Book #46 of 2015: NPCs | 2015 book: The Time Garden

[thistlechaser]

NPCs by Drew Hayes
Rating: Loved (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



NPCs was one clever, fun book.

The story started with a bunch of young boys sitting around a table, playing Dungeons and Dragon-- er, Spells, Swords, & Stealth. Most of the players didn't take it seriously/weren't playing well, they were doing the "my character is everything I wish I was! Killing everything! Taking no back-talk! Getting all the treasure! 100% perfect!" thing that new players do. As such, they tended to die. A lot.

Their characters died (stupid death, too) and the story didn't miss a beat -- it continued on with how the NPCs of the D&D/SS&S campaign world reacted to the adventurers dying. I was tickled and amused to see that! What a fun idea! I've never seen a story like that before!

Most of the story followed those NPCs as they formed a party and tried to take over the roles of the PCs who had died. It was so believably handled, and so much fun. (I keep coming back to that: This was such a fun, clever idea.)

I wavered between rating this a Liked and a Loved, because the middle dragged just a tad (there was a fight scene that I swear went on for a third of the book), but everything other than that one part was so darned enjoyable, I went with Loved rating.

An extra fun side note: The main character's name was Thistle! The same name I've used online for decades! That tickled me so endlessly.

I already have the second book in this series (Split the Party) and will be reading that next.

---

The Time Garden by Edward Eager
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



While there was nothing wrong with this book, it didn't hold my interest at all. The only thing I semi-enjoyed about it was the glimpse of a much older world (it was published in the 50s or 60s). None of the children came off as children to me, though that could have been because of the datedness -- maybe kids of the 50s did speak like the ones in this book.

I didn't reach the 50% mark, thus the book doesn't count towards my total for the year.

Comments

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I intend to hunt down NPCs and Split the Party due to your glowing recommendation.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

You should try a different Edward Eager. Half Magic is my favorite, Magic by the Lake and Seven-Day Magic are pretty good, too. The rest of his series I felt really iffy about. Yeah, the kids seem to know a bit too much but I enjoyed some of it.

[adam-0oo.livejournal.com]

With all the books on here, have you thought of doing an Amazon affiliate program? So that people can link off of you directly and get a little dosh?

I have added NPCs to my wishlist, it is very much up my alley.

Since you liked that, have you read Redshirts? It is half very much in the same vein of non-main characters in an adventure dealing with the adventure.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

I would suggest that you read the Amazon affiliate contract carefully. I was a member for many years, but never earned much- my blog gets very modest traffic and my books of choice are not very popular, so even after several years in I only had a few dollars of earnings. You can't get paid until you've earned a certain amount- I forget what the threshold is now. It's either fifty or a hundred dollars. They just put in a new policy that if you don't make enough to get paid, you have to pay THEM $10 a month for maintaining your account! I backed out of the program at that point. Just letting you know.