![Polyglot: NPC ReEvolution by [Nantes, Rae]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51XgEyOWTmL._SY346_.jpg)
Like several of the other reviewers, I was quite drawn in by the initial premise of the book – a person pops into existence with vague memories of a prior life outside the game, who is nevertheless bound to the simulated reality of the world she inhabits like all the other NPCs (or "nipsies," as this book terms them), struggling to figure out the truth of her origins and nature. The strength of that premise, combined with the exploration of an interesting magic system, carried me through a large portion of the book. Unfortunately, once the main character is revealed to be a reincarnating NPC who once conquered the world and drove out the invading players, things rapidly start to decline.
The prose is somewhat flawed throughout, frequently using verbs in ways that are close but not quite right, and the presentation of the worldbuilding is slapdash – while the struggle of the main character to learn more about herself and the history of her world is compelling, it isn't until about halfway through that the author casually reveals to the audience that the world we've been inhabiting is geographically identical to Earth, without bothering to establish for us where the earlier parts of the book took place. This is especially vexing when the plot escalates to the point of large-scale warfare, and hostile armies are able to travel in a single day to a location that took the protagonist at least several days to reach. The worldbuilding also suffers in a more literal sense: there are a number of points where the story puts some focus on construction – of a building, a town, and then a nation – and in all cases the process is described in a rather half-hearted manner, as if the author didn't feel they could simply gloss over the details a present us with the finished product, but also didn't care to put in the work and research needed to actually describe those details.
Finally, there's the matter of the protagonist herself. Bluntly put, the mystery of her origin is the only thing she has going for her; once that mystery is resolved, she proves to lack depth, agency, and forethought. Throughout the book she expresses attraction to several people of both sexes, but both she and the objects of her affection are so thinly sketched that the attraction feels superficial and heatless. She is content to be carried along, first by her companions and then, once her backstory is revealed and they begin looking to her for direction, by the events around her – for example, when building a nation to serve as her base of operations, she gives no thought at all to how to organize its government or ensure that she and her faction remain in control of it, distributing powers and responsibilities on an ad hoc basis, then yields to a demand for popular representation, promptly loses the election and retains authority purely by accident when the new president volunteers to make her a constitutional monarch.
- File Size: 3148 KB
- Print Length: 330 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1793889937
- Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
- Publication Date: December 20, 2018
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B07M5MJY8B
- Text-to-Speech:
Enabled
- Word Wise: Enabled
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,133 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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