After that horrendous first attempt, I managed to ruffle through another book in under a day. Thus, I am back on track towards my goal of 25(+) books. This next book caught my attention because its premise was along the very same lines I think, putting the NPCs (Non-Player Characters) of a table top game as the protagonists.
This one will teach you never to take the background characters lightly. The premise of the story behind NPCs already put my foot into the door, and with all the paths it could have taken, I think it delivered. Truly, besides the association with our world, NPCs is truly an underdog story told in a high fantasy realm. It held my attention and strung me along, but it is still far from a masterpiece.
The plot was pretty straightforward, a group of nobodies take up disguises as adventurers to go on a quest. It was nothing terribly substantial, but the characters were likable, especially Thistle. The scenes are well described without getting overly ornate, and the characters challenged their prospective roles to a rewarding degree. The twists and turns, though sometimes predictable, kept the plot fresh.
Though there was plenty of action and adventure, I never truly felt on the edge of my seat craving to see what would happen next. The story had an odd lack of tension, and the stakes weren't raised high enough to warrant a ladder. A further objection was that the adventure was fairly tame. Written well, but tame for this genre. And near the beginning, the characters came off as dense, with the author spoon feeding the plot and then taking more time to summarize what had just been said.
The concept had ample paths towards a memorable story, and while the one chosen was underwhelming, the characters and witty scenes made it a good read. Shall it sit on my shelf for days to come.
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