Theft of Decks

Theft of Decks, Book 1

By: Lars Machmüller

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

When the rich hog all the magical cards? Time to use that five-finger discount!

Life on the Waves isn't easy. Especially if you're a pickpocket with no education, no prospects, and no future.

For Chase and his crew of low-lives, there is one real option. If they want a path out of poverty, they will have to unlock access to the magical card system that will change their lives for the better.

Of course, nothing's free in life. And nobody higher up the chain is going to give them a hand up. But what they might lack in education, riches, and, let's face it, hygiene, they have in determination.

Sure, they're facing established powers, churches, and age-old prejudices. That just means it's time to get to work. If the Lightborn won't share and play nice?

Sometimes the only way to get dealt a better hand is to steal the whole damn deck!

D&D meets Magic: The Gathering in this epic fantasy deckbuilding LitRPG.

©2024 Lars Machmüller (P)2024 Podium Audio

I can’t wait for more

I loved the narration in the narration of the main story. There is a balance to the story and it’s high risk and reward. It’s keeping me interested and the conversation with the characters also has me laughing. I love a book that has me laughing along with the characters. I found myself very interested with the mysteries of the tome and how it will affect the journey to come.

Lots of fun

This is a series that was clearly released in steps. Every aspect and story is great but clearly it was not meant to be a full book. The Climactic battle is little more than halfway through and the final battle felt easier. That said I would have given this book a 4 star for it, but everything else is so good I can't bring myself to dwell on that small detail. the Characters are fun, flawed, diverse, and make reasonable choices. The villians/enemies are deep and have a decent range of differences. The magic system is less than I expect but still very fun and workable. The writing and narration kept me on edge. Don't gete wrong in the world of LitRPGs this is not DCC but it is a very compelling story with a band of misfits fighting oppression in a very literal sense.

P.S. No Harem elements, no OP main characters, no perfect plan, no wish fulfillment bs, and no pathetic MC.

great performance of a stand out litrpg

I really enjoyed how the abilities don't trivialize weapons or armor, equipment still matters and not because ut gives stat increases.

The is the slowest start to a series I have ever read.

I have 14 hours left to go and am struggling to keep listening. The story is decent, but I feel like I was lied to about what the series is about at this point.

Excellent writing but . . .

Just some advice for the author with this quality of writing you really don't need profanity. Otherwise this is a five star.

Overuse of “however” is making me take a break.

I love the story, I love the characters, I love that it’s a card building litrpg but doesn’t read like one AND Vikas Adams is one of my favorite readers! There are so many bonuses and I’m happy to have used a credit on this story. Even still the writer’s unfortunate over use of the word “however” has caused my eye to begin to twitching whenever it is read, which is often. At one point it was used twice in one sentence, that same paragraph had the word 3 times! I’m taking a break and moving to another book for a bit and I’ll come back later to see if it still bothers me as much. If it doesn’t, I will update my review. If it does…this review will remain the same.

Glorious

Sometimes the only way to get dealt a better hand is to steal the whole damn deck...

amazing characters, fun story, great plot and better action sequences...
honestly the only thing I'm annoyed by is that it isn't longer

Serious worldbuilding

at first I was hesitant on the pacing but it held just enough then ratcheted up. looking forward to book 2

Misleading title

I think the title is misleading. The publisher calls this a deckbuilding LitRPG, but the book doesn’t read like one.

The story is solid, and all the secondary characters are interesting and have their own personality quirks. It was fine if you wanted it for the story, not counting the LitRPG.

I don’t like the author’s concept of Deckbuilding, and I won’t continue with this series or the author. Characters are born with a “card”—nothing new there. It doesn’t appear that the cards can be traded. There is one mention in the book of cards being taken out, but we never see it. The book reads more like I have 1 to x spells that I can cast.

Past the spell that everyone is born with, we don’t see anything resembling a card deck until 10 hours 35 minutes into the story. Then it is another seven before we see more “card” stuff.

IMHO, the author jumped on the Deckbuilding Bandwagon but failed to deliver.

DNF

took about half the book to get to the plot of the title. not really for me