Neat take on the dungeon core genre

If you are ok with a bit of an over-the-top-but-smart powerfantasy, this series is for you.

I enjoyed this entire series so far (halfway in book 8 currently) it starts out pretty decent and improves along the way.

I enjoyed how the Main Character is not exactly the hero in this story and might actually be or flirts with being the villain.

Sure the MC seems overpowered at times, but the story builds attachment and investment with secondary characters and the world over time, which are caught between the MC and other threats, keeping the story somewhat grounded.

The female characters are a bit one dimensional in the first book, maybe the second too, but the author seems to improve on this later on. Nothing overtly sexual happens, but the MC can be perceived overly fatherly or patronizing.
On that same vein, the MC also does not really seem to have any flaws.

Both the author and the MC seem to get distracted with 'projects' and 'side stories' which are also discarded again easily, often without any clear resolution of that storyline, or with any impact on the characters. Quality of the story fluctuates because of this.

Some power creep does occur in the later books, but it is often vague what the end of the power curve really is.

Another slight pet peeve is that each book is not really a contained story, the story in continuous and books seems to start and end arbitrarily.

(Later edit: some spelling/writing errors can be heard here and there)

Sounds pretty negative, but it is fresh and fun enough to keep me wanting more.

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Loved it

I loved the book, a really nice power curve. Good story, nice world mechanics.

though saying 'salt pepper' instead of 'saltpeter' is kind of annoying

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Dissapointing

This is a very standard dungeon core story with a bland overpowered MC. He instantly becomes amazing at magic the moment he is born and doesn't really rely on robotics. It's more like a skin for his dungeon than anything else.

DNF so maybe the last 3 hours are where it gets good.

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Free book and I was ripped off!

I really wanted to like this book. The idea is perfect and some plot points are perfect for this kind of story but it reads almost like a bullet pointed list and the narration is rushed and amateurish.
This is the kind of book I wish was given to a better author and audio team. Listening to it all I could think was how much better it would have been if done by Dakota Krout.
I may give the author’s later work a chance in the hope his writing improves but this book is really not worth your time.

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Hard to believe this is narrated by real people

I don't like leaving reviews, because many people have worked hard on the end product and I want to respect that.
This time I feel compelled to warn others about the quality of the audiobook.

The book feels childishly written, with overly simplified sentences reminiscent of high school writing.
However, when I read it, I can skip over these issues as there is enough of a difference between this book and other dungeon core stories.

But all enjoyable moments are destroyed by the poor narration. Yes, there is an underlying robotic theme so having robotic narration would be thematically appropriate. The end result is that the male and female voices sounds like a terrible text to speech program, with no nuance or pacing. It also highlights the childish writing and makes it physically painful to listen to the story. My co-workers keep asking me why I am wincing, thinking I am sick.

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4 people found this helpful

Sounds like A.I. narration

The story wasn't bad on itself, but beside the main narrative voice, the other voices sound too much like someone using text-to-speech A.I..

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I enjoyed the premise, and it was entertaining enough, but..

the performance was somewhst flat, the protagonist never met a challange he could not snap his way out of or that he magicalky made the counter for the day before.

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