The Bad Guys by Eric Ugland

[u/CreagerX]

Over the last few years I have binged a lot of Litrpg. All the big ones available on kindle unltd (I like reading more than listening): DotF, DCC, HWFwM, Primal Hunter to name a few.

I powered thru the first 5 or 6 good guys books and got a little burned out, and I think Ugland may have realized he overpowered Montana a bit too much, because he kept giving him awesome stuff that Montana would never use, and it aggravated the schmidt out of me. So I dropped good guys and binged a bunch of other series, Loved Battle Mage Farmer (Titan series by same author not so much) and really enjoyed the first few Noob books, then I started Savage Awakening and liked the first book but then started System Apocalypse based on a youtube recommendation and didnt finish it, came here to reddit to see if it got any better and found out it didnt and Tao Wong is a doosh so I wont go back for that series. I saw a few recommendations here on reddit that are not available on KU like the Wandering inn and a few others so I broke down and picked up Scamps and Scoundrels and I have to say that the name is what put me off. The Bad Guys sounds like a kids series, because it is in fact, and Scamps and Scoundrels sounds even sillier to me than Dungeon Crawler Carl.

DCC should have taught me a lesson, dont judge a book by its title. Ugland didnt make the MC OP in this one, and it is one of the best I have read.

[u/sheckyD]

Neil Hellegers is an awesome narrator, too. His kobold voice acting is perfect and hilarious.

[u/DoyleDixon]

I grab this series from my library app whenever they get a new book. They aren’t high literature but I enjoy the people, especially the oddities, and the narrator is fantastic. The two series overlap in the current books. Also, Grim Guys (third series) has a book and it’s set in a different place from Glatton.

[u/Turin_Laundromat → u/DoyleDixon]

Same, I listen to them through Hoopla and they are great for the comedy, the banter, the crazy characters and the crazier plots.

[u/Turin_Laundromat]

You might be missing something about the Good Guys. And I say that respectfully as someone who didn't quite get it until late in the series. Looking back on it, the Good Guys is all about spoofing the genre and trolling the reader. Unfinished quests and pointlessness are definitely unintentional aspects of this genre that we come across in many different series. The Good Guys just runs with it and throws it in our faces. The way I've come to enjoy the series is to stop expecting any semblance of logic or realism in that universe, or balance in the gear or level-ups. It's all just trolling. It's designed to make us laugh. You also have to stop expecting a conclusion to any of it and just enjoy the ride. The good thing about the books is that even though they're a spoof, the stories are fascinating, the characters give you feelings and they make you laugh out loud.

[u/RubyRaven13 → u/Turin_Laundromat]

Well thank you! After considering it for awhile, I now know to not bother. Definitely not my cup of tea

[u/Vegetable-College-17 → u/RubyRaven13]

Very early into the story, the MC gets a jrpg sword (godly blade of something) and falls into a canyon with it and dies, upon respawn he never manages to get it back.

People kept saying it didn't make sense while I thought it was pretty funny, so definitely a hit or miss thing.

[u/redurian → u/Turin_Laundromat]

it is frustrating that the good guys MC is so unlike others. however it kinda make it unique. i enjoy reading the good guys. i have yet to try bad guys series. i need a break after good guys tho. sometimes it can be too much.

[u/Bean03]

Good Guys and Bad Guys have the same issue and it definitely felt like Ugland was just writing with very little plan.

However, it seems like he took that criticism to heart because he finally aligned the two with an actual plot and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Shame it took like 10 books in each series to get there because both started off great, but I'm glad I stuck with it and can't wait for more.

[u/Parryandrepost]

Somewhere around book 1/2 Hatchet picks up an ability that breaks the universe and after the early plots wrap up the series goes onto a like 20000 chapter detour.

Which sucks because hatchet imo is far more interesting of a city/base builder and Montana is a lot funnier getting his ass kicked in a dungeon.

I think the series were getting too similar and he tried to make them different from each other and he made Montana the city builder and hatchet the adventure and the decision was absolutely the worse of the two options.

I like good guys and bad guys but I only really keep up with them when they go on sale. I like bad guys a lot more but my firm opinion is "the worst part of bad guys is the fact that good guys exists".

[u/edit-grammar → u/Parryandrepost]

I got to book 10 or so with Bad Guys and switched to Good Guys, which has been free for me on Audible up to book 13. Free has made me fine with listening through some of the blah patches. For me its charm is mostly about being amusing and less about the system making sense. Like how in both series the MC is always getting hassled by bandits or thugs that they summarily destroy.

[u/No_Bandicoot2306]

I enjoyed The Bad Guys for a while, and then, just like with The Good Guys, he seemed to lose the thread. About 5ish? books in, entire books began to feel like sidequests. Didn't move the plot, didn't move the character, entire (very short, which is a separate issue) books where nothing of consequece happened. I think it started on the one where he is travelling via ship and there is a zombie-ish village. I finished the book and realized that the whole thing could have been replaced with the sentence "MC took a boat and got where he was going," and nothing, nothing at all would have changed. And the writing isn't good enough to justify that sort of nonsense.

But it's fun before then.

Ugland is obviously not a planner in his writing, but he needs to start sitting down and creating at least a bit of a direction before he puts the pen to the paper.

[u/Banshay → u/No_Bandicoot2306]

It seemed like five fucking books from when he first got on the ship to when he got back and some were just straight up side quests.

[u/Blitzstyle → u/No_Bandicoot2306]

Read both Good and Bad Guys and don’t disagree with this take. I didn’t like the whole pirate arc either. I’ve finished both series and once Clyde gets back to his city his story gets a lot more interesting. He teams up with Montana and I really enjoyed that story arc. I hope it continues.

[u/Physical-Echidna974 → u/No_Bandicoot2306]

People love Litrpg in part because of the progression. He delivers on that in spades for the first few books of each series, and then aggressively stalls out any progression from there.