King's League

An Epic Lit RPG Adventure (King's League, Book 1)

By: Jason Anspach, JN Chaney

Narrated by: Mark Boyett

Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

King's League is more than a game...it's a way of life.  

For recently expelled college dropout Dirk Wilson, picking up and re-selling other player's scraps from cleared dungeons and side quests gone sideways is the only thing keeping him from living on the streets.  

Tired of ramen noodles, past-due notices, and feeling like his future is over before it ever started, Dirk decides that if he's going to make something of himself, it'll be within the game, taking advantage of the real-life payouts from selling in-game goods on King's League's River Market.  

But the game leaves little margin for error, and Dirk's virtual problems grow as large as his real-life ones as he discovers a powerful conspiracy that impacts players from level one to level 99.  

One-million-copy number-one best-selling authors Jason Anspach and JN Chaney team up to tell this action-packed, humorous LitRPG adventure that blends the cheeky fun of Ready Player One with all the adventure and excitement of Elder Scrolls and World of Warcraft.

©2020 Rough Wake Entertainment (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

Real GameLit Fans: AVOID at all costs... Everyone else, just avoid.

If eye-rolls and wtfs earned experience points I would have maxed out my character before this book was half over. I could see how people who have no experience with the genre and only bought this audiobook because they’re fans of the authors’ sci-fi work might think this was an interesting twist on a fantasy novel. But still, given the blatant plot holes, the lazy plot devices, and story editing issues I’m a bit dumbfounded by the unequivocally positive reviews.

First off, this game would never be played by anyone. I’m not going to bother going into detail as the specifics are too numerous to site. However, the sheer number of totally nonsensical game mechanics make this world holy unbelievable. The only one I’ll bother to mention is that this is supposed to be a near-future, very basic, gloves and goggles, zero feedback, VR game, but the authors seem to forget that it’s not a full immersion futuristic game-world for 75% of the book. Which would only be kind of annoying if they didn’t then point out that it’s a gloves and goggles game every other chapter.

To be clear, I’m not making these claims as a nitpicking nerd, who went through the book looking for numerical discrepancies. I’m saying that every aspect and mechanic of the game was added in or even taken away at any given point that the authors’ were too lazy to create actual tension or suspense. I guess they decided that their “experienced gamer” MC could be a total idiot (and make mistakes that no person who had been playing the game for years would) only so many times when they needed to add suspense or tension. Because unfortunately that’s the other way that they got out of actually writing a compelling story.

For best-selling authors, (one of whom actually professes to be a Dungeon Master in the “about the authors” section) to write a book this full of holes about a VR Game felt like a base money-grab. The gamelit genre is hot right now so they figured they could slap something together and put some lipstick on it and sell a whole bunch of copies of this dirty pig of a LitRPG book.

These authors are big enough that they have to have beta readers. That the book was released in this laughable condition of half-assedness is just lazy.

I haven’t made it all the way through any of their other books, but if this is the quality standards they hold to then I’m glad I haven’t made the mistake of listening to them.

In summation, if you have not read or listened to any good gamelit books, and never played any RPG style video games, you should still be bothered by the fact that all of the drama and tension in this story was presented via lazy deus ex machina problems and dumb mistakes by the MC.

If on the other hand you are a gamelit and/or an RPG fan then RUN, don’t walk away from this idiotic audiobook.

The only reason why I’m not 1-starring this book is that there were no obvious grammar or writing mechanics flaws and the narrator while not amazing was also not distractingly bad either.

An incredible journey

Another hit for Chaney. I'm surprised he can pull off so many different stories and worlds. I just finished reading Renegade Star (space scifi) and the Variant Saga (dystopian) and now this. I'm a bit older and didn't get into the more recent games, but I did play the original Everquest and enjoyed it quite a bit (for several years). This book felt like the fantasy I imagined when I first picked up a mouse and keyboard and dove into EQ back in the late 90s. I found myself listening to this in the car and not wanting to get out (I was late to my daughter's party by 15 minutes because I was just in the car listening haha). Looking forward to more.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Finally, a lit RPG that doesn't involve a bunch of adult material (you know the kind!). Thank you for writing an actual piece of literature instead of a bunch of smut. This was a real treat and I can't wait for the next one!

