The Garbage Gladiator - a LITRPG Adventure

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

With a robot built to dance, they'll sweep the crowd off their feetWhen chased through the Junkyard by an old foe, Jester finds a unique combat robot of his own.Programmed for dance over fighting, he'll need new allies, old friends, and a passion for performance if he wants to drag himself out of the virtual gutter.Posts: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 9:00-9:30 AM AEST

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2022
Author: Zenkarn

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.0/ 5.0
Followers: 48
Views: 28,724

Reviews

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Community Reviews(4)

ScruffedUpRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Most of the time when I see someone asking for reviews it's a newbie writer who hasn't really done much writing, and I spend a good hour or so pouring over the 10-15 chapters before settling on a 'meh' and giving as much advice as I can.
I Don't Need To Do That Here!
The chapters are long enough that they feel like chapters, hell the first chapter I read I thought it was 600 words, and was already writing "you need to write more per chapter 600 is nowhere near enough", then I scrolled down for the 'next chapter' button and saw that the dent was because of customized text boxes for the LITRPG tag.
Heck I didn't even need to copy paste the chapter into a docs format to count the full word count, because the chapters are obviously long enough to be over 3-4k words each.
-The chapters each read smoothly, the LITRPG menu's are all very nice to look at and they are all new (at least to me), instead of just being the basic boxes that a lot of stories use for their menu's, and each one has enough weight to it that I don't feel annoyed at it being too short. 5/5 stars off of that alone.
-The story is engaging, and the premise is unique, which for some reason is rare enough that I wrote that down in my Docs file for this review as a +1 to the star rating. I have read so many 'books' that read like some horny 16 year old's first love story, so finding a rather unknown book with some passion in it made my day. Hell I have the book on my Chrome Bookmarks tab right now to keep up to date with it later.
-No grammar issues that I have noticed, most of the book has been reviewed and edited enough that I doubt I will ever find an issue in this department. 5/5 Grammar score
-The main character is likeable, and relatable. Im a F2P in most games I play, so I know the struggle against P2W boys that bully the crap outta you. Go little dancer bot go. And the side characters are well written enough that I notice them too, 5/5 character score.
-It has a unique style, and its good enough that
T B CarterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Every so often on Royal Road you find a hidden gem, something a bit different from the identikit litRPGs and neverending serials. In this novel the charaters feel well rounded, the protagonist is likable, and the game world is belivable. A rags to (hopefully) riches story with humour, action and great characters. This is a read until you pass out from exhaustion novel. You have been warned.
RathgillRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
An excellent read. I actually got to this one after reading two of the author’s later novels (look them up- they’re also awesome). It’s obviously an earlier work due to some of the formatting and word choices, but still an amazing read! I think that the rework the author has mentioned maybe/might happen at a future point would be well worth their effort (and more widely publishable?). I know I would love to reread this in a year or two! And that’s coming from someone who rarely rereads fiction! Thanks so much for the ride.
jacobpaigeRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Its a good story in a lot of respects. Well written, few grammatical errors, and the game and characters feel like things/people that could exist. I also quite like the protagonist's robot. The problem is the protagonist himself. He has no real free will. He just does what he's told, even when what he's told to do is demonstrably bad for him. He's like a puppet that's always looking for the next hand. I assume there are people who like protagonists like that, but I greatly prefer the ones that at least try to make their own decisions.
Also, for those that care, the real world basically doesn't exist. Its kept very clear that this is a game and people can and do log out, but that's the extent of it so far. I can't remember if we were ever even told the protagonist's real name.
Aparently, I need another fifty words, so how about a specific example:
When the protagonist finds the robot (which he plans to sell for 15,000 credits) he's given three options: pay 30 credits for it (he has 15), do a quest, or leave the robot behind. He could easily have messaged a friend and borrowed the 15 credits, or asked what the quest entailed, or (possibly) butchered the robot and claimed ownership of the parts. He never once expressed an interest in actually owning the robot after all. Quite the opposite. Instead he agrees to the quest, instantly regrets it, and never looks back, because no one has told him that other options exist or suggested that he pursue them, and he lacks the ability to notice these things himself, much less act on them.
Later on, someone points out that there's programing in the robot that's worth even more than the robot itself, and that they not only intend to steal that from him, but also plan to brutally abuse him for the rest of the story and rip him off every chance they get while doing as much damage to his psyche and reputation as they can manage, and his response is to feel bad about the emotional distress he caused them by doing literally nothing wron