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Official Minecraft Novels #One-off 2
Minecraft Legends: Return of the Piglins: An Official Minecraft Novel
The mythic past of Minecraft Legends returns to threaten the Overworld in this official novel!
Farnum dreams of running a famous zoo. But though the mobs he keeps are adorable, none of them draws anything close to a crowd. Farnum needs something strange and new—but he’s the furthest thing from an adventurer. It takes a lot of convincing from his friends, but Farnum finally takes a chance and goes with them to explore a lush new biome . . . which is how he ends up falling down a waterfall and washing up in front of a mysterious purple portal.
Kritten has advised many powerful piglins. Few have been as fearsome or demanding as the Great Bungus. If Kritten wants their head to stay on their shoulders, the pint-sized piglin advisor is going to need to find their clan more land. And fast. At their most desperate point, they discover a cavern filled with ancient piglin carvings, depicting a legend that may have all the answers they’re looking for. Once upon a time, three fabled piglin hordes left the Nether behind and made war on the Overworld. And Kritten thinks they might just have a way to do the same now. All they need is the help of someone in the Overworld foolish enough to trust them . . . someone like Farnum.
Together, zookeeper and piglin are about to carve out a legend of their own. And the Overworld may never be the same!
Farnum dreams of running a famous zoo. But though the mobs he keeps are adorable, none of them draws anything close to a crowd. Farnum needs something strange and new—but he’s the furthest thing from an adventurer. It takes a lot of convincing from his friends, but Farnum finally takes a chance and goes with them to explore a lush new biome . . . which is how he ends up falling down a waterfall and washing up in front of a mysterious purple portal.
Kritten has advised many powerful piglins. Few have been as fearsome or demanding as the Great Bungus. If Kritten wants their head to stay on their shoulders, the pint-sized piglin advisor is going to need to find their clan more land. And fast. At their most desperate point, they discover a cavern filled with ancient piglin carvings, depicting a legend that may have all the answers they’re looking for. Once upon a time, three fabled piglin hordes left the Nether behind and made war on the Overworld. And Kritten thinks they might just have a way to do the same now. All they need is the help of someone in the Overworld foolish enough to trust them . . . someone like Farnum.
Together, zookeeper and piglin are about to carve out a legend of their own. And the Overworld may never be the same!
251 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 7, 2023
72 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
Matt Forbeck
211 books313 followersI'm an award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author and game designer and happily married father of five, including a set of quadruplets. For more on my work, see Forbeck.com.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 14, 2023
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Farnum lives in the Overworld, and his job is to run a zoo, which he doesn't feel he does well. After a horrifying incident when he was trapped underground during an adventure gone wrong, he has been afraid to travel, so his animals are very quotidian, although he takes good care of them. His friends, adventurerers Grinchard and Mycra, understand a bit, but also try to encourage him to expand his horizons. He does manage to bring home a few animals, like a leucistic axolotl and a heat loving strider. There is even a hoglin, but it dies and becomes zombified (a zoglin). During a small trek, Farnum runs into a Piglin when both are in the Nether. The Piglin is Kritten, who has run into trouble with the leader to the clan, Bungus, and a subordinate, Uggub. Piglins all use they/them pronouns, as does Grinchard. Kritten is smaller and smarter than most Piglins, who honor brutality more than wisdom. Kritten is exiled, and eventually goes with Farnum to the Overworld. Piglins are allergic to this environment, but because of a healing potion that Farnum gave Kritten earlier, they are able to withstand the environment. Kritten goes back to Bungus and tries to convince the leader to trust a potion to keep the Piglins well while they take over the Overworld and loot it for its gold. Because Farnum has put in obsidian portals in the zoo so he can collect more exotic animals, the Piglins are able to attack. They do this viciously, although Kritten tries to make sure that Farnum stays safe. The two are able to communicate by drawing pictures. When Farnum realizes the horror he has unleashed, he comes up with a plan to ruin the portals, which will mean trapping the Piglins in the Overworld, where they will all die. Eventually, they decide to try to lead the Piglins to another obsidian portal and hope that they stay in their world. This works fairly well, even though an injured Piglin, Fungus, is unable to make the journey. Fungus manages to put themself in a cage, and becomes the hit new sensation of Farnum's zoo as a zombie Piglin. (A ziglin?)
