The publisher’s summary offers this:
1. Intercept illegal money transfer from mafia boss.
2. Hide out in super-exclusive Full Immersion Virtual Reality game until the heat is off.
3. Roll a bard. Max out charisma. Live it up.
The novel starts off with 1, with a great scene in a banker’s office in Copenhagen. Eventually, we get to 2 and 3. A fairly standard “Welcome to the game world” story ensues. Eventually, the main character fights a rat.
A few chapters later, I start thinking “This is really slow.”
However, this is Soundbooth Theater, and they make even slow material entertaining, and I’m enjoying it all.
About halfway through, I *finally* realize that this is a mystery. An actual good mystery, and the roguish bard has to connive his way to a solution. The fascinating speech Jeff Hays gave earlier about the usefulness of blackmail, that now starts fitting into the plot. Now I have to give the book another listen.
Highly recommended.