Mogworld

by Yahtzee Croshaw

Mogworld is an odd ol' book by Yahtzee Croshaw. Yes, Yahtzee "Zero Punctuation" Croshaw. Not that I knew that when I bought it for the grand total of 10p from the local charity shop. Not only that, I bought it entirely on the grounds that Mogworld made me think of a world of moogles (or mogs) from the Final Fantasy series. You see, I have a habit of reading books I have absolutely no prior knowledge of. My problem is that I've become too picky with time, to the point that if something about the premise doesn't settle with me, I won't read the contents of the book at all. It's a big problem that's led me to just blindly read a book. It's the only way I'll ever get past any pre-conceived notion.

Protagonist Jim is an interesting sort of chap. He's set up as a mage-in-training from a not so prestigious magic academy, giving us the run down that he lives in a high fantasy world. Or, rather, Fantasy (with a capital F). The language is also written in a pseudo Terry Pratchett sort of way, in that there's a lot of humour and it's all very tongue-in-cheek. That's fine, though, it's all quite charming and does push the story along somewhat, even during the duller sections. Jim, however, doesn't last long. For, you see, he dies in the first chapter. Anyone who's played MediEvil will know what's going on here, then - Jim is soon ressurrected as an undead minion to work for the frankly hilarious and wonderfully written Lord Deadgrave. That's about the point I was sold on this book.

The set-up is maaaaaarvellous and I couldn't help but find myself loving the concept. I just loved the idea of somewhat being forced to work for an incompetant villain whose speciality is having hordes of undead. He even has his own death palace in the mountains. Those first few chapters are wonderful. Jim has to adapt to his now undying body, even though the thing he wants most of all is to be dead.

It's a shame, then, that this is spoilt only 5-6 chapters in when things go awry. Jim, a perky and ever so irritating character called Meryl, and a 2D undead priest called Thaddeus, all end up travelling together to find out the mystery of the 'Deleters' - angels with the power to reduce things to nothing. That's about the point I wasn't so sold on this book.

Actually, the more I read of the book, the duller it became. It's a real shame, since the set-up and early chapters were so strong, before it descended into the typical Fantasy journey story. Except, of course, the main thing Jim wants to die is to permanently die, so he keeps saying. I'm not sure if Yahtzee intentionally wrote Jim this way or not, but it always felt like Jim was telling himself that's what he wanted more than anyone actually believing it. So it just felt, to me, that Jim was travelling for the sake of travelling, which sort of undid some of the plot.

Character-wise, there's something for everyone. There's super entertaining characters such as the ever-so-aptly titled Slippery John, super irritating ones like the perky and seemingly-written-to-be-the-token-female Meryl, fun at first but then irritating Mr. Wonderful, broad and bouncy pirates, then bland everyone else. In fact, the further through the story you get, the more dull the characters become, which is a real shame. It also feels like Yahtzee's humour escapes him in the later chapters, becoming nothing more than serious but an uninteresting end-of-the-world scenario.

Still, there's a lot to enjoy in this book, even if the later chapters become pretty boring. There's actually a subplot (or is it the main plot, looking back at it? Hmm...) involving Don and various other people more akin to our reality, which becomes far more intriguing than Jim and co's plot. Alarm bells should have been ringing for Yahtzee then, but oh well.

Is it worth picking up Mogworld? Well, if you like Fantasy or Pratchett, then by all means. If you think Pratchett books are more like a big in-joke that you don't 'get', or Fantasy is bogged down with too many sterotypical dwarves and elf-like characters to care about, then maybe give this one a skip. After all, if I'd had read the blurb and known the basic premise, this would have once again been another casualty to my not-picking-up-and-read pile.