Histaff: A Sci-Fi LitRPG

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!

7 sur 7 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis 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.

4 sur 4 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis 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.

4 sur 5 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis 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 sur 1 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

I love the jokes

I got many strange looks in public listening to this book. for some reason ppl look at ur strange when u start laughing out loud for no apparent reason.

Definitely a book 1

I liked the characters and concepts. The story was all world building. I kept waiting for the actual story I believe that will happen in book 2

Good but not for all

I’ll say this upfront this book is hard scifi fantasy that goes into extreme detail on the magic system. The humor is really well done but a bit too spread out. The narrator is very good with different voices but could use some fluctuation when in the mental states of the characters. Really good book though.

Strange

This book was a meandering exploration of LitRPG adventure ideas. Very exploratory, but not exactly full of resolutions. The story arcs are rather odd.

Very different approach

Why is this book not more popular? I would love too see more of this from the author, I would like to see this book promoted more here on Audible!!

Great beginning, okay middle, did not finish...

I got this book because one of the reviews compared it to the "Everybody Loves Large Chests" series. There are some similarities, to be sure... and I quite liked the beginning... I really liked the idea of "magic in space."

But by the last hour I felt cheated. There was a lot of potential here, but I really think the author needed to outline the novel in its entirety before he started. It also felt a little like he farmed out some ghostwriting to either someone who is "on the spectrum" or a machine. I'm not making a larger pejorative statement about autistic people, I'm related to at least one, I'm simply saying that's how the writing came off.

My own opinion about video games and LITRPGS is that they are fun because you get to feel the empowerment with the character as he/she levels up. There are multiple cases when the protagonist could have done this in the story... but doesn't. Like, just because. Instead we get meaningless boss fights with "100 meter monsters."

One final petty annoyance: They keep on using all these high-tech materials that are harder/stronger than steel, but they all get cut into shreds whenever convenient by "bone monsters" made of flesh and _BONE_. Bone does not cut steel or diamonds. Also, the bone the skeleton is made out of also does not do this. So, wildly unrealistic AND inconsistent. It was a lot to "suspend disbelief" on.