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Noobtown #1
The Mayor of Noobtown
It could be worse. You could be stuck with a literal shoulder demon.
After dying and being reborn into a world that's built like a video game, Jim has found himself stuck in a very old world style new player zone for low level adventurers. Unfortunately, the zone fell out of use centuries ago, and no one told the monsters they were supposed to take it easy on the Noobs. Even worse, the only new player around is Jim.
Jim has been given an opportunity, and he'll do his best to take advantage of it.
After dying and being reborn into a world that's built like a video game, Jim has found himself stuck in a very old world style new player zone for low level adventurers. Unfortunately, the zone fell out of use centuries ago, and no one told the monsters they were supposed to take it easy on the Noobs. Even worse, the only new player around is Jim.
Jim has been given an opportunity, and he'll do his best to take advantage of it.
291 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 12, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 573 reviews
July 12, 2024
OK, I was duped. I went in because I saw "Mayor" and I love settlement-building gamelit/litrpg.
I got off the train before it started in earnest, if it ever does.
A few things didn't work for me right from the start:
1. The "I had a life" spiel.
This raised my hackles big time. See, a wife and kids are not abstract concepts; they are people with personalities, and a profound impact on your life. You cannot brood about them for an hour, then shrug it off because you had a badass life insurance. It sounded like someone who had a vague idea of what family life should be like, at least on the responsibility front, and decided one morning that they could fake it. When you can't make me believe who you were, you are starting off on the wrong foot.
2. The clueless newbie guy who tricks professionals.
Nah, I don't buy that stuff anymore.
3. The never-ending snark-fest.
Please, please, make it stop! Enough! We get it, you're witty! Enough! PLEEEAAAASSEEE!!!
4. Stats-quagmire
For the past 2 years, I've been reading LitRPG almost exclusively, so I've compiled an internal meter for what is stats-light or stats-heavy. Now for THIS book, it's pretty simple. I actually turned it into a game. Tried random fast-forwards, and 4 times out of 5, I'd be knee-deep in stat sheet.
Ok, I know it's called LitRPG, and as such, game mechanics are a big part of the story. But when game mechanics and stats-rambling ARE the freaking story, and the plot is naught but filler, I freaking draw the line. Sorry. A book should still mostly be about "what happened next", not how many rolls of a 20 it took.
So yeah, I jumped this ship.
Ya'll may enjoy it. I didn't.
I got off the train before it started in earnest, if it ever does.
A few things didn't work for me right from the start:
1. The "I had a life" spiel.
This raised my hackles big time. See, a wife and kids are not abstract concepts; they are people with personalities, and a profound impact on your life. You cannot brood about them for an hour, then shrug it off because you had a badass life insurance. It sounded like someone who had a vague idea of what family life should be like, at least on the responsibility front, and decided one morning that they could fake it. When you can't make me believe who you were, you are starting off on the wrong foot.
2. The clueless newbie guy who tricks professionals.
Nah, I don't buy that stuff anymore.
3. The never-ending snark-fest.
Please, please, make it stop! Enough! We get it, you're witty! Enough! PLEEEAAAASSEEE!!!
4. Stats-quagmire
For the past 2 years, I've been reading LitRPG almost exclusively, so I've compiled an internal meter for what is stats-light or stats-heavy. Now for THIS book, it's pretty simple. I actually turned it into a game. Tried random fast-forwards, and 4 times out of 5, I'd be knee-deep in stat sheet.
Ok, I know it's called LitRPG, and as such, game mechanics are a big part of the story. But when game mechanics and stats-rambling ARE the freaking story, and the plot is naught but filler, I freaking draw the line. Sorry. A book should still mostly be about "what happened next", not how many rolls of a 20 it took.
So yeah, I jumped this ship.
Ya'll may enjoy it. I didn't.
March 13, 2026
This book is being republished by Harper Collins. This book. The book that includes such memorable moments as these:
The cover art for the new Noobtown series releases are very clearly stylistically modeled after DCC's new print editions, even.
What I want to know is what new editing processes, if any, Harper Collins invested in for this. Because the "editing" it previously received is, well, ... let's just say I feel sorry for the copy editor that got handed this one.
My pre-Big-5-publication-news review is below.
*********************************
Every time I think that maybe my rating for this book deserved a second star, I remember this line:
Unacceptable!
But why would I even consider giving this a second star otherwise? The only valid reason would be an indictment of the genre. See, Mayor of Noobtown is a perfectly representative litRPG novel, and I use "novel" with resentment because it's written very much like merely a section of a longer running web serial, which are often collected into discrete volumes for sale after the fact and as such are not expected to include typical single-novel arcs, except that this book was never published serially so there's little excuse for its lack of self-contained story or character arcs other than, "well it's litRPG." From its standard isekai origins to the self-denigrating while absurdly OP protagonist to the grinding and abuse of the game system, it fits the bill.
On Royal Road (royalroad.com, probably the world's top source for serial litRPG fiction), readers can rate stories with a separate score for grammar. Because basic grammar and proofreading is, apparently, optional. Because why even have standards for art or humanity anymore. In this, this book fits right in. Supposedly the author's wife edited the book, but let's go ahead and declare that copy editing was not part of that package.
The humour ... oh my god. It's a parade of toilet and cum-based humour, plus the most basic cultural references imaginable. What pride should one take in being able to reference Star Wars? Is that, like, something not literally everyone knows? Do readers who like Star Wars get excited because they recognize a basic Star Wars reference? I suppose some do. Of course, it takes a special talent to take the lowest-hanging fruit (which in this book would be equated to a scrotum somehow) and screw it up, like thus, from a trap-laying scene:
The writing quality sure isn't anything too get excited about, and the choices to focus on the game mechanics over, you know, story, or exciting events, or character, leaves me baffled by any positive review. A complex rule system is not a story. I declared such years ago when I reviewed Sufficiently Advanced Magic, a vastly better book that still wasted the reader's time with needlessly complex minutiae of how magic worked in that setting. And to focus on the game aspect in the midst of what should be thrilling action... many times instead of saying, "I nimbly dodged the goblin's arrow," the author instead to write the equivalent of, "I pressed the 'dodge' button. Then I pressed the 'dodge' button again." This is not a literal quote but it may as well be for how any possible interesting action is hampered. There is nothing inherent in the concept of, "I live in a video game world now," that requires this banality. You can establish the concept and rules, then just tell the story.
