LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 050 - Dungeon Special part 3
LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 050 - Dungeon Special part 3
You can read the full reviews and show notes if you visit us at:
https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-050
“Hello everyone. Welcome to the LitRPG Audiobook Podcast. I’m Ray. I’ll be reviewing some recent and classic LitRPG Audiobooks for you. I’ll begin with: ”
Dungeon Eternium (01:27)
Divine Dungeon Series, Book 5
Score: 8.4 out of 10
Dungeon World 2: A Dungeon Core Experience (19:23)
Score: 8.4 out of 10
Dungeon World 3: A Dungeon Core Experience (28:53)
Score: 8.5 out of 10
Dungeon Player (A LitRPG Dungeon Core Adventure)
Glendaria Awakens Trilogy, Book 1 (39:53)
Score: 7.7 out of 10
The Crafter's Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Novel
Dungeon Crafting, Book 1 (50:39)
Score: 7.7 out of 10
The Dungeon Traveler (01:01:58)
Score: 8.3 out of 10
The Station Core: A Dungeon Core Epic (01:10:14)
Score: 8.3 out of 10
The Quizard Mountains (01:21:29)
Score: 8.4 out of 10
SOUNDBOOTH SPOTLIGHT!!!!!!!
Dungeon Lord: Abominable Creatures (01:31:00)
Score: 8.3 out of 10
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Dungeon Eternium
Divine Dungeon Series, Book 5
By: Dakota Krout
Narrated by: Luke Daniels
Series: Divine Dungeon Series, Book 5
Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
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Such a bittersweet novel. This is the book that broke me into the dungeon genre, and it has been one hell of a rollercoaster type ride for me. I am going to sorely miss it, and at the same time I am comforted in that the ending shows that it really isn’t over. Krout can return to this world in whatever capacity he likes, although it may not be the same state as he leaves it. Why?
The moon is falling, and this is no chicken little type tale. It is the end of the world, and the only hope anyone has of surviving it is Cal’s soulspace. Problem is there is a lot of infighting and outside influences that make it very difficult for him to just welcome everyone into him.
Krout does a great job of tying up plot points, and setting things up that will only make sense if you read his other series, the Completionist Chronicles. The whole “people” thing makes sense now. Cal, Dani, and Dale all get satisfying conclusions to their tales, although it isn’t all happy ending type stuff. Some of my favorite parts were finally learning what the Silverwood tree did, Cal’s misguided attempt to teach a northman a lesson, and Dani’s weird brother popping up.
We also get to see what happens to all the “bad guys” that have been in the book. It really is a great wrap up to an incredible series, and I think Krout finally got his footing back, as the last two books felt rushed. Not so here. This is pretty well plotted out and feels fresh and focused. The only part that almost made me take pause was when Cal kept doing dungeon stuff when all the craziness was going on around him, but then I realized that is exactly what Cal would do. The book is very satisfying, and while a page is turned the cover is not closed on more Cal and Dani in the future.
So here’s the part that I’m sure you’ve been waiting to hear. We all know that Vikas Adams and Dakota did not continue their partnership. Now, I don’t have any insider information, and so cannot say what happened. I’d like to believe it was all amicable, but I did read a posting on Reddit that claims to detail the entire event. And while I cannot claim to know either Dakota or Vikas, I do believe that Dakota is an honorable man and that he would have done everything he could to have kept his listeners happy, so I’m inclined to believe the account as it really details how Dakota was placed behind the eight ball.
