MMORPG by Charlie Foxtrott

6/10

What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in a massively multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game? Well, this is the situation that the star of Charlie Foxtrot’s MMORPG finds himself in.

Geordie finds himself stuck in the online world of Thila unable to return home. At first he thinks it is an accident that he ended up in Thila but it turns out his appearance was planned all along. While the IT gnomes who maintain Thila try and figure out what he is doing in the online world, the Lich King has other plans.

With the help of the werewolf Wolfgang, players Rhosyn and Spanner, Geordie discovers that there’s a plot afoot in the online world and that he is pivotal in the Lich King’s plans.

MMORPG is an interesting book. It has an interesting concept, one that I have also sometimes wondered in my few dabbles into MMOs. For anyone who has never played an MMORPG or has not even heard of them, Foxtrot explains it well. He takes a few chapters to establish the world, why people play MMOs and how to get by in it. I thought it might be a bit of a drag but it is integrated well into the story.

The world of Thila is very stereotypical of any MMO and anyone who is familiar with the online games of World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings and Guild Wars will easily see that these are the worlds that Foxtrot has based his novel on. Even better is that the story is written in such a way that it feels almost as if you and a mate have sat down in a pub and he’s winding this story for your entertainment. Filled with references to pop culture, metal and British colloquialisms it is an interesting read.

The story itself is rather amusing with an interesting array of characters but it took some time for me to pinpoint what it was that annoyed me about them. It wasn’t until I was near the end of the book when I realised that practically every character within Thila, player and non-playable characters (NPCs) alike, have pretty much the same personality.

Unfortunately while reading this book I came across several mistakes I have noticed before in self-published books. The copy that I received did have many mistakes which interrupted the flow of the novel. There were a several grammar problems, very long sentences and paragraphs, which did disrupt my enjoyment of the novel. If you are interested in reading this book I would highly recommend waiting until these problems are sorted out.

Looking past the grammatical errors the story was very good but was let down by rather bland characters. It was rather disappointing as the concept that Charlie Foxtrot has come up with has so much potential as a novel that could appeal to a wide range of readers. I can easily see this becoming a series however there are a few improvements needed before the story can reach its full potential.