The Merchant of Tiqpa

The Bathrobe Knight, Book 4

By: Charles Dean

Narrated by: Matthew Broadhead

Tiqpa, the first VRMMO to hit the markets, has become a world in and of itself with its own burgeoning political structure and growing strife between kingdoms and players. This unknown terrain, ripe with opportunities, becomes a new frontier that Locke, a blacksmith, tries to use to pay off real-world debts.

But when he is betrayed by one of his business partners, he finds himself caught between his growing lust for revenge and his very real need for capital.

©2015+ Charles Dean (P)2018 Charles Dean

One of my Favorite Series

I really enjoy the Bathrobe Knight series. It is a fun book that stays true to its roots. The story, strong narration, and overall quality of the book is great if you are looking for a fun listen.

Excellent!

Totally happy with this book, a great addition to a great story. It was cool getting a look into a different character.

favorite book

this book has always been my favorite book out of the authors Tiqpa series and Matthew Broadhead once again knocks it out, narrating this book. loved it!!

Great new Story

Surprised this was a completely new cast and plot with a couple cameos if you've listened to the Bathrobe Knight books. I think I like this the best, love revenge plots.

Great Listen that is definitely worth it

I am big into the MMO and LitRPG genre. Dean continues to put a unique twist in his books. I am pretty busy (work, games and reading!! Not enough time!!) and only get my reading in through Audible, so I usually don't care if the voice actor for the book is good or not, I plow through because it is the only way I can consume books. But the guy that narrates this one does a TREMENDOUS job! It helped me love the book even more.

Good work guys!

The Bard would be proud

Well true believers, I have to say that there has been few things that have been able to lift my spirits in a week where not only Stan Lee has died, but also William Goldman. The best thing I could ask for? Another Charles Dean book you say? You’d be right! How about a continuation of his Bathrobe knight series you ask? Well now you are just getting scary as it was just exactly the thing I needed to sooth the pain in my soul.

You may recall that I kind of lamented that after BKIII ended there weren’t going to be any more audiobooks made in the series, because The Bearded Bacon God had said, “No more.” However, something happened and we magically got book 4, and I am not complaining. I had hoped to save this for a listen during the drive back home over Thanksgiving, but I just couldn’t wait, and jumped on it as soon as I got it.

Now a little background for you before we go any further. I started off as an English major years ago, and one of my favorite classes was my Shakespeare class. I have loved the great bard for a number of years, hell, the only episode of Moonlighting that I ever watched was their Taming of the Shrew adaptation, so you can see I love old Willie. Shylocke would appear to be Charles Dean’s favorite character, as he has based the entire book off the Merchant of Venice.

Now, before you freak out and Nope your way out of here for fear of getting Literated or something I have to say that I was most impressed with the deft way that he managed to flawlessly interweave the Literature portion of the story with the LITRPG portion of the tale. He sneaks in characters and plot details without being obvious about it, and still keeps the story moving ahead effortlessly. Truth be told I was rather skeptical of this tale when I first heard about it. Not for the Shakespearean elements, but because it didn’t continue the tales of Darwin and his crew. I love that Bathrobe wearing demon, and really wanted to see how things developed after the events of the last book. And I am still bummed out that we only get to see hints and snippets of characters from the original books, but I was happy to get what I had.

This book could have been set in any gameworld and still worked. It didn’t have to be Tiqpa. It is that original and strong. It really did not need the BK bones to hold it up, but I also get the concept of why work harder when you don’t need to, Dean didn’t need to reinvent a whole new gaming system in order to create this book. IN fact the only thing that really ties this down to the first trilogy was the “bonus chapters” at the end that told Eliza’s story, and let us see Darwin in a different light. In fact, I would not have minded if Dean hadn’t put in the extra chapters at all, the way he left things with Shy/Locke was perfect.

Matthew Broadhead has taken some hits from me recently, and I have repeatedly said that he is a narrator who either sinks or swims based on the material he is given, and Dean’s writing still meshes well with his vocal quirkilizations. Broadhead does an excellent job here and carries the story right along. I am happy to have him back in the driver’s seat, because he has taken a backseat in too many stories lately.

My score is really dependant on a few things. One, I love the entire reimagining of Merchant of Venice in LITRPG form. Secondly, I am glad to get back into Tiqpa after I was certain that we weren’t going to be going there anymore. Third, Dean proves just has agile his mind is that he is able to create a story like this without giving anything away. I have to say this was an 8.5 for me just because of how well everything flowed, how we got Shakespeare in a game world, we were given a glimpse at how an alchemist could work as a game class, and we did get a hint of what Darwin was up to. I’m still going to let my kids listen to this as we travel back to see the in-laws and parents this week, and I don’t mind at all. Oh, and Charles gets this cookie!

Enjoyable LitRPG story

The Merchant of Tiiqpa is a continuation of the Bathrobe Knight series and takes place in the same world, it is very much its own story. Though there are a few familiar faces, the story revolves around a gamer named Locke who finds himself playing as the most boring class imaginable in order to make money to send his college to sister.

Personally, I found that motivation to be weak, but it is more than made up for by the rest of the story. Locke is betrayed be one of his associates who the reader learns to hate and getting revenge becomes the focal point for the protagonist's actions.

The story has a good amount of character growth and some interesting combat mechanics. I highly recommend this for fans of the Bathrobe Knight series, though a familiarity with Bathrobe Knight isn't necessary to enjoy this book.

Matthew Broadhead did a fantastic job reading the different characters as well. I can't imagine anyone else doing the story justice as well as him.

Wonderful side tail

This was a really cool take on a different character's point of view and path through tikpa. Looking forward to finishing it off with the next book.

Pathetic

The MC is pathetic. The Demon girl is a whiney little b who blames everybody but herself because she is the reason for her own pain and nobody wants to tell her that. There are some cool parts about this book but most of it is whiny pathetic bs and emo cry cry cry about life. Waste of time, nothing like the first books.

Couldnt give a darn about MC in this book at all

Why go astray even further for the true MC to give us this story? You could written two books about Darwin instead of this crap?