Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw

9/10

Mogworld has been on my reading list for sometime and the more I’ve looked at it the higher my expectations have been of it. Written by one of my favourite game critics Yahtzee Croshaw, I was expecting it to be a lot more pessimistic, in the style of his game reviews. How wrong could I be? If anything this book is a great mash up of traditional fantasy adventures with a hint of Terry Pratchett.

It has been about fifty years since anyone in Mogworld was able to die. Jim was one of those lucky enough to have a proper death, only to be resurrected some time later by a rather ambitious necromancer. The first thing he notices is that no one really truly stays dead. After several months in a cushy job or minding the rat pit he begins to notice that the adventurers who keep invading his master’s castle start to look the same.

Several catastrophic events later and Jim is on a mission to figure out why people don’t die properly and to get himself destroyed permanently. While on this mission he discovers towns that act strangely, a vicar with a vendetta against him and communes with the “gods” where he discovers words like NPC, PvP and game build.

Stories set within an MMORPG can be somewhat problematic and I have read books like this before and they haven’t worked. Mogworld works splendidly well with Croshaw making a very definite distinction between the sentient NPCs that the story is based on, and the adventuring heroes that just bumble their way through the world in impractical or overdramatic armour. Jim is a great little anti-hero who seems to unwittingly become the hero in his quest to have a permanent death. The characters he surrounds himself with seem rather annoying but as I continued to read through the book I found myself coming to love them as Jim grew fonder of them.

I think Mogworld is written exceptionally well. As I mentioned above, stories like this can be very hard to pull off and Croshaw’s experience in the video game industry has been a definite boon while writing this. The humour can be understood by anyone but those who have played MMORPGs, even for a short amount of time, will be able to see where Croshaw pokes fun at the games. It isn’t quite as epic as other novels I have read but how epic can you realistically make a novel about an MMORPG?

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. It is a little bit easier to read than Terry Pratchett but it has a very similar sense of humour and randomness about it that the Discworld novels also possess.

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3 positive reader review(s) for Mogworld

Mogworld reader reviews

from USA

As someone who's familiar with Yahtzee's sense of strong negativity towards everything, I was sort of expecting that in his first novel, Mogworld. After reading it, I can definitely say that it's a stronger novel than the one that proceeded it, Jam (which is OK in a strange and silly way but has a weaker plot and characters overall). Mogworld takes place in a world titled, well... Mogworld. Its story follows an undead mage named Jim as he goes on a Journey to find a way to die once and for all. What will make Mogworld stand-out, but also even confuse, some is the fact that it's more than just a novel: it's a satirical piece on Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, such as World of Warcraft. While people who have little to no knowledge of what those games are or what is in them can read this easily, for the most part, some language gamers (and also people close to being considered 'gamers') are used to (NPC, for example - which means Non-Playable Character) may allude them. Regardless, the story is a perfect blend of intrigue and unusual, and though some of it is predictable, it has many twists and turns and also sports one of the greatest endings to a novel I've ever seen (so much so that I don't want to spoil it even to people who ask for spoilers). Its characters start out weak but grow stronger overtime, with the main character, Jim, being a great example. The adventure in Mogworld is an interesting one that will hold your attention for sure. It also gets more awesome points because of the author, Yahtzee Croshaw, who read the audiobook in a brilliant way that matches the tone of his writing to a pitch.
8/10 ()

from US

The storyline was really good full of plot twist and intrigue. Jim is a kind of regular undead bloke living when he's supposed to be dead. His quest is to be deleted for good along the way he has to deal with a murderous vicar the corporate adventurers guild and many other perils. A definite read for anyone.
9/10 ()

from USA

Mogworld was a rather splendid read. After finishing it, I have come to post a review. - Storyline - 9 The Storyline was interesting and set itself away from the rest of your common book, as it was both interesting and Intriguing. The only thing that slightly bothered me is that I predicted a decent amount of it after around pg. 60, however, It still remained interesting enough that I could hardly put it down. - Characters - 8 The characters come in all shapes and colors, personality-wise. They remain interesting enough by themselves, but a little more character development would be appreciated. - Length - 10 The number of pages in the book itself was not enough to make it feel like a gargantuan read, but still enough so that It didn't feel like a chore to read. - Humor - 10 Yahtzee's humor is both unique and funny, which seems rather rare in this day and age. It made me laugh and contemplate what the next instance of it would be. - Overall - 9.25 Overall Mogworld is intriguing and Humorous, and I would definitely recomend it to someone who even has the slightest like for MMOs, and even some who don't. I recommend this book. :D
9/10 ()

8.7/10 from 4 reviews

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