts of the book felt a bit formulaic (add new character, uncover their secrets, see Jason grow even more overpowered), and the number of typos was a bit distracting at times, but overall another good addition to the series.

The next book in the series is coming out in March and I have it on pre-order, but for now… it’s six weeks of detox from the AO universe