The Sword and Laser discussion

So when this book won the March Madness tournament I wasn't sure it was going to be for me -- it's not something I'd normally pick up and the premise sounded really goofy. But when I saw the audiobook was on special offer, I listened to the audio sample and I was immediately sucked in. I'm now about two-thirds of the way through Book 3 and I already have Books 4 and 5 lined up to listen to (they were on a 2-for-1 credit deal on Audible so I snapped them up).

Here's a few reasons why this book series has so many admirers, please feel free to add some more!

1) Jeff Hays' audio performance. He's been mentioned before both here and on the podcast but he really deserves another shoutout. His character voices are spot-on and I especially love the way he does the dungeon AI and in-game announcements. Those of you who are eyeball-reading this one are missing out! Like Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's performances of the Rivers of London books, the audiobooks really take things to the next level and I cannot imagine Carl sounding like anyone else.

2) The endless inventiveness of the setting. While there are definitely elements here that are familiar to anyone who's played a role-playing game like Dungeons & Dragons, Elder Scrolls or World of Warcraft, Dinniman adds plenty of his own touches - I love the unique items and grotesque monsters he invents, things like the (view spoiler)[ Krakaren boss monster and the magical heart-patterned boxer shorts Carl receives (hide spoiler)]

3) the characters! Of course Princess Donut is everyone's favourite -- she's purr-fection (sorry). Carl himself is a slightly more generic protagonist but I enjoy the glimpses of his childhood and the way he tries to be heroic and sometimes slips into recklessness. The supporting characters like Odette and Mordecai are great too, especially as we see the weariness of former crawlers in their new lives -- it reminded me of the former-victor characters in the Hunger Games.

I think there's a propulsiveness and compulsiveness that are defying my ability to break the book down further into exactly what I'm enjoying about it. But, like many, I read the first and just kept going. I'll have to go back and catch an audiobook performance, but I used my month trial of Kindle unlimited to keep reading and I don't see myself stopping until I run out of material.

I'm on book six now and it's really proving your point #2. Crawlers are hunting mobs like they're pokemon to turn them into cards to play a CCG within their RPG - it's great.