Wishy-washy. That's the narration at every turn. Every statement is hedged, filtered, depressed by the need to say everything is "sort of" or "somewhat" or "-ish" or "actually" or "pretty much". Yes, some people talk this way. They are bad talkers. It's even worse in print.
So: writing bad. Humour bad. Grammar bad. Who gives a shit, right? We're here for story. This is the book's story: Jim wakes up in a RPG world. He saves some people from goblins. Then he saves some more people from goblins.
That’s when I realized that I’d pissed myself.Or, the instant classic:
All I knew was that my package was heavy. I’d love to make a joke about my package, but the crushing weight of my massive package was no joke.This is the book that provides peak RPG experience in literary form, such as thusly:
Mechanically, each time I used the skill, I got better at it. What had originally been nearly a 100% failure rate, eventually dwindled to about a 60% failure chance, after ten tries. Further, if I went slowly, it was easier to find the ‘grooves’ in my mana pool to stop at. By the time I had done it 20 times, the failure chance had dwindled to 20% and there was a 5% chance of a better result.Riveting! Want some more thrilling storytelling?
What that equated to after 20 tries was that I had a 20% chance to fail. That cost me mana but gave no benefit. I had a 75% chance to get an unskilled result, which gave Shart 7 points of mana and cost me 14 mana. Then, I had a 5% chance to get an Amateur result, which gave Shart 10 points of mana and only cost me 15 mana. When the skill actually activated, you could feel it working and tell how much mana to dump into it. The problem was that failures seemed to eat up about 10 mana each time, despite my efforts to the contrary.
I could also see why Improvised Tools wouldn’t be a common skill. First, the end product was always less base durability than a product made with the correct tools. Base durability was important because it was the ‘base’ that other values were calculated from. The second issue was the slow growth rate and high failure chance. Without my Crafting skill, even at the amateur level, I’d have broken 1 in 2 arrows. As it was, I had a few that were flawed, but overall the majority of my arrows were just less durable than normal. However, despite all this building in Improvised Tools, I’d only gained 45 skill points. That brought my Improvised Tools to 5045, and I needed 50,000 to jump to the next rank. By the time you got to the point where you could have enough materials to train to amateur rank, you wouldn’t need it anymore. I’d managed to jump the gun by taking it using one of my free skill boosts. Most players wouldn’t have.Look, we all understand what's happening here. Harper Collins saw the runaway success Ace Books (part of Penguin Random House) is having by republishing Dungeon Crawler Carl. LitRPG has hit the mainstream and they wanted in on that action. All the other "good" and successful LitRPG series like He Who Fights with Monsters and Beware of Chicken are already taken up by independent/small publishers. So Harper Collins had to dig deep to find this (inexplicably popular despite its many, many failings) dreck. I'll be very curious to see the new critical response.
The cover art for the new Noobtown series releases are very clearly stylistically modeled after DCC's new print editions, even.
What I want to know is what new editing processes, if any, Harper Collins invested in for this. Because the "editing" it previously received is, well, ... let's just say I feel sorry for the copy editor that got handed this one.
My pre-Big-5-publication-news review is below.
*********************************
Every time I think that maybe my rating for this book deserved a second star, I remember this line:
Shart scaled me like a miniature King Kong, and we were on our way again.No! You don't get to use the giant version of the standard thing as the reference point. A miniature King Kong is a regular gorilla. That doesn't even work because the gorilla is the original; King Kong is a giant gorilla. To say that Shart, who is by the way much smaller than a gorilla, acted like a miniature version of the giant version of the baseline thing is unacceptable.
Unacceptable!
But why would I even consider giving this a second star otherwise? The only valid reason would be an indictment of the genre. See, Mayor of Noobtown is a perfectly representative litRPG novel, and I use "novel" with resentment because it's written very much like merely a section of a longer running web serial, which are often collected into discrete volumes for sale after the fact and as such are not expected to include typical single-novel arcs, except that this book was never published serially so there's little excuse for its lack of self-contained story or character arcs other than, "well it's litRPG." From its standard isekai origins to the self-denigrating while absurdly OP protagonist to the grinding and abuse of the game system, it fits the bill.
On Royal Road (royalroad.com, probably the world's top source for serial litRPG fiction), readers can rate stories with a separate score for grammar. Because basic grammar and proofreading is, apparently, optional. Because why even have standards for art or humanity anymore. In this, this book fits right in. Supposedly the author's wife edited the book, but let's go ahead and declare that copy editing was not part of that package.
The humour ... oh my god. It's a parade of toilet and cum-based humour, plus the most basic cultural references imaginable. What pride should one take in being able to reference Star Wars? Is that, like, something not literally everyone knows? Do readers who like Star Wars get excited because they recognize a basic Star Wars reference? I suppose some do. Of course, it takes a special talent to take the lowest-hanging fruit (which in this book would be equated to a scrotum somehow) and screw it up, like thus, from a trap-laying scene:
It was time to Kevin McCallister place up.Here's the terrifying realization I had about the humour: the author thought all this was funny, certainly funny enough to make it a key part of his book. Whatever I think about it, that means that some other people would think it was equally funny. How many? If only 1 out of every 10,000 people had their cranks turned by this stuff, that is still 800,000 people on the planet. That's a huge potential audience. Think about every human you've ever encountered, not just the people you like, and you'll realize the ratio is undoubtedly much less, even without counting boys aged 13-15. This is a sobering reflection on humanity.
