Tailspin

Pilots of Artem, Part I

By: Dawn Chapman

Narrated by: Neill Thorne, Stephanie Németh-Parker

Length: 29 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Cybernetics, mounting debt, and a flight for survival.

In the sprawling city of Artem, Rus dreams of soaring the skies, while Pim, a tiny hybrid of walrus and rat, faces a world of cruelty. Both are thrust into situations they never imagined, their fates bound by the unforgiving tides of destiny.

Rus, a fearless runner by day and racer by night, stands at the brink of eviction, with his family's home hanging in the balance. After a catastrophic accident, he's faced with a life-changing choice: undergo experimental modifications and be forever indebted to the ominous M-Corp or be left to perish. As Rus grapples with his new reality, Pim's journey of hope and despair intertwines with Shay, a ten-year-old scavenger, revealing the harshest aspects of city life.

From the luxurious heights of helo flying to the grimy underbelly of the city transporting mods, their tales are a testament to resilience, the friends they meet along the way, and the relentless pursuit of dreams in the face of insurmountable odds. Dive into a world where technology pushes boundaries, and every decision has repercussions that echo throughout a city on the edge.

Tailspin is a cyberpunk-inspired LitRPG featuring a rich kid, yet still a rags-to-riches adventure!

©2024 by Dawn Chapman, Artem World created in © 2022 by Dawn Chapman Jez Cajiao Lars Machmüller Kevin Sinclair (P)2024 Podium Audio

Brilliant!

I absolutely adore this book! From start to finish, I was very engaged. The story was very well-written, intriguing, and action-packed. The author's attention to details was exceptional. I felt that I was right there, seeing and experiencing everything along with the characters.  They were relatable and endearing. Pim is my favorite! I can't wait to see more of him.

Neill Thorne and Stephanie Nemeth-Parker's performance was simply brilliant! They were the perfect choice for this! They made my listening experience better.

Highly recommended!

You’re gonna ❤ this action-packed book... a book that's also more than it seems.

Despite being a total hard-core action-packed story, with what appeared to be just kids, but kids that were already battle trained and who only want to do what's right for the people that need the protection! This book is also a study in friendship. The study of what friendship means. To explore all the pain and the joys too which are shared between friends. Also of what it's like when you lose a good friend and a part of the team. Dawn Chapman pulls out all the stops in this book, it actually feels like she's bearing her own soul to the reader!
Ohhhh and I definitely need to know more about Shay and Pim too. So yeah I'll hafta read the next book!
You're gonna need this book to find out what happens in this book, but go ahead and get the audio version because Neil Thorne and Stephanie Nemeth-Parker make a great team narrating this tale!

good change of pace

I normally go through more fantasy, so a Sci fi book was definitely different. It was very interesting in my opinion, being easy enough to understand after a bit of time. The character development later in the book went in weird ways that I can't say I liked, but it went back to better development shortly after that. Overall, I really enjoyed the story. It would probably have made more sense if I went through other books in the series, but I don't regret starting here.

Literally all the feels!

This story has everything. Action, drama, and even quite a bit of coziness. Great characters from both Neill Thorne and Stephanie Nemith-Parker.

man, what a ride

this was amazing. my first putting into the world of Artem, and boy was it great. Dawn Chapman did an great job with this one.

Rough Start, but Developed Well.

This book has a slow, SLOW, start. The MC starts in a already rough spot, and gets several layers worse before things start moving in a positive/progressive direction. But, the world-building and characters keeps things interesting enough that when the story picks up, it's well worth it.

The narrators did a great job in their performance. I'm not familiar with either of them, but they displayed a wide range of voices.

Not your normal litrpg. Excellent story depth

While every other litrpg seems to be fantasy and all about combat, Tailspin takes a pleasant new approach to the genre.

The story follows a helo pilot on his journey to through life. Through both hardships and rewards, the story makes you actually feel for the main character. The story even got a reaction out of me that I had to complain to the author about a secondary character which Dawn enjoyed.

Throughout book one, there was left open several questions still. To me the biggest is how critical is Shay and his walrat to the story and the main character? They do take up a decent amount of screen time which I’m hoping leads the way to the answer in book 2. The relationships in the book are also non-standard which makes you actually have to think.

Overall the story and performance were both excellent. Dawn writes a captivating story that grabbed me not in the traditional action/suspense method but instead I found myself really wanting to know what happened next. Stephanie is a narrator I wish we got more of within the genre and her performance is top notch as the rest of her’s are. This was my first exposure to Neil and found the performance solid.

Flying the cyberpunk sky’s over Artem

Tailspin

After a tragic accident, Rus has a choice to make. He can receive the medical surgeries to save his life and upgrade his tech to reach for his goals or bleed out on the streets. Not much of a choice really. Now under a mountain of debt that he could never possibly pay, he is an indentured servant to the corporation. Not really a bad thing though, since they are training him to fulfill his dream. To pilot the amazing helicopters that keep Artem running.

I haven’t read too many cyberpunk litrpg yet. What is even better is that this is a shared universe with other writers. I grew up on shared universes and I’m so excited to see these come back. Dawn did a fantastic job explaining all the details and making you feel like you were right there in the helo with Rus. I’m looking forward to checking out more Artem books! The duel narrators really brought the book to life!

Content Warning: language

Well-crafted entry in the Artem series.

This is a very well written entry in the Artem series. As is the case with most cyber punk genre pieces, the world building favors pastiche over exposition. The author relies on the reader to piece things together. It is done pretty well here. And the narration is top-notch.

The story has a bit of an Ender’s Game quality, with the MC finding himself forced to rapidly advance through artificially accelerated education and training. The story suffers a bit for this as the rigor and structure of the academy setting and curriculum is largely abandoned after being introduced. The listener is thus robbed of the satisfaction that comes from a fully-realized academy progression arc.

With that said, Chapman’s focus is clearly on the internal lives of her characters in a way that distinguishes her from many in the litRPG/progression genre. While refreshing, this focus only highlights the book’s biggest deficit—absence of any interpersonal opposition for the MC. Instead, the MC easily and quickly wins over detractors. Indeed, several other characters—nearly all of whom are more experienced, wealthy, and politically powerful than he is—absolutely bend over backward to help him. By contrast, almost all human opposition he faces is institutional, abstract, and remote.

While it can be frustrating to listen to stories where the MC faces nothing but unrelenting and undeserved opposition, e.g., wuxia cultivation tropes, Chapman has overcorrected. Here the MC receives practically immediate support and affection from numerous powerful characters before he has done anything to merit that kind of response. There is a hinted-at explanation for why this is happening, but that doesn’t make a story where everyone loves and supports the MC any more interesting to listen to.

Nor is it clear why the MC is so driven to put himself through hell to get stronger so quickly. He has a devotion to the cause that seems entirely at odds with his background. And while we hear him say that he has to get stronger, nothing in his internal life or thoughts seems to justify the intensity and urgency of his drive to do so and throw himself at the enemy. We are told that the security situation is dire and they really need the MC, but we aren’t given any reason why this street rat plucked from the slums cares so deeply about a city and community that never cared about him.

I’m being hard on this book because it has such promise. Chapman is talented and there is some very good writing here. The book is worth your time and I am hopeful that the deficits I’ve identified will be corrected as the story develops and matures.

A good read

I really enjoyed this book and I can't wait for the next book and to see what's in the store next time.