First, it was a joy to see Eric Nylund come out with another novel and narrated by one of the top-tier performance narrators, Jeff Hays. A little personal backstory is due. I attribute my re-found journey of exploring the SciFi genre of novels directly on Eric Nylund’s doorsteps; specifically to his excellent creation of the Halo lore which expanded my interest from an above-average FPS game to that of an avid follower of the very successful novel series. I rate his Halo: First Strike as one of my most favorite Military-SciFi novels and often find myself re-listening to it when I’m between books or venturing on a long road trip.
So, Hero of Thera falls comfortably into the more recent sub-genre referred to as LitRPG where the protagonist(s) are humans who find themselves locked into a virtual realm and pursuing quests that, the successful completion of which, will gain them experience points and loot that will enhance their abilities and kit to allow them to take on more challenging quest later. The interesting part of this is that we are informed that our protagonist, while basically considers himself on the side of good, has a checkered past where he had strayed into the dark side in real life. It is these past baleful incidents that act as a corruptive influence as he attempts to work his way through this set of virtual realms.
While there is some of the story-stalling leveling-up sections that is required with LitRPG, Eric uses it sparingly so as not to make it too distracting. There is also an ample amount of sarcasm and humor that adds to the enjoyment of the novel and, to which, Jeff Hays, performs so fluidly that it never disappoints.
Onto A Thousand Drunken Monkeys