That said, I have to say what I think of Luke Daniels job narrating. Now, I have enjoyed Luke in numerous series including Tamer, Magic 2.0, The Iron Druid, and so on; and I get why they picked him. After all, he did a great job on Boyce’s Advent novel, he is well known, does a great job, and is super professional. So, I do have a few things to say. First, he doesn’t do Dani very well. I often did not recognize her speaking, and I have to admit I miss the way she used to chastise Cal or whine out his name, Caaaaaallllllll. That magic was lost. Also, I realize that this got dumped into his lap with a “get it done ASAP” tag attached, but he clearly did not even attempt to replicate voices of main characters. For example, Nick Pohdel took over Arand’s Super Sales title, and he went out of his way to try to match up voices, even trying to get Pancakes right. Daniels doesn’t. He just makes up voices and accents as he goes a long. Clearly he was in a hurry, and I can forgive that due to the rush, but it needed to be said. Otherwise, Luke does a good job, especially for having come into the series so late.
Overall, for a series finale the story is very satisfying, and the only thing that really gives it a ding is the narration switch, which while necessary and understandable is hard to overlook. Final score 8.4 stars. What could have been a classic became a family car.
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Dungeon World 2: A Dungeon Core Experience
By: Jonathan Brooks
Narrated by: Miles Meili
Series: Dungeon World, Book 2
Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
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All right, so this is book two, and I can already say without hesitation that this is my favorite Brooks series so far. The concept is pretty cool. Sentient Dungeons rule over humanity, and do not brook any uprising against them. Fred Winklemossering is the child of two cores of non-aligned factions, and is let on his own after his parents are murdered. In book one Fred was just getting a feel for who he was and what he could do. Now, he knows who he is, and can handle himself fairly well. Thankfully, he is pretty tough, and can return from most mortal wounds.
The book pretty much picks up where the last left off and never looks back. Eisa and Fred become closer, but I have to say that the clueless love interest bit should never go longer than one book. Look at the movie Yesterday, the dude there had like 20 years to pull a hook up but was so stupid about it that he mopes most of the movie about the love that had been in his face the whole time. I’m hoping that by book three or four the whole clueless phase will have vanished.
So, what happens here? Well, Fred finally makes a dungeon, and begins to suss out his real potential. He also comes to realize that making a dungeon may not have been the wisest thing to do, since it put a great big bulls eye on him that other dungeons can target, and other dungeons really want him dead. They throw everything they can at him.
To quote Grig from the Last Starfighter, “I’ve always wanted to fight a desperate battle against impossible odds.” Well, we get that, he end battle is brutal and lengthy and hella cool, as we get to see Fred employ simple tripping vines against monstrous adversaries. The battle is certainly pitched and desperate, and Fred does everything he can to protect his town and its people in numerous ways.
Miles Meili rocks this town, he rocks it inside out. I really enjoy his narration skills and the way that he isn’t distracted with the charts or opposite sex characters. His ladies might not be Oscar quality but at least he doesn’t sound like Mrs. Doubtfire. He makes the story fun and brings the characters to life, which is all you can ask for really.
Final Score: 8.4 stars. Feed’s story just becomes more and more interesting and has real bones. I personally cannot wait to see what comes from this book.
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Dungeon World 3
A Dungeon Core Experience
By: Jonathan Brooks
Narrated by: Miles Meili
Series: Dungeon World, Book 3
Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
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Fred Winklemossering is back, and better than ever. This time, he and his companions are on the run from the nature dungeons, and while booking across the country looking for the branded and banished people they fought so hard to defend in book 2. Eisa deals with her newly minted status better than expected, and we get to see a face from the past as one of Fred’s first friends makes an appearance.
One of the best parts of the book is that we get to see more of Fred’s world, get some perspective on what is happening with the other dungeons and get to see that the world is in a downward spiral that will eventually lead to the extinction of humanity or dungeonmanity or both. Yes, I just made up the word Dungeonmanity, but in my defense it fits here.
Several things to point out. First, there is a ton of growth in each of the Characters, which is great to see. Second, some null mana monsters pop up and give it to our adventuring party. I liked the idea behind the creation and the execution of hem in action. Additionally, Eisa gets some new powers that let her rival Fred to a degree, and she comes to admit her feelings for Fred. Fred struggles to understand feelings in general. IN some ways he’s a much nicer version of Boxy Morningwood. He’s naive and barely has a clue what is going on around him, until this novel. He finally seems to come into his own here. He’s definitively more in control of his abilities and is doing an amazing job getting an understanding of other cores and how to utilize them.
