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Death by Cliché

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Death by Cliché

By: Bob Defendi
Narrated by: Robert J Defendi
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About this listen

To Sartre, Hell was other people. To the game designer, Hell is the game.

Damico writes games for a living. When called in to rescue a local roleplaying game demo, Damico is shot in the head by a loony fan. He awakens in a game. A game full of hackneyed tropes and clichéd plots. A game he was there to save, run by the man who murdered him just moments ago. A game that has just become world-swap fantasy. Damico, to his horror, has become the heart of the cliché.

Set on their quest in a scene that would make Ed Wood blush, Damico discovers a new wrinkle. As a game designer, he is a creative force in this broken place. His presence touches the two-dimensional inhabitants. First a peasant, then a barmaid, then his character's own father - all come alive.

But the central question remains. Can Damico escape, or is he trapped in this nightmare? Forever.

Wait, what? This is a comedy? Ignore all that. Death by Cliché is a heartwarming tale of catastrophic brain damage. Share it with someone you love. Or like. Or anyone at all. Buy the book.

Based on a true story.

©2016 Robert J. Defendi (P)2016 Robert J. Defendi Fantasy Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Game Heartfelt Comedy
All stars
Most relevant
This book will have more meaning if you have ever experienced any tabletop roleplaying games. Lot of fun, laughed a lot.

It was the best of books it was the worst of books

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Self-insert of the author who's wildly misjudged as clumsy and awkward enough to make all the various heroics and witty repartee feel reasonable. It is not, it instead feels like a tragic 'how do you do, fellow kids!?' style middle aged man trying desperately to appear cool.

This book contains the most surface-level interpretation of tabletop gaming humour. It has tired and cliched story-line being lamp-shaded as tired and cliche, which doesn't actually make it any more enjoyable to read. It has cardboard cutout characters and a manic pixie dream girl who, spoilers, ends up with Our Hero in the end in a particularly gut-churning bit of desperate author-insert wish fulfilment.

Out of all the audiobooks I've bought, this is the only one I wish I could refund not just the purchase price but the time spent listening to it. Just looking at it in my library makes me unreasonably angry.

Added one start to performance because it's fine. Nothing wrong with the narration per se, in the same way that someone could theoretically competently read a phonebook. I think I'd prefer listening to that, actually.

Painfully unfunny

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