To earn a second chance at life, Devrim Bains must die and enter a virtual world of monsters and mayhem. Let's just hope one death is all it will take, because he can't afford another.
When Devrim Bains reaches his twenty–first birthday, he's finally punished for a crime that was never his fault–being born. In a world of strict population control, his life's been decided for him, and it's about to end. But a stroke of luck gives him opportunity to have his consciousness uploaded into a simulated-reality game world with the promise of paradise.
Except paradise always comes with a cost.
Monsters of legend and myths of old come to life in Lorian, needing to be slain or tamed for Devrim to have a shot at enjoying freedom. It'd be easy enough if one of the fiends hadn't raised an army hellbent on conquering everything. The Goblin King has his sights set taking the lands of Lorian in his iron grasp, and Devrim Bains' only chance is to quickly learn what it means to be a slayer.
To make sure his new lease on life isn't cut painfully short, he's going to have to embody the greatest rule in Monster Slayer Online:
Hunt or be hunted!
Goblin King is the first novel of the Monster Slayer Online LitRPG/Gamelit series. If you loved The 100, the Monster Hunter game franchise, and Dragon's Dogma, you'll enjoy this fast paced, hard-action monster-slaying novel.
My Opinion: 398 pages, $4.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This is an enjoyable action oriented novel with light RPG mechanics. The big focus in the story is on combat, which is written well. The fights are frenetic, visceral, and there’s an good amount of variety among the bad guys.
On the game mechanics side, things are pretty light. There are no combat, health, or stamina numbers. The most common mechanic are the notifications and skill uses. There’s a mention of leveling increasing health and stamina, but the main character only levels once, near the start of the story. Instead the main progression mechanic are skill points. After beating a group of opponents or finishing a quest, the MC is awarded skill points as a reward. These skill points can be used to buy new abilities or upgrade existing ones. The are supposed to be a variety of abilities available but the reader only ever sees what the MC actually purchases.
Which brings me to the thing I thought could be improved the most about the story. The game mechanic variety. While there are plenty of places where game notifications appear and give details about monster races, or specific abilities the MC uses. There isn’t a lot of explained variety of choices for RPG powers. There are no details about the other powers or items available to the MC, just the stuff he actually chooses. It would have been nice to see even the names of the other powers or purchasable items and get an explanation about why one was chosen over another. It would have added depth to the game side of the story. Also, crafting doesn’t turn out to be an important thing, rather something merchants do.
Storwise, this is kind of slice of life. Even though you get introduced to the Goblin King in the first few pages, it’s mostly a vague motivation for the MC to improve. Instead, you follow the MC as he and his group go from fight to fight, increasing their skills, and accomplishing quests.
Overall, it’s good read if you’re in the mood for an action heavy story. If you want something with lots of RPG mechanic details, this probably won’t fit the bill.
Score: 7.2 out of 10
Goblin King: A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (Monster Slayer Online Book 1)