Accidental Thief

Publisher's Summary

An everyday loser, stuck in the game.

Hal Dix was stuck in an unlucky life. His wife is a successful executive, while his IT help desk job led nowhere. Even his daughter's daycare teacher thought he was a loser. He couldn't catch a break.

Now a strange woman at a flea market sells Hal a bootleg release of a highly anticipated game. It is just what he wished for, and he can't wait to play it during his long weekend home alone. His luck has finally turned around, right?

Hal should be careful what he wishes for.

Join the adventure in this first book of an epic LitRPG fantasy trilogy. Play along with Hal and his new friends in Fantasma, as he becomes an Accidental Thief.

©2017 MedicCast Productions (P)2018 MedicCast Productions

A Fun Listen

Hal Dix is the unluckiest guy in the world. He's stuck in a boring IT job with a bully for a boss and a successful wife who makes parenting look easy. Hal plays role playing games for fun, and he's just been duped into spending all his spare cash for a bootleg version of a game that doesn't exist yet. Except when Hal tries the bootleg disc, it works. And it transports him bodily into the world of Fantasma.

Hal awakens in the game and immediately runs into trouble. Framed for the murder of a powerful city warden, he's arrested and sentenced to death. He needs to use all his wits and the points he's allocated to his luck stat to survive.

This is a solid LitRPG, an enjoyable listen. Hal is a good MC to follow, a bit awkward at times but not a sad sack. He's just reacting to events in the beginning, but soon takes control and becomes someone to cheer for. The action was fast paced. The game mechanics were incidental to the story, they didn't play a major role and it would be a fun fantasy listen even if you're not into LitRPG. The stat sheets are very short and aren't repeated too often, and Hal doesn't spend any time agonizing over point allocation. Although this is book one, it ties everything up neatly and can be read as a standalone.

The narration is really well done! The narrator performs subtle voices for the various characters and kept me listening and immersed in the story. If you're looking for a LitRPG for a teen or young reader, this book doesn't have any sex or swearing, but there are fight scenes and some references to adult themes. I requested a copy of the audiobook, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

28 of 32 people found this review helpful

good narrator. bad story

the excellent narrator is the only thing saving this horribly cliche story with little to no character depth

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

not a huge fan

wasnt a huge fan of this one. i was happy to see a lit rpg with the MC being a rogue cuz it seems like every char is always a mage or at most a spellsword. but i didnt really like how no one else seemed to have stats. an it bugged me how the MC keeps saying how unlucky he is when he has a job, a wife/kid who has a great job but I'm suppose to feel bad for him? and i thought it was weird how he kept sayin its a game but telling everyone he was married, but was fine with murdering ppl without a second thought.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Loved this book! A great first novel

I really liked this book a lot. Hal was fun, and Kay? (sorry on audible so not sure if it is just K) was great. The book is about a normal guy who likes to play video games that is sucked into a fantasy world. The world translates things to him in game format, so that he understands it. So he levels and picks powers just as if he were playing at home. In fact, there is a point where he isn't sure if he is playing or if it is real.

The only beef I have is that his one singular ability, his luck, never failed. I would have liked to have seen him flub a few tries, because it got to a point where you knew he was good if he heard the slot machine sound in his head. A minor plot point. I just have to be honest.

I eagerly await book 2, and hope that next time he's not an accidental thief, but an intentional one. Go get this book, it will make a fine addition to your audible library. Oh, and Robert Scarloto does a masterful job of keeping your attention with his inflection, emotion, and pacing. I'd happily listen to him again and again.

9 of 13 people found this review helpful

Trite, tropey, and predictable

The book followed a typical d&d plotline. No big surprises; I felt reluctant to continue listening.
Finishing became a tedious task, at least for me. I've been reading fantasy for over a decade ave have read a lot, so perhaps I'm spoiled - a newcomer to fantasy works and to role-playing games might enjoy and learn from the book.

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

great story

I can't wait to hear more from this author. his style was so unique. I would say if you love litrpg you will like this book

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

Nah...shouldn’t be litRPG

Just giving this one guys star summary once per chapter fdoes not make it litRPG! For those of us in the genre, we like to see our characters progression over time, what the level of enemies are and have there be logic to the giving of skills and where stats are out. This is a fine (not great) general adventure story, but damn, there are so many things that bug me I will not be going on in the series. What you ask? I’ll try to list a couple...First...he is the only character with stats described and despite all kinds of knifework, backstabbing, stealth and other stealthy things, they are all lumped under a couple general skills. Well actually he never gets a skill in the weapons area. Second, His allies and opponents never seem to have levels for the reader to see what kind of opponent he is facing (you must assume by the amount of experience he gets) Third, the equipment never really has stats either. There is reference to how it was an enchanted weapon, but we the reader have no comparison. Fourth, the guy puts all his stats into luck to start. Ok fine if he is going to go that route he should stick with it, but then he just puts them into strength when he levels. Most of his fighting is sneaky and requires dexterity, but he never puts points into it but somehow gets better and better as measured by the seemingly more difficult guys he must be facing (again assumed by the experience given). I dunno, it was just a bit shallow for me. I vote it’s not really a litRPG except for the compulsory being stuck in the game part and the describing of his individual stats.

11 of 21 people found this review helpful

Hot garbage

Quite frankly this has been one of the worst books that I’ve read to date. There is nothing new or distinct about this story. The only thing I could think of was how unoriginal and trite the plot was. The dialogue feels like it’s being made by cardboard cutouts of people with zero personality, which is not helped by the monotonous narration. I mean, I was about twenty minutes into the book, (when the wizard scene was drawing to a close) and I couldn’t stop thinking of what else I might be able to read. That was when the MC’s name was dropped.
To my surprise, I thought the narrator had said Hell Dicks, like a gamertag. Then I thought that, sure it took a little while to get to the good bits, but this was going to be a decent comedy. Nope, it was just the lifeless narrator’s poor enunciation. Once I had realized that, I honestly lost all hope. I gave up three hours into this piece of steaming hot garbage that absorbed my time and money.
Don’t listen to these people who say it’s “fun” and “a good listen”. They’re lifeless drones who don’t listen to books with personality, and more importantly, originality. SAVE YOUR MONEY!

God Awful Boring and Stupid

This is a boring and stupid story. The main character is a complete idiot. The story is slow and takes forever to get anywhere.

Should have stat dumped in wisdom

Couldn't get past the first half. If I had hope that the MC would grow and become less of an immature idiot who feels so sorry for himself when his own actions compound the situations, then I might have been motivated to finish or at least continue the story. The magical luck stat kept showing up in personal interactions, which are not at all luck-based, and with the luck magic I have no hope that he's going to figure out that he needs to change himself rather than depend on the situation to work for him. Somewhere along the line you have to learn to take control of the situation, not hope everything works out and then blame somebody or something else when it doesn't.

didn't like it

another older man entering a fantasy world and not taking advantage of his knowledge. boring