The Mayor of Noobtown (Noobtown, #1)

A man dies in a car accident and finds himself reincarnated as a character in a fantasy role-playing game.

I know showing characters working to level up is an integral part of LitRPG novels, but I think Ryan Rimmel takes it too far. It seems like nearly every chapter in the book follows the same formula: recap stats, do a briefly described activity to acquire points, then spend several pages reviewing the new stats and deciding what to upgrade.

For all the time Jim, the main character, spends on character upgrades, there's very little actual character development. Add in the limited, hand-wavey worldbuilding, and I'm left wondering if an editor even looked at this book after it was acquired.

Despite my criticisms, I didn't mind reading show more The Mayor of Noobtown; it's brainless, but it didn't insult my intelligence. I'm just invested enough in the story to want to read book two, which I hope will have fewer freaking stats in it.

Received via NetGalley. show less

The Mayor of Noobtown had a fun beginning and there were even some laugh-out-loud moments so I felt encouraged by this book. However, by about the 70%, the story seemed to slow down and I was finding it harder and harder to get back to it. I am not one of those people bothered by stats, but I don't keep track to see if there are any errors so I couldn't say if they were accurate or not. I did find some that some of the weapons came out of nowhere and thought the fighting scenes didn't quite match the tone of the rest of the book as well. And I don't object to fighting scenes, they just didn't seem to fit in smoothly with what was happening in the book. I will probably continue to the second book as I know sometimes the first book can be show more a little rough and I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. show less

Only about halfway through but I am starting to feel like this is work. It started out pretty good but I quickly tired of the constant reference to the mc's stats and "character sheet", which (in my opinion) are a lazy author's way of adding a lot of pages to the book without much in the way of useful or entertaining content.

Явно много от хората, които се увличат от ролеви игри са малко по-плитко или даже малко по-дълбоко в спектъра на аутизма, защото обсесията им с математическите системи, по които тия игри работят е направо прекалена.

Същото се получава, когато такъв човек се мъчи да пише в иначе набиращия популярност стил за "ролеви роман", в който героите имат нещо като вътрешен интерфейс, чрез който получават "умения" и show more "точки" имащи отражение в действителността.

Въпреки няколкото отлични примери за такъв стил романи (добър пример 1, добър пример 2), повечето автори се занимават твърде много със "системата" и уменията и отделят съвсем малко внимание на неща като действие и стил на писане, което прави творенията им тотално нечитаеми за хора, които не са аутисти като тях. Пример за което е настоящата книга. show less

Man dies on earth and gets into a fantasy world with litRPG mechanics. He has a littel demon on his shoulder and a special perk "Unbound" that lets him learn everything.
The MC is a bit too OP for my taste. Also some interaction with other chars feels weird for me. But the banter with his demon is okay and overall is the book okay.

Enjoyable. I appreciated the abbreviated stat sheets.