The writing quality sure isn't anything too get excited about, and the choices to focus on the game mechanics over, you know, story, or exciting events, or character, leaves me baffled by any positive review. A complex rule system is not a story. I declared such years ago when I reviewed Sufficiently Advanced Magic, a vastly better book that still wasted the reader's time with needlessly complex minutiae of how magic worked in that setting. And to focus on the game aspect in the midst of what should be thrilling action... many times instead of saying, "I nimbly dodged the goblin's arrow," the author instead to write the equivalent of, "I pressed the 'dodge' button. Then I pressed the 'dodge' button again." This is not a literal quote but it may as well be for how any possible interesting action is hampered. There is nothing inherent in the concept of, "I live in a video game world now," that requires this banality. You can establish the concept and rules, then just tell the story.
Wishy-washy. That's the narration at every turn. Every statement is hedged, filtered, depressed by the need to say everything is "sort of" or "somewhat" or "-ish" or "actually" or "pretty much". Yes, some people talk this way. They are bad talkers. It's even worse in print.
The village square was a largish field that was chalk full of weeds and some decent sized trees.How big are those trees, Jim? "Decent sized." You're an idiot. How about the field, what is "largish" exactly?
It was clear you could probably have played football in it, with only a slight change of rules.So ... the field is, in fact, large. Fuck you and all your wishy-washy words for wasting my time.
So: writing bad. Humour bad. Grammar bad. Who gives a shit, right? We're here for story. This is the book's story: Jim wakes up in a RPG world. He saves some people from goblins. Then he saves some more people from goblins.
The End… for now.Go to hell, Jim.
September 11, 2024
This is a LitRPG isekai with a bit of a twist. The demons responsible for dragging Jim into this new world forget to erase his memories so he gets loose in the pre-life phase making them chase him down. Something about that lets him have multiple classes (probably because he handled a bunch of the options without choosing any of them in that pre-life phase). So he ends up with a demon companion and a way to get way more powerful than the norm by having extra options in his approach to problem solving.
Since he starts in an abandoned noob area, he encounters lots of foes that are tougher than normal, with the side effect of him advancing pretty quick too. Finding an abandoned village and figuring out how to turn on its automated defenses brings him into the titular situation to build from there. Rescuing people to be his citizens and figuring out how to make the whole system work takes us the rest of the story.
And I honestly don't have much more to say except that the pace is good, the system is interesting, and I liked how it all flowed together. That his name is the local equivalent of "Spot" is a joke that wore thin and the demon companion interactions don't really have a rudder (they're all over the place, sometimes antagonistic, sometimes crass, sometimes helpful with no real reason for which you are going to get at any given moment) so I can't give this the full five stars. It's good enough that I'm going to round up from 4½, though.
A note about Chaste: Another annoyance is Jim's "I'm married" schtick. His previous life just doesn't feel that present and saying "well, til death do us part is a promise fulfilled" to himself every now and then is just lame when that's as far as you get, ever. Because he doesn't actually process that into what he wants now that he's in a new world. In other words, it's a lame shield against forming romantic relationships and one that feels almost rote. So this is chaste, but that doesn't seem like it has any reason beyond the author dictating that it be so.
Since he starts in an abandoned noob area, he encounters lots of foes that are tougher than normal, with the side effect of him advancing pretty quick too. Finding an abandoned village and figuring out how to turn on its automated defenses brings him into the titular situation to build from there. Rescuing people to be his citizens and figuring out how to make the whole system work takes us the rest of the story.
And I honestly don't have much more to say except that the pace is good, the system is interesting, and I liked how it all flowed together. That his name is the local equivalent of "Spot" is a joke that wore thin and the demon companion interactions don't really have a rudder (they're all over the place, sometimes antagonistic, sometimes crass, sometimes helpful with no real reason for which you are going to get at any given moment) so I can't give this the full five stars. It's good enough that I'm going to round up from 4½, though.
A note about Chaste: Another annoyance is Jim's "I'm married" schtick. His previous life just doesn't feel that present and saying "well, til death do us part is a promise fulfilled" to himself every now and then is just lame when that's as far as you get, ever. Because he doesn't actually process that into what he wants now that he's in a new world. In other words, it's a lame shield against forming romantic relationships and one that feels almost rote. So this is chaste, but that doesn't seem like it has any reason beyond the author dictating that it be so.
May 27, 2024
Under my personal rating scale, this book is a two... meaning it is entirely forgettable and genuinely a waste of time. Under another person's rating scale it might be a 1 since it was very bad.
The book is so forgettable that I won't bother going into too much detail about how much it sucked.
There was a lot of continuity issues. Stats didn't add up, the effects of stats did not have a clear 'conversion factor', time seemed wonky, and things he could and couldn't do seemed arbitrarily decided and had no sense to it.
There was an insane amount of stat checks. Like, actually insane. I know that they're a big part of this genre, but there's better ways to do it and it's certainly not mandatory to do it as frequently and in such depth as this author did it. There is one particular scene where MC does a stat check and describes EVERY skill that he's gotten and what it's good for(and there's a skill for everything in this world, such as hiking and walking)... And then immediately went BACK INTO the abilities he's acquired and further detailed why it would be beneficial to level, how he'd use it, and other honestly worthless drivel.
The humor is crude. Sometimes crude humor is funny, but it's done so frequently and so mindlessly that it's actually unfunny. The running gag of the book that's explained towards the end was so sorely stupid and overplayed that I was over it before the punchline hit.
The world is poorly built. We get little to no information on it basically ever, and I can only assume it's because author had no fucking clue about it yet either.
