Mogworld

By: Yahtzee Croshaw

Narrated by: Yahtzee Croshaw

Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

In a world full to bursting with would-be heroes, Jim couldn't be less interested in saving the day. His fireballs fizzle. He's awfully grumpy. Plus, he's been dead for about sixty years. When a renegade necromancer wrenches him from eternal slumber and into a world gone terribly, bizarrely wrong, all Jim wants is to find a way to die properly, once and for all.

On his side, he's got a few shambling corpses, an inept thief, and a powerful death wish. But he's up against tough odds: angry mobs of adventurers, a body falling apart at the seams—and a team of programmers racing a deadline to hammer out the last few bugs in their AI.

*Mogworld is the debut novel from video-game icon Yahtzee Croshaw (Zero Punctuation)!

©2012 Yahtzee Croshaw (P)2012 Yahtzee Croshaw

Critic Reviews

"The first legitimate breakout hit from the gaming community in recent memory."—Boing Boing

Wildly Entertaining

Loved it. I haven't read a Yahtzee book yet that I didn't love. Wether writing about knights and magic or a space captains adventures in space, one things for sure, you will be engrossed and laugh out loud entertained.

An unexpected amount of punctuation

After close to 16 years of listening to the author of Mogworld provide video game reviews at a rapid-fire pace that, according to YouTube comments, has frequently confounded new listeners, hearing Croshaw reading his novel slowly and clearly took a pick axe to the base of one of those pillars that holds up my established reality. It took approximately 30 minutes for me to adapt fully. Yahtzee has developed individual voices and speaking patterns for each character (likely during the writing process) that came out cleanly. One character's consistent use of third-person self-reference was annoying for a short time until the character grew on me. This recording was apparently created in 2012, before Audible raised their standards for quality. The audio is a touch scratchy and, though I actually enjoy this, the author can be heard turning pages throughout his reading of the story - in my opinion, it provides a more comfortable relationship with the audience.

Mogworld's story is centered around an undead novice mage. The connections to video games and, more specifically, massive multiplayer online gaming is not readily aparent for quite a large portion of the novel. I appreciate that Croshaw didn't immediately slap the listener in the face with, "Video games are what I know, so you're not idiotic enough to believe I would branch out with my first published novel, were you?" He left hints that built toward that revelation until making the connections blatant.

It's hard not to compare this novel to other works that connect to gaming. Stross and Cline both created better stories and were more innovative in their ideas. That said, Croshaw's concepts were predictive of what the gaming industry has moved towards (and will very likely continue to do in the future). I write this review after watching a recent Extra Punction presentation on games that try to do too much. As much as I and the author fear this trend from reaching its pinnacle, I can't deny it is likely inevitable.

I'll rate this novel as "If I didn't know who wrote this, I would have correctly guessed after 20 pages".

Not as good as his later work, but still amazing

The story is gets really dark at times and there is some language which would be less acceptable in current times than when it was written; it also could have used the good "When you are finished with the book, go back and cut 10%"; there is a slight feeling of bloat and the pacing seems to consist entirely of spikes of tension which leave the reader weary.

Despite that, it is an amazing work of satire with a deeper story and emotional stake than others in this genre, and as a piece of literature it is still miles above much of the work in its multiple genres. I did not foresee the ending hitting me as much as it did, and beyond the comedy of the journey, there is a lot of heft in what is essentially a journey of self-awareness (pun untended) and a certain understanding of mortality. I don't think I'll ever re-listen to this book (outstanding as the narration is) but I am sure glad I did.

Better without the first half

Around the 50% mark, I realized what was bothering me about the book. For a while I thought it was just mediocre, but I finally remembered the YA genre and it clicked. This is a juvenile book, full of cliche anti-cliches and wacky characters without much depth. The narration doesn't help, delivering jokes with Yahtzee's usual force non-stop, undercutting the effect and making me grind my teeth a bit.

The good news is that the last half or so turns around, switching from "dude bounces between wacky adventures for no reason" to "there's actually a plotline". I wouldn't say it's worth the time it took to get there, but at least there was some payoff.

Clever and entertaining

I enjoyed the premise of the story, and despite being one that seemed familiar, it stil managed to surprise me with shine of the twists.

The main character is oddly relatable, and in fact I'd say that to those who think the rule about making characters relatable doesn't make sense in fantasy, here's a prime example of how to do that. In one of the most ridiculously unrelatable scenarios a character could ever possibly find themselves in, Jim manages to be more relatable than most story protagonists.

I had read Yahtzee's Will Save The Galaxy books before I found this one, and his characterizations are great here just like in those. I do love it when an author has the guts to narrate their own audiobooks, as no one really knows those characters as deeply as they do.

His later work is much better.

Has the same feel and downsides as JAM. But better than that one. Love his other books though

Unique, Funny, and Entertaining

I loved the humor and the odd perspective this story had. I'm not sure how to praise it without giving any spoilers, but it definitely scratched an itch for a humorous fantasy novel and was expertly narrated.

it's alright

currently a little more than 3 hours in and it's just decent. I wouldn't say I'm enjoying it or hating it. I got it on sale for a couple dollars so it's probably worth that.

Loved the book

pretty sure this is Yahtzee's first book. It shows. he wrote what he knew and it's outstanding, but his performance is not great. For a lot of sections he drones a bit, just reading, not acting. You can frequently hear him clear his throat or swallow some spit. But the book itself is hysterical and just a good time all round.

amazing book

This is an amazing book. it has some very well written passages. its very funny.

Great comedy in a fantasy world setting

Dark humor and veiled deep questions about self and meaning in this page turner of a book.

One of his best.

Regrettably dull

Love his other work. This was slow, dull and felt like it went on forever. Avoid.

what was with the rabbit?

why did that character turn into a rabbit? seemed really pointless honestly, I thought it was going to lead up to some big mystery but it was just some people like being rabbits. I had a few gripes with other stuff like this but in general it made me burst out laughing enough times that I can say I definitely enjoyed it. definitely a respectable first book for Yahtzee.

Love listening to the author narrate

A really fresh perspective on story telling. After jam I had to come straight into another book.

Had to re-listen

Heard those years ago, I enjoyed it so much, I’ve continually kept checking to see if Mr Croshaw had released more books. Glad to say he had.
So eventually got round to listening to mog world again, enjoyed it just as much if not more than the first time round.
The dry sense of humour never fails to tickle.

grate storry

loved it. heard it once some years ago. I was so happy when i found it on here. since i wanted to hear it but had lost the audio file i had of it.

Funny, if a tad repetitive

Yazhtees humour carries the books lagging elements, but overall still an enjoyable read with fun characters, fantastic voice acting and a satisfying enough ending

Brilliant if predictable in places

Sure some of it was more obvious, but it was entertaining and funny and I enjoyed it.
Yahtzee isn't the best narrator but he is funny and believes in his characters.
It felt like it ended a bit suddenly in a way, but that's often the case when you love characters, you don't want them to stop existing.

He just doesn't miss

Yahtzee has done it again.
Phenomenal world building, great humour, excellent performance.
Looking forward to all future work of his.

Great listen

Loved the story and the characters (most of them anyway). Was nice to see that Jim never truly understands, perspective is everything.