Mogworld Review · 9:28am Mar 9th, 2014
Hi FimFiction!
This is a review of the book 'Mogworld' I wrote for school, and everyone's been saying that it's really good, so I've decided to upload it to the internet, and since I don't know any good review sites (for books) I've just decided to put it here, enjoy!
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Arthur - Yahtzee Croshaw
Book Name - Mogworld
Score out of 10 - 8.5
Review by - Billiamiscool
Warning, may contain spoilers
Mogworld is a comedic fantasy book that follows Jim, a young mage who has just started his journey to becoming a great and respected mage. But the story takes a rather unexpected turn where at the end of the first chapter, he dies. Which he actually enjoys quite a bit.
Then he’s brought back to life by a necromancer, and Jim now must start a new journey, a new quest to possibly save the world, but probably won’t. Because he’s on a quest to get himself killed. But being a zombie, and therefore, already dead, it’s impossible to die.
Then the castle and all the other zombies he’s been working with die. Leaving him ‘alive’ to have to deal with Meryl, an annoying undead nurse, a mysterious undead priest who believes that he’s an angel sent by god to deal with all evil in the world, and a mysterious ailment that all are simple calling the ‘Syndrome’, that leaves people stiff, mechanical, and obsessed with questing, adventuring, and points.
Now that the basic plot has been explained, let’s get to the bit where I explain why it’s a very good book and everyone should buy it.
For starters, it’s a comedy that has had me laughing out loud from start to finish. The characters are extremely wacky,and most of them are either unstable, dangerous, or both, my personal favorite being Slippery John, an adventurer who speaks in third person and has a necrophilia fetish. The book’s humor isn’t crude though, far from it actually, and while there are many jokes based around people vomiting all over Jim, it’s done in a way that’s has actual humor.
The main character, Jim, is also a great anti-hero, while at times you hate him, at other times he can be quite noble; and he just seems, human, he doesn’t seem like a character, he acts like a person would.
The book is also amazingly easy to read. I have severe dyslexia, therefore reading for anymore than half an hour is an amazing challenge, but I found myself making excuses to continue reading. Another great thing about how it’s written are the cliffhangers, they’re essentially perfect, they still have you intrigued enough to continue reading, but it doesn’t have you shouting at the book saying, ‘don’t end it there!’
The story is good also, it’s silly and has many twists and turns, while still staying on the same basic plot line, and it’s rather easy to follow, which means that you could put the book down for a couple of days and do something else, and when you get back you won’t be completely lost, and you can get straight back into it.
But while Mogworld has many strengths, it also has many shortcomings.
For one, the characters feel bland at times, and most of the bad guys are bad for sake of being bad, they have no real motive apart from, ‘they’re assholes’, and the main character, Jim, is rather annoying, and at times you’ll find yourself inclined to stop reading because Jim’s done something stupid and has pissed you off. And while Jim is a very fleshed out character, he also doubles up as the only fleshed out character. While most of the others, while very interesting and fun, seem rather 2D.
My main problem of the book is the end. I won’t spoil anything, it’s just unsatisfying, and you leave the book not begging for a sequel, but begging for an end.
Now, most people who are familiar with how reviews work would right now be saying, ‘shouldn’t this book be more like a 7/10? Why did you give such a high score?’ Well, I gave it the high score of 8.5/10 because it was just so damn entertaining. No, I’m not kidding.
The book is not perfect, not by any stretch of the imagination, and at times it is annoyingly obvious that this is Yahtzee Croshaw’s first novel. But unlike most ‘10/10’, ‘perfect’ books which are 17 million pages long and have such a deep meaning you need a submarine to get to them, Mogworld is actually fun to read, and is legitimately entertaining. And books don’t do this enough, there aren't enough writers who write books because they think it’d be fun, and not because they’re some war survivor with the most ridiculous understanding of how humans think.
But in conclusion I must say that Mogworld is greatly entertaining, and I’d recommend it to anyone who can find it. And while you won’t be getting a deep novel that makes you think about life, the universe, and everything. The sheer wit and fun that Mogworld has is more than enough to make up for it.
Dush