It took me two attempts to finish this book. From the blurb I wasn’t expecting a standard dungeon-core LitRPG and it was pretty good from the beginning, although a bit confusing. The story starts with David crashing his vehicle in the Australian outback. If this was a standard Dungeon-core LitRPG he would’ve died and become the core of a dungeon and some fairy would appear and explain everything. David didn’t appear to die, or maybe he did, I’m not too sure on that point, even after listening to it twice. Anyway, a fairy appeared but David wasn’t going to sign any kind of contract with her so he tricked her into zapping herself on the bug zapper. He realises he doesn’t need a fairy because he can encourage other creatures, like ants and wasps, to perform his bidding.
Skipping ahead a bit, it gets a bit confusing when David’s body is rescued and that is the dungeon core, while David is also present (and trapped) in the dungeon in some other form. Anyway, the body/core goes to hospital while dungeon stays in the dungeon. I don’t want to spoil things but the dungeon does something stupid which puts his body into a coma for 2 years (while the dungeon gets reconfigured).
After this there are interesting scenes like when the core makes a suit of armour. The bit that got to me and made me stop reading the first time was the drug addicts scene. Though to be honest, there are some scenes further along that are more disturbing.
I’m glad I stuck with it. The book was an enjoyable start to the series. I will definitely look for the next one.
The narrator did a good job of distinguishing between characters. The sound of the fairies encountering the bug zapper was pretty good and amusing.
I received a free copy of this audiobook and chose to write a review