Big Sneaky Barbarian: A LitRPG Novel

Book 1

De: Seth McDuffee

Narrado por: Johnathan McClain

Duración: 20 h y 27 m

Resumen del Editor

One angry young man is about to take a fantasy realm by storm—or by accident—in the hilarious first book of a new series by the author of Good Boy.

Gabe Skelter has a temper, which he likes to imagine has the effect of causing people to fear and respect him. On the contrary, his pudgy, underdeveloped body and negative personality make him more your standard outcast teenager. Worse still, he kinda knows what a jerkweed he actually is.

Then, in the middle of a class trip, Gabe finds himself spirited away to Regaia: a world of magic, mayhem, and nerd-tastic adventure. Naturally, he’s completely ill-prepared. But in this realm, he’s a monstrous, muscular man of action. Unfortunately, he’s still saddled with the frightfully unimpressive brains of a teenage loser.

Now, Gabe must make his burly, bulky way in a land where the strong dominate, the powerful rule, and picking a class has nothing to do with algebra . . . and everything to do with survival.

Bristling with reckless abandon and antisocial attitude, Big Sneaky Barbarian is Die Hard with dungeons; a must-hear for fans of heavy-hitting action mixed with laugh-out-loud snark—and absolutely loaded with swears.

The first volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series—with almost 100,000 views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2022 Seth McDuffee (P)2022 Podium Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“This has gotten me very excited at the chance to be one of those authors quoted on a book.”—Shirtaloon, author of the He Who Fights with Monsters series and brazen Australian

“I loved every one of the words in this book! Especially how they followed one another in perfect sequence, each of them dazzling me with their sublime poise, vigor, and panache. Or at least that’s what I think I’d say if I read the thing. Are we done here now? Wait, don’t write that. Stop, what are you doing, don’t hit send . . .”—Luke Chmilenko, author of the Ascend Online series and collector of “antique” eggs

Story is alright, I hate the Main Character

The story itself is decent, and had it been any other Main Character, I probably would have lasted a little bit longer. If you enjoy a "meat head" for a Main character, you're in luck, for he is as brainless as they come. Not to say I wasn't warned, but I was kind of hoping for a spark in there somewhere.

This isn't to say the story was bad, or that the narration was off putting; in fact, the only reason I got so far was because I was curious about the world, and the narrator did decent work lending various voices for each character and action.

Ultimately, I'm just disappointed that I couldn't have fun with the novel.

Big Sneaky Barbarian is one of the funniest books

I recently read a review for this audiobook that is so perfectly written that I've reached out to the reddit user and obtained permission to use it here, as well as the narrator Johnathan McClain's direct response to this review

Reddit user /u/californiagovernor writes:

I’ve seen reviews swinging either way with this one but I’m going to say that without a doubt, the best new offering in this genre is Big Sneaky Barbarian.

While it has been posted on Royal Road since early 2022, it wasn’t published as a book/audiobook until December of 2022. With that: my god this book is good!

The short of it: Big Sneaky Barbarian is an unbelievably funny LitRPG written by Seth McDuffee and featuring a short tempered teenage metalhead who encounters error after error in a fantasy world after choosing to become a barbarian orc. It’s stuffed to the brim with mayhem and foibles and is really, under it all, a story about the transformation of the main character into a better person.

On the one hand, it’s one of the funniest books I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Full stop. Not just in LitRPG. Period.

I listen to audiobooks while I commute to work and this is not an exaggeration, there was a legitimate danger to my health and safety because I had to pull my car over from laughing so hard. Multiple times. Rather than rely on cheap puns or tired memes, the author has crafted a tale filled with actual honest-to-goodness fresh jokes. If not belly laughing at the dialogue, you’re chuckling at the main characters' descriptions and metaphor.

There’s little doubt that McDuffee could make a name for himself in the writer’s room of the next big syndicated comedy, but decided to hang out with us here in the meantime. This is further enhanced by the narrator Johnathan McClain who absolutely mops the floor with comedic narration. McClain’s ability to polish even the roughest material and make it shine is well-known, but the content he was provided in Big Sneaky Barbarian allows him to show off what it means to be a masterwork narrator. It gave me the impression that he enjoyed narrating this book as much as I enjoyed hearing it. The audiobook is a marriage of two superpowers and it is a feast.

While the delivery was excellent it is the writing that takes the majority of the credit for it being such a worthwhile read.

While being hilarious is a fantastic merit for a book to achieve, it’s only a piece of what sets this apart from anything else in the genre.

The other hand is what actually makes it such a compelling story. Not satisfied with just being a comical romp of misdeeds, Big Sneaky Barbarian brilliantly cleaves through the usual tropes and stereotypes of the genre and subverts them over and over. McDuffee weaves a tale that is full of mischief and full of woe, but also an extremely self-aware and thoughtful story that effortlessly blends the humorous and the tragic resulting in an outstanding overall experience.