The 'familiar' that MC receives is abhorrently unhelpful.
MC wasn't relatable, was extremely boring, and entirely forgettable. I actually have no idea what his name is anymore, and HIS NAME WAS THE JOKE FOR THE WHOLE FUCKING BOOK.
The book is so forgettable that I won't bother going into too much detail about how much it sucked.
There was a lot of continuity issues. Stats didn't add up, the effects of stats did not have a clear 'conversion factor', time seemed wonky, and things he could and couldn't do seemed arbitrarily decided and had no sense to it.
There was an insane amount of stat checks. Like, actually insane. I know that they're a big part of this genre, but there's better ways to do it and it's certainly not mandatory to do it as frequently and in such depth as this author did it. There is one particular scene where MC does a stat check and describes EVERY skill that he's gotten and what it's good for(and there's a skill for everything in this world, such as hiking and walking)... And then immediately went BACK INTO the abilities he's acquired and further detailed why it would be beneficial to level, how he'd use it, and other honestly worthless drivel.
The humor is crude. Sometimes crude humor is funny, but it's done so frequently and so mindlessly that it's actually unfunny. The running gag of the book that's explained towards the end was so sorely stupid and overplayed that I was over it before the punchline hit.
The world is poorly built. We get little to no information on it basically ever, and I can only assume it's because author had no fucking clue about it yet either.
The 'familiar' that MC receives is abhorrently unhelpful.
MC wasn't relatable, was extremely boring, and entirely forgettable. I actually have no idea what his name is anymore, and HIS NAME WAS THE JOKE FOR THE WHOLE FUCKING BOOK.
July 18, 2019
Fun in the sun
For a book with Mayor in the tittle, there's very little settlement building going on.
But that's ok, it's hardly noticeable. A really fun read, with a novel take on the genre. I'm glad I picked it up quite a bit of time after it released, as the waiting time for the next iteration will be shortened.
For a book with Mayor in the tittle, there's very little settlement building going on.
But that's ok, it's hardly noticeable. A really fun read, with a novel take on the genre. I'm glad I picked it up quite a bit of time after it released, as the waiting time for the next iteration will be shortened.
July 9, 2021
I love LitRPG, but this was just too boring and wasn't even remotely engaging. I get the irony that when you start out playing an RPG you fight low level things like goblins and wolves...but did the whole book have to be about lame goblin fights? It would've been different if they were action packed, but it was lacking. A LOT.
Also, the whole back story of his life is just weird and is mentioned randomly throughout the story and I don't even see the point? I liked the concept, but I don't feel it was executed correctly.
The leveling was the best part, and it was few and far between. Sorry, but this just wasn't an interesting story.
Also, the whole back story of his life is just weird and is mentioned randomly throughout the story and I don't even see the point? I liked the concept, but I don't feel it was executed correctly.
The leveling was the best part, and it was few and far between. Sorry, but this just wasn't an interesting story.
January 14, 2026
It's my fault some of you are reading this, and I am truly very sorry.
May 21, 2022
Juvenile but not bad
This book is not a bad book, but the author is pretty immature...he named a familiar in the book Shart...that should give you an indication on what I mean... The book had a few too many repetitive explanations as well, but all in all it is an amusing read. I'll most likely continue with the next book when it is written.
This book is not a bad book, but the author is pretty immature...he named a familiar in the book Shart...that should give you an indication on what I mean... The book had a few too many repetitive explanations as well, but all in all it is an amusing read. I'll most likely continue with the next book when it is written.
July 16, 2022
This just wasn’t my flavor. Way too many stats pages for my taste. The redundancy really started to bother me by the end of the book. It looks like the rest of the books get better, but gosh I don’t know if I can force myself to read another
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January 26, 2026Read for 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back.
I saw an interview with the author who stated that he decided to write a book because he had never written a book before; not because he had an idea or anything to say. And he wrote this book quickly, saying that it just flowed out of him; it makes sense that he didn't have a plan. He also said that the first draft was terrible, even his wife said so; they cleaned it up and...gave us this. If this is what they decided to publish, I'd hate to see what they discarded.
This is a total Mary Sue/Gary Stu story from the outset; the intro chapter shows that the main character is unbound, which comes back throughout the story as the character can gain anything he needs, unlimited by character type. There are several points in which the character just happens to have a power that he needs without any setup (unless I missed the setup in the pages of stat lists that I went from skimming to fully skipping).
There are many sections that take place in the menu which are basically just a user guide written in prose. The whole book is basically your most boring friend telling you in detail about an RPG they played. If that and characters named "Shart" and adolescent commentary are things that interest you, you might enjoy this.
It's not the worst I've read, but it definitely became a chore in the second half.
I saw an interview with the author who stated that he decided to write a book because he had never written a book before; not because he had an idea or anything to say. And he wrote this book quickly, saying that it just flowed out of him; it makes sense that he didn't have a plan. He also said that the first draft was terrible, even his wife said so; they cleaned it up and...gave us this. If this is what they decided to publish, I'd hate to see what they discarded.
This is a total Mary Sue/Gary Stu story from the outset; the intro chapter shows that the main character is unbound, which comes back throughout the story as the character can gain anything he needs, unlimited by character type. There are several points in which the character just happens to have a power that he needs without any setup (unless I missed the setup in the pages of stat lists that I went from skimming to fully skipping).
There are many sections that take place in the menu which are basically just a user guide written in prose. The whole book is basically your most boring friend telling you in detail about an RPG they played. If that and characters named "Shart" and adolescent commentary are things that interest you, you might enjoy this.
It's not the worst I've read, but it definitely became a chore in the second half.
November 21, 2020
Noob indeed
First, the repetitive showing of the *entire* character sheet was ridiculous. It amounted to pages, especially as the skills list grew. Then there was the incessant discussion of skills progression. So much detail for so little actual character development and plot movement.
