Read Time: 3 Minutes
This was absolutely my cup of tea, or rather given it’s a pub, my pint of ale. So much so that before I had even finished book one, I’d purchased book two just so I didn’t have to leave the world when the book came to an end. The afterlife has never been so cozy, even when you’re on a world surrounded demons. After dying in battle, our main character Sylas Runewulf awakes in the afterlife. A prompt in his vision tells him that he has been given the deed to the local pub.
Of course, it’s run down and in a small town with barely anyone living there. But that doesn’t stop Sylas from getting on with the job. After spending most of his life fighting a war, he wants a nice, easy life now he’s dead. There is an invasion countdown though, which is a little worrying, but nobody seems to know anything about it.
For the most part, that’s what he gets. Along with the guardian of the tavernly realm, Patches the pub’s cat, the local apothecary, Mira, and Azor, a fire elemental from the chasm where the demons reside, Sylas gets the pub going and has a lot of big plans for his new town. He as all of eternity to look forward to but getting there slowly isn’t in his nature.
There’s action and adventure, but none of it overwhelms the cozy, laidback nature of the story. So much of it is focussed around getting his life and (since I’ve already finished book two) other business ventures in order. There are fight scenes, but none that are the main focus. There are stats, but because of the way the class and magic system works, anytime these are read they’re over within about ten seconds.
The magic / monetary system works on Mana Lumens (MLus for short). Buying or selling anything needs MLus. Casting magic or learning a new spell costs MLus, and get progressively more expensive so as nobody gets overpowered. Probably not a good idea to go poking too hard into the Mana Lumen system, because while it works for the story, I honestly don’t think it’d scale well in practice. Just listening to the story, I could think of a number of ways to game the system.
Fortunately, the story is written in such a way that it’s not really a problem. While we get general explanations, nothing is ever in-depth enough to paint glaring loopholes that the characters could work out. By not drawing attention to them, it’s easy enough to glide the story by and just get on with slinging beers.
The narrator, Matthew Wolf, did a great job with this. An excellent range of voices that suited the characters and their personalities. Even Patches the cat, and later other animals. Quality was great, as expected from Podium Audio. A few really minor background noises, but I could count them on one hand.
Will I continue the series? I’ve already answered that! I started listening to book two, A Farm in the Afterlife, as soon as the first had finished. This was truly a delightfully cozy story. Wonderful characters and an interesting premise of what the afterlife could entail. Hopefully the next book won’t be too long in coming along, but I’ll be grabbing that as soon as it’s ready.