This series is rally fascinating, and I put it in the same Category as Divine Dungeon or Slime Dungeon. Three books in and Brooks has one hell of a series on his hands. The stakes are high, and Fred is dedicated to helping the people that cared for him.
One question I have to ask is, if Fred’s parents were both cores, what is the deal with his human body? How is he a hybrid? Did his folks build it for him, dead they just use a corpse that had been laying around? Was there a sacrifice that gave Fred his humanity? You have to wonder, because if Fred wasn’t housed in a meat shell he would never be able to do what he plans on doing. He’d have just been another dungeon in a sea of lairs. There is far more to it than we know.
Final score: 8.5 stars. Brooks has really but up an interesting cast of characters, and flipped things around so that cores are not the only dungeon types out there anymore. The world building that he is doing is impressive and makes me want to see what comes next. I think that this is Books’s best series so far no questions about it. I am all in one Fred’s story.
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Dungeon Player (A LitRPG Dungeon Core Adventure)
Glendaria Awakens Trilogy, Book 1
By: Jonathan Brooks
Narrated by: Sarah L. Colton
Series: Glendaria Awakens Trilogy, Book 1
Length: 3 hrs and 48 mins
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I do believe that this was Brooks’s first novel. You can get a feel for it, as he does things here that he doesn’t do in later books. This novel is fairly short, so I can appreciate the short story aspect, I’m always looking for a new short story. That said I think the book is pretty stat heavy for it’s length, it seemed like I was always just getting into the flow of the book when we’d get into a lot of numbers.
First, I appreciate the fact that he is very eager to share info on how the world works and that nothing is kept from the reader/listener. More importantly he brings some new ideas to the genre. His MC’s are interesting and fun, but I did have a few issues. First, that new author vibe kicks in in that there seems to be no real stakes or tension between the characters. There are no penalties, losses, or consequences that most MC’s, Devin and Krista, have to endure in a game world. For example. If the MC dies there is no XP loss, and I’ll be honest, I hate XP loss from death. I can remember playing everquest, and I always played solo, and had built my druid up to level 17. I wandered into an area and was repeatedly killed until I hit level 12. It was hard to regrind to get back to those levels and it pissed me off something fierce, so I get that if I am writing a book I might take that into consideration and make it where such things do no occur, but I don’t think anything really happens until the very end of the book.
One thing that I was kind of surprised to see was that Characters had the ability to shift anything they wanted to about themselves, don’t like being an elf? Swap over to human. Easy breezy. Tired of being a cleric and having to pray all day? Pick up a knife and stand in the shadows, you are now a rogue. That was pretty cool.
Colton’s narration is sort of middle of the road. She tries doing voices, but her male vocalizations are weak, like Olive Oyl from Popeye weak. After listening to Colton and Cooksey I have come to the conclusion that Brooks is better served keeping Miles Meili on as his signature narrator. I hate to even say that since I have been so very much been anticipating his horror core book, but Colton narrates that as well so I’m hoping things get better.
Brooks has really made a mark on the dungeon genre, and his love and dedication to dungeon books is obvious with Dungeon Player. For me, though, this is probably his weakest novel in terms of plot progression and character adversity, there is a lot of set up, and a lot of stats so I can see this becoming a decent series in the future. Final score 7.7 stars.
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The Crafter's Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Novel
Dungeon Crafting, Book 1
By: Jonathan Brooks
Narrated by: Louise Cooksey
Series: Dungeon Crafting Series, Book 1
Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
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So, by this point I think you know I am a Brooks fan. No questions about it. So I’m just going to come out and say it. Miles Meili should simply do all of his books. I think Miles gets the humor and pacing that Brooks lays out, and he does a decent job on voicing the opposite sex. Cooksey, however, can’t touch him. At best she does a serviceable job, and at worst a barely passable one. There were numerous points where I found her to not just be monotone, but to just drone on and on, especially when it came to the stats. She forced me to put the book down numerous times or to just go to something else for a little while. She made it very difficult for me to get into the flow of the story, and I constantly found myself wishing Miles had been handed the reigns. She is the parachute on Brooks’s drag racer.