The shift from hysterical pandemonium to deep sorrow within the pages is a dime turn and the author navigates this expertly. One minute you’re chortling and the next you’re sobbing. I was wholly shocked (at first) with how meaningful the narrative was. I laughed, yea, but I also had tears welling up during certain sections.

Big Sneaky Barbarian deals in wit and it deals in trauma and I can’t help but to feel as though this is an important book, made all the better knowing it’s crafted by a powerhouse writer. Again and again, the story pivots its tone with a masterful hand and it is genuinely hard to believe that this is, of all things, LitRPG.

The best works of literature hit a theme or strike a chord that resonates with the reader in a way that creates a strong lasting emotion. It’s easy to see the effect this book has already had on folks because the reviews seem to be either extremely positive, or passionately negative. Yet, even so, the majority of the negative reviews call attention to the book being well written and that the predominant gripe is with the main character Gabe/Loon himself. Which seems to be the point of the whole thing. This MC is written so that you can watch him improve.

Read this book, damn it.

It is an actual work of art. You might hate the main character, but that will have changed by the end.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Big Sneaky Barbarian will sit with the classics. It’s far too genius not to.

The narrator Johnathan McClain who goes by reddit user /u/ihatethisappthemost reponds:

“It gave me the impression that he enjoyed narrating this book as much as I enjoyed hearing it.” Yes. I am Johnathan McClain and I am going to break the 4th wall here and say yes. Twice. I did an AMA with Seth because I want everyone to read this book. Listen, read, whatever.

I’ve narrated a couple hundred audiobooks, been on a few dozen TV shows, a couple of movies, acted in maybe 100 plays, and also written some TV, a movie, and a handful of books and I say this with all sincerity … Big Sneaky Barbarian is one of my top 10 favorite creative experiences. Ever.

So. Tell people I said so. Because I just did. This book is fu**ing wonderful and balances comedy with genuine human emotion against a backdrop of the absurd and a delicate handling of a classic antihero with a skill you don’t see very often.

Read it.

(Also, this is a wonderfully written critique. Like, it’s nice that it’s positive, but even more than that, it’s just beautifully constructed and thoughtfully wrought. Well done, you.)

A manic trip through an Iseki realm

First, while there are elements of a litRPG novel in this book, those traditional mechanisms are not followed to any expected degree and was clearly never the intent of the author. The actual plot, after the MC ceases with his internal dialogs and foul-mouth spew-fests, is actually fairly interesting. Heavy on alliteration, hilarious on many occasions, battle encounters awesomely creative but, regrettably, the continual rage outbursts makes it tedious to get through. As the MC freely admits, he survives by failing upwards. Overuse of this trait led to listening frustration over time.

Orc

Orc orc orc orc orc pork orc orc orc orc chad being chad in superchad world.

A great example

This book has many great examples of both good and bad writing. The main thing with writing is “show. Don’t tell” this book provides both throughout the story.
My issue with the audio is the multiple moments of just LOUD. Still a good listen.

Very Fun Listen!

This book made me laugh out loud several times. I must have looked super strange laughing my butt off while going for a walk but I really enjoyed this book! The Audio Performance was Fantastic!!!! One of the best performances I have ever listened to. I would recommend this with a Five Star rating.

Funny but

If you like crass humor and chaotic-dumb main characters, this may be for you. There's less "menuing" than general litRPGs and more stream of consciousness writing. Mr. McClain is stellar, he really carries this book with his tempo and cadences. I personally had a hard time getting into this story. It's my kind of funny, and Jonathan is 10/10 but something about this book is hard to listen to. The plot is interesting enough, the characters aren't too deep but it's still early in the story, the imagery is there. I just find my focus waning until another joke catches me by surprise.

It was entertaining

It made me laugh it made me cringe MC is a idiot but it was quite entertaining you'll either enjoy or you won't

Hard listen. Did not finish book

It wasn't bad. It was just hard to keep up with. Four chapters of back story was slow and a bit much. Not clear how he got to the RPG world. Then just when you think you have the plot it hits Mack 3. I kept relistening to try to figure out who he was fighting and what was going out. Without spoiling, the going from fighting to now he is somewhere was very confusing. It wasn't until chapter 10 that I finally think I figured out the plot. That said I gave up and will never know. Like I said it was not bad, but it was all over the place and hard to keep up with.

Hilarious and well done

Picked this one up after the author made a silly reddit post announcing its release. Made me chuckle enough to give this one a try and let me say, its fantastic.

Not many authors in the Gamelit/LitRPG genre can do intentional comedy. This book excels at it and still has the ability to come back to a serious tone. The narration also perfectly captured the ridiculousness of this book's whole story. He did an amazing job with the sarcasm and repetition that is common when narrating game elements. The bloopers were a nice inclusion too. I love hearing those in books when they have them.

If you like LitRPGs this is worth getting. I guarantee you will laugh as much as I did and that alone is definitely worth it