This isn’t really a story. It’s a lame diary. There is no narrative force, there is no movement to the plot, there is no real goal. The one actual quest that could give structure, the MC refuses to accept.
Meh.
First, the repetitive showing of the *entire* character sheet was ridiculous. It amounted to pages, especially as the skills list grew. Then there was the incessant discussion of skills progression. So much detail for so little actual character development and plot movement.
This isn’t really a story. It’s a lame diary. There is no narrative force, there is no movement to the plot, there is no real goal. The one actual quest that could give structure, the MC refuses to accept.
Meh.
January 10, 2021
Rating 3.0 stars
This was just okay. There were some things that I liked but they got a little old after a while. I think the biggest issue I have is that the main character Jim spent about 95% of the book without other people around. As much as I enjoy stats and crafting, there has to be more than that. Jim dies and his soul is stolen by a demon to be placed on a new world. This new world has game mechanics. One of the demons makes a mistake which allows Jim to keep all his memories. Things happen and he ends up being bound to a demon on this new world, but he isn't where he is supposed to be. He also has access to more classes than he is supposed to have. Normally a person can only have one class, but Jim seems to be able to unlock almost all of them if he performs the right action. He ends up finding an abandoned town that still has a barrier to keep out monsters. He claims the town and becomes mayor. He then goes about trying to level and make gear as the town is surrounded by goblins. He saves a family of people and then later in the story saves a bunch of other people. I liked Jim's snark but as I mentioned above, it did get a little old and repetitive after a while. The issue with Jim's short name also became a little old. The stats were nothing special. He added a point in strength and it went from average to above-average. Yeah, real technical. None of the stats/skills were interesting enough to deserve the level of explanation they got. I did enjoy it more when other people showed up, so maybe I will like the next book better.
This was just okay. There were some things that I liked but they got a little old after a while. I think the biggest issue I have is that the main character Jim spent about 95% of the book without other people around. As much as I enjoy stats and crafting, there has to be more than that. Jim dies and his soul is stolen by a demon to be placed on a new world. This new world has game mechanics. One of the demons makes a mistake which allows Jim to keep all his memories. Things happen and he ends up being bound to a demon on this new world, but he isn't where he is supposed to be. He also has access to more classes than he is supposed to have. Normally a person can only have one class, but Jim seems to be able to unlock almost all of them if he performs the right action. He ends up finding an abandoned town that still has a barrier to keep out monsters. He claims the town and becomes mayor. He then goes about trying to level and make gear as the town is surrounded by goblins. He saves a family of people and then later in the story saves a bunch of other people. I liked Jim's snark but as I mentioned above, it did get a little old and repetitive after a while. The issue with Jim's short name also became a little old. The stats were nothing special. He added a point in strength and it went from average to above-average. Yeah, real technical. None of the stats/skills were interesting enough to deserve the level of explanation they got. I did enjoy it more when other people showed up, so maybe I will like the next book better.
March 26, 2019
Fun story and entertaining characters, desperately in need of a good editor. There are significant grammatical errors that could be fixed by a good editor and a lot of incorrect word choice that needs to be corrected as well (ex: crossbows have “sights” not “sites”). The main character will also begin referring to items he owns as if we should know about them, even though it’s the first time they’re being discussed (ex: he talks about taking out his magical swords during a fight, but that is the first time the magical swords are ever mentioned).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2026
Let me put this in a way the main character would understand:
This was ass.
This was poopy poop.
The hardcore bondage session with the ogre was too much (lolol, just kidding!!!)
Read this book as you evacuate your bowls like how Cascada evacuated the dancefloor in 2009.
Pee, urine, human effluent
0/10, nobody got kicked in the balls :( made me sad-sad
This was ass.
This was poopy poop.
The hardcore bondage session with the ogre was too much (lolol, just kidding!!!)
Read this book as you evacuate your bowls like how Cascada evacuated the dancefloor in 2009.
Pee, urine, human effluent
0/10, nobody got kicked in the balls :( made me sad-sad
March 8, 2026
If only 0 stars were an option.
December 28, 2020
Явно много от хората, които се увличат от ролеви игри са малко по-плитко или даже малко по-дълбоко в спектъра на аутизма, защото обсесията им с математическите системи, по които тия игри работят е направо прекалена.
Същото се получава, когато такъв човек се мъчи да пише в иначе набиращия популярност стил за "ролеви роман", в който героите имат нещо като вътрешен интерфейс, чрез който получават "умения" и "точки" имащи отражение в действителността.
Въпреки няколкото отлични примери за такъв стил романи (добър пример 1, добър пример 2), повечето автори се занимават твърде много със "системата" и уменията и отделят съвсем малко внимание на неща като действие и стил на писане, което прави творенията им тотално нечитаеми за хора, които не са аутисти като тях. Пример за което е настоящата книга.
Същото се получава, когато такъв човек се мъчи да пише в иначе набиращия популярност стил за "ролеви роман", в който героите имат нещо като вътрешен интерфейс, чрез който получават "умения" и "точки" имащи отражение в действителността.
Въпреки няколкото отлични примери за такъв стил романи (добър пример 1, добър пример 2), повечето автори се занимават твърде много със "системата" и уменията и отделят съвсем малко внимание на неща като действие и стил на писане, което прави творенията им тотално нечитаеми за хора, които не са аутисти като тях. Пример за което е настоящата книга.
