Galactic Badlands: A LitRPG Space Western

By: Zachariah Dracoulis

Narrated by: Christopher James Mayer

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Charles Broadstokes is a little confused....

There are cowboy boots on his feet, pop-up hints appearing in his vision, and, oh yeah, there’s a mariachi band in his head.

The world's not going to slow down and let him catch up though, no, it's going to throw a chrome hover car at him and hope he gets the picture.

Charles isn't what you'd call inept though, and before long he's proving himself as a quick shooter, fast learner, and more than willing to immerse himself in his pseudo-digital reality full of cruel crimelords, dangerous wild animals, and all manner of fun allies in this, the first novel of the Galactic Badlands saga.

©2018 Zachariah Dracoulis (P)2019 Spectrum Audiobooks

Lit Cowboys N aliens

This is a book that tries a little too hard to be a lot of things, or at least jam a lot of things into it. It is a Litrpg book that is sort of mashed up with cowboys and aliens. To me, some of the best and worst parts of the book is the MC. Chuck is a marine who suddenly finds himself in a new world and dies pretty quickly. Second time around he starts to get things right. I like how readily Chuck acclimates to his new life, he almost never even considers looking back in many ways. But Chuck is pretty plain as leads go, he isn’t great at making decisions, and he goes out of his way to be rude to people or at least stand off from them. IN fact, the other characters end to outshine the MC in every scene.

The book, I don’t know, didn’t feel like it was a harem book at first but it gradually grew into one, and the whole time I kept wondering how the MC got all the babes being the way he was. Chuck never opens up about anything and he has no problem giving others a sort of false or weak hope and in his relationships there are a lot of things that he never really resolves from his actions.

Mayer’s narration was middle of the road stuff. There were parts that he was good and parts I just wanted him to talk a little faster and blow his nose or something. I absolutely hated the music that is added in. The MC even says that it distracted him! I like mariachi, , and loved the movie but it just did not fly here. I think it was too loud and came a cross like the El Degüello while it should have been fun. BTW, the El Degüello is he throat cutting song that means no quarter will be given, and is what was played every night all night long outside the Alamo before they were wiped out. While I’m sure it fits the tale it did not please my ears. I really think a manlier tone would have helped.

Overall bits of the book worked and bits didn’t. Truly, giving the MC a different personality would have shifted the gears quite a bit it would have changed the whole dynamic of the story, but he is sort of an anchor to everyone around him. There is a lot of good stuff to this book but the combo of the MC and narration (I think Mayer would be great in another book but is weak here) don’t do the tale real justice.

Final score 7 stars, it is a decent tale and has a ton of potential if the MC has a personality implant in the next book. It does well in the world building and the secondary characters are fun, and the action is excellent.

Pleasantly Surprised

I received a free credit to listen to and give this book an honest and unbiased review.

After listening to Code Jumpers and now this; Galactic Badlands is way better. I love a bunch of references to our childhood games like Zelda and Contra and the dialogue between Charles and a bunch of the other characters like Amy, Mags, and Flint are really funny. There's a lot more explanation of how Capt. Charles Stargun got to Shit's Hole and how the game was generated versus what Eddie went through in Code Jumpers.

I am definitely excited to listen to the next books as it's just getting started. I'd love to hear more references all of our cult favorites in games, shows, etc, and would love for the book to be longer.

At first, I was thinking R.C. Bray would have a better, gruffer, voice for this book; but, Chris Mayer did an excellent job.

I was taken by surprise with this book and would definitely recommend this.

good story mediocre vo

The story is light litrpg. ok over all. something different. I would recommend if you have a short trip and can listen to it.

A good start....

I felt that this book was a good start to a series. It took a little bit to get going, but seemed to develop the characters and the world well enough to give a good launching point for the next novel. As I am not as well versed in LitRPG as I am Space Opera or straight sci-fi, some of the "exploration" of the world leaves me with some questions (as sometimes the character is very versed in RPG play, and sometimes seems pretty clueless about the development of the game).

However, give the groundwork here, I am looking forward to listening to the next installment and watching the characters continue to grow and the universe to expand.

Now, the obligatory, "I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

A decent start

I found a lot to enjoy, particularly in the performance. The narrator sounds a lot like Nathan Fillion, and it works very well for this story. I wouldn't be surprised to learn it was intentional. The story itself is fairly meh to me. Its fun and engaging and I have no large complaints, so I think its a pretty good book overall. The stuff that bothered me was fairly small. The story was pretty clearly ad libbed, and the game mechanics feel a bit tacked on. They're not disingenuous or anything, and I enjoyed their presentation a lot. I just didn't end up understanding much of anything about how the game system operates and wanted a lot more from it than I got. The death and game system and planets thing also felt very handwavey. Not really a problem, but it left me feeling unsatisfied. Also, the hints at harem stuff and general slapdash romance arcs combine with my smallish complaints to mean I likely won't bother with a second book if it comes out. Wasn't mad about this one though. Worth the read or listen if you like scifi western mash ups. That part to me was the star of this show. Loads of fun to be had there.

Perfect GameLit

Such an amazing story, the exact definition of GameLit! I highly recommend listening to this if you’re a fan of the genre!

Firefly meets Ready Player 1 in this LitRPG title

As others have said, its the snark between a gamer and his AI that lifts this story above and beyond the typical LitRPG/Gamelit title. The Western setting and mariachi music references are reminiscent of Firefly, while the narrators' performance is an almost spot-on of Mal for the MC.
Yes, the ending is abrupt, but I see the book version has a sequel, so my hopes are for a sequel to the audio as well. Great job all the way around.

Western/SciFi themed LitRPG, a hint of a harem

I enjoyed this book. It is fast paced and loaded with action. The story has several weak points and the main protagonist makes foolish decisions, but overall it was a fun filled listen.

The narration was well done. I think the tone the narrator used added to the character of the protagonist. A more serious and gruff tone would have given a different image of the characters.

Disclaimer: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Really good story. servicable narration

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This is my second book by Zachariah Dracoulis I really like the way he tells stories. I really enjoyed the humor of the book. I liked the litrpg elements and I think this is a really great beginning to could be a really great series moving forward. I did not at all like the narrator though I was having a very hard time getting into the story with the narrator. I then moved the narration speed to 1.55x this greatly improved the story IMO. I will listen to more in this series if it becomes one. Hopefully with a new narrator.

Fun story with heavy flaws in writing and delivery

The story is interesting and fun enough, but the book suffers from some real amateur feeling issues with tone, narrative, and storytelling. I also felt the narrator, while doing a good job in his own right, fails to do the book justice. It's obvious humor is supposed to be a part of the narrative but the performance feels a little too nonchalant for my tastes.