Status
Available
Genres
Collection
Publication
Dark Horse Books (2010), 416 pages
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:In a world full to bursting with would-be heroes, Jim couldn't be less interested in saving the day. His fireballs fizzle. He's awfully grumpy. Plus, he's been dead for about sixty years. When a renegade necromancer wrenches him from eternal slumber and into a world gone terribly, bizarrely wrong, all Jim wants is to find a way to die properly, once and for all. On his side, he's got a few shambling corpses, an inept thief, and a powerful death wish. But he's up against tough odds: angry mobs of adventurers, a body falling apart at the seams — and a team of programmers racing a deadline to hammer out the last few bugs in their AI. *Mogworld is the debut novel from video-game icon Yahtzee Croshaw (Zero Punctuation)! With an exclusive one-chapter preview of Yahtzee Croshaw's next novel, Jam—coming to bookstores in October 2012! *Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's video review site, Zero Punctuation, receives over 2,500,000 unique hits a month, and has been licensed by G4 Television. *Yahtzee's blog receives about 150,000 hits per day. "The first legitimate breakout hit from the gaming community in recent memory." -Boing Boing.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member thoughtsintime
Greatly amusing from the very first lines to the finale - filled with good old-fashioned fantasy adventure presented in a way I have not seen before.
The sense of humour is brilliant and adds so much to the characters and the progression of this bizarre premise that is Mogworld.
Simply put - Loved
The sense of humour is brilliant and adds so much to the characters and the progression of this bizarre premise that is Mogworld.
Simply put - Loved
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it! Show Less
LibraryThing member thessaly
Initially rather funny, but it didn't hold my attention.
LibraryThing member AwesomeAud
I bought this 2010 paperback book from Better World Books.
When Jim the would-be wizard is re-animated sixty years after his death, he finds himself in the employ of a renegade necromancer. But all he wants is to find a way to die properly, once and for all. On his side, he's got a few shambling
There is a lot of dark humour in this book, and I was highly entertained. The characters are not what you would call 'deep', but that fits the premise of the book. I recommend it for a fun, light, read.
When Jim the would-be wizard is re-animated sixty years after his death, he finds himself in the employ of a renegade necromancer. But all he wants is to find a way to die properly, once and for all. On his side, he's got a few shambling
Show More
corpses, and inept thief, and a powerful death wish. But he's up against tough odds; angry mobs of adventurers, a body falling apart at the seams - and a team of programmers racing a deadline to hammer out the last few bugs in their AI.There is a lot of dark humour in this book, and I was highly entertained. The characters are not what you would call 'deep', but that fits the premise of the book. I recommend it for a fun, light, read.
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LibraryThing member matthew254
Mogworld is a fantasy-themed mass market paperback that would be lost in a sea of similar-sounding titles if one didn't know any better. This tongue-in-cheek dark comedy plays on the premise of a World of Warcraft-style zombie minion named Jim who dies but is resurrected much to his displeasure.
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He's an anti-hero who is on a quest to actually die, not just stay undead. Mogworld is the debut novel from acclaimed British internet personality Yahtzee Croshaw, producer of Zero Punctuation, as web series of video game reviews known for deadpan criticism, crude language and all around laughs. I sought this book for almost an year until I got a copy in my hands and was not let down. Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for everyone else, Mogworld is finally available as an ebook. There's no reason not to pick up this hilarious adventure of Jim and his unlikely band of memorable friends (well, they're more of colleagues, really). Show Less
LibraryThing member jimmyvon789
While it really did drag in the second act, Mogworld is well worth a read, even if you're not a gamer.
LibraryThing member Inkwind
Let me start this off by saying that this was easily one of the most thought-provoking, amusing, and addictive books I've read all year.
I admit, I picked this book up because it was written by Yahtzee (as I'm sure most of us did). The premise sounded interesting enough, and skimming a page proved
This book, however, was much more than just that. By the end of the book, even the characters I hated had become empathetic, or even endearing. That was, in fact, my one complaint about this book; Yahtzee is very good at making us care about these characters and when they don't end up coming to care for each other just as much, it's a little bit frustrating. Nevertheless, the ending to the story is absolutely perfect, and if you can walk away from this book without doing some hard thinking afterwards, please, I beg of you, question what it means to be a human being and a gamer, because you seem to be confused on a few things.