The story itself is interesting. The MC dies and wakes up as a dungeon core, which is standard MO for most dungeon books. Where the story deviates, in a good way, is what the dungeons purpose is, and how it goes about taking care of business. Two things to pick at, which is what I do. The book is a little slow to start, although my perception of that may be due to Cooksey’s narration. It just seems to take some time getting started. Also, there is not a lot of interaction, as the story only deals with the dungeon and a dwork. The MC, Sandra, has a cool background in that she has an artistic spirit, wanted to create while she was alive but had janky hands and so couldn’t; now she takes the opportunity to create things like she always wanted to. Her dungeon was created to balance out the other types of dungeons that are mostly homicidal monsters that make Godzilla look like a toddler throwing a tantrum. The crafting and its progression are fun to experience. The I don’t want to be all murder attitude of the dungeon made it different, but also a little strange. After all, a dungeon’s gotta eat!
The book, as is usual for Brooks, is full of lovely crunch with stats and progression, and he fills the book with tons of info. The book, for the most part is mostly set up for the rest of the series, or so it seems. There is a ton of work, detail, and minutia that is essentially a framework for a larger story ahead. Again, the reason I feel like this is the fact that for the majority of the book there isn’t a lot of dialogue and we get to well after the halfway point before the dungeon really starts having “guests” doing runs through its corridors. A pacifistic dungeon core is a new concept, and the struggle to make traps that don’t kill is novel.
Brooks has a good solid foundation for a view askew type of series, and now that it is all laid out I can’t wait to see what happens next. One last thing, not to beat a dead horse, but I’ve talked about the difference between sentient and sapient, it does bother me. Anyway, good start to a promising series that gets weighted down by minimalistic narration. Final score. 7.7 stars. Narration really bogged this tale down.
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The Dungeon Traveler
By: Alston Sleet
Narrated by: Doug Tisdale Jr.
Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
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In a genre that seems to be becoming inundated with numerous books that simply repeat the cycle of become a dungeon, bring in adventurers, kill them and repeat it becomes harder and harder to stand out. Dungeon Traveler does manage to do that however in a very clever way. The dungeon travels from place to place. It pops into existence for an unspecified time and then moves on, basically going from race to race, rather than just place to place. The dungeon learns from each encounter, and is very fair in dealing with its “guests”.
The set up is pretty typical, a guy from our world dies and wakes up in a strange place as a core. He doesn’t have much time, because the people who made him have some nefarious purposes in mind for him. So he escapes and then takes time to catch his breath and learn exactly what he is, and what he is mean to do. The MC is actually very fun, and I really loved this book, it has genuine moments, and does its best to detail what each race is like that enters the dungeon, their unique ways of dealing with it, their reactions, and so on. I think the Kobolds were my favorite.
The entire premise is unique and makes this a chunk of gold amongst iron pyrite. There is an overarching plot that deals with gods, politics, and other such things but for me just getting to see the way the dungeon reacts to each encounter was fun. Remember this isn’t his world and so he is learning about it the same way we are. Also, there is a lot of stuff here to keep the crunchers happy as the MC advances with notifications and pop ups throughout. Personally, I love to hear that non-euclidian geometry is being used as it harkens back to my extreme love of HP Lovecraft.
