This one was my gateway drug

This was the first Drew Hayes book I read (well, listened to) and it’s the one that got me hooked.  Honestly, going in I didn’t have very high expectations.  I just scrolled through my library options and tried to pick something that wouldn’t waste my time, and even if it did, I could move on.  I was pleasantly surprised!  I don’t play D&D (Dungeons & Dragons for the less nerdy), but I do have passing knowledge of some of the elements.  Not having that base didn’t hinder my enjoyment at all.

We have two different casts of characters.  We have a group of people in the ‘real’ world playing a game, Spells, Swords, and Stealth.  Then we have the characters in the game universe.  Not the characters the ‘real’ people are playing, but everyone else.  These are the characters that appear in the game as NPCs, or Non-Player Characters.  You know, the ones giving you quests, the townspeople, the guards, any character the player does not control.  But just because the player doesn’t control them doesn’t mean they aren’t real.

Our ‘real’ players make a mistake early on, and their characters all die. Oh well, start again!  But their seemingly mysterious deaths out of nowhere cause problems for the ones who witness their deaths and have to deal with the bodies.  We have Gabrielle, the beautiful mayor’s daughter, Thistle, the deformed gnome, Grumph, the half-orc bar owner, and Eric, the somewhat inept guardsman.  They quickly discover that the corpses in front of them were on a quest from the Mad King, and bad things happen to those who interfere with the Mad King.  Like razing the entire village to the ground bad.  So they decide to take on the roles and quest of the deceased Adventurers before them to save their homes.  The quest was given to a Rogue, a Mage, a Paladin, and a Barbarian.  Easy enough, right?  Maybe not…

We quickly discover that we cannot judge these characters by first glance.  At the first test of their skills, they pretty much fail miserably.  But from that failure they begin to grow, and their roles begin to shift.  Hayes takes stereotypical tropes and turns them on their heads.  At first their new roles seem ludicrous, but as we progress Hayes justifies each and every step they take.  The characters are fleshed out, and seeing them develop as individuals and as a group is lovely.  

So this introduced me to Drew Hayes, and I’ve been working my way through his stuff ever since.  While at work, I would update some of my coworkers on what had happened since the last time I rattled on about the story, in this and his other series.  I would listen on my 45 minute commute to and from work, and I think I might go into withdrawal when I finish everything he has.  Luckily, he writes like a madman, so I won’t have to find out for quite a while!  And I suppose I can always go back to the beginning…