Morningwood: Everybody Loves Large Chests (Vol.1)

By: Neven Iliev

Narrated by: Jeff Hays

Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's Summary

Large chests are said to encompass all manner of hopes and dreams. Men covet them. Women envy them. But one fact holds true - everyone wants to get their hands on some big ones.

The same holds true for one intrepid adventurer - a strapping young lad by the name of Himmel. Armed with his grandfather's trusty longsword and the dream of being the strongest, he sets out on the journey of a lifetime! It is sure to be a long and dangerous road, fraught with danger! And it all starts with a simple test - reach Level Five in the dungeon called the "newbie zone" and earn the right to become a full-fledged adventurer!

However, such things get hopelessly derailed when his adolescent mind beholds an exposed chest for the first time - a fateful meeting that would inevitably lead his life in a direction he never even dreamed of!

Content warning: Gore, violence, explicit sexual scenes

Everybody Loves Large Chests was first brought to Jeff Hays on Soundbooth Theater Live, his live streaming narration show. Since then, it has been the most consistently requested and enjoyed title by fans. So much so, that Neven Iliev finally decided to approach us to put out a full audio version of the first arc in Boxxy's adventures!

The Soundbooth Theater team for this production:

Jeff Hays - Narration, Characters, Production Supervision
Dalton Lynne - Proofing
Alex Tate - Production, Editing, Mastering

©2017 Neven Iliev (P)2017 Jeff Hays

Really Entertaining

This is a very different take on LitRPG! If you're expecting a traditional story about a gamer that gets sucked into a VRMMORPG and works to level up, this is not that type of book. It doesn't really have a traditional story structure or an antagonist. It's just a bawdy tale about a monster's adventures in a world that happens to operate with the same mechanics as a game.

What this book did have was humor, and plenty of it. It was a really entertaining and fun read. The characters were hilarious, and had me snort laughing out loud. The story flowed right along, the main character was unexpected, and the whole thing was well-written. Ugh, I resisted hard, but yes, I'll say it. This book was tasty.

Jeff Hays' performance was outstanding, it really suited the book. He had great comedic timing and just delivered those deadpan lines perfectly. He performed different voices for each character, including female voices, and there were some awesome sound effects. It just brought the whole thing up a notch, the book would have been a fun read, but the narration made it a hilarious listen.

Although I loved most of it, I wouldn't recommend reading this book if you're easily offended. It spends a lot of time satirizing women (God I hope it's satire). I requested a copy of the audiobook, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

50 of 55 people found this review helpful

Not what I expected, but great "RPG" fun

I don't think the Audible book description quite fits, but if you've ever played an RPG video game WoW or D&D this story is a great twist on some classic tropes of the genre. No, this is not some high level thought provoking fiction. It's a fun witty and entertaining story masterfully performed. I agree with some reviewers that the material is a bit juvenile, but that's what makes it so fun. Ever wonder what it would be like to live in one of the campaign worlds from any of the great RPG games? What about the lives of the monsters you always fight? Then read/listen to this book and prepare to laugh aloud while also feeling oddly connected to the most unique anti hero I've come across in some time.

13 of 14 people found this review helpful

Buy it now.

A laugh riot for anyone with a love for the absurd and perverse. A great story and another amazing reading by Jeff Hays.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

The Chest... It Calls To You...

I absolutely loved this book. I listened to the audio, and the performance was spot-on. I expected no less from Jeff Hays, and boy does he have a great time reading this interesting and funny tale.

The story revolves around a Mimic who makes a living by picking off intruders to his lair. Sooner or later, the Mimic ends up leveling up and gaining experience, at which point it becomes restless and seeks out some adventure.

The characters were hilarious at times - just don't get too connected to any of them, if you know what I mean. Especially early on. Coming from a group that loves D&D and many RPGs, this story has plenty of laughs and is an interesting viewpoint. Great world-building and description. I hope there will be more books from Neven Iliev!

16 of 19 people found this review helpful

Absolutely Ridiculously Hillarious

I cannot begin to explain just how stupidly funny this book is to me. After many years of MMOs and Dungeons and Dragons, theres no end to witty jokes and pseudo puns about those experiences. Its very lewd but then again as a person of the internet i'm used to it.

Highly recommend this adventure. Its well thought out, the little extra sound effects are great and personally i think this is a hidden gem.

10/10 - IGN

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

didn't live up to the comments hype.

I purchase this book based off of user comments and Jeff Hayes. Jeff Hayes did his usual impeccable job. truly is a talent. the comments on the other hand I feel were well off of mark. virtually everybody stating they couldn't hardly contain their laughter because this book was so funny. it was clever in a few areas, and a decent story overall. but it is not an overly funny book.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

Silly, funny and hard to put down

This is the first LitRPG that was written to be purposefully silly. They did a good job, I was tired of the "same old"..

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great mix of dark comedy & litrpg

From the cover and book title, was't expecting the humor to be so dark, but even so this was very entertaining. The "main character" is very different then most I've read in the litrpg genre, making it very fresh (the closest main chars to this being stores based around dungeon cores to similar outlooks). It is definitely worth a listen, but be prepared for a helping helping of gore with the dark humor.

Note: I received this audio-book free for an honest review by the author, narrator, or publisher.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Now I've got wood!!

What a great fantasy piece. It throws away conventional format, and gives you the POV of a lowly dungeon monster. Boxy's journey from a weak monster into a city class threat is amazingly funny, and you will not be sorry for the read. I'm just sorry that there aren't any other novels out in this series yet. ------------ AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

don't let your children read this

if you like South Park Beavis and Butthead then you'll like this but just like those two shows children should not be reading this this is extremely sexual and it's the sort of thing that could end up causing a rating system to evolve on Audible or even Amazon

8 of 10 people found this review helpful

Need a follow up!

Ok this book really wasn't what i was expecting.

enjoyed it thoroughly though!

I highly recommend this and am fingers crossed touch wood for a whole series!

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Clever, witty, well performed and some of the best characterisations since Sir Sparhawk roamed the land.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Rather dull

Would you try another book written by Neven Iliev or narrated by Jeff Hays?

One interesting idea streched over a whole book. I did not find it at all witty or well written and ended up skipping forward to see if it improved towards the end. It didn't.

What a laugh!!!

What a great take on the fantasy saga. Very unexpected and very funny. it doesn't take it's self too seriously and I found the whole idea very good. Read it, listen to it but mostly just enjoy the randomness.

Amazing LitRPG unlike others

Amazing and hilariously different LitRPG, you’ll easily enjoy this if you have any interest in other LitRPG like Chaos Seeds, The Gam3 etc and want more with a refreshing protagonist

Hidden Gem - A Book for RPG fans

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Very much worth a read, this hidden gem is very funny with very colourful and quirky characters. Based on roughly on RPG board games follow Boxy on his adventure to become more powerful.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Only wish is was longer, but don't fear the continuation of Boxy's adventures continue in Volume 2

Loved it.

Really didn't expect the story to be like it is. Thought it would just be a funny story about an adventurer. Absolutely great fun to listen to. Brilliant plot, setup, narrator and writing. I can't wait for the next one.

Just fantastic

It has to one of the best D&D books out. Just a great book to listen to and have a good laugh. Looking forward to book two

Loved it

Damn good book. Read the e-book on Kindle and had the audiobook recommend to me as well. Well worth it. Jeff Hays is an amazing narrator, loved the voices and audio effects. Very immersive. Would give 6/5 stars if possible.

RPG-like book

if you have played mmorpg/RPG games then you might like this.
I bought this on a whim and have ended up really enjoying it . it is quite silly.

level up level up level up 😜

1 of 2 people found this review helpful