The Card Job: A LitRPG Heist

by Kit Falbo

A Gambler always keeps their cards close to their chest.In the immersive game Changing Worlds, there is a galaxy of possibilities, gunfights, arena battles, intergalactic warfare, adult pleasures, and pure escapism. Hermanos Granger plays for the paper. The Change-Set a mini-game using cards akin to those introduced to him in his youth. A quest in the cards brings him back to a relationship he thought was buried, and now he has a job to do — the Card Job.A LitRPG novella set in a pulpy space opera game world.

Genres: Novella

119 pages, Paperback

Published October 25, 2019

Reviews

[Crissy Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got half way in and decided this wasn't for me. It's well written, and a decent story line, but it's a heist book. If you like heists and litrpg you'll probably like it.

The one thing that really bothered me at the beginning was the terrible almost abusive relationship between the main char and his ex girl. She is so awful to him that it turned me off the book pretty quickly. More because he just took the abuse instead of standing up for himself, or even telling her off for all the terrible things she did.

Unfortunately DNF.

[The Angry Lawn Gnome · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, this one was nowhere near as good as The Crafting of Chess. Not bad by any means, but nothing you'll feel you've missed out on if you skip it. Which is a shame, because the idea of a heist inside a VRMMORG is a helluva an interesting concept; it was the execution that fell flat.

Quite a few typos, almost constant bizarre sentence construction, characters and world-building that barely rose above the forgettable kind of drowned out what did work in the book, the off-the-wall humor, some decent combat scenes, and as noted, the kind of unique concept.

Ah well, we can't win 'em all.

Three stars if LitRPG is your thing.
Two stars (probably) if it is not.

Recommendation to Mr. Falbo: Read a few Parker novels and take another stab at the concept. A LitRPG version of The Outfit would probably be epic. And get a better editor, sheesh. Still not sure if it was Titania or Tatiana.

[Cmoore · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the Gambler Hermanos it's all about playing the deck-building side game. But after reaching the pinnacle win in the game he's given another quest and it starts with a puzzle! Unfortunately the book really isn't using the cards this time! As it turns out it's really about the heist... luckily I do enjoy a good Heist! A Heist to steal a card mind you, but really it's just a Heist after all! Not the Deck-building book I was lookin for! However, the ending, so twisty! Talk about having the wool pulled over your eyes! That was really som'min else! And fun too!

Here's a couple of quotes:

"In one case literally dodging a McGuffin-filled package tossed to him, letting the package hit the floor with a thud."

"She had agreed to meet in a coffee shop situated in a far-off star cluster. Looking in the wiki, Hermanos read that it was noted to be famous for its delicate mini-cakes and poisonings."

[Alex MECA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

Much like the crafting of chess this book is unique and one of kind. Fantastic character, interesting locales, and a bank heist. What more can you ask for. Plot twists. Done. Space battles. Done. War. Done. Cross dressing. Done. Ambiguous robot. Done. Done. Done. This book has it all and more.

[Danny Moody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, intelligent short story. It was refreshing getting through this book. It had been awhile since I have chosen a short story and this is a good example of more is not always better. The story is engaging from start to finish with plenty of twists and turns. The characters are well developed and there is interesting character interplay.

[Bender · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was an ok short read with an interesting premise.

The author spent more time describing the revealing dresses of one of the main female characters at cost of world building which is fascinating to be ignored thus.

Game elements are kept interesting and minimum leading to a light fun read.

6/10

[Ken Whiting · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gamer

I am not a gamer. Played a bit of D&D way back but didn’t get into it. Enjoyed the movie Ready Player One and this story has parallels. I did enjoy this story and especially liked the ending.

[Aaron Eichler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it, it was interesting that the MC was the first to collect all the cards in that set and it put him on the way to a new quest.