Party Hard (Pixel Dust #1)

\”Party Hard (Pixel Dust Book 1)\” is super edgy, according to a little game I\’ve been playing with the LitRPG genre. I ask, \”How far do I have to read down the list of standard playable races, on the Pathfinder RPG rules site, to find your main characters?\” In this case there\’s a party of six: four humans, but the hero\’s best friend is playing the unpopular Fairy race, and one of the others is a Reynard who is human with animal ears plus tail. Also, one of the six (the Fairy) is playing an opposite-sex character and this is more than an occasional joke. I appreciate this effort to do something a little original with the character builds. That includes the classes: we have a Fury (gunslinger), a Coin (grappling-hook rogue), Venom (quick-damage mage as opposed to Cauldron), and the most generic is a Shield (energy-barrier specialist). I also award points for the unusual gimmick that the game is played while sleeping, making it affect people\’s real-world lifestyles in an unusual way. The plot is mostly standard: Bad guy threatens a beloved game, and good guys have to complete an in-game quest that somehow stops this. In this case, a businessman hired a genius who invented this amazing technology, then fired him once the business was making money rather than letting him continue to innovate. But the twist here is that the businessman is the good guy; the genius has been doing unethical crazy experiments and it really wasn\’t necessary to interfere with the already-popular game to continue trying his mad science schemes. So, again, there are some unusual ideas here that help keep the story from being stale for me. I enjoyed the character interaction. Read me a series of descriptions of how the hero is using his super cool magic spell to do lots of damage, and I\’ll get bored. Tell me instead about how Hero A is making a point of shielding Hero B while feeling guilty about Hero C, and what each of them sacrificed to get certain unique items or help the others past a trap, and how they react on meeting each other for real, and I\’m much more likely to care what\’s going on. \”Party Hard\” succeeds at that. What did I dislike? The plot isn\’t really resolved. There\’s what TVTropes called a Council of Vagueness, where villains mutter to each other with phrases like \”All according to plan… We have an agent in place… Activate our secondary doomsday scheme.\” We never do find out quite what the villain was trying to accomplish, and that strikes me as less of a sequel hook than a refusal to wrap up a plotline and show its consequences. I also dislike the \”oh no, somehow that person can\’t log out anymore!\” trope because of the handwavy soft science it requires, and that element does rear its ugly head eventually. All in all though, I enjoyed this book.

I picked up this book solely on the recommendation by Travis Baldree. I know a narrator makes a living off of the sales of his his/her books, but there are occasions when Travis makes a little more effort in promoting a book\’s release, and when he says that this book was one of his favorites to do, I believe him! And boy I\’m glad I did as it\’s one of the best litRPG\’s that I\’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing! Party Hard is tightly written, fun, and it has a lot of action. I\’m sure you\’ll find plenty to L?VE, from a ship named Nostromo, to a reference about Little Nemo in Slumberland, plus there\’s even a quip about Mothra! The pleasure I got from Party Hard was due in part to Travis Baldree\’s wonderful voice performance. I think that his own delight with the story was transmitted directly into my brain somehow! So grab this perfectly delightful book, join-up with Max, Kira, and the rest of their group, and remember… Party Hard! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This story is fast-paced yet deep, and deals with real-world issues despite taking place mostly in a virtual world. The suspense keeps you hooked, and it\’s easy to get sucked into both the physical narration of the audiobook and the text narration of the physical book. Lately, I\’ve been on a non-fiction kick so reading this was something that allowed my imagination to run wild in a deeply detailed world. Many characters stood out to me, both in this world and in the virtual one, such as Farn, Max & Kira, as well as their real-world equivalents. It does not take long to get pulled into this adventure story with surprisingly heart-warming characters and a real twist in the ending that will bring readers back for more.

Intricate characters who dance between humor, horror, anxiety, and moral quandaries. The world is immersive, the characters feel real, and their interactions are fascinating. An argument could be made that the cast was a little heavy on awkward introverts, and excessive goodwill between main characters, but at the same time, it only stretches probability, and I found the lack of secret-keeping and lying refreshing. So many of shows and books tend fall back on betrayal and drama as a staple in stories.

I didnt really appreciate how invested i had become in these characters until near the end of the book. The character development in this story is simply outstanding, and the setting offers a suprisingly fresh take over the more standard game lit fare. An absolute must read

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member