Doug Tisdale, Jr does a great job, and he is very familiar with LITRPG and dungeons having worked with Aaron Oster and Skyler Grant on more than a few of his books. If you really like his work, which I do then I suggest that you try Orconomics. It is funny as hell, and he shines. In Traveler he is in top form, and plays every role with great aplomb. He just has fun here, as the story dictate he should. For example there is a scene where a cautious kobold literally licks the floor, and the core is stunned amused and curious all at the same time. Tisdale manages to sound that way, all at once. I think the only hurdle that he caught himself on, and I have to call him on it, is that the world’s system is described as having a matronly voice, and he doesn’t go near it. I honestly don’t know if he felt he couldn’t pull it off or he missed that aspect when he reviewed his notes, but at least he didn’t make a southerner sound british, as I’ve heard other narrators do.
Final score? 8.3 stars. Good first book in a promising series. Can’t wait to see what comes next.
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The Station Core: A Dungeon Core Epic
Station Cores, Book 1
By: Jonathan Brooks
Narrated by: Miles Meili
Series: Station Cores, Book 1
Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
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Brooks kinda popped with the release of this book. I find it funny how many people thought that he had a giant squirrel in the story based on the cover. I also get the joke about bloodthirsty squirrels. Way back when I was in college I was feeding a squirrel peanuts, and when I ran out the little monster ravaged my hand, giving me a lifelong vendetta against those furry little buggers. So I totally get where the Milton comes from on that topic.
So, here again we have a guy that gets snatched and taken to a strange area, only to find out that he was volunteered to become a station core, in order to help a race that is hyper advanced by has no aggressive instincts. He awakens to find himself severely damaged and on a strange world four millennia in the future. For him there is no going back, so all he can do is survive. Thankfully he has a cutie patootie mass of nanites to help guide him as he figures out what he is and how to survive on the hostile world.
Milton is an interesting guy, who seems to settle in to being a core pretty easily. I do have a few nits to pick, but they are not all that big a deal. First, Milton’s companion from the collective, swears all the time. Like a sailor on leave who finds himself in a two dollar whorehouse with just fifty cents to his name. Personally, I don’t care, but this would have been a great book for my kids if it wasn’t for all the swearing. I don’t mind it, but my wife does, so they missed out. Secondly, Milton was chosen for his gaming skills, and yet he has trouble conceptualizing awesome traps? Strategies to keep invaders out? Either he isn’t as good as the collective thought or he suffered some brain damage in the transfer.
Otherwise, the progression of him dealing with intrusions works out pretty well. I especially like the way that Brooks holds off on just letting Milton combine creatures together for some cool hybrids, and that he is size limited on what he can make. The locals are interesting, and Milton’s presence has a massive impact on the environment in major ways. While we only get to see a small portion of the world that Milton finds himself in it maintains your interest and sets up a bigger story for future installments.
Miles Meili does an outstanding job here, and I wish that Brook used him on all of his books, Miles just fits very well with the writing and gets where Brooks is going. He is humorous and serious depending on what is called for, and really sells the tale. I couldn’t ask for more from him, even though I think he has a lot of room to grow. He fits the LITRPG style very nicely.
Final score: 8.3 This begins to build up some steam and is chugging along beautifully. I really do what to know where Brooks gets his ideas, because he is quickly claiming a really big stake in this genre of LITRPG.
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The Quizard Mountains
Station Cores, Book 2
By: Jonathan Brooks
Narrated by: Miles Meili
Series: Station Cores, Book 2
Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
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Milton and co. return, with a new addition to their exclusive club, Whisp, who is Brint’s love interest from book one. I love that Brooks managed to slip a wisp into a sci-fi core novel. Just brilliant. This time the gang is trying to endure forays from the Cordpower co, the makers of those power potions that everyone loves as they seek out the people responsible for brewing a better batch of potion than they could ever hope to make.
This time around, Milton is making hybrid monsters, cloning, and learning powers from the natives as he continues his search for rare metal. It is here that the story really starts to feel like a dungeon, as he begins improving his lair with special materials such as weightium, a super dense type of stone, new monsters, and drones too.