The premise is so much more than it first appears to be, and the book is structured so that every detail has maximum impact. I don't know if Yahtzee is such a good writer or if he just had the best editor of all time, but this was a very well-written book. Every second of it felt interesting, between the humor, the fast-paced action, and the interesting, morally dubious narration.
In the end, as long as you don't mind people giving you strange looks as you giggle and sigh over a book with an enormous zombie on the cover, I highly recommend this book. It was a wonderful read and I'm so glad that more bookstores are starting to carry it.
I admit, I picked this book up because it was written by Yahtzee (as I'm sure most of us did). The premise sounded interesting enough, and skimming a page proved
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that the book is not at all lacking in trademark Yahtzee hilarity.This book, however, was much more than just that. By the end of the book, even the characters I hated had become empathetic, or even endearing. That was, in fact, my one complaint about this book; Yahtzee is very good at making us care about these characters and when they don't end up coming to care for each other just as much, it's a little bit frustrating. Nevertheless, the ending to the story is absolutely perfect, and if you can walk away from this book without doing some hard thinking afterwards, please, I beg of you, question what it means to be a human being and a gamer, because you seem to be confused on a few things.
The premise is so much more than it first appears to be, and the book is structured so that every detail has maximum impact. I don't know if Yahtzee is such a good writer or if he just had the best editor of all time, but this was a very well-written book. Every second of it felt interesting, between the humor, the fast-paced action, and the interesting, morally dubious narration.
In the end, as long as you don't mind people giving you strange looks as you giggle and sigh over a book with an enormous zombie on the cover, I highly recommend this book. It was a wonderful read and I'm so glad that more bookstores are starting to carry it.
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LibraryThing member theWallflower
Mogworld is the first book written by the very awesome creator of the very awesome video game review series "Zero Punctuation". Imagine the Angry Video Game Nerd on speed and Australian.
All Jim wanted was a little peace and quiet. Not much to ask for, being dead after all. But after a necromancer
Okay, I don't know why I just wrote a query for this book (a bad one, at that). The book combines a little Terry Pratchett and a little Video Game Memebase. There are so few books out there that treat video games as legit (like "Ready Player One") it's a pleasure to find something that's this well-written. My only beef is that it's so satirical and biting that there aren't enough really likable characters in it. Like a lot of nerd humor, it relies on Asperger's syndrome or douche-bag characters for its humor.
All Jim wanted was a little peace and quiet. Not much to ask for, being dead after all. But after a necromancer
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raises him for his unholy army of the night (with a nice health-care package), Jim tries everything to get back to his crypt. But things keep getting in the way, like the zealot priest, "Slippery John", the crafty thief who keeps referring to himself in third person, and the Deleters -- mysterious, ghost-like apparitions that seem to have more control over the world than anyone really should.Okay, I don't know why I just wrote a query for this book (a bad one, at that). The book combines a little Terry Pratchett and a little Video Game Memebase. There are so few books out there that treat video games as legit (like "Ready Player One") it's a pleasure to find something that's this well-written. My only beef is that it's so satirical and biting that there aren't enough really likable characters in it. Like a lot of nerd humor, it relies on Asperger's syndrome or douche-bag characters for its humor.
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LibraryThing member reading_fox
Silly. But fun, made by the ending, so well worth slogging through the middle that drags a bit.
The basic premise is that our hero (anti) one Jim BottomRoach is a lowly mage student when he gets violently killed by an invading army of student fighters. Interred in a mausoleum he is somewhat
The general feel is something a bit like Redshirts (by Skalzi) which has probably a smaller target audience (I suspect there are fewer Star Fans than PC gamers), but Skalzi is somewhat more famous than Croshaw, this being his debuet novel. Apart from dragging a bit in the middle it is well written. The characters have a good degree of annoying banter, but not too much. Any lack of emaotional depth can be put down to them mostly being reanimated zombies. The priests various curses are quite fun, and the satire of gaming culture fairly obvious but well done.
