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Goblin Quest, by Jim Hines. This isn't "RPG fiction", in the vein of Order of the Stick or Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic (or Goblins*, for that matter). There are no references to the characters having gaming stats, levels, etc. It is, nonetheless, heavily influenced by the D&D genre. It's basically a dungeon stomp, except that the protagonist is a goblin that the party captures in their first encounter. The party has a dwarf cleric, an elf thief, a human wizard, and a human warrior. The dungeon is in a mountain full of monsters and traps, designed to protect the powerful artifact of a long-dead wizard. It'd make a fine module.
Despite being chock-full of D&D tropes, I enjoyed reading the book and was eager to see how things went. Most of the main characters, including the goblin protagonist, act like self-absorbed, short-sighted jerks much of the time. But there are flashes of kindness and signs of loyalty among them, and I kept reading because I wanted to see if the characters would grow into better people. Also, the characters would get into one bad situation after another, and sometimes they'd get out again by luck but sometimes through cleverness, and it was interesting to see how. The ending was a little unsatisfying, but overall a good read. I give it an 8.
Goblin Hero, by Jim Hines. The sequel to Goblin Quest, now with a lot more goblins. In some ways, I liked this one better and in some ways less than the previous book. It added a new viewpoint character whom I found pretty annoying. She was self-absorbed to the point of constructing elaborate delusions to support her personal narrative. It made sense in the context of the character, but is not the sort of thing I enjoy. But I found the climax to this novel overall more satisfying than the first. I'll give it a 7.
I put the third book on hold at the library on Wednesday, when if became clear that the weather would be nice this weekend. Today I biked out and picked it up; I'm looking forward to finishing the series.
I have not been good for much else today. The back broke on my side of the reclining loveseat Lut and I use in front of our computers. Close examination and much fiddling determined that the problem was with a bolt that had popped off because its connecting nut was stripped. So I went to the hardware store after I hit the library, and got a variety of bits in case my best guess about how to fix it didn't work. It turned out variant #3 was the winning solution. Or at least, it's been holding so far tonight.
I've spent most of today kind of wanting to play a computer game, but not any of the ones I usually play. Maybe if I still feel this way tomorrow, I'll break out Civ 5 again. The other thing Iwanted thought I should do was write, but I am so uninspired it took me until the end of today just to type up this entry. Ah well. There's always tomorrow.
* Unrelated to anything: omigosh, there're two new Goblins comics! Woo!
Despite being chock-full of D&D tropes, I enjoyed reading the book and was eager to see how things went. Most of the main characters, including the goblin protagonist, act like self-absorbed, short-sighted jerks much of the time. But there are flashes of kindness and signs of loyalty among them, and I kept reading because I wanted to see if the characters would grow into better people. Also, the characters would get into one bad situation after another, and sometimes they'd get out again by luck but sometimes through cleverness, and it was interesting to see how. The ending was a little unsatisfying, but overall a good read. I give it an 8.
Goblin Hero, by Jim Hines. The sequel to Goblin Quest, now with a lot more goblins. In some ways, I liked this one better and in some ways less than the previous book. It added a new viewpoint character whom I found pretty annoying. She was self-absorbed to the point of constructing elaborate delusions to support her personal narrative. It made sense in the context of the character, but is not the sort of thing I enjoy. But I found the climax to this novel overall more satisfying than the first. I'll give it a 7.
I put the third book on hold at the library on Wednesday, when if became clear that the weather would be nice this weekend. Today I biked out and picked it up; I'm looking forward to finishing the series.
I have not been good for much else today. The back broke on my side of the reclining loveseat Lut and I use in front of our computers. Close examination and much fiddling determined that the problem was with a bolt that had popped off because its connecting nut was stripped. So I went to the hardware store after I hit the library, and got a variety of bits in case my best guess about how to fix it didn't work. It turned out variant #3 was the winning solution. Or at least, it's been holding so far tonight.
I've spent most of today kind of wanting to play a computer game, but not any of the ones I usually play. Maybe if I still feel this way tomorrow, I'll break out Civ 5 again. The other thing I
* Unrelated to anything: omigosh, there're two new Goblins comics! Woo!
