Bookflog: Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw (Part 2: Chapters6-8 and Part 3: Chapters 1-2)
I hate the the chaptering system here. It's over involved and makes no sense in any way shape or form.
Spoilers away! (because they make it go faster)
Well, when I last left Jim and crustaceans nibbling at his toes, he was underwater and hiding from goons. Naturally, because he has the worst luck ever, he is found out... by pirates. Since an unfortunate event last night involving gunpowder blanks, I will call them the generic sea dogs who have less sense than the average onion. Granted I might be using an awful blanket generalization based on a few unwashed yahoos, but also they have Slippery John with them. Who has a crush of the creepy sort on the insensible Drylda (who was the one possessed by the Deleters). And who also is on good terms with the sea dog captain.
They all would like to leave the bay, but there's an odd magical barrier preventing them from doing so. Also the generic sea dogs with awful names would like to become undead too. Jim bluffs and goes to get the ingredients for the “transformation” of the ship's crew. In return, they agree to sail him out of there. Jim thinks that they need to kill Barry to bring the barrier down. Slippery John goes to retrieve Drylda, most likely so he can look at her bosom and bum. Jim gets there, sees Meryl and the AFBP heading right into the destroyed village with Barry in the middle of it and Jim decides that he has to warn Meryl. I know it isn't entirely unexpected, but still, finally some character development beyond the self destructive urges. In addition, Barry feels guilty over almost blasting a crying girl undead in the face. Character development in baby steps is still better than none at all. Yay!
Crap happens, Meryl, Jim and the AFBP escape, and Barry dies temporarily. The barrier drops. They run like squirrels to the boat, Slippery John and Drylda follow soon after. They almost make it through the boundary, but end up with a lot less ship than they need to get to the other side of the sea. I would say that Jim has another near death experience, but perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he has a near life experience.
In any case, for the first time the reader and the characters in the diegesis get confirmation that things have another layer that were not “immediately” apparent from the start. Or at least it would have been if the names weren't silly, the name “Deleters” hadn't come up and the possessed people didn't talk in “leetspeak.” Okay, moving on...
This is where it actually seems to be getting interesting for me. Jim overhears two developers (Don and Bill) talking about debugging on their project and sees a few emails between Don and Simon. Simon is apparently to blame for quite a few things going awry in Jim's universe. As Jim sat and waited for his cohorts to find him and put him back together after “recovering” from his near life experience, he finds out that he can look at the developers' communications by thinking very hard about badger watching (it's better not to ask).
The gang of shambling undead make their way into Cronenberg, where one can get an adventurer to do whatever you want or give you what ever you want if you sign their quest log and give them points. Unfortunately, the uninitiated have no idea of the pricing schemes that go on with regards to the XP to service ratio. Mess ensues and Jim gets captured by gnolls. One thing leads to another and Jim, Meryl and the AFBP get themselves “killed” again. After his last near life experience Jim sees things a little differently in the transitive realm and he finds out that Barry is almost directly under the command of Simon the wonder-boi game designer.
In a few other little side notes, the AFBP has a name (Thaddeus) but I will continue to call him the AFBP until actual character development occurs. Jim and Meryl have a few conversations about wanting or not wanting to be a “hero” or an adventurer. Perhaps such things might be more interesting later, but right now it seems more like bad flirting than anything else.
I'm beginning to regret the adherence to first person narrative voice in this story. Jim isn't particularly interesting without the developers on hand to make for a nice bit of conflicting interests. The story itself has been rather dull so far (jokes not withstanding). Well, perhaps with the addition of the programmers, things will get more to my liking.