Morningwood: Everybody Loves Large Chests (Vol.1)

By: Neven Iliev

Narrated by: Jeff Hays

Length: 8 hrs and 24 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

Fun and Lighthearted Read

Morningwood takes you on a lighthearted adventure, with a very deliberate attempt to not take itself too serious. It also has a very fresh take with the protagonist, probably unlike what you have seen before. I also wouldn't be scared away by the references of sexual content. There is a lot of suggestive wording, but the actual sexual content is only occasional and over very quickly.

Jeff Hayes narrates this and continues to be fantastic. Everything he and Soundbooth Theater does is a cut above. Jeff is, hands down, my favorite narrator.

I tried, I really tried

I got about 3 hours into this audiobook before I had to give up. The performance was fine and the story concept was good. The low-brow humor was tolerable. I just could not abide by the treatment of women in this book - especially the detailed descriptions of women getting sexually aroused by being brutalized. Just. No.

Contrary to popular review: not funny

Currently at chapter 16, about halfway through the book. Thus far all I am getting is a gore-fest with the author's occasional descriptions of someone's sexual urges and bodily deacriptions.

Maybe there will be a change later on, but your MC is just a mindless eating machine with no morals. There really isn't any humor, imo. If that's your jam, go for it.

I'll finish listening and adjust review as needed, but I'm not very hopeful.

Edit: Completed book. It picks up somewhat towards the end- likeable even. The author includes plenty of unnecessary lewd details. I honestly can't recommend this book.

waste of time.

to much character development for characters that die 5 seconds later feels like a waste of time learning about them just to have them die right away. the summary is a lie.

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.

Turned into a book about torture

This book is about torture and specifically the torture of women. #Not Recommended

I guess there is other stuff in this book, and the mimics struggle to survive in the beginning was entertaining, but it was just drowned out by vileness. Maybe it had a happy ending, but I will never know.

that was such a blast I'm so glad there's a sequel

If you could sum up Morningwood: Everybody Loves Large Chests (Vol.1) in three words, what would they be?

Funny, Engaging, Tasty

What did you like best about this story?

I thought the way the mimic was written was positively hilarious! I've never heard a story told from a mimic's stand point, but the fact it's a stupid box made for a lot of great moments.

Which scene was your favorite?

Meeting arms. Everything from talking to Karl to being given a name, it was great.

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

I got it over in two days. I bought it on a slow day and work, listened after I got home, and finished it the next day at work. I didn't want to put it down!

Any additional comments?

It was so funny, I was snickering all the time! The preview had me worried it might have been a story written from a DnD party's perspective, but no, it's actually written from the perspective of the mimic in the scene. I had a great time and I'm picking up the second book now.

tasty indeed

the cover is slightly misleading but prefect! I loved the perspective and found myself marathoning this story. I'm hopeful for an equally fun sequel. The only reason I could see for any potential dislike is the person being a prude to be honest. The crude humor is perfect and adds to the performance.

OMG!, D&D With SERIOUS humor. A MUST READ!

I don't know what to write so let me start with this, OMG, this was great, I want more, whatever you do don't stop writing! the humor alone was great. I'm old-school D&D so you add the two together and I know exactly where your book is coming from and I just couldn't get enough. what I want to know is what games did you base your book off of because I would play it LOL!!!

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.

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!

Randomly found this now a life long fan

I seen this in my recommendations in my kindle store. It kept appearing finally I thought why not and I was not disappointed in fact it introduced me to litrpgs I since got this audio version and I am now a patron of the author.

So about the book

It's about the rise of a weak character to a killing machine in essence. Old trope sure but with a few twists. There is sex, greed, manipulation, deception, sexisism and murder however as the main character is asexual and amoral these are done by side and minor characters allowing for a completely different way of telling these types of stories.
This performance is well done in my opinion as said above I read it first and when I heard the male voice voicing the female characters for the first 5 min I was dubious, Jeff hays however has enough vocal range to carry the performance.
The stats spoken is the only bad thing I have the type of mind that doesn't mind that however I know this isn't everyone's "cup of tea" and those sections do lend themselves to the kindle version also the audio does give the option to skip them through the chapters menu so win win as long as you aren't in bed.
I hope the few that are still reading will get this book and enjoy it as much as I did the author is still writing and finished book 3 not that long ago the story gets better and better.

My god this book is shit!

Boring, long and uninteresting. I was expecting a kinda sexy and fun book about a dnd adventure but was filled with bad jokes, long descriptions of leveling up and the sexy stuff wasn't even good. My lord this was the worst.

Great performance and story

Hays breeds life into the book's controversially inked characters. Making the experience quite fun for those who enjoy the dark humor and a ar'nt squeamish to the macabre.

Written with RPG gamers as its target audience, some sensitive people may find this offensive but there should still be a place for works like these. Overall, if some of the writing style can be overlooked, an amusing story. Blizzard took a similar approach with the original Dungeon Keeper game in its tone and humor so if you enjoyed that, you will likely enjoy this.

Tasty Indeed ...

This is the start to an extremely fun fantasy romp, that grabbed me from the first chapter and at the time of writing this, I have almost finished the last book.

The story is fun, and flagrantly ridiculous, but completely understandable considering our main character.

The writing is tight and varied, never getting bogged down with poor syntax.

Jeff Hays is a stellar narrator and has an amazing range, but I suspect his voice has been digitally change (not that this is a negative).

This is one of the few audio books that fully embraces the 'Audio' part by adding background sound effects to help emphasise certain parts.

This book is Lewd, ridiculous, silly, violent, abhorrent, exciting and I love it.

You may not like this book if you hate D&D, sexuality, casual massacres or shiny things.

Dare you enter the Dungeon?

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

Very funny. Don't take it seriously.

This audiobook's title and cover are amusingly misleading. This is definitely not a story for a young audience, despite the fact that there are plenty of examples of immature (or mature) humour. At first I took characters seriously and found that is not the best way for me to enjoy this book. For me, I enjoyed it most when I just enjoyed the dark, and blue humour, and absurdity of the narrative for what it was. I'm likely to read the following entries to this series, but more as a light break between other works.

TASTY.

It is one of the funniest fantasy novels I've heard in a long time. If you ever played any kind of fantasy role play, this is a must read.

Surprising find, listen if you enjoy a laugh!

Listened to the sample and was hooked. The story is interesting and varied, characters well thought out and amusing. Not safe for kids though, very sexually explicit. Adults with a good sense of humour will enjoy this.

It’s very tasty.

Much better than expected!

story is great twist on your classic litrpg where the "protagonist" is a monster.

I must admit I was very put off by the cover thinking it might be the litrpg equivalent of 50 shades but it isn't at all.

it's an original, funny and engrossing story of a monster's progression. 5/5 read if you like games or RPGs