4/5 stars
Synopsis
Warning! This section contains spoilers, if you would like to avoid these spoilers, jump to the review below.
The book started with the main character setting up a tabletop RPG game with his friends. One of the people was late because he was buying a crystal ball with a smoky mist inside it. He eventually got to the group, but dropped the ball, and it broke. The main character was sucked into the world he had created for the RPG, along with the other people. The other people had become the characters they created for the game. They had no memories of who they were. The main character was supposed to be the dungeon master, however, and didn’t have a character, so he was just himself.
A bar fight broke out, and the people inside the tavern were arrested and interrogated. The main character got out of being arrested because he was a bard, and eventually exonerated his friends. He got them out of the dungeon.
They go on a quest and successfully complete it. They then have another quest to deliver stuff to a mine, and so they go there. But then they were double crossed and left to die in the mine.
They continued through the mine. They came across a skeleton with a ghost, and the ghost begged for them to take his skull and bury it. So Gary took the skull, and they continued on.
Once they got out of the mine, Gary went to the man who had sent them into the mine to tell him that he wasn’t getting his gold. The man wasn’t happy about this, and so Gary had to threaten him. The threat worked, and the man let Gary and the others off the hook. They had found a frozen-in-time elven woman in the mine and needed to figure out how to unfreeze her.
Gary went to a temple and deposited the dead wizard’s skull there. He told the wizard’s spirit to tell the gods that Gary wanted to speak with them. So as the group was traveling, Gary was visited by one of the gods.
After the visit from the gods, Gary and the group continued. They came across a random elf girl in the forest, and she was running away from another elf who was chasing her. The group got to another temple. There were things guarding the temple that the group had to fight. They eventually got magic healing water from the temple. They put it on the frozen elf, waking her up. They went to sleep, and in the morning, they had an intruder. The intruder kidnapped the elf.
The party traveled in pursuit of the kidnapped elf.
Because he created the story, Gary knew exactly where the man they were supposed to find was, and so when the party split up to search a city, Gary didn’t bother with searching. Instead, he used his lute to try and earn money for them.
Gary rented rooms in the same inn that the man they were looking for was staying in. One of the party members started playing a game with him, then accused him of cheating.
Gary ambushed the man they were looked for in his room. Gary cornered the guy, but he escaped. Then one of the members of the party got a message from the kidnapped person. They started planning on how to get her away from the kidnapper.
When they got to the place where the kidnapped elf was being held, the thief that they were supposed to capture stopped them. He told them that they would all die if they went in there. He revealed that the wizard who kidnapped the elf was actually a dragon and offered his aid.
The group came up with a plan to get the elf back. Gary ventured alone into the dragon’s lair as a distraction. After Gary negotiated with the dragon, he leveled up, and was able to get a dual class. Bard and wizard. He determined that he wasn’t going to try and play by the rules anymore.
Zane finally reappeared in the story. Gary was excited because he thought that someone finally remembered the real world. But Zane kidnapped him to talk to his “master.”
Review
Expand this out, put more details: The story didn’t make much sense until the ending. Specifically, the motivation for what they did during the story. I didn’t understand why the party was so invested in unfreezing the elf they found. They owed her nothing. I wish their motivation for rescuing her was more than just she’s pretty and doesn’t deserve to be frozen.
I did like how the random elf dude they came across early in the book was tied back into the end. It was nice to see a little breadcrumb from the beginning be used at the end.
I liked how the main character was subtle about the things he knew in the beginning, but his personal beliefs on how he used his knowledge changed toward the end. That showed character growth.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next book. Zane’s behavior was odd, and I want to know why. He mentioned a multiverse, and he knew that Gary wasn’t originally from that world. Gary assumed that it was because Zane remembered what happened to put them in the world, but Zane’s behavior made him question that assumption. It was a nice ending that made me want to know more about the book.
Fireheart Books 