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The Side Questers

by J. J. Kochmanski

A barkeep steps outside the programmed loop

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A barkeep steps outside the programmed loop

Anya Dazel’s life in the online role-playing game Eternity is defined by repetition: serving drinks and guiding players through a set quest. A game update brings Cyrus Blackwood, a warrior who begins taking over her role, and Anya’s attempt to confront him sends them both beyond the pub. The adventure then shifts into Eternity’s open world, where the unlikely pair face monsters and puzzles while questioning how fixed their assigned roles really are. The setup gives the story a distinctly game-aware angle on the hero’s journey, with a non-player character—not a player—at its center.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Fans of LitRPG and fantasy role-playing game settings
  • Readers interested in stories centered on non-player characters
  • Those who enjoy unlikely partners facing monsters and puzzles

Themes

Programmed roles and agencyIdentity and reinventionUnlikely partnershipHeroism beyond traditional roles

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

For fans of Legends & Lattes and Dungeons & Dragons comes an unconventional hero's journey told through the perspective of a non-player character in a fantasy role-playing game.

Anya Dazel is a burnt-out barkeep in Eternity: The Endless Realm, the world's premier online role-playing game. As a non-player character, her life is stuck in a programmed loop--forever serving the same drinks to the same patrons and helping players with an automatic quest event that unfolds when they enter her pub. She longs for any disruption to this monotonous existence, even if that feels like an impossible dream.

But when Eternity receives an update, and Cyrus Blackwood is added to Anya's pub, her dream unfurls as a nightmare. Cyrus is everything that Anya is not--a mysterious, brooding warrior with a gigantic sword and a tortured past. Everyone in the tavern is fascinated by him, and even worse, when the next player arrives, it's Cyrus who helps them with their quest, not Anya. Realizing that she's being replaced, Anya lashes out at Cyrus, inadvertently knocking them both out of her tavern and into the wider realm of Eternity.

Free from their encoded home, Anya and Cyrus must work together to navigate a dangerous open world, overcoming hordes of monsters, devious puzzles, and maybe even an existential crisis or two. But as they struggle to overcome their distaste for each other and stay alive, they discover that their roles within Eternity might not be as programmed as they thought, and Anya will need to prove that even barkeeps can be heroes.

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Customer reviews

M
AlbakiReads
Malaika Taylor

I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

T
AlbakiReads
Thomas DiMassa

Great service and fast service

Great shopping experience! The book arrived quickly, was well packaged, and matched the description perfectly. I would definitely shop with you again

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Olivia

Smooth.