Gorp: Goblin Janitor

Gorp the Goblin #1

by Jon Ray

Gorp the goblin is fleeing his lands in search of better employment. With only a cloth map to guide him, he sets out across the sea to secure work at Ye Olde Dungeon working for the sinister Dungeon Overlord Jamalin Spellslinger. Once there, along with a group of misfit monsters, Gorp is hired on as a janitor to clean up the messes left behind by the horde of fortune, glory, and treasure seeking adventurers. But all is not well within the dungeon as the Red Dragon has ideas and an agenda of his own.

Genres: Fantasy

Kindle Edition

Published March 16, 2018

About the author

Jon Ray is a writer, director, and actor in film along with a large assortment of other titles when it comes to entertainment. Since the age of 13, he has played and enjoyed Dungeons & Dragons normally running his own games as the Dungeon Master for others. Originally from Tyler, Texas in the U.S., Jon currently resides in Sydney, Australia where he prospects for gold in the outback when not writing.

Reviews

[Esme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Debating between a 3 and a 4 for this one, review and rating to come later.

[Lukasz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overview: As a goblin, Gorp struggles to land a decent job. Other races despise his species. But there’s a work at a Ye Olde Dungeon managed by the sinister Dungeon Overlord Jamalin Spellslinger. Fantasy readers tend to associate dungeoneering with exciting exploration, high adventure, and heroics. Very few think about the logistics of maintaining a dungeon and keeping it clean. Brave janitors work backstage to make things shiny. Or, rather, sufficiently dank and gloomy. It’s a job with perspectives; a quick professional advancement is at hand, especially when more experienced cleaning crew has just been eaten by a dragon (dungeon's biggest attraction).


Gorp is a likable protagonist without a clearly defined agenda. Things happen to him but he can find his way around and get out of a jam. He never says what others want to hear, but what is in his heart. The author approaches this story with gentle humor and a distance. As a result, Gorp reads quickly and easily.

That being said, I need to address some issues, namely insufficient editing, weak characterization, and lack of stronger turns and twists. We get a villainous villain who kills his minions whenever he’s in a sour mood, a dragon with an agenda, and a good-hearted protagonist who somehow always lands on top. While it won’t impress seasoned fantasy readers, it has the potential to entertain.

With additional tweaking such as clearing all grammar and spelling errors, and simplifying some awkward sentences, Gorp can become an engaging and enjoyable story for a younger audience

[Jo Durand · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have just finished it and enjoyed it very much. The storyline is cute and the narrative fast-paced. Looking forward to the next one.
I picked this one up at St Ives Medieval Faire 2018

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this - it was like the "behind the scenes" of a dungeon crawl. Who resets the traps? Who clears away the bodies of the previous adventurers? Just what do goblins and orcs do in their downtime anyway? It was quite a lot of fun. I would have loved to give this four stars.

But while I'm happy to overlook a handful of SPaG errors (especially if what I'm reading is indie published), this book was littered with them and it was very distracting. For that I've knocked a star off.

[Jaana Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea of this story and some is well written. However there is one glaring issue that made me struggle. The editing is appalling. It ruins the flow completely. Also, I'm not sure why the paragraphs are staggered the way they are.. filler maybe? And so many short single sentences e.g Something happened. Then they did this. And then this was what came next. And so on and so forth. This is annoying to say the least. It has no rhythm to keep it going and makes what could be an interesting story very boring. I appreciate the attempt but it definitely needs work