TL;DR Review: Red Dead Redemption meets Borderlands in this fun, fast-paced LitRPG adventure.
Synopsis:
Hard Reset is a fast-paced, unpredictable, and clever take on the LitRPG genre, blending beloved sci-fi and apocalyptic themes to create an intricate new reality.
In this world, life begins in a coffin, cars float, a good ray gun is your best friend, and computer displays are activated with a flick of the wrist. It all feels so real, so right … and it all feels so wrong.
Some things remain the same in every People with power crave more power. You’re free to live your life as long as you don’t challenge the status quo.
Tom doesn’t like the status quo. Never has.
Never will.
With a smart-mouthed computer program, a quick-shooting bounty hunter, and a pissed-off stranger as his allies, Tom takes on a corrupt, authoritarian government.
All the while, in another world, someone is studying his every move and thought. Tom may hold the key to humanity’s future.
If he can survive the game … without being reset.
Full Review:
Live, die, repeat, suffer. That’s the promise in Hard Reset, and boy does the book live up to it!
In the beginning, we’re introduced to Tom, who wakes up in a coffin with nothing to his name, no memory of who or where he is, and very little hope of surviving in a world determined to kill him. But, against all odds, he does survive—with the help of a fellow who’s a few baskets short a picnic, but is willing to share what little he has to keep Tom alive.
Soon, Tom finds himself in a town that feels like it’s ripped right out of the screens of Red Dead Redemption, but with a sci-fi-forward vibe that feels a bit more Borderlands. There, he encounters gunslingers, sheriffs, thugs, scrubland monsters, and everything else you’d expect from this Western-inspired setting.
But when Tom inevitably dies, he finds discovers lights out doesn’t necessarily mean game over. He’s reborn to try again and complete his mission—only what that mission is, he’s going to have to discover one quest and achievement at a time.
We, along with Tom, are swept along on a guns-blazing, bodies-blowing-up, towns-burning, monster-heavy adventure that just picks up and doesn’t stop all the way through to its twisty, surprising ending. We learn the reason for this virtual environment, meet the minds behind it all, and get more than a few nasty shocks.
The strength of Hard Reset lies in three things:
- The Western sci-fi flavor. Anyone who loves Borderlands, Fallout, or Red Dead Redemption will instantly be at home. The Borderlands connection is even stronger once you meet the AI who is a delightful and way less annoying version of Claptrap, and one of the book’s best sources of humor.
- The characters. Tom is an easily likable protagonist, but the more you get to know the people around him, the more you’ll come to appreciate what they bring to the table (with more than a few surprises awaiting you there). The people outside the game also bring their own delightful complexity ratcheted up the suspense and tension beyond the immediate stakes of the game itself.
- The action. Every Yanez book I’ve read is filled with great action, and this one’s no difference. From desert car scene chases to tense standoffs with enemy goons to full on raging gun battles, when Hard Reset goes into the action, it goes full speed ahead.
Hard Reset does something I’ve never encountered in a LitRPG before, and does it in a way that is endlessly entertaining and easy to read. I had no trouble burning through this one from start to finish without a single moment of boredom.
It’s zippy, rippy, and a whole mess of fun!
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