Strengths: There is an attempt at a message in this one when Farnum is encouraged by his friends to expand his world and overcome his trauma. Warrior Cat fans will love all of the fighting and intrigue. The Piglins are completely evil, as far as I could tell, so I felt like maybe there was some message about working with one's enemy, but that didn't happen. It was interesting, though. Farnum and Kritten's communication reminded me a bit of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Shaka, When the Walls Fell. (N.B. This is the only episode of that series I ever watched!) There are lots and lots of Minecraft details that make this a bit like watching someone play a game. Farnum even unpacks a bag Grinchard has prepared from him, and there's a list of everything he has (How are a bed and a crafting table able to fit in the bag. Don't tell me. I don't need to know.), and at one point a diamond pickaxe because important to the plot in ways I didn't understand. Kritten then uses it to establish his power over his Piglin clan, so if you can earn/make/find a diamond pickaxe, I guess that's a good thing! This moved along quickly, and had a discernable plot as well as identifiable characters. Readers who understand Minecraft will love this.
Weaknesses: The names in Minecraft often confuse me; I didn't remember Fungus from earlier until he was suddenly hitting Farnum over the head and wrestling with him in lava. I probably thought it was a typo for Bungus. Also, with so many characters using they/them pronouns, it would have been helpful to have that included in their introductions. When Piglins and Grinchard were both involved in the action, it got confusing when all the individuals and groups used "they".
What I really think: We don't always get to read what we want to, and this is a good lesson for students. If I can read and (mostly) understand a Minecraft or football book, or make my way through another Warriors tome, they can muddle through Joey Pigza Loses Control or Born a Crime, even though THEY would rather be reading a Minecraft or football book! I'm a firm believer in modeling behavior.
Farnum lives in the Overworld, and his job is to run a zoo, which he doesn't feel he does well. After a horrifying incident when he was trapped underground during an adventure gone wrong, he has been afraid to travel, so his animals are very quotidian, although he takes good care of them. His friends, adventurerers Grinchard and Mycra, understand a bit, but also try to encourage him to expand his horizons. He does manage to bring home a few animals, like a leucistic axolotl and a heat loving strider. There is even a hoglin, but it dies and becomes zombified (a zoglin). During a small trek, Farnum runs into a Piglin when both are in the Nether. The Piglin is Kritten, who has run into trouble with the leader to the clan, Bungus, and a subordinate, Uggub. Piglins all use they/them pronouns, as does Grinchard. Kritten is smaller and smarter than most Piglins, who honor brutality more than wisdom. Kritten is exiled, and eventually goes with Farnum to the Overworld. Piglins are allergic to this environment, but because of a healing potion that Farnum gave Kritten earlier, they are able to withstand the environment. Kritten goes back to Bungus and tries to convince the leader to trust a potion to keep the Piglins well while they take over the Overworld and loot it for its gold. Because Farnum has put in obsidian portals in the zoo so he can collect more exotic animals, the Piglins are able to attack. They do this viciously, although Kritten tries to make sure that Farnum stays safe. The two are able to communicate by drawing pictures. When Farnum realizes the horror he has unleashed, he comes up with a plan to ruin the portals, which will mean trapping the Piglins in the Overworld, where they will all die. Eventually, they decide to try to lead the Piglins to another obsidian portal and hope that they stay in their world. This works fairly well, even though an injured Piglin, Fungus, is unable to make the journey. Fungus manages to put themself in a cage, and becomes the hit new sensation of Farnum's zoo as a zombie Piglin. (A ziglin?)
