The Trickster's Tale

Is That a Lute in Your Pocket? A LitRPG Adventure (The Tricksters Tale, Book 1)

By: J Pal

Narrated by: Gary Furlong, Annie Ellicott, Jeff Hays

Everyone wants to be the chosen one.

The job's perks often involve overpowered abilities, world-breaking equipment, and an eager line of bodacious partners.

But due to a goddess' clumsy meddling, a struggling musician named Perry ends up accidentally transmigrated alongside her true chosen one with none of the above.

Demanding a portal home or reparations for his bereaved family doesn't win him respect either. Instead, he finds himself thrust into a world of magic, monsters, and a wisecracking System. His courage wins him nothing but severely diminished proportions and a brand that severely limits his combat potential.

Little does the goddess know that nothing can stand in the way of Perry's sheer will. If brute strength and arcane powers won't get him the justice he desires, bardic wit, musical talent, and creativity will.

Perry's first target? A goblin shaman. Then, the world.

The next LitRPG series from the hit author of They Called Me Mad and The Houndsman is here! Trickster's Tale has everything you love from the genre and more laughs than you can shake a lute at.

©2022 Aethon Books (P)2022 Aethon Audio

Great story, fun characters

I look forward to more books in the series. I was a little apprehensive at first to have an MC without combat skills, but it was great and maybe even more relatable.

a good listen

started slowly, but picks up after listening. can't wait to start the second book. a great story.

Nice book for litRPG, isekai, and music lovers.

Very entertaining and an excellent performance by the whole cast. the reference to modern music play well with the story and don't feel shoehorned into the book.

bonus points for being the second litRPG (that I know of) featuring Jeff Hayes and a reference to Wonderwall.

Delightful romp and excellent voice cast

The narrators made this fun adventure more lively and exciting. Great story; exceptional performance. I would recommend this listen to any lit RPG and/or Isekai fans

Great story

I greatly enjoyed listening to this story, I especially like the character of Dr. who.

Solid fun. I like this one.

The action to get from Earth to a fantasy world pretty much happens immediately, so it's a fast start.
Main character becomes a hobbit bard with a lute and some sort of coward's mark, then he's tossed into a maze to survive.
Amazingly, he's still alive half an hour into the story, and he starts meeting people instead of monsters. That's when the conniving gets started. Also, he has access to playing music from Earth. He even gives credit.

Fun stuff. The main character is likable and smart. The adversaries are likable in their own ways. The LitRPG game system is fun. If there's any cursing, I messed it. In other words, hours of light-hearted fantasy fun from a novice tricky bard.

Soundbooth does a great job. All three voice actors are wonderful. (Though the ending part of Jeff Hays' initial scene had a curious extreme echo effect for ten seconds that didn't make sense.)

Highly recommended.

top notch

I really love how this story uses many of the genre's tropes, but in interesting and unique ways. I did not expect the results of race selection, but it was a very welcome surprise!

There are plenty of moments that genuinely surprised and delighted me. The characters feel well thought out and have depth that lends itself to being genuinely curious about them. The main character also gets in the good graces of my favorite animal companion type, which made me very happy.

The writer also does a great job showing us the world and not just telling us about it.

Ending was fulfilling while leaving me excited for next in series.

Gary, Annie, and Jeff all execute top notch performances, as usual.

10/10 would listen again, and you should listen, too!

Fun, lighthearted adventure

Once this story got going, I loved every minute of it. It has quite a bit of humor, but it's not over the top. I always love good bard litRPG's, and this one does a great job with the setup forcing social solutions. Many books in the genre have low charisma main characters forcing combat around every turn, and I like how this series is doing a great job doing the opposite.

J pal did wonders

Like the title said J pal did wonders for this book. this was such a good litrpg is astonishing.The narrators did so good, Gary, Jeff and elli did wonders. it's one of the best narrated books I have. The mcs powers are unique and you don't usually get bard mcs. That's what makes the book so good, it's different. The mc is a Cunning funny bard that has some beast taming abilities. I loved the fighting and the way he uses his mind to defeat his enemies. I also want to say RIP for the friends that died in this story.

the world building and the system were so awesome, the character progression was also really good. The mcs friends are likeable, and I relate to the Mc alot. He also doesn't let people walk all over him which I love. Also the traits given to him by God's reminds me of the game hades. I also love books where they use movies/animes from earth which j pal does throughout the book. I do feel like there's not enough humor in this book, the mcs a bard I feel like there should be more puns and corny pickup lines like dungeon crawler carl or tokens and towers.

( Spoilers ) I did hate how the goddess makes a mistake then since the mc actually has a backbone and is asking questions and isn't gonna take any crap she gives him a coward blessing. that really irked me. But who wants to be Tracy's champion anyway? Other than that I have no complaints, I really liked this book and it was one of the best I've heard in a while. There are also alot more pros to this book and more stuff I want too talk about.


The skills he has are super cool also, he's a musician and cook. it almost reminded me of actus author or cleaners edge. The mcs bad ability to pick names is also funny. I feel like this book shows what it's like to be a support characters and still rule. it shows the wit you need when you don't have the abilities to punch a mountain and demolish it.
I have too say I can't wait for book 2. This book had everything I wanted and more. anyone who says otherwise either didn't finish the book or is...

I hope you'll enjoy this book as much as I did.

I love a good bard and this didn't disappoint.

I've listened to a lot of books here and the algorithm feeds me litmmos until I was frankly done with the genre. with that mind set in place I still have this 5 stars.

the main character isn't over powered like most Isekai, in fact he's discouraged from actual combat. instead relying on charm, allies and working a crowd. it makes for a refreshing change from your standard might make right conflict.

the narrators are good, having different voices for each character and multiple voice actors. I left off one star from my rating because of speaking lyrics instead of any attempt to sing and I know this company has added musical accompaniment to another bard tale they lacked here.

if you like the world of chains series this will be one you want to read.