Are You Up For A Quest?

I won’t lie – when I featured this in my New and Notable post a few weeks back I did so because the cover really caught my eye.  Both the color and the content.  I wasn’t sure if this was going to be for me.  I’ve read some LitRPG’s before but never an NPC one. So, I wasn’t sure what I was in for. 

What I was in for was a great ride.  The hog was an awesome machine and the story drove right along with it.  The length actually worked for me.  I probably would have pushed this further into my queue had it been double the length (7 or so hours).  But being 3-ish made this super approachable.  The only issue I think that Chapman will run into is that people don’t like spending a credit on a shorter book.  I would suggest pricing the audible version around 5-7 dollars or do a whispersync deal if you can — that might help with this.

The story itself follows Maddie, an injured, addicted, down-on-her-luck NPC who is pinged to pick up a new quest.  A quest that could change her life for years to come and comes with a reward to back it up.

I enjoy video games and find myself playing them sometimes when I’m listening to an audiobook.  Usually sports games, but when I finished this story I wanted to jump back into my RPG-type games and get into a story (or like me, get lost in a side-quest). Chapman seemed to have an intimate knowledge of the gaming world to write a story that made me feel this way.  It felt like the game was real and that the NPC’s (don’t call them that) were learning and starting to ask questions.

The inclusion of the “real world” (at least the mention of it) was an interesting turn of events for me.  I won’t mention why or how it’s mentioned but know that it was a good move for the story.

Overall, I thought that Desert Runner was a great title.  It entertained the crap out of me and I finished it in one sitting.  Perfect weekend afternoon reading.

Andrea Parsneau does a great job narrating Desert Runner.  I thought she was the perfect choice for this story.  Easy to listen to and had just the right amount of attitude to voice Maddie. 

I was provided with a free copy of this audiobook it has not affected my review in any way. If you liked this review, please vote for it (every vote counts).