Thank you to the author who reached out with a new file after mine had become corrupted somehow.

The premise of this story interested me so I went ahead and requested in on NetGalley. I am finding that the pacing seems slow even though it is a fast paced story. The idea that the monsters and humans live in the same world doing boring office jobs is pretty funny and I love the entries to the security guide at the beginning of each chapter. I do think overall this story is more suited to my husband's taste than my own and I think I will be buying him his own copy.

I absolutely loved this book up until the ending. I'm still processing and am not sure how I feel about the way it ended. But I loved the combination of bureaucracy and fantasy. The writing was well done as well as characterizations of the characters (especially the two major main characters). If it wasn't for the ending I would have given this book 5 stars!

Please Don’t Bring Your Greatsword Into My Office by guy Langham. in the book we meet David, who is human, and Murph, who is some type of bipedal dog looking being in their coworkers in a high rise building I believe in London. murph is like the grandmother type who will bring you tea give you a hug and in the case of a cult invasion will whip ass. David, on the other hand is like the king of cowards. He doesn’t want to fight and will do anything to avoid it. when a cult called the voters break into their office building at first. David is just looking for a way out while Murph on the other hand puts on her yellow vest and starts whipping ass. it seems the group isn’t just breaking into cause chaos for no reason but they are there for a reason, much more humane, and something that absolutely surprise me. David will not only have the worst day of his life, but it may just be his last. He will learn a lot of things about the anonymous company he worked for and will not like most of it. this book not only covers a lot of things that are relevant to today’s culture,. I really really loved this book and would definitely read another by the author although I do want to say the whole thing with Murph at the end made me kind of sad because she didn’t see everything that David and Shanna did but I digress I still love this book and definitely recommend it. #NetGalley, #GuyLangham,#PleaseDon’tBringYourGreatSwordIntoMyOffice.

Did I request this because of the title? I totally requested it because of the title.

Ok. Wow. Just wow. What an insane, hilarious, horrific read.

The worldbuilding felt both very Doctor Who and I liked that we got to explore this post-Merge world from multiple characters’ POVs.

Very reminiscent of John Scalzi’s works but much more bleak. Not once did I know where the plot would actually go. I laughed, I cringed, and the twist at the end absolutely got me.

This was insanely good and now I neeeed this to be a series ( I say when the first book is not even out yet).

Guy Lingham is to be commended for the world-building he put into this title. He then populates the world with a number of interesting characters coming from different cultures and species who have all ended up in a very strange London and in a very different office. David is an office drone at INU, a multi-billion conglomerate which manages most of the stewards in the UK since the Overlay. But on the day he invites his former school friend Zshana for a job interview, a cult decides to invade and raise havoc! Mayhem and bloodshed ensue leading to one very satisfied client though a very twisted, unhappy ending.

Thanks Netgalley and INU Publications for the chance to read this title.

This was a very enjoyable "British sad sack somehow gets involved in epic fantastical machinations beyond his control" story. Think Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but with ogres and swords instead of spaceships and Babel Fish. I will admit, the very trope-iness of the "ever-suffering British male slacker" did grate on me a bit during the middle, but the end of the novel more than made up for it with crazy twists and a ponderable ending.

One of the most surprising reads of the year. Equal parts hilarious and horrifying, this is a genre mashup of fantasy, satire, and office politics jam-packed with insightful observations and well-crafted prose.

While relatively short, this story has a lot to say about its topics, and respects its audience to draw parallels without banging it over your head.

The characters are flawed and interesting, the humor was up my alley, and while there may have been a sense that the story introduced perhaps too many topics to fully explore, I was quite happy with the finished product. We experience such a small sliver of this world and I hope the author returns to it and brings us more stories.

A fast, shocking, and very fun read.

this was a pretty good read! i liked the blend of science fiction and fantasy. It was enjoyable to read and it was descriptive and entertaining! I liked it and would read more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

David is a normal guy, working in a normal office, alongside some colleagues from an alternate version of Earth that was Overlaid and merged with the world as we know it. He’s offered to help his school friend, Zshana, get an interview there, which will surely go well just as long as she leaves her greatsword (called Focaccia) with the front desk. Except when the fighting starts and the terrorist cult shows up, maybe it would have been helpful to have that sword.

