The Level One Bookshop

A Cozy LitRPG-lite Fantasy

By: Arthur Glenwood

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Edwin Salamand has lived on a farm his whole life. The problem? He's not very good at farming, or anything involving the outdoors, for that matter. When his salamander farm goes belly up, he decides to move to a nearby city. A deal too good to be true goes awry, and he ends up with a dusty old bookshop filled to the brim with unassuming level one skill tomes. Pamphlets, really. It's not the most exciting windfall, but it's a path to an honest life, one that Edwin is confident he can handle.

Because running a bookshop for beginners has got to be safe and simple, right?

It turns out Edwin's little shop is sitting smack dab in the center of not three, but four magical schools for people that actually enjoy getting soil underneath their fingernails. Also known as, adventurers.

As eager warriors-in-training, alongside the occasional rowdy orc, descend upon Edwin's humble little shop, he's going to find himself unexpectedly teaching lessons big and small. Maybe learning them, too, because sometimes it's not the size of the book that matters, but how hard you throw it...

The Level One Bookshop is a cozy LitRPG-lite story that blends slice-of-life episodes and the occasional bookworm-worthy adventure.

A potentially great story turned into a good story

I found the idea this book presented very interesting and the blurb was enough for me to go ahead and get it. Story wise I very much enjoy the book. Excellent idea of a zero level character just doing what it takes and finding joy in their work. My only real complaint is to much emphases on trying to enforce/reenforce(?) an idea or point across. When this happened it pulled me out of the story and sometimes made me roll my eyes a bit. There may have been some opportunities for plot twists too, but Im glad they were not taken. I do look forward to the next book.

The virtual voice though.... I gave a Performance of a 2 mostly because there was a decent and different tone instead of being monotones. There were several words that were either pronounced wrong or outright the wrong word was said and it was obvious it should have been another word.

Over all I enjoyed the book, thank you for bringing this into the world.

Virtual Narration May be "Too Cozy" That It Flattens Story.

This was my first virtual narrated book. The voice was more inflexive than I expected and did a mostly decent job of not pausing in odd places and not sounding uplifting during scenes that were more like chastisements and vice versa. I'm not sure if the voice was AI based and coached into sounding "cozy," but there was a certain flatness to the experience. I was glad to have it finished and a little dismayed to hear there was a sequel. The story itself could do all right with a sequel, but I don't want to sit through another 10 hours in this series.

...There is also a level where the voice sounds like it was told to project its voice, so there is also a kind of shouting quality to its sound, which is kind kind of anti-cozy.

Enjoyable low key story

This story is good background. The characters are interesting, I like the setting. No action but the story flowed well enough. I’m not a fan of the AI voice but if you up the playback speed it’s not bad.

The level one book store

The computer automation voice has no soul. The pitch never charges. It like listening to someone read a manual.

Loved the setup and the theme of the shop.

What I did not particularly care for is the repetitive story, wealthy store owner, does not like competition. This same wealthy guy knows just which officials to bribe to make life difficult, and when he still does not get his way uses increasingly nasty attempts to causes issues.
That being said, Its well worth the listen if your in between books.