Strengths: There is an attempt at a message in this one when Farnum is encouraged by his friends to expand his world and overcome his trauma. Warrior Cat fans will love all of the fighting and intrigue. The Piglins are completely evil, as far as I could tell, so I felt like maybe there was some message about working with one's enemy, but that didn't happen. It was interesting, though. Farnum and Kritten's communication reminded me a bit of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Shaka, When the Walls Fell. (N.B. This is the only episode of that series I ever watched!) There are lots and lots of Minecraft details that make this a bit like watching someone play a game. Farnum even unpacks a bag Grinchard has prepared from him, and there's a list of everything he has (How are a bed and a crafting table able to fit in the bag. Don't tell me. I don't need to know.), and at one point a diamond pickaxe because important to the plot in ways I didn't understand. Kritten then uses it to establish his power over his Piglin clan, so if you can earn/make/find a diamond pickaxe, I guess that's a good thing! This moved along quickly, and had a discernable plot as well as identifiable characters. Readers who understand Minecraft will love this.
Weaknesses: The names in Minecraft often confuse me; I didn't remember Fungus from earlier until he was suddenly hitting Farnum over the head and wrestling with him in lava. I probably thought it was a typo for Bungus. Also, with so many characters using they/them pronouns, it would have been helpful to have that included in their introductions. When Piglins and Grinchard were both involved in the action, it got confusing when all the individuals and groups used "they".
What I really think: We don't always get to read what we want to, and this is a good lesson for students. If I can read and (mostly) understand a Minecraft or football book, or make my way through another Warriors tome, they can muddle through Joey Pigza Loses Control or Born a Crime, even though THEY would rather be reading a Minecraft or football book! I'm a firm believer in modeling behavior.
December 8, 2024
I appreciated the deeper look into piglin culture with this read. They're so interesting and lead a very strange life away from the Overworld. Although I found the human characters to be a bit boring and one sided, I enjoyed the segments from Kritten. I feel the lack of development of the human characters was very disappointing, though the lore learned from this novel is worth the read. I think the ending was also slightly disappointing, but not by much. I felt it was well executed. I enjoyed the description of the piglin's hierarchy and of the affects the Overworld has on piglins. I do enjoy that the piglins use a primary pronoun of 'they' I find it to make a lot of sense within their culture and it's and interesting small footnote. Though it does make it slightly more difficult to follow along in situations where multiple of the piglins are talking to each other. Even then, it doesn't detract from the book at all. (other reviews seem to think it does lol) Either way, if you're interested in Minecraft at all, especially about piglins (like me) this is very much worth the read. It's super entertaining and provides a lot of information and development of their species. :0)
December 29, 2023
Read this book with my 8 year old and we both could not stand the forced use of they/them pronouns. It made many passages confusing and ridiculous, we switched to he/him pronouns half way through just to be able to finish it. A disappointing and annoying read because she was very interested in the story but it made the reading experience so unenjoyable. Will unfortunately be purposefully avoiding this author in the future.
April 8, 2023
This book was very fun, I don't often find a book where the perspectives change so much. It's not my favorite one, but this is high up on my list. The writing and story were good, and my dad also knows the author.
August 15, 2023
When you begin to read you just want to continue. It is so amazing I told my friends about it they read it as well.
Read
October 18, 2023My 9 year old liked it
Read
May 25, 2024Listened with the kids and overall this may be one of my favorite Minecraft novels. Pretty good story toldbfrom the point of view of both the overworld and the nether.
July 16, 2025
A boring nothing story that tried and failed to do something and was extremely difficult to read because of the quantity of characters who were only "they". I couldn't tell them apart most of the time.
March 14, 2024
Pretty good book. Entertaining for an 11 yo Minecraft fanatic.
June 19, 2023
I loved it so so much!! I love you Matt Forbeck! PLEASE MAKE MORE MINECRAFT BOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews