December 2019 Book Club: NPCs

NPCs by Drew  Hayes

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy, LitRPG
Content: Strong Language


What happens when the haggling is done and the shops are closed? When the quest has been given, the steeds saddled, and the adventurers are off to their next encounter? They keep the world running, the food cooked, and the horses shoed, yet what adventurer has ever spared a thought or concern for the Non-Player Characters?

In the town of Maplebark, four such NPCs settle in for a night of actively ignoring the adventurers drinking in the tavern when things go quickly and fatally awry. Once the dust settles, these four find themselves faced with an impossible choice: pretend to be adventurers undertaking a task of near-certain death or see their town and loved ones destroyed.

You know those characters in the game that you buy your supplies from, the bartender at the local tavern, the town guard, the one you have to rescue from the goblins, or the one that sends you on that annoying quest to rescue the girl from the goblins? Well those are the characters that are front and center in this book. Who knew they really had more to them, than just standing there doing their job?



This is only the second litrpg I've read (they were both for my book club) and it was enjoyable enough. I liked the concept of the NPCs taking over the adventure. I would say that this book is very entertaining and good at being what it is, but if you are looking for something deep then don't look here. I wasn't, so it worked for me, and hopefully no one who is reading litrpg thinks they are going to get a deep, complex story. That's not what the genre is about.

The characters here were quite likable, and I liked that they tried to fit the stereotypes of certain types of role playing characters, but things didn't go the way they planned. It was fun watching them each discover their hidden talents. I'm mildly interested in seeing what happens to the characters in the next book, but not enough to read a whole series so I will probably stop here.

Overall this was a fun read, but it's just not really my thing. I was tempted to give it 4 stars just for doing what it does so well, but decided 3.5 was enough.