Read Time: 2 Minutes
A cute, easy-going adventure of a small shrub and his companions. Shrubley, our hero as the cover art and name suggests is a shrub. Magically brought to life by a druid, he finds himself with an invite to join the Adventures Guild, much to the annoyance of the existing adventurers. Shrubley is technically a monster, something that adventurers typically would fight and kill.
But with a legitimate invite and the backing of the guild and world system itself (sort of an “ain’t no rules says a dog can’t play basketball” situation), he ventures forth with eternal optimism and a wooden training sword to complete his first quest and become a full member.
Along the way his ability to see the good in everything nets him some stalwart companions including a skeleton, a slime and a koblin (like a kobold goblin, I guess), along with some others. They accidentally stumble upon a dastardly plot by a bunch of snakes that want to take over the village and get cast into a “mirror” realm.
The story is cute and inoffensive, if mildly dull. Not terrible and I certainly liked listening to the whole thing, but for the most part there was no real sense of urgency to anything, and it plodded along from one encounter to the next. It did pick up towards the end though which certainly helped.
Not heavy on stats or the like to wade through. Even as Shrubley gains a few extra abilities, the stat readouts don’t take too long so don’t bog down the story. The magic system is colour-coded and relatively straight forward. With a unique ability, Shrubley unlocks some interesting abilities that help both him and his friends advance.
It’s read by Travis Baldree, so you know it’s going to be well produced and easy to listen to. As expected, he didn’t disappoint.
So, will I continue with the series when the next book comes out? A solid “maybe” at this stage. It was ultimately a fun and easy story to listen to with an interesting and different cast of characters than the norm… just I can’t help but think it could have used a little more oomph to push it something really excellent.
Time will tell, and I’ll see what happens when the next book drops.