I Love It!

A simple skeleton's journey through self-discovery.

I find this book immensely gratifying. It is remarkably similar to the "Everybody loves large chests" series. While this book doesn't have any harem aspects, sexual content, or a homicidal box, it does have the same vibe of having a complete dumbass of a main character.

It is incredibly funny watching as Douglas slowly figures out that red things are bad. The extremely patient skeleton is a wonder to behold. Since his skull is empty he can perform miraculous feats, yet they often are counter balanced by equally moronic actions.

Our main heroine is a good counter part to Douglas. She is everything he is not and makes for a good literary partner. She is always excessive and it is satisfying to experience Douglas's continuous lack of regard for her words and actions.

The transfer from fantasy to sci-fi is explained well and happens quickly. There is an excess of notifications when leveling up or skill descriptions and the like but it is nothing I haven't heard before. After listening to so many Litrpg's I don't really mind anymore. The ending was an interesting conclusion to this particular book. It had me worried for a second but the "split of character" left me satisfied. Don't understand what I mean by that? Get the book and find out!

TL;DR A comedic adventure of a no-brained skeleton's adventure of self-discovery through time and space. It was a fun and laughable journey through a universe with substance and backstory. The characters had substance and there was clear character progression. I highly recommend this book and any sequels that come hereafter!

12 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Mash up of fantasy and sci fi

You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth! Well, actually, I’m pretty sure you can. I (silly me) had thought that this was going to be a book for the up and soon to be coming, no pun intended, Naughty Special. I mean you have a skeleton popping bones, the name of the book is Histaff, double entendre anyone?, and the lady on the front cover looks sort of like someone from one other Harem books out there. (Show the Ummmmmmm pic here, please) So, I kid. I knew it was none of that but I couldn’t help myself. I see an opening and I take it. See, another joke for the naughty special.

All jokes aside my fist impression of the book was that the first third felt a lot like a dungeon core building itself a dungeon. There is a lot of work that Douglas puts in to go from being a mindless skeleton to becoming an independent animate. A lot of time is spent focusing on him learning how to regrow his body and that had the feel of a dungeon growing its rooms.

He story centers on poor Douglas, a skeleton who is raised from the dead by a vengeance seeking necromancer. Somehow, against all odds, how can I just let you walk away, let you leave without a trace? When I stand here taking every breath with you, ooh ooh; You're the only one who really knew me at all . . .

. . . Sorry, Phil Collins. Just be thankful it wasn’t Pseudeo. So, against all odds, he survives and gets booted into another universe that is sci fi based rather than magic. There, the biggest problem sentient beings have is the Histaff virus that pretty much melts you into goo and rebuilds you into an amalgamation of consisting of yourself and your neighbors. Think the Thing combined with the Blob in space. Dougie boy soon makes a friend. No, he literally makes a friend and they then do everything they can to escape the station they are trapped on.

The pros: I liked Douglas isn’t your typical MC. He is a barely sapient skeleton who pretty much gets by by the skin of his teeth. Sory, nother pun. The magic system is different, and I liked the options offered for classes and races. It actually fits in line with Neven Illiev’s Boxy who goes from being a lesser mimic to a greater mimic and then on to bigger and better monsters. Douglas has a lot of options that he can choose from and they were intriguing. Let’s just say the lesser skelly we start with aint the same guy we end with. Cool magic system, lots of use of stats and characters sheets and leveling. So you get your crunch. I loved the genre mash up of fantasy and sci fi, and I think it was really a fun thing to explore.

The Cons: A lot of stuff is repeated, whether it is healing himself or fighting we always seem to go back to square one. The XP given for some of the monsters is crazy high, but I guess it is needed in order to advance Doug’s leveling. His companion has literally no redeeming qualities. I kept waiting for there to come a part where she flips from being a whiny shrew brat to actually being Doulas’s friend but . . . . .no. I get why from the ending, but she was pretty grating. The story needs some big scenes. Something to feel epic, what we get is an MC who sort of goes where ever the wind blows and has no control over his own destiny. It seems like he has very little agency at all in his story.

Michael Kramer narrates, and the dude has done something in the ballpark of 75 fantasy or scifi novels so I’m not even going to try to critique his work. He knows what he’s doing and does it well. I enjoyed listening to him and am sure that you will too. He is one of theose people you say Holy Cow, how did they get him?

Final score 7.6 stars the book does sort of plod along and has no real big moments that it needs. Still, it held my interest and makes me want to see what happens to Douglas next. I am totally on board for more, but if you are looking for epic battles this isn’t the place. This is more of a thinking man’s tale.

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Plot Hijack

As other reviewers have noted, the first half of the book was well done and the focus of the book was on track. The second half was confusing and the ending of the book had little to do with the first half. Perhaps it was two books merged into one, but I would have preferred to follow the story of the skeleton throughout the book.

6 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Really clever, fun read!

I'm always a fan of Lit-RPGs that arent really in a video game. This is one, but also keeps finding fun ways to keep things interesting.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Could be about 30 Min long

It's not worth it. it's 8.5 hours of filler and a little bit of story. The idea is good. I'll give it that. but with how long the book is and how little actually happens I will not get the next book if there is one. If you want to get an understanding of the whole story listen to the first and last few chapters and you got it. you won't miss much in between.

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Amazing read it for sure!

This has to be one of the greatest and most unique litrpg works yet. A seamless blend of magic and sifi.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Totally worth a read!

So I was offput by the name. I was like with is a histaff. Once you understand though the reference though it makes sense. I love the main character. He starts off as a Canon fodder character, controlled by a douche necromancer, gets punished by one of his master's enemies and basically portaled into another realm, cut free to grow as he likes.... just an amazing adventure. I really can't wait for the second and third books it's this series.

Cool, Boring, and a bit Repetitive

It's a unique book with lots of interesting ideas and potential for story. Sci-Fi with a bit of Lit-RPG. Since this is the first book in it's series, I'll give it a break and say that there seems to be a LOT that needs to be described in order to give anyone the context they need for future books, but the book drags on quite a bit. There were lots of boring and repetitive parts with the main character constantly mending himself. I'm a Lit RPG fan myself, but this felt a bit unbalanced and unorganized in a few ways. Douglas is as dumb as a sack of bones but smart enough that he can figure out some things with little to no help. He can't figure out how to put a suit on in the right direction, but understands vague and seemingly imeasurable things that make up magic. He doesn't care about anything but his skull and for a split second a woman who is described in excuisit detail simply to return to being a mindless skeleton that only cares about one thing. Beings that are insanely powerful don't really have a chance to win, and he can kill them with ease gaining HUGE amounts of experience for defeating creatures at much high levels then him. It honestly seems like it would have been more enjoyable if there was less of the RPG side.

Barely able to finish

I would have rated this book a bit worse, but there are parts that I actually did learn from: namely, how not to write a novel.

While the concept is interesting, the main character is decidedly not. In fact, Douglas is one of the least interesting protagonists that I have read from the perspective of. His low intelligence (as continually noted in the book) made for an agonizingly slow read, especially when coupled with the fact that events continued repeating themselves. The final act of the book was at least somewhat more enjoyable with a second (and confusingly pointless third, apart from possibly in the sequel) perspective added. The narrator did not help much, as while his bored tone throughout reflected the main character well enough, it makes the reader feel bored as well.

I really think that the story itself has potential, but when it is bogged down by such disappointing writing, it's hard to stay engaged. I will not be getting the sequel, but I hope that the writer can work on making the events in it less repetitive and much more engaging.

cool

I'm hoping this is like a 5 6 series book maybe hopefully and just wants more