Inside Out

Bloodfeast, Book 1

By: Ellis Michaels

Narrated by: S.K. Linna

Four players go into the game. Four characters come out.

After a blinding flash, four terrified friends realize that they've been transported into their favorite video game Bloodfeast MMO. They are in their characters' bodies, trapped in a fantastic world filled with magic, mystery, and mayhem. Before long, the friends discover that their Bloodfeast characters are trapped in their bodies back in the real world. They're left with no choice but to embark on a heroic quest in a desperate attempt to get home.

If you're looking for a fun, fast-paced fantasy LitRPG GameLit novel, look no further. Inside Out is packed with zany characters, powerful monsters, and non-stop action. Follow the four friends as they adventure their way through a dangerous and mysterious world. Will they figure out a way to get their characters back into the game and themselves out? Or are they all doomed to spend the rest of their lives in an unfamiliar world?

WARNING: This book contains extreme violence, sexual situations, bad language, worse language, vandalism, drinking, blood and gore, gore and blood, bloody gore (but don't worry - no gory blood), six of the seven deadly sins, animals that shouldn't exist, mildly disturbing behavior, seriously disturbing behavior, destruction of property, multiple decapitations, and a crazy lady who just might have all the answers. If you think you can handle all this, pick up Inside Out today!

©2018 Ellis Michaels (P)2018 Ellis Michaels

A Fun Read

This story was a fun twist on the stuck in a game premise. I loved the narrator, he has great voices and really brought the characters to life. Quests, relatability, a little confusion, light romance, and plenty of raunchy comic relief. Go for it!

Puerile humor and plotline barely get by

There are a lot of times I will bemoan how a good book was crushed by some crappy narration, but here the only real saving grace is the narration. The story wanders and lacks any real drama, danger, or character growth. The premise is pretty cool, I’ll give it that, in which a group of players swap places with their characters against their will. Beyond that it is all wasted potential. The story meanders, and has no real focus beyond the whole “we need to find our way back home” trope. The one element that could have been fun, the characters in the real world is squandered on them eating junk food and watching their players try to find a way back home.

A lot of the book is confusing because there are few, if anything, about the game that is explained or revealed. For example the game is called Bloodfeast, and you are supposed to eat the body f your fallen enemies, but no explanation is given as to why they should do that. I saw no buffs or benefits from the act, just kill and eat. Pardon me, but that sounds a little like a game a psycho would play. If they said what the boons were from eating the dead then I missed it every time they did it. Also, the book is unintentionally funny. What do I mean by that? There are lines that are not meant to be humorous, but are such as, “The area was full of beggars and prostitutes, who were mostly NPCs.” Poor grammar appeared, and it is hard to notice when doing an audible book, but there they were. It was mostly when it came to she versus her. By that I mean he would say, “Her and him went to the store.” That kind of stuff popped up all the time, and it tripped me up every time it happened. Poor grammar isn’t something to expect when having a book narrated to you.

You may recall a review that I did in regards to Archaic Venture, where I believed the narrator to have killed the story. Here, I’m going to say the opposite is true. While Linna isn’t a mind blowing narrator by any stretch of the imagination he does a good job, and I have to admit that his voice for the Luke character sounded like my Uncle Ron, and so I had to like him a bit more than usual. Honestly, he does do a good job here, and does different voices for each character, and does a decent job of it. I never heard an issue with the sound quality or voice work, he was as solid as the Great Wall of China. I really wish that he would have had a better story to work with, because he might have been amazing. Tough call, but the issues this story had did not fall at his feet.

I do find it sad that I have to hit this book with a hammer, but the fact is I cannot abide when things are not explained. One of the most annoying things in this book came when they gamers went on their quest to find the artifact necessary to send them home, and at every step they learn that they were on the trail of a group that looked just like them. (They were following their character’s routes to the magical object that could send them home), and the entire time I’m thinking that the object has to be gone because the characters had already gotten and used the orb they were seeking , but no. Surprise the orb was right there! You might argue that it reset, but I’m going to call BS and say it was poor writing because all signs pointed to it being missing, but then nothing ever came from that aspect of the story either. There were too many inconsistencies, a lack of explanations (for example how did their characters become self aware?), and grammatical problems that made this ship look like it was a submarine. Honestly, I don’t think it is worth your money for roughly eleven dollars for a four and a half hour book. I don’t think I’ll be looking at book 2 in this series.

Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. Getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

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forgettable

there is no character building so you don't care what happens to them, there is almost no romance, the sex is just him picking up chicks and done so no disruption at all.

Rather terrible

The narrator tried too hard, too little, or something. The narration just wasn't right and I didn't care for the performance one bit.

The story is rather unoriginal, full of crap puns that aren't remotely funny, and one of the most annoying characters that the narrator gave the most annoying voice to.

On a scale of 1 to 10 it's a 2 at best. I got about half way through and decided to give it up. I likely won't get any books by this author or narrator after this travesty.

Painful to listen to

From the start it felt like I was having games described to me like I would try to describe them to my grandmother. One specific character's personality was so over the top (not in a good way) chart I nearly cringed every time they spoke. Having the characters explore their new world made me feel like someone was trying to either describe something to a small child. Would not recommend. I will not continue this series.