March 26, 2019
Very good and funny book
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author was unknown to me but is in my short list now. The main character 'Jim' is a hoot and very practical and down to earth. I love the snark and self depreciating humor. The world that is being crafted to very well thought out and our hero has many advantages but prob needs all of them. I like the rpg system and progression in this book but expect more expansive in the future if the author is true to his writing so far. This book has crafting(a favorite), big battles, personal growth, exploration, and unique abilities. Can't wait for the next book. Hope the author is a fast writer. Whooot!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author was unknown to me but is in my short list now. The main character 'Jim' is a hoot and very practical and down to earth. I love the snark and self depreciating humor. The world that is being crafted to very well thought out and our hero has many advantages but prob needs all of them. I like the rpg system and progression in this book but expect more expansive in the future if the author is true to his writing so far. This book has crafting(a favorite), big battles, personal growth, exploration, and unique abilities. Can't wait for the next book. Hope the author is a fast writer. Whooot!
March 26, 2019
A rather amusing entry into the LitRPG collections. It's always amusing to see things go not quite right for those plotting the downfall of inocent players, even if it's one they didn't know was going to be familiar with the environment. I personally think Jim should have eliminated the demon at the first opportunity, but what the heck, it still made for entertaining reading, and if you're up for a little fun, this story should fit the bill quite nicely.
September 9, 2021
It's just super "already been done before". I would have given it more stars based on the story actually being a bit fun at first, but the characters totally killed it for me. They are unintelligent and unrealistic in their interactions and reactions. Their act like they have the intelligence of a child then just randomly cuss all the time to try and beef up the dialogue. It's hard to get inspired by no brain characters.
March 27, 2019
It was okay.
Guy dies, is pulled into RPG game by demon who becomes his sidekick. They build a village. Orcs are bad.
Not much more beyond that. It was KU so no big loss of time or money and I'd probably read the next one. The MC was likeable enough but the author tries too hard to be edgy.
Guy dies, is pulled into RPG game by demon who becomes his sidekick. They build a village. Orcs are bad.
Not much more beyond that. It was KU so no big loss of time or money and I'd probably read the next one. The MC was likeable enough but the author tries too hard to be edgy.
October 28, 2021
The first novel in this series is a bit rough prose wise, but if you can get beyond it there is a great story and a strange world here for you to explore. The novels improve as the series goes along and the series is in my top 5.
June 26, 2021
06/26/21 Notes:
Great narration and fun story. Though, I feel like the stark is more obnoxious on the re-read. I hope the fun intro type of events will continue to pop up in the series.
Great narration and fun story. Though, I feel like the stark is more obnoxious on the re-read. I hope the fun intro type of events will continue to pop up in the series.
July 17, 2025
The stats are too intricate for my tastes, especially while absorbing everything via audio only. But that's fine. Jim lists off the stats, how they interact and why he chose one path over another. Makes no sense to me, but I'm ok with that lol. There's plenty else interesting going on. The battles also tend to be too stat-heavy and don't follow our world's "rules of combat". But as long as the author doesn't let our low level MC succeed against strong enemies that have defeated many a strong warrior already; I'll live.
January 31, 2026
Another book for the 372 Pages podcast (if you’re not listening to this podcast, I highly recommend it).
Just godawful. People actually enjoy this, based on the rave reviews it’s gotten on Amazon and Goodreads. Crass, disgusting, poorly written, more typos than an essay drunkenly written the night before it’s due. And more jokes (and I use that term loosely) about bodily functions than anyone should be subjected to.
I was blissfully unaware of the LitRPG genre until 372 Pages announced this book. Are people actually entertained by the author detailing HP and stamina points? Go play an RPG instead of reading this dreck. Maybe the author should have written a Dungeons and Dragons campaign instead of this tedious novel.
Seriously, there are so many great books out there waiting to be read. I get it that people like some junk food thrown into their literary diets, but this doesn’t even rise to the level of a Twinkie.
Just godawful. People actually enjoy this, based on the rave reviews it’s gotten on Amazon and Goodreads. Crass, disgusting, poorly written, more typos than an essay drunkenly written the night before it’s due. And more jokes (and I use that term loosely) about bodily functions than anyone should be subjected to.
I was blissfully unaware of the LitRPG genre until 372 Pages announced this book. Are people actually entertained by the author detailing HP and stamina points? Go play an RPG instead of reading this dreck. Maybe the author should have written a Dungeons and Dragons campaign instead of this tedious novel.
Seriously, there are so many great books out there waiting to be read. I get it that people like some junk food thrown into their literary diets, but this doesn’t even rise to the level of a Twinkie.
June 5, 2024
It's a RPG book. The main character has died and ended up having his soul used as a character but they forgot to wipe his memory so things didn't go well for the demon who was trying to use him. The main character isn't all that likable, nor is the demon who "created" him. At least the main character seems to do the "right thing" or does acts of kindness, but you're not all that attached to him and a lot of the story is listing his stats and how they grow and how there is something odd in how he isn't a traditional character but with unheard of aspects that combine unusually. It probably means more to an actual gamer which I am not.
The story is relatively interesting, but the stats and gaming aspect get a bit tiresome and when you add a character that you don't really become attached to make it less than a fabulous story.
The story is relatively interesting, but the stats and gaming aspect get a bit tiresome and when you add a character that you don't really become attached to make it less than a fabulous story.
January 14, 2026
Perfect if you are curious what goes through a sarcastic Dungeons and Dragons player’s mind during nine straight hours of rule-reading and gameplay.
January 6, 2026
sorta disappointed. picked this up on the back of Dungeon Crawler Carl... this fell short on soooooooo many fronts. 😔
January 31, 2026
Some nerds will never fail to vex me because they'll complain about someone like Rey from Star Wars being overpowered and then they'll read Mayor of Noobtown where a guy gets isekai'd into. fantasy world and takes down a huge goblin encampment in a matter of weeks.
