The Road East (Fayroll #2)

After Andrey Vasiliev’s More Than a Game became an instant success with readers in Russia and worldwide alike, the author could not but continue developing the Fayroll theme. By many readers’ admission, The Road East, Vasiliev’s second LitRPG fantasy novel, is every bit as gripping as his first, if not more so.

Yet again, Harriton is out to strike a balance between the real world and that of sword and sorcery, where Kif the journo turns into none other than Hagen the Warrior always prepared to win a fight or have the circumstances do it for him.
This time, Hagen’s gaming path is leading eastward, unfolding the complexity of the Orient before him. He’s going to find the abandoned temple, visit the cursed village, fight the serpent king of the nagas and deal with epic monsters, all of which is accompanied by clashes of blades on shields and clashes between clans. Action and adventure seem to be hiding around every corner, just waiting to be awakened.

The Road East not only expands greatly on the virtual reality of Fayroll but also develops the real world of the story to a much fuller extent than the first novel does. It’s not just about a new assignment or new employers or a new girlfriend. The depiction of the offline reality of the second novel is now on a par with that of the gaming world – a rare find for a LitRPG book.

Vasiliev is certainly growing as a writer. His characters are becoming more and more round, dynamic and versatile – and even psychologically convincing. The author also manages to maintain his attention to detail and sharpness of focus with a nearly cinematic clarity. The Road East is a concentration of dialogue and action, coupled with a characteristic sense of humor comprised of self-irony and mild mockery, never going too far but adding color and flavor to the story.

The book is a fine example of the LitRPG genre and, as is the case with More Than A Game, is a life-affirming experience, well worth reading by gamers and fantasy lovers alike.
Andrey Vasiliev started writing in his late thirties, because, by his own admission, “he ran out of things to read”. However, after his first two books gained nearly instant critical acclaim, he had to give serious thought to giving up his banking career and went on to become one of the top authors in the relatively new, yet insanely popular, LitRPG genre that brings together cyberpunk, classic sci-fi, and fantasy.