I don’t like dungeon core books. I only bought this one in desperation, because I needed something to listen to and, with all the good reviews, I thought maybe this one would be different. The triumph of hope over experience.
The main problem with dungeon core books is that by their very nature, the story takes place at one location with essentially two people, the core and its wisp, not leaving much room for a complex plot or interesting interpersonal drama. The second problem is that it strips context from dungeons that exists in other litRPG books. In dungeon core books, the dungeons start off with one or two rooms, with mobs like horned bunnies. Even as comically boring as this is, for some reason adventurers flock from all over, forming large camps outside in a carnival-like atmosphere. You don’t see this in other sorts of litRPG books, where the dungeon fits into a larger story and has a more serious atmosphere.
In this particular book, the wisp mostly exists to tell the dungeon how clever it is and most of their conversation is similarly nauseatingly sweet. In fact, most of the dialogue among characters is uninteresting and unnatural-sounding.
The only thing mildly interesting in the story is the mystery of who is killing the dungeon cores; without this subplot, I would have stopped listening halfway though.