I can't begin to understand the appeal of the LitRPG genre. Maybe this was a bad example of the genre despite its 4.06 rating on Goodreads, but throughout I was met with the narrator spitting meaningless numbers at me, arbitrary "rules" blocking characters off from doing random things, and number crunching in place of drama or excitement during tense scenes. And this is coming from someone who's spent a good portion of his life playing Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur's Gate, Skyrim (to be fair though I don't like Skyrim), RuneQuest, Pathfinder, etc. This novel gets rid of all of the things that make the fantasy genre great and replaces it with the equivalent of reading those "Example of Play" sections in the Dungeon Master's Guide. If you want this kind of RPG mathing mixed into your drama, go listen to an Actual Play podcast - or better yet, go play a TTRPG.
372 Pages We'll Never Get Back has once again lead me to a place I wouldn't normally go with a Flaming Raging Poisoning Sword of Doom.
I can't begin to understand the appeal of the LitRPG genre. Maybe this was a bad example of the genre despite its 4.06 rating on Goodreads, but throughout I was met with the narrator spitting meaningless numbers at me, arbitrary "rules" blocking characters off from doing random things, and number crunching in place of drama or excitement during tense scenes. And this is coming from someone who's spent a good portion of his life playing Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur's Gate, Skyrim (to be fair though I don't like Skyrim), RuneQuest, Pathfinder, etc. This novel gets rid of all of the things that make the fantasy genre great and replaces it with the equivalent of reading those "Example of Play" sections in the Dungeon Master's Guide. If you want this kind of RPG mathing mixed into your drama, go listen to an Actual Play podcast - or better yet, go play a TTRPG.
372 Pages We'll Never Get Back has once again lead me to a place I wouldn't normally go with a Flaming Raging Poisoning Sword of Doom.
March 13, 2026
Mayor of Noobtown is my latest read for 372 Pages and easily the worst book I've read for that podcast (note: I did not read Bob Honey), potentially the worst book I've ever read, period. This is my first LitRPG, so it's possible that I'm criticizing the genre as a whole instead of just this book, but they can't all be this bad, can they? There is no character in this book who has an arc, or even a personality beyond "wisecracking internet guy from the 2010's". At no point does this book attempt to develop any sort of theme, unless you consider "grinding out the first few levels in a CRPG, described in tedious length and detail" to be a theme. There's isn't even really a plot, in the sense of a story with a beginning, middle, and end, because the author clearly wasn't writing a novel so much as the first chunk of a serialized story.
Maybe all that could even be forgiven in the spirit of a dumb fun read, but this doesn't even manage to be fun, and that's what bothers me the most about it. Like, I'm actually a little angry at this book. Our protagonist, Jim, gets hit by a truck and wakes up in the character creation screen of a fantasy world. He has adventures. I love fantasy schlock. I love RPG's. They're blended here in maybe the most unappealing way possible. It's hard to create pulpy fantasy that isn't at least a little bit exciting, but the moment to moment action in this thing lacks any sort of urgency or interest, because it's all described entirely through the lens of interaction with, not the fantasy world our protagonist has been isekai'd into, but the game rules governing that world. As someone who absolutely loves games, and figuring out the intricacies of gaming systems, that just doesn't work, at least not when it's handled like this. Maybe other LitRPG's are better about the relationship between the world and the rules behind the world, but it turns out I have very little patience for endless recitation of meaningless game stats in place of actual things that actually effect the actual characters actually happening. There are at least two issues with the book's game system first approach to storytelling.
First, the rules are mind bogglingly complex and poorly defined. I would be willing to wager a moderate amount of money that the author doesn't have the RPG system behind Noobtown defined to the point where it could actually be used to play a game, and that would be fine, for a story that didn't want to be entirely about that system. The prose is far more interested in the fiddly details of the interactions between game stats than in anything else. A huge portion of the text is just infodump after infodump about how Jim's Dodge and Mobility and Resistance and Armor stats interact to reduce damage taken, or how X skill being at Y level means he has a Z percent chance to get result Q. The game knowing part of my brain keeps trying to latch onto this information and then it just slides right off because none of it means anything. It's pretending to be a functional game system, but it isn't, it's a framework to justify whatever powers and deus ex machinas are needed for a given scene and, again, there would be absolutely nothing wrong with that, if only the story itself were not obsessed with describing that framework to the exclusion of all else.
Second, perhaps more importantly, the book reverses the usual relationship between fiction and system. The rules of a fantasy RPG are there to provide structure to what is essentially a make believe session. They help us simulate the world we're telling our story in, but that world and that story are what we're really interested in. When we, as players, make purely systemic decisions, we contrive in-fiction justifications for them. If my character levels up and gets a new ability, for example, we retroactively assume that he's actually been practicing that skill for some time, no matter that I only just now decided what ability to learn. The system exists to facilitate the fiction. Noobtown's fiction, though, exists to facilitate the system. How long did Jim study the Warg language? Trick question, he gained a level in Lore and could instantly speak Warg. What sort of traps did Jim build to slow his goblin pursuers? What were they made of? Trick questions, he held still for a length of time dictated by his Trapmaking skill level until his progress bar filled and a nondescript trap object popped into existence. What historical battles did Jim study or, hell, even what video games did he play, in order to grasp the basics of commanding a tactical engagement? Trick question, he paused time, dumped a few points into Mass Combat or whatever, and immediately knew how to take charge. And on, and on. You can certainly attempt to do something interesting with this reversal. At several points, Noobtown is clearly trying awkwardly to poke fun at the absurd fictional consequences of systemic outcomes, but even if those attempts were actually funny, a handful of jokes can't manage to overcome the weight of the rest of the book's tedium.
So, yeah, one angry star. It's poorly written, it has zero value as lit, and the rpg part is tedious.
Random observation, I was genuinely amused by Jim's apparent relationship to his wife and children. He briefly thinks about them upon realizing he's died and gone to fantasy land, sort of shrugs them off with a "Meh, I had good life insurance, they'll be fine", and then spends the remainder of the book very occasionally remembering they exist so he can be sad about them for a sentence or two.