The basic premise is that our hero (anti) one Jim BottomRoach is a lowly mage student when he gets violently killed by an invading army of student fighters. Interred in a mausoleum he is somewhat
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surprised to wake up as a zombie having been resurrected by a local necromancer. Jim is somewhat reluctant to become an undead minion, but various religions seem to have no different abilities to resolve his dilemma, neither does 'suicide' as he keeps returnign to unlife, (witht he hapless Merryl reattaching such limbs as necessary) so he does the best he can. However when the Dreadlord's entire fortress is deleted by 'angels' he realises something is profoundly odd with his world. Escaping more through luck than design he starts his own personal quest to get 'deleted' - being killed isn't enough. But the deleting poiwers seem very hard to find, and there are too many people who'd rather just destrroy his body leaving him stranded as semi-concious dust. The general feel is something a bit like Redshirts (by Skalzi) which has probably a smaller target audience (I suspect there are fewer Star Fans than PC gamers), but Skalzi is somewhat more famous than Croshaw, this being his debuet novel. Apart from dragging a bit in the middle it is well written. The characters have a good degree of annoying banter, but not too much. Any lack of emaotional depth can be put down to them mostly being reanimated zombies. The priests various curses are quite fun, and the satire of gaming culture fairly obvious but well done.
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LibraryThing member heaven_star
Good fun!
This is the book you use to convince your friends audiobooks are worth it and not the "lazy" option for people who don't really "read". I can see the Pratchett analogies that are being drawn but I think Croshaw's more focused here than Pratchett is, there's a straight narrative here
"Write what you know" works for this book and Yahtzee's experience with creating and reviewing video games shows, in a good way. He sends up the tropes of the genre well and most of it's subtle. His comedic timing is excellent and you love even the characters you started off hating (here's looking at you Thaddeus).
There's a tiny, tiny part of me that held off on giving this 5 stars for things like "I wish he'd done something a bit bigger with the concept in the end" and "There's some character conflict that never really got resolved, more sort of paved over" but it doesn't hold it back.
Do the audiobook. Do it loud.
This is the book you use to convince your friends audiobooks are worth it and not the "lazy" option for people who don't really "read". I can see the Pratchett analogies that are being drawn but I think Croshaw's more focused here than Pratchett is, there's a straight narrative here
Show More
whereas Pratchett can tangent into (hilarious) side commentaries on things. This novel keeps tight to a core set of characters and a central plot."Write what you know" works for this book and Yahtzee's experience with creating and reviewing video games shows, in a good way. He sends up the tropes of the genre well and most of it's subtle. His comedic timing is excellent and you love even the characters you started off hating (here's looking at you Thaddeus).
There's a tiny, tiny part of me that held off on giving this 5 stars for things like "I wish he'd done something a bit bigger with the concept in the end" and "There's some character conflict that never really got resolved, more sort of paved over" but it doesn't hold it back.
Do the audiobook. Do it loud.
Show Less
LibraryThing member heaven_star
Good fun!
This is the book you use to convince your friends audiobooks are worth it and not the "lazy" option for people who don't really "read". I can see the Pratchett analogies that are being drawn but I think Croshaw's more focused here than Pratchett is, there's a straight narrative here
"Write what you know" works for this book and Yahtzee's experience with creating and reviewing video games shows, in a good way. He sends up the tropes of the genre well and most of it's subtle. His comedic timing is excellent and you love even the characters you started off hating (here's looking at you Thaddeus).
There's a tiny, tiny part of me that held off on giving this 5 stars for things like "I wish he'd done something a bit bigger with the concept in the end" and "There's some character conflict that never really got resolved, more sort of paved over" but it doesn't hold it back.
Do the audiobook. Do it loud.
This is the book you use to convince your friends audiobooks are worth it and not the "lazy" option for people who don't really "read". I can see the Pratchett analogies that are being drawn but I think Croshaw's more focused here than Pratchett is, there's a straight narrative here
Show More
whereas Pratchett can tangent into (hilarious) side commentaries on things. This novel keeps tight to a core set of characters and a central plot."Write what you know" works for this book and Yahtzee's experience with creating and reviewing video games shows, in a good way. He sends up the tropes of the genre well and most of it's subtle. His comedic timing is excellent and you love even the characters you started off hating (here's looking at you Thaddeus).
There's a tiny, tiny part of me that held off on giving this 5 stars for things like "I wish he'd done something a bit bigger with the concept in the end" and "There's some character conflict that never really got resolved, more sort of paved over" but it doesn't hold it back.
Do the audiobook. Do it loud.
Show Less
LibraryThing member heaven_star
Good fun!
This is the book you use to convince your friends audiobooks are worth it and not the "lazy" option for people who don't really "read". I can see the Pratchett analogies that are being drawn but I think Croshaw's more focused here than Pratchett is, there's a straight narrative here
"Write what you know" works for this book and Yahtzee's experience with creating and reviewing video games shows, in a good way. He sends up the tropes of the genre well and most of it's subtle. His comedic timing is excellent and you love even the characters you started off hating (here's looking at you Thaddeus).
