Questland

Carrie Vaughn

O.R.S.

Addie, our protagonist, is asked by the tech mogul who built a technologically enabled D&D themepark, to go after her ex, who is technological brains behind the effort. D&D meets Jurassic Park by way of Westworld, mixed with a little Barsoom Project. Told through first person perspective.

How much did you like it overall?

I liked the premise a lot – the idea of a D&D park realised by technology, with people who wanted to believe so badly, they formed social structures to mirror their idealised Lord of the Rings world, has a lot of potential, whether sociological or technological. Very little of it was realised or explored, sadly. So it became a bit of a slog by the end. Addie, the main character, also was clearly the straightman for the author to point out obvious D&D tropes.

What did you like most?

It’s hard to say–the premise, as above, sounded very intriguing. But none of the characters, Addie the researcher, Torres the assault team leader, Dom the scientist ideologue, were particularly appealing, and

What did you not like about it?

The author making Addie signposting D&D exposition and terms of art – “to hit ratios!” got old really fast, as it felt like either Addie or Vaughn didn’t really know what they were talking about. Also, the technological elements veered from either impossible (a giant fire breathing dragon, vines that grip) or implausible (seemingly instant healing, no EMP’s? no wi-fi shielding countermeasures by the assault team?). It felt like a Madlibs for 101 D&D jargon mixed with bad exposition and deus-ex-machina plot navigation.

Any favorite moments?

There were moments in Questland that were quite fun–whether it’s the description of Addie first encountering the island, which heavily evokes that famous island scene in Jurassic Park, when I as a reader felt the same kind of excitement, being a D&D fan, as our main character. A few descriptions of the technologies–like the spiders

Where do I put it on The Shelf?

Donation. This felt so high concept that it almost reads a self-published book–not quite deep enough to be a real nerdfest, not rendered with enough care to be a character book. It was like a one-way D&D quest

Any closing thoughts?

LitRPG definitely has potential to be great–I hope the next book by Vaughn, should she choose to write more in this universe, shows more of the workings of the tech and has more rounded characters.

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