Second random observation, as I was thinking about the way this book reverses the relationship between fiction and system, the counterexample that kept popping into my head was the webcomic Order of the Stick. I guess the RPG based webcomics of the 2000's, of which OotS is by far my favorite, are probably the true precursor of the LitRPG genre? That story is five stars for me, in part because it avoids Noobtown's main issue. Despite its characters' awareness that they live in a world governed by the D&D 3.5 Edition ruleset, it's systemic aspects are all subservient to its characters, themes, and plot.
Maybe all that could even be forgiven in the spirit of a dumb fun read, but this doesn't even manage to be fun, and that's what bothers me the most about it. Like, I'm actually a little angry at this book. Our protagonist, Jim, gets hit by a truck and wakes up in the character creation screen of a fantasy world. He has adventures. I love fantasy schlock. I love RPG's. They're blended here in maybe the most unappealing way possible. It's hard to create pulpy fantasy that isn't at least a little bit exciting, but the moment to moment action in this thing lacks any sort of urgency or interest, because it's all described entirely through the lens of interaction with, not the fantasy world our protagonist has been isekai'd into, but the game rules governing that world. As someone who absolutely loves games, and figuring out the intricacies of gaming systems, that just doesn't work, at least not when it's handled like this. Maybe other LitRPG's are better about the relationship between the world and the rules behind the world, but it turns out I have very little patience for endless recitation of meaningless game stats in place of actual things that actually effect the actual characters actually happening. There are at least two issues with the book's game system first approach to storytelling.
First, the rules are mind bogglingly complex and poorly defined. I would be willing to wager a moderate amount of money that the author doesn't have the RPG system behind Noobtown defined to the point where it could actually be used to play a game, and that would be fine, for a story that didn't want to be entirely about that system. The prose is far more interested in the fiddly details of the interactions between game stats than in anything else. A huge portion of the text is just infodump after infodump about how Jim's Dodge and Mobility and Resistance and Armor stats interact to reduce damage taken, or how X skill being at Y level means he has a Z percent chance to get result Q. The game knowing part of my brain keeps trying to latch onto this information and then it just slides right off because none of it means anything. It's pretending to be a functional game system, but it isn't, it's a framework to justify whatever powers and deus ex machinas are needed for a given scene and, again, there would be absolutely nothing wrong with that, if only the story itself were not obsessed with describing that framework to the exclusion of all else.
Second, perhaps more importantly, the book reverses the usual relationship between fiction and system. The rules of a fantasy RPG are there to provide structure to what is essentially a make believe session. They help us simulate the world we're telling our story in, but that world and that story are what we're really interested in. When we, as players, make purely systemic decisions, we contrive in-fiction justifications for them. If my character levels up and gets a new ability, for example, we retroactively assume that he's actually been practicing that skill for some time, no matter that I only just now decided what ability to learn. The system exists to facilitate the fiction. Noobtown's fiction, though, exists to facilitate the system. How long did Jim study the Warg language? Trick question, he gained a level in Lore and could instantly speak Warg. What sort of traps did Jim build to slow his goblin pursuers? What were they made of? Trick questions, he held still for a length of time dictated by his Trapmaking skill level until his progress bar filled and a nondescript trap object popped into existence. What historical battles did Jim study or, hell, even what video games did he play, in order to grasp the basics of commanding a tactical engagement? Trick question, he paused time, dumped a few points into Mass Combat or whatever, and immediately knew how to take charge. And on, and on. You can certainly attempt to do something interesting with this reversal. At several points, Noobtown is clearly trying awkwardly to poke fun at the absurd fictional consequences of systemic outcomes, but even if those attempts were actually funny, a handful of jokes can't manage to overcome the weight of the rest of the book's tedium.
So, yeah, one angry star. It's poorly written, it has zero value as lit, and the rpg part is tedious.
Random observation, I was genuinely amused by Jim's apparent relationship to his wife and children. He briefly thinks about them upon realizing he's died and gone to fantasy land, sort of shrugs them off with a "Meh, I had good life insurance, they'll be fine", and then spends the remainder of the book very occasionally remembering they exist so he can be sad about them for a sentence or two.
Second random observation, as I was thinking about the way this book reverses the relationship between fiction and system, the counterexample that kept popping into my head was the webcomic Order of the Stick. I guess the RPG based webcomics of the 2000's, of which OotS is by far my favorite, are probably the true precursor of the LitRPG genre? That story is five stars for me, in part because it avoids Noobtown's main issue. Despite its characters' awareness that they live in a world governed by the D&D 3.5 Edition ruleset, it's systemic aspects are all subservient to its characters, themes, and plot.
January 16, 2023
Three chapters in and you can no longer count on two hands how many pee or pop jokes there have been. It’s a lot. It’s like a 13 year old wrote the story and thought they were funny.
It really isn’t funny to listen to the hero purposefully pee on another character. Nope.
The stats are ridiculous. Overwhelming amount of them and they distract terribly from the actual action and events of the story. Rather than reading a fight scene, it’s a list of stats going up and down most of the time with a few lines of description thrown in.
Oh and the backstory of “I had wife and kids” and immediately just gives up on them and goes about new life… no shock, no plans to get home… just moved on like the other characters mean nothing to him. Is the hero a psychopath?
Dnf. Could not finish.
It really isn’t funny to listen to the hero purposefully pee on another character. Nope.
The stats are ridiculous. Overwhelming amount of them and they distract terribly from the actual action and events of the story. Rather than reading a fight scene, it’s a list of stats going up and down most of the time with a few lines of description thrown in.
Oh and the backstory of “I had wife and kids” and immediately just gives up on them and goes about new life… no shock, no plans to get home… just moved on like the other characters mean nothing to him. Is the hero a psychopath?
Dnf. Could not finish.
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