The Chosen One

Annoying Pretty Much the Whole Way Through

Review by: The Audiobook ReviewI honestly had high hopes for this one, as it sounded great. A story told from the perspective of a Non-Player Character (NPC) in a video game world. After being glitched into surviving her death, Qube, the tutorial character, experiences life outside the starting village where she has lived her whole life. Unfortunately, due to her programming and the completely unlikable hero of the story, this just failed to win me over.

Qube obviously doesn't know she's an NPC. She has programming rules to follow, even if she's made it out of the starting zone and into the wider game where she definitely isn't supposed to be. It's just she comes across as so mind-melting stupid that it's hard to like her. Stupid characters can be fun when written properly, but Qube just seems too stupid to live.

Then there's the Chosen One. By the way, don't expect much in the way of names. The Chosen One, Sewer Bard, Sexy Screamy Spider Lady, and Definitely Bad Guy are those you'll meet along the way. But I digress. The Chosen One is an alpha-tester and is in there to break as much stuff in the game as possible. That means trying everything outside what the game expects.

Which is fine, but the guy is such a douchebag. Everything from how he acts to how he talks to or, more often, ignores, the characters in-game. Yes, I get he's there to break stuff, but he's not even trying to play the game.

The narration by the crew at Soundbooth Theater couldn't even save this for me. I've no issues with the quality of the narration or the voices - excellent as I've come to expect from Soundbooth Theater, but let down by the story.


Should further releases appear, I won't be continuing with this series,