There's a tiny, tiny part of me that held off on giving this 5 stars for things like "I wish he'd done something a bit bigger with the concept in the end" and "There's some character conflict that never really got resolved, more sort of paved over" but it doesn't hold it back.
Do the audiobook. Do it loud.
This is the book you use to convince your friends audiobooks are worth it and not the "lazy" option for people who don't really "read". I can see the Pratchett analogies that are being drawn but I think Croshaw's more focused here than Pratchett is, there's a straight narrative here
Show More
whereas Pratchett can tangent into (hilarious) side commentaries on things. This novel keeps tight to a core set of characters and a central plot."Write what you know" works for this book and Yahtzee's experience with creating and reviewing video games shows, in a good way. He sends up the tropes of the genre well and most of it's subtle. His comedic timing is excellent and you love even the characters you started off hating (here's looking at you Thaddeus).
There's a tiny, tiny part of me that held off on giving this 5 stars for things like "I wish he'd done something a bit bigger with the concept in the end" and "There's some character conflict that never really got resolved, more sort of paved over" but it doesn't hold it back.
Do the audiobook. Do it loud.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LaPhenix
What a riot! The beginning was a little slow and the end was... strange? But the humor was fabulous!
LibraryThing member jkdavies
I liked it but didn't love it... just not a zombie fan maybe... I did really enjoy the interactions between the guys creating the game and the game characters, would have liked more of that in there... but overall fun and entertaining
LibraryThing member ForeverMasterless
This book has a pretty good beginning, and a great ending. It's the middle bit I take issue with. Too bad that's like 80% of the book. It's just such obvious padding, and Jim, the protagonist, breaks one of the fundamental rules of writing, in that he is almost exclusively a reactionary
Add to that the fact that the lord of the rings style 'journey' he goes on is also filled with things that are boring in and of themselves, regardless of the quality of the protagonist, and the book grinds to an absolute halt. Slow books can be interesting, if done right. Unfortunately Yahtzee doesn't have the writing chops to make ANY slow bits interesting, much less the majority of a novel. He's no Patrick Rothfuss in that regard, to be sure. Which is not to say that Yahtzee's writing is bad. It's surprisingly publishable and professional. Not the best by any stretch, but better than a lot of the thriller/romance/horror writers on the NYT's bestseller list.
And don't get me wrong; this book is genuinely funny and clever. Unfortunately it isn't funny enough often enough to be worth reading, in my opinion.
All that being said, I would love to see Yahtzee write more fiction, perhaps sticking to a shorter format this time such as a short story or novella, because he's definitely shown a lack of skill and experience carrying a novel-length plot with this book, but he has equally shown a knack for funny, well-written dialogue and decent prose.
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protagonist, and not a proactive one. All he wants to do is die, and he takes quite lazy steps towards that end. This makes him a VERY boring character to read, EVEN THOUGH I FIND HIM FUNNY. That's why you don't write protagonists like this, because it just doesn't work, even if they're interesting in some other way. They have to be proactive. They can't just react to external factors for the entire length of a book. That's a bad Yahtzee! Bad! Add to that the fact that the lord of the rings style 'journey' he goes on is also filled with things that are boring in and of themselves, regardless of the quality of the protagonist, and the book grinds to an absolute halt. Slow books can be interesting, if done right. Unfortunately Yahtzee doesn't have the writing chops to make ANY slow bits interesting, much less the majority of a novel. He's no Patrick Rothfuss in that regard, to be sure. Which is not to say that Yahtzee's writing is bad. It's surprisingly publishable and professional. Not the best by any stretch, but better than a lot of the thriller/romance/horror writers on the NYT's bestseller list.
And don't get me wrong; this book is genuinely funny and clever. Unfortunately it isn't funny enough often enough to be worth reading, in my opinion.
All that being said, I would love to see Yahtzee write more fiction, perhaps sticking to a shorter format this time such as a short story or novella, because he's definitely shown a lack of skill and experience carrying a novel-length plot with this book, but he has equally shown a knack for funny, well-written dialogue and decent prose.
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LibraryThing member livingtech
I really loved this, and will keep an eye out for more by Croshaw in the future. I don't want to say too much here, but even though I sort of knew what was going on, this still managed to surprise me quite a bit.
LibraryThing member thanbini
Wow! A very original and creative story with good, fun characters.
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2008-04-22
Physical description
416 p.; 4.16 inches
ISBN
1595825290 / 9781595825292