Good morning! —or afternoon, or hell even evening if you’re one of those who gets your blog reading done at night, like a freak, in any case, I’m happy you’re here on this Friday. Today we’re talking about a novel by Benjamin Richard Croshaw, better known as Yahtzee Croshaw, and that novel is his first, “Mogworld,” which is a hard novel to classify. Overall, I guess it’s science fiction, but it also has a great deal of sword and sorcery fantasy in there too. Yahtzee Croshaw is better known for his work with “The Escapist” magazine, where he hosts a video game review web show called, “Zero Punctuation,” rather than as a novelist. That’s where I became a fan of his, and I’ve been watching “Zero Punctuation” as far back as 2008.
***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***
What I love about this book:
Absolutely everything about Slippery John, who isn’t even the main character of the story—this is even though Slippery John is cataclysmically creepy. He’s a weird guy who speaks of himself perpetually in the third person, but my favorite scene in this novel is a tie for every scene Slippery John is featured. In an already funny book, I find this character to be the funniest part, and there is more to his character, but I can’t reveal everything yet until we get to the spoiler section of this review.
Yahtzee’s humor is what made me love “Zero Punctuation,” and it’s also why I love “Mogworld.” Since he is a video game reviewer, “Mogworld” is also a humorous commentary on the tropes of video games, specifically MMORPG games like “World of Warcraft.” But, even if you’re reading this novel without any video game knowledge, it still works as a sword and sorcery fantasy that takes a hard shift into science fiction.
What I don’t love about this book:
Jim, the main character, is a thinly veiled stand-in for the author himself, Yahtzee Croshaw, just in this situation. Now I like Yahtzee, I’ve watched many of his reviews—hell I even own all of his published books—but this makes Jim the least interesting character in the story, in my opinion. Now I get that all characters, in some part, are aspects of the person or people who create them, but Jim seems to be whole cloth copy and paste of his creator in personality.
After reading this novel—and I’ll clue you in on this with all his other novels—it’s pretty evident that Yahtzee is either incapable of, or flat out isn’t interested in writing a romantic subplot. Any hint of romantic undertones are vestigial and never really amount to anything in the story. This is a dimension of his writing I find disappointing. So while I love his books, if you ever find yourself liking two characters together know now there is no pay off—that ship will never sail.
This preview is an Amazon Affiliate link;
as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases
Author's Website: http://fullyramblomatic-yahtzee.blogspot.com/
***The Spoiler part of this review***
***Ye be warned to turn back now***