Anyone looking for a spy thriller will be well served by this story. It has awesome fight scenes and other tense action scenes in settings like trains, active volcanoes, and 5,000 feet in the air. Not only that, but the main characters are worth getting invested in and the plot is tightly tied to the protagonist's backstory and arc.

The lead is John Nero, a man from a criminal family who decided to work for the CIA, and the story fully develops this by presenting both his family and the CIA as people and organizations who are important to him—and yet he has to pick a side. As it goes on, the morals get more complex and there's a good dose of realism in how he reacts to it. He and the other lead, Mango, are both likeable, strong, morally gray (though John is honestly a pretty good person!) and drew me in. They also have a good dynamic with each other. John's siblings and the CIA agents are also well fleshed out to different degrees—I really liked his sister, Jade.

The LitRPG aspect is based in an AI called Focus which characters have installed in their head and helps with combat, subterfuge, and other situations depending on the person. It feels realistic and well integrated, and instead of breaking the genre, adds the guy-in-the-chair, high-tech aspect that's fun in action thriller stories in a new and creative way.

There's only the rare typo, and the prose is pretty good though not usually showy or exceptional. Nothing is under or over described, the fights are well written, and the story is well paced.

One thing worth pointing out is that this is the first in a series. It ends on a lead for the next volume and doesn't give a fully satisfying ending. That said, John does go through a full and well-written arc.