I did say I was done with "location incarnation"/"dungeon core" books after Slime Dungeon and The Laboratory, but I've been slowly listening to this one over the course of a few weeks. That might not speak to it as being the most thrilling book, but I have always been drawn back to it, which counts for something.
The setup is similar to those previously seen, with a character's soul (in this case Cal's) ending up trapped in a dungeon in the form of a soul gem, after a collection of rather nasty necromancers bumped him off. He has to recover his wits, discover what it means to be a dungeon, and grow into something that will allow adventurers to delve into his depths (not like that) and win exp and loot.
Naturally, he is aided by a companion, in this case a Wisp, Dani, who acts as a handy exposition device. She does tend to waffle on a bit, which does slow the plot down slightly, and this isn't aided by the rather heavy world-building content. The mechanics of the world are fairly interesting, with a twist on leveling that I've not seen previously, but it does tend to take up rather more time than it should. That might be partly why I took so long to get through it.
Usefully, the book doesn't focus entirely on the dungeon. There is a rather major secondary plot thread, following the first person to find the dungeon, Dale, and how he develops as an adventurer. There is a certain amount of "you are the special one" in this, both on the part of the dungeon and Dale. There are no small number of coincidences that just happen to be very helpful to the deuteragonists, with not much effort put in to achieve them.
The world building is deep, but a little repetitive, going into perhaps more detail than it really needs to, at the expense of both plot and character. There is also an unfortunate tendency in the dungeon structure to generate repetitive plots, as a character might delve into the same dungeon a dozen times, with variety in the traps and monsters, but not necessarily a lot of it. It does tend to result in somewhat flat characterisation.
I finished it, but I'm still not entirely sure why. There are some interesting background characters, and a fair bit of diplomacy goes on in the background, but it feels very light in general. I think this was mostly a "maybe it'll get better" feeling. It didn't, particularly.
If you're already a fan of the genre and looking for something else to have a crack at, feel free, but I can't recommend it as an introduction.
Not recommended.
Tagged: Book GameLit Fantasy world Novel Print