Gareth Otton's Reviews > Unexpected Healer

This is another book in this sub-genre where I am really frustrated to have to give it such a low score because I really like the premise. However, as is always the case with these books that I have to rate lower than I'd like, it makes the following mistakes:

1. Messes up the balance between Game and Literature
There is a massive difference between using gaming elements to enrich a story, and writing what feels like a journal of someone's experience playing a game. Gamelit novels rely on a delicate balance, and if you're struggling to make the balance work, then you have to lean more on the literature side of the equation because, at the end of the day, this is a book, and it is more important that it works as a story than it does as a game.

2. Keeping the protagonist isolated
It is easily the most common flaw with novels in this sub-genre, but the authors feel the need to isolate the protagonist at the start of every book, and it's always to the detriment of these stories. Unless you are a master storyteller specialising in character studies, the chances are you are not going to create a protagonist compelling enough to carry a story on their own. I think the authors get too excited in their world-building and trying to set up the gamer mechanics, but as with the first point, writing a good story is much more important. Multiple characters, relationships and all the other good stuff that comes from people interacting with one another are vital to telling a great story, and I genuinely can't think of a single GameLit novel that got interesting until the character leaves isolation and starts interacting with people.

3. Info dumping - Telling rather than showing
It's another side effect of not spending enough time on putting the story first, but this book is full of info dumps that tell us information rather than show us. The best example of this is the overuse of stats and gamer info in this book. It is common with all of these books that I simply will not remember a single word of description told to us through a system message. It is simply not interesting. It only becomes interesting when that information is put to use in the form of action that is meaningful to moving the story forward, that's the only time that it matters.

4. Overly detailed in system information
We do not need to see every system message, every option for every character-build decision, every single time a stat is levelled up, and so on. Like with the last point, it just bogs down the story and doesn't meaningfully move the plot forward. When every chapter is half full of system messages, then I no longer feel like I am reading a story and instead feel like I am reading a transcript from someone's game.

Final Verdict
This is a book with a fascinating enough premise that I kept reading to the end. I hoped that this might be like Defiance of the Fall or The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound, where if you can just push past the isolation period, then the story will eventually get awesome. However, while there is a glimmer of light here when the other human characters finally show up, the story seems to lean towards taking the path of the lone wolf, and at that point, I was done.

I'll keep an eye on the reviews for the next book to see if things do change for the better, because I am really hoping that the author could rescue this premise. He just needs to focus more on telling a good story, and not writing his ideal gaming experience.