A breath of fresh air

I've listened to most of Chaney's stuff, but never any of Anspach's. This is a truly awesome change to the typical space opera and military scifi that Chaney has done in the past. I played Warcraft for years (along with Everquest) and this book definitely captures that feeling. It's also nice to see a book that doesn't drop F-bombs every five seconds. I can actually listen to this with my kids and we can all enjoy it. Definitely check it out if you liked Ready Player One, as it has a similar feel to it, but with more attention to detail and a greater emphasis on actual gaming.

I'm looking forward to book 2 already!

An excellent start of a new series

Props to both Jason Anspach and JN Chaney for a thrilling story in the litRPG sub-genre. The MC was well defined as an troubled youth who had weight issues and found his escape from the harshness of contemporary society by diving head-long into a new and exciting online game named King's League. In it, we find him scavenging for leftover dropped loot in hopes to sell it online to pay for his rent. He had one real world friend who joined him in his online quests, mostly to hang out and help him in his scavenging efforts. There were no romantic interests in this first novel, mostly because of his social status and unemployment situation. However, what there was is a lot of well-written and narrated game quests in an Everquest type of medieval environ (Humans, Elves, Gnomes, dragons, &c).

The authors also artfully avoided stat-bane that many books from this genre suffer from in the narrated format. They did so by NOT stopping the quest after every acquisition of loot or level up to recite the long list of stat and equipment changes but, rather, worked the story so that it only occurred after several level-up progressions. Some may find criticism with the MC's finding of an enchanted helm that allowed him to progress from level 1 to level 99 in the first novel but, honestly, I'm looking for entertainment when listening to a novel not authenticity to the rigid rules of online gaming and this book delivers that in spades.

The ending has a preview into what's in store for book 2 and I am kind of excited for it to be completed since it hints that the environment for his next challenge may be one of a cyberpunk-ish realm.

Mark Boyett delivers his usual and always appreciated best in his performance.

fantastic audio book

phenomenal book with a great story and narrating. do yourself a favor and get this book. no cheesy adult scenes or childish romance. huge pluses in its favor.

Worth listening to

However, the MC was a bit wishy washy, not as strong as I prefer. Most of this book is listening to him level up and worry about his rent irl. It could have been better. There is no book two yet but I'm not sure if I would buy it if there was. Could use improvement.

really pleasantly surprised

this one side of my wish list for a while as one of those ones for when I got around to it. my expectations were really of this being a filler as I waited for books and other series to come out but wow was I wrong. it was an awesome book. I loved it

first fantasy book I have read.

loved this book. even having no knowledge with video games and RPG stuff, I was able to follow the story with ease. such an awesome story of a guy escaping reality with real life problems, then becoming the hero! i hope a second book is in the works. I truly enjoyed this book.

Don’t start if you need sleep

The book is amazingly good.. I could not stop listening.. Well not until my wife woke at 3am and told me to go to sleep... you will love it!!!

Brilliant listen

Love this book so much, I even listened to it a second time (re-listening ready to start to latest book) and enjoyed it just as much, if not more ! Brilliant work by the narrator, brings it alive ! Definitely recommend,

awesome.fun - felt.like I was playing the game!

Not a gamer. but always had a desire to be a D and D need but never got round to it. This book makes up for all of that - super fun, super energetic and I actually couldn't put it down so to speak. perfect narrator too. go get!

love it!

Really enjoying the book, nearly done! As soon as I finish, I'll jump straight onto book 2!

loved it

if you love gamelit you will love this book. cant wait to see what happens next

Weird but cool!!

Loved this book. Definitely different to anything I've read or listened to before, but compelling!

Enjoyable listening

A good LitRPG with some annoying issues , although i liked the character Dirk for a Beta player and a long time player he still made a lot of dumb moves. Maybe something to do with his written character development perhaps, either way it slowed the story down somewhat till closer to the end when he plays smarter. This read more like a single story but there is enough to carry on to forthcoming stories and i would stick with it .
Narration was good by Boyett and i enjoyed his take on the characters and story.

brilliant book

great story and amazing game world extremely descriptive brilliant book very well written and performed well worth the listen