The story is well paced, and unfolds in unexpected ways. Brint and Whisp work together well and actually grow now that they are removed from their societal constraints. The nanites cloud collective helper begins to show signs of having a Dissociative identity disorder, as she begins to cycle through various bits of personalities now that she is encountering females from whom she can model herself after. We also have two of the toughest Protectors pop in to see what is going on. Are they agents of the Chord Power co, or are they on their own? Best of all, Brint manages to discover a huge threat not only to Milton, but also the native populace. Everything seems to go to hell all at once, which as you know is where all the fun is.
Miles makes this a fun fun romp, and I will reiterate that he does a fantastic job. He kows how to play out the jokes and hit the punch lines, where to make you feel the terror that Brint or Milton feel, and manages to make you hate the Chord Power people with several snide comments. He might not have written those comments, but he sure as hell snided them up just right.
The cast is slowly growing but keeping pace with the rising danger. Milton continues to learn from his mistakes and manages to make some progress in his self repairs, and it seems like everyone has some character growth while the danger slowly amps up. This is an excellent series that I think has some strong legs, and is going to go the distance into becoming a brilliant addition to the dungeon genre.
Final score: 8.4 stars. I particularly like the science aspect of this dungeon. It sets it apart from most others in the genre. Like Dungeon World this world is gradually being unveiled to contain more mysteries and spins. Honestly, just when you think you have things figured out . . .
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SOUNDBOOTH SPOTLIGHT!!!!!!!
Dungeon Lord: Abominable Creatures
The Wraith's Haunt, Book 3
By: Hugo Huesca
Narrated by: Jeff Hays, Annie Ellicott
Series: The Wraith's Haunt Series , Book 3
Length: 19 hrs and 43 mins
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I have to say that I was really pleased with how this book turned out. I honestly hadn’t expected it to amp up in the third book, but it does. Lord Wraith is just as brilliant and conniving as before, but now he has some experience under his belt and is ready for whatever the forces of darkness decide to throw at him, or so he thinks.
Edward has a lot happening here. He adds a recently deaged vampire into his clan, and we get a big monster battle. There is a lot happening here, and I applaud Edward for sticking to his no kill rule. He realizes that a single misstep will lead him irreversibly down a path of darker intent. He does not want to become one of Kharon’s buddies or a minion of the darkness. So, watching him struggle to reign in his own minions, and keep them from killing is at times giggle inspiring and simultaneously tension building because you know nothing good is going to come of it.
What I really liked was how Ed was acting like he was playing three dimensional chess. He gos on a quest to find out how the heroes operate in his new world, and once he manages to do that he’ll try to suss out a way to stop them. So yeah, he doesn’t have a lot on his plate at all. On top of that he has to rescue an ancient vampire, coordinate and train his troops, and get ready to battle some honorable foes he would really prefer to avoid. Plus, Huesca manages to keep the powers to manageable levels and not have OP MC’s. Another benefit is that you can jump stats if you want, but if you love the crunch it’s all there.
The one real beef I have with the book is that it repeatedly seems like Ed’s old boss is going to get pulled into the same world as a hero or some such in order to annoy and foil Ed. That or his old gal pal. Honestly, I would stay away from both of them. His old boss reminds me of the villain from Awaken Online where he is arrogant and so full of himself that he’s the best thing he’s ever tasted. He drinks his own kool aid. The former possible love interest is just not all that interesting. In today’s world all she would have to do is make an accusation and people would be looking into what her boss has said and or done to make her uncomfortable.
Jeff and Annie really bring this thing to life, and they make an excellent pairing. I’ve pretty much said it time and again that SBT does some amazing work and that when they get going they absolutely cannot be touched. Annie practically overwhelms with her feminine wiles while simultaneously playing a whacked out ancient bloodsucker that ends up looking like a twelve year old. Jeff craftily carries the rest of the book with his intense narration and masterful manipulation of men and monsters is fun to listen to. Top notch performances and production.
Final score, 8.3 stars. The book continues to improve and the stakes are raised every time we draw to a close.
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