One of the books that I chose this time around is called "NPCs" by Drew Hayes. I was a touch skeptical when I read the teaser text on the Amazon entry for it. From what I gathered it would only really appeal to the mecha-geek sub-faction of Geeks, but I was wrong (or I'm a mecha-geek).
The book's humor is excellent if you have ever played through even at least one pen and paper RPG campaign and didn't text or play games on your phone throughout it (don't do this if you do; everyone else at the table thinks you're an asshole for it). I really liked the characters as well; they all did have a stereotypical archetype to them(completely on purpose) and they grow from there. I've read other novels of late that had teaser text that claimed the books were "the new thing of" or "a new look of" the Fantasy genre. Bullshit, says I!!! This is a new twist!
It is an easy read and enjoyable throughout. To be honest, it reads almost like a transcript of an RPG group's campaign in a literal sense. It will also make RPG players think a lot harder about how they roleplay in their campaigns, in my opinion. The adventurers in the book, who are controlled by players, come across as jerks and their behavior is on the whole disdained.
This brings me to my finally comment on the book before I shoo you off to read it. Generally, I abhor the mixing of universes. When someone from our world goes to another universe or alternate universe, I am instantly turned off because the content can become quickly tainted with cheesy catch phrases and a character who would in reality most likely die at the first sign of any real danger their smart phone couldn't get them out of. The worst is when the character from our time uses our slang around the denizens of the foreign universe only to confuse them and has to awkwardly explain the meaning of what they just said. Or, at a turning point of usually a giant battle, a surly medieval warrior who has distrusted the "outsider" breaks out with "yeehaw," "cool," or some other slang to show his now acceptance of the otherworlder. Dousche-chills galore, Batman! Not going to lie here; this book has a decent amount of that, save the last bit about the turning point of a battle. I feel it didn't bother me since the whole cross-universe thing was presented totally different here.
At any rate, it was a great book and I would highly suggest it. Check it out.
No comments:
Post a Comment