Honestly when I first read the description of the series I was not crazy about it until I saw that Jeff Hays was narrating it. The art work is obviously ominous and portrays the fact that it is supposed to have a take on a darker side of fantasy. The reality is that the novel falls short on some of these tropes within this book but offer a strong foundation for a potentially thrilling dark fantasy series.
Now to get into the meat of the story and if I would recommend it. (NOTE! Their will be spoilers throughout my review that explains the highs and lows of the audiobook!)
The author properly depicts an individual who ends up in a new world that is expected to follow new rules; while, at the same time depicting the difficulties of having to learn everything from scratch while groping in the dark for answers. There are minor inconsistencies with the fact that he played a virtual version of this world and should know more than what is expressed on the political, social, and geographical knowledge from playing the game for over 6 months prior to ending up in the new world.
The first hour or two was in all honestly poorly written and was why I couldn’t agree to giving the story a 5 star and if 3.5 would be possible I would have given that rather than 4 stars. After you get through the intro to the story and the MC gets “spirited away” the story actually becomes MUCH better. First and foremost the beginning of the story has a cringy, lackluster intro that is due to the author trying to briefly explain the mythical world before the MC actually ends up in it. In the beginning the story describes briefly a shi**y future that is dealing with severe unemployment, an employer that has the emotional integrity of a 12 year old throwing a tantrum and employees that stupidly allow themselves to be entangled with a ticking time bomb of a boss with a “well-known” power complex. To be honest you can skip the first hour or so of the story and wouldn’t be missing anything of actual importance.
The story actually improves significantly once the MC gets spirited away into the new world and agrees on becoming a “Dungeon Lord”. The process of becoming a dungeon lord is the first instance of seeing the stories darker aspects and I must say was very well narrated by Jeff Hays and Annie Ellicott as they bring the story to life in a very fluid manner.
Initially it had a D&D feel but Dungeon lords go against this by having almost complete access to different skill trees though their magic is closer to warlocks as it is pact/eldritch based. There are the usual “classes” for most of society become clerics, paladins, rangers, fighters, etc… The story is largely based on xp and the way the characters use it to advance their speciality(ies) and it does not have a prominent role within the story though is discussed and brought up on occasion. The main focus is actually the characters and world building aspects rather than the skill structure and its corresponding mechanics.
Overall I would highly recommend this book as you will get engrossed in it and it has a lot of untouched potential that I expect to see in future books of the series.
I am obligated to state that this book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.