Lair

Henchman, Book 1

By: Carl Stubblefield

Narrated by: Travis Baldree

Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

A deserted island. An impregnable fortress. Step up or be stepped on.

Gus is a henchman separated from his friends at his new job, a henchman on an orbiting space base. He's happy with the gig, and has no real delusions of grandeur. Well...small delusions, but he’s seen all too often what happens to minions that get too uppity around their supervillain bosses.

His father had pulled a few strings and landed him a henchman position in hopes he could make something of himself. Before he's barely gotten used to the job, Gus narrowly escapes the base's destruction and is chucked at the planet below. The only reason he survived the fall was a damaged escape pod and the activation of his own latent powers. Marooned on a deserted island and yet somehow being hunted, Gus needs to step up and become the master of his own story.

Gus is a henchman, some would now say a villain, so there’s no chance of a hero coming to his rescue.

©2020 Carl Stubblefield (P)2020 Mountaindale Press

My inner future "Kotou no Boukensha"

With some action, snark, and survival.... the leveling on the character was really was enjoyable. He has power but it also stayed practical which I thought was pretty refreshing. Travis of course was fabulous as always :D!

Lair is quite fun, ➕ Travis Baldree is da' bomb!

I found Lair to be quite fun, and it's the first time I've read/listened -to, a Superhero genre book wound around a litRPG novel... Our Main Character finds himself initially on what appears to be a deserted island and at the start of a RPG with a count down, he has 9 days to win or die! Will he accept the challenge Y/N? But, the island isn't what it seems because, something dark is out there and it has been waiting/lurking for years in order to get even!
Gus and his game AI (actually smart nanotech) have to work out the rules in order to play the RPG. Gus starts out normal but gradually becomes OP during the play of the game as his recessive genes and the nanites take over...
At times Gus is overwhelmed by his memories and terrible relationship with his father... as a normal, he's always been a disgrace to his father's Superhero image!
If I had any complaint it would be about the amount of time spent dwelling on his relationship with his dad, but I also get it. Family, and what they think of you, is pivotal to a childs well being, so there's that. But we get enough of everything else too, which keeps the story moving forward!
And Travis Baldree is in very fine form as he narrates Lair!

Liked it

good story but to be honest i don't know if the MC is op or not also what happened to the little girl that released the virus?

Surprising Excellent

I picked this up for a quick listen not really expecting much. Really surprise me though, great story excellent narration.

Good

Travis is great as always. The character growth is slow but good and though the pop culture references are enjoyable, I can see them making osteomyelitis to this again become irritating. Gus' use of "Dag yo!" is kinda odd as well

It was worth taking a chance on

great story the main is actually relatable vary good book overall looking forward to the next one!

New Author gets actively better as book unfolds

In the begging there are a lot of seeming plot holes, that seem to be mere contrivances of the genre, but all of them have explanations that resolve the seeming plot hole.
At first they bothered me, but by the end the I was able to just take it on faith that each unacknowledged "plot hole" that I saw, had a secret explanation we would discover later. The author had proven he would resolve all of them eventually, and that I should just assume anything illogical I noticed was actually a clue at a bigger secret.
(One exception is an editing mistake where he accidentally said he had been listening to the same song for 2 hours. But that is the only one.)
the author is a new author, and over the course of the book his writing style actively gets better.
It isn't very good in the beginning, but he comes into his own before the end of the book. I expect he will continue to improve as the series continues.
I am giving the overall 4 stars, because of the beginning bringing down the overall score.

a lot of adventurous geeky fun.

Travis was great, as always. Carl is my kind of geek, if his writing is any indication, so I'm a bit biased. But this story is a lot of fun and bodes well for his MCs future adventures.

Flawed protagonist overcoming disppointing past

This was a great introduction to the universe. Felt let a very well put together solo campaign RPG game. Flawed protagonist gets super powers, grows, and starts overcoming his past, and begins to investigate an EXTREMELY interesting universe, and why his super powers come with a game interface. I enjoy that he is self reflective and realizes he is in over his head, but it trying anyways.

Exciting

I really liked this book, I liked it so much I immediately bought the next book in the series. I like this take on super powers and LITRPG. I'm excited to see what happens next.