I loved reading this book. I didn’t really have any idea what to expect, other than presumably some humour, based on the title. It is laugh out loud funny, and has a lot of extra hysterical observations if you happen to work in a corporate office, even more so if in London. It also helps that one of the main antagonists is literally called “A. Johnson”.

There is a limited cast of characters (for good reason), but they all feel incredibly fleshed out, especially given the length of the book. The worldbuilding is perfect for the tone: everything was explained as and when I needed it to be, with no superfluous histories or myths. Don’t get me wrong, I love detailed epic fantasy worldbuilding, but it would have been out of place here.

You don’t really know where this book is going, scene to scene, in a really exciting way that means you just want to devour the entire thing in one sitting (which I did). It ends up tackling a relatively heavy topic and delivering a wonderful message, all while interspersed with humorous observations about the British love of (failing at) Eurovision, and the cognitive dissonance of loving both animals and the environment, but eating copious pork pies.

I’d honestly recommend this book to anyone - even non-fantasy readers. The fantasy aspect does drive the characters and the setting, but the narrative is fast paced and interesting - one anyone would enjoy. My first 5 star read of the year, and I’m only on Day 2!

3.5 stars overall, but I’ll round it up to 4 for Goodreads scoring.

This story was both exactly as expected and completely unpredictable.

This is a multiple POV book which revolves around David and Zshana - a human and a Gumgarag. Lingham does a good job of explaining this new version of Earth to us, and slowly introduces relevant information throughout the book. The fighting in this story starts early, which isn’t too surprising given the title of the book!

The real pro of this story is the ending. The plot wasn’t predictable, I didn’t expect the ending but I did enjoy it. It came together neatly and didn’t drag out for too long.

The con of this story was the middle. Parts of it dragged. There were perhaps too many POVs in this book, which made it feel like the story was really stretching out the filler in the middle.

I would recommend the book, it was a fun quick read.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC copy, this is an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, which had a workplace fantasy setting following two worlds colliding years prior, resulting in humans and a minotaur-like species learning to coexist.

Although the book was overall very funny, it was incredibly dark in places, although the writing and characters kept the tone light enough that it never felt too heavy to read.

I would have liked a bit more background on the 2 worlds colliding as I felt I was missing some background at times but overall a great book!

This is a surprising way in not a bad way -- it's more serious and closer to the bleak reality we live in than I was expecting. The cover, title, and synopsis made me think this will be a fun, sarcastic, D&D-esque book, but this is actually a lil triggering (definitely needs trigger warnings for gun violence and....corporate America?) Soft DNF for now because I am intrigued but need some time to step away, reset expectations, and come back to it when the reality isn't so bleak.

Very much reminded me of a Die Hard kind of situation. The tone and writing style is informal and quite humourous all round. It's light entertainment and tackles intersting concepts, like the clashing of realties and it can be quite sad in parts to think about a world in which cultures and countries have fused with others. On a deeper level, outside the surface of the entertainment, I believe it tackles immigration, wars and disasters that we face in modern times. However, entertainment is the key here, the title in itself is a great hook; the writer, editor, or publisher - whoever's idea it was, I hope the writers, it is a great hook and the die hard-esque story line is sure to draw people in.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc!

I was most surprised by "Please Don't Bring Your Greatsword into My Office" (that is a lengthy title). What started out as day at the office morphed into a rebellious plot to overthrow the current system. The world Lingham creates is very interesting. I thought I would be lost with the world building, but I think I understood enough to enjoy this story, and I found it to be unique. I did chuckle at the bits and pieces of humor throughout this book. I am interested to see what other stories Guy Lingham can tell.

What a journey. I feel like I still need to marinate on the ending of this book. I’m vacillating between 4 and 5 stars. As a debut novel it’s a stand out for sure. Fans of quirky sci-fi fantasy will enjoy this wild tale. Especially if you love escape rooms and fight scenes.

An alternate earth merges with our human-dominated earth and our protagonists are dealing with the consequences of a merged society when all chaos brakes loose in the office. An office with ‘aliens’ and broadswords.

What happens in security committee meetings stays in security committee meetings. iykyk.

There’s a lot of meat on these bones and more depth (societal issues) than I expected based on the cover and description. I thoroughly enjoyed this, but like I said, I need to sit in the ending for a hot minute.