One Man's Laughter

The Good Guys, Book 16

De: Eric Ugland

Narrado por: Neil Hellegers

He just saved the entire Empire (again).

Now, he's got to save a couple of scared kids.

Montana Coggeshall, freshly returned from the high society world of galas, birthrights, and the odd doomsday cult, doesn't have much time to settle back into normal life. He's promised to protect everyone who calls Coggeshall home, and one terrified family is caught in the wrong place at the worst time.

But what starts as a simple rescue mission quickly unravels into a web of strange disappearances, secret tunnels, and whispered warnings. A new monster may be stalking the valley. And it’s one that doesn’t just kill—it plays with its food.

As Montana digs deeper, he's faced with questions no one wants to answer. Who's been pulling the strings in his absence? What's hiding in the darkness? And why does it all feel so damn personal?

One Man's Laughter is a sinister, suspense-filled ride through the shadowy corners of Coggeshall. If you like your LitRPG full of creeping dread, brutal battles, and that signature Montana charm, this one's for you.

©2025 Eric Ugland (P)2025 Tantor Media

Fun as always

This series and the bad guys series make waiting for the next books so hard.

Glad it’s back, but also frustrated and underwhelmed with what it is

It has been so long that I’ve forgotten all of the characters except Montana. I know Ugland took this long to do the tamagotchi book side quest, but I’m just not interested in following him to that story. Took a look and went “nope.” The Good/bad/grim series is what I’m here for.

And, unfortunately, the plot doesn’t do much in this one. Expect to just bumble around the first half of the book as everyone gets nerfed. MC is nerfed, Cogshall is nerfed, most of the MC’s supporting cast get nerfed, and then a quest begins. Almost done, and I’m increasingly thinking it’s just gonna be a frustratingly nerfed quest that ends with a cliffhanger and everything is still uninspiringly nerfed. edit: you get about 10 minutes of righteous-ish ass kicking and a cliffhanger that jumps the shark.

Making everyone weaker to create adversity is hands down the most annoying and lazy way to create tension in a plot.

Overall, glad the series is back, and I hope Ugland takes all of the feedback to heart from a large following of excited listeners. This book wasn’t what we all got our hopes up for when we realized book 16 was out. not much happens, there’s little in terms of main plot progression, character development, or deep relationship building- it’s all surface-level banter. The contents of this book could have been 4 hours of audiobook that actually led to something instead of having it feel like 12 hours of dragging ass through nerf limbo.

And, FWIW fk all the puritanical haters in the reviews that don’t like the masterfully dropped f-bombs and other excellent colorful language used to convey a mood and way of thinking that prudish, bland words just can’t convey.

Edit: loved the hat nod to heretical fishing for us LitRPG nerds, but there’s a reason I stopped reading halfway through book 3 and only listened to it to fall asleep: no plot tension, all dialog, and a plot that comes to a crawl after the first book.

Laughter

Made me laugh like never before, the nights were long and enjoyable, trying to put all fifteen words

half a book

felt like half a book dragged out, not much happed or when it does its at a snails pace.

Great tone and pace until the last few sentences.

I really like the story and putting together something narratively that would make our unruly lordling bleed, but the end, I understand having a plot book that would keep the reader guessing but it just feels contrived, the timing is a bit too on the nose. Now if the next leg of story sets up a 4d chess out of this then I’ll be back on.