Rule of Cool

A LitRPG Novel

By: Matthew Siege

Narrated by: Felicia Day

Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

Actress, YouTube star, and goddess of geekdom Felicia Day (The Guild, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) brings to life this screaming love letter to litRPG and the possibilities the genre embraces. Don’t miss her hilarious, high-paced performance of unforgettable characters in Rule of Cool - perfect for fans of Ryan Rimmel, Dakota Krout, and Shemer Kuznits.

Raze is "just" a lowly Gearblin chained to the quest-giver desk at the worst (and only) arcade in town. And that’s a problem for her. It means that she’s a Non-Participating Citizen, someone who can’t see her stats nor make opposed rolls against Heroes. It’s why her life’s worth less than the vendor trash she doles out.

The old-timers swear it didn’t used to be like this; their issues only began once RNGesus went AFK a thousand years ago, leaving the questionably blessed Heroes to conquer everything without consequence. Fortunately, Raze is not about to let something as trivial as a millennium of injustice cramp her style. She’s got a crush on a frustratingly optimistic dreamer who talks her into using the Konami Code as a map to scale the conveniently located and suitably forbidden fortress. And when they reach the top, everything changes.

[Up up, down down, left right, left right. B. A. Start]

What follows is Raze and her mismatched crew doing their damnedest to burn the new "old" ways down to the ground, squaring off against thousands of noob heroes in epic, crunchy, badass, mechanized carnage!

©2021 Matthew Siege (P)2021 Podium Audio

Critic Reviews

“Fun, funny, and full of heart. Nerds rejoice for the Rule of Cool." (Felicia Day, Actress - Supernatural, YouTube's Geek & Sundry) 

Before you buy, listen to the preview

Seriously, stop right now and listed to the first 3 minutes of the sample audio.

All that detail about about rolls and modifiers for the simplest interaction? That is CONSTANT. There are hundreds of these types of rolls in the book for every tedious interaction you can imagine.

Also, notice how they slid in the reference to a Yelp review? Yeah, this book is packed full of stuff like that and none of it makes a lick of sense. How do goblins living in a medieval fantasy world use Yelp? Don't think about it! And certainly don't think about the million other things in this book that make absolutely no sense and are just in there because "references are cool".

I thought I was buying a book about goblins who are weak so they rely on their crafting abilities to make a cool mech and upgrade it throughout the story. NOPE. They don't craft anything in the entire book, they just find a mech right at the end.

The story itself is almost non-existent. The only plan or goal the entire time is to not die. The main villain barely had a character, let alone character development.

None of the good stuff about LitRPG, like levelling skills up, unlocking classes or base building exists at all. The main character keeps getting XP but nobody ever levels up so everything feels pointless.

The only bright spot here was the Narration. Felicia Day did a great job.

Amazing

I'm not much of a reader and also i have a hard time finding a book to listen too, but this book is perfect for a geek like me 🤣 I will recommend this book! great story

Awesome combo of Ready Player One and NPC's

This series has some of the nostalgia factors of Ready Player one combined with the NPC humor of NPC's, and a healthy serving of Gearblin insanity caked on top. Fantastic story, great humor, and amazing narration. It's definitely top tier in the LitRPG genre, and I'd love to see another one if the author so decides (book is very stand alone).

amazing

This book was so well written and the narration by Felicia Day was top notch. loved every second of it.

New and Weird

These are two of my very favorite things. I’m new to RPG Lit, and I really enjoyed the way the RPG conventions tied into the social struggle. The story was a well spent credit, and on top of that, Felicia Day was a delight, as always. If you are already considering the book, you should get it.

A Great LitRPG / CRPG / MMO Parody

As per the description -- the story of a revolt of the enslaved quest-givers and shop owners living in a MMO, a gremlin/goblin crossbreed kept in life-is-cheap style servitude to supposedly 'lawful good' heroes! Overall this is a fun and entertaining story, being on one hand a munchkin-style power fantasy (I mean, these ARE technical genius 'Gearblins'), and on another a loving, subversive parody of the MMO genre.

In terms of humor style, think Kings of the Wyld -- there's a kind of self-aware sarcasm underneath the whole thing. And as other reviews have noted -- this is a world where 20th century media has been available for residents to watch and listen to for a for a millennium -- and this plays into the pastiche.

The protagonist, Raze, is actually a pretty well developed character for the length of book. She carries anger, she's cynical, she makes the mistake of projection and mindreading, and in over the course of the book she grows.

There's a nicely developed story, good humor, an enjoyable protagonist, and good narration. Well done.

great lil story

interesting story with good nerd refs and felicia day did amazing job narrating, recommend it.

Oh the references!

So well written with so many iconic references to TV, movies, books, genres, sci-fi and everything nerdy in-between! I am sure I will have to listen to it 100s of times to find all the Easter eggs and one liners. I have my favorites and so will you.

Felicia Day voiced so much passion and comedy at the same time in this wonderful story. I hope there is more stories to come and that she also will do more voice acting for this author. 10 out of 10

Cool

This was a rare impulse buy for me. I'm a huge Felicia Day fan, and knew I needed this book when I saw that she's the narrator. She does a fantastic job narrating - everything from tone to different character voices is perfect! It's like the book was written specifically for her.

The story is more of a 3.5 out of 5. It has some adventure, comedy, likable characters, a awesome main character, and a badass mech. I liked it enough so that I'd buy a sequel.

There's nothing too epic or exciting here, but this is a fun listen for LitRPG fans. Those who are just starting out with LitRPG should probably seek out something a bit more serious, and come back to this later.

Recommended

by far the funniest LitRPG I read in a long time. Oh and more sexual Indiando then you can shake a stick at.

Fantastic performance with a flawed story

Day is brilliant, and I hope she does more narrations in the future. The story is a bit under polished and the crit roles seem like an after thought added after the fact.

Great story but the stats distract

This is a great story and Felicia’s narration is masterful, but the constant listing of stats and rolls, I assume to emphasise this is a litrpg book pulls away from the narrative. I think if that toned down a bit after the initial flurry it would have been better.

great fun!

first litrpg book, but most certainly won't be my last. as an RPG tabletop fan, this really scratched the itch!

Not bad but kinda annoying.

While the book is funny it does take some of the RPG elements a little far. Braking the pace of the book to tell me what the person roled etc.

Good book for a newcomer to LitRPG

Edit: After listening to other books in the genre, I've updated my review.

The narration done by Felicia Day is spot on. She is immersive with all the characters, providing life to the world. However, listen to the preview - those rolls are constant throughout.

Matthew Siege also have a very messy storyline and sometimes you easily get confused as to what is going on, and what the goal is. It feels at times as if he had no idea where to take the story.

Furthermore, references to things such as Alexa (The speaker from Amazon) and other IRL products ruins the immersion, as it is never explained how characters have knowledge nor access to e.g. Spotify 👀

If you're a hardcore LitRPG fan, then this book is not for you. There is no world building, etc. If you're new to the genre, this is a good place to start and I'd love to see a continuation - but that is honestly primarily due to the narration.