E-book, 403 pages
English language
Published Aug. 31, 2021 by Witch Key Fiction.
32-year old Tar feels like a Non-Player Character in their own life. They’ve been utterly sidelined by their anxiety and they spend all their spare time playing video games. Then they get invited to play Kin, a table-top roleplaying game their friend swears will change their life. And it does, but not in the way Tar expects. Friendship, it turns out, is even better than escapism.
But what none of them knew was that it would change their life a second time. Because the world of Kin is real. And the whole party soon discovers that changing your setting doesn’t change you.
Non-Player Character is a cosy, queer portal fantasy for adults featuring a non-binary autistic protagonist and their found family of fantasy-loving nerds.
Very inclusive, a really fun adventure story with magic. but I felt the ending was a little too perfect for me.
At some level this is a standard sword-and-sorcery fantasy novel (mostly sorcery). The device of role-players cast into the game "for reals" has surely been done before. The interesting part is the characters, and how the plot progresses.
The hero (gender neutral) is extremely anxious, and the book presents their struggles in a way that is both relatable and interesting. The reader (at least this reader) sees themselves in these struggles even if they don't normally identify as neurodivergent.
Don't hate me for not giving it five stars, a few of the romantic(?) scenes didn't quite work for me. Maybe that says more about me though.
Non-Player Character is an absolutely lovely book about adults who get unexpectedly teleported to a different world, where they have magic and other special abilities. It is not only about their wonderful adventure in Vanthis, but it is also about how changing your setting doesn't change you. It is about how everyone has their own difficulties and so much more. It is just an incredibly well-written book and I truly recommend you to read it if you haven't already. This might be one of the few books that I want to read a second or maybe even a third time. Maybe this has actually became one of my favourite books.
A host of likeable, though varied, characters, good representation and a fun plot. Highly recommended.
