Orconomics is to D&D/TTRRPGs what Shrek is to fairytales.

80% of this book is a fun popcorn movie that occasionally aims an under-the-table kick at our modern, profit-driven society. The supporting characters' arcs are simple and don't break any new ground (except Niln's), but they are solid. No-one felt like a waste of pages; if anything, I preferred them. You see plot twists coming early enough to get excited about being proven right but not so early as that it gets boring waiting to be. I would also put money on Pike being a DM because the worldbuilding is as clever as it is coy. It rides the line of how many winks and puns one can enjoy but doesn't cross it. 

Orconomics is also blessedly well-edited (thanks to one Karin Cox apparently). It has single-handedly restored my confidence in independently-published books after the editing nightmare that was The Atlas Six. That said, Ms. Cox, if you are reading this, please strip every instance of 'Ye' from the sequel. 'Aye' is enough of an indicator that Gorm is as Scottish as they come. Reading 'Ye can't' feels like having a Scotsman and an American whispering in one ear each.

Structurally, I found too much reliance on POVs beyond Gorm's, especially the one-and-done types. Not only are POVs outside the party antithetical to D&D, they pad the first two-thirds of the book to a length that feels like a joke spread a touch too thin. Even the other POVs within the party, which I am much more open to, felt a little more like a quick fix when the author realised Gorm wouldn't be privy to something he wanted to show rather than an integrated part of the book. I would love to pop into the alternate universe where this book has multiple main characters, though in this one I agree with the decision to give Gorm, the straight man, the lion's share so that at the end, when he

sheds his willful ignorance and starts taking direct action, the reader has already been tricked into seeing themselves in him.

 

I was all set to finish this book with my appetite for this micro-genre sated when the last 50 pages hit. Now, I'm hovering over the 'to read' button on the sequel. I can't believe Pike got me with the age-old DM advice for turning casual gamers into invested ones -

kill a beloved NPC (or town, in the case of Bloodroot). I felt sick when the party, while racing for Bloodroot, starts seeing 'heroes' on their way home joking with each other, weighed down by loot and blood.

Until then, I had figured this novel's build only dipped into social commentary but it is a full multi-class.

The BBEG is the system. Put hit points on everything in D&D and players put aside their morals and kill; put a price on everything in 'Arth' and they do the same for the grind.

Suddenly those puns ripped from real-world institutions seem more accusations than jokes. If nothing else, I now realise the the title, which I grumbled over when orcs weren't even mentioned until page 70, is

chillingly

appropriate.

All in all, if the upcoming D&D movie is half as entertaining and a quarter as smart, I'll be thrilled.

(See my content warnings for detailed, non-spoiler information on why I rated this novel's diversity as 'complicated'.)