I have a large audiobook library. I wasn’t expecting this one to rise to the top, but it has. I’ve listened through the first three books three times now, and this is the only series I’ve done that for.

Boxy is a dumb, inexperienced mimic who manages to escape from his dungeon and wreak havoc. This is a LitRPG, but there aren’t any players involved. The mimic is a mimic who often ignores things like status screens. It acts like a hungry, scheming mimic and is hilarious. The story and characters are constantly evolving. For example, in book 3 it learns to make an inner sense organ. The complex process arriving there involves at least 15 stages going through all three books. The advances in the plot all make sense, and none of them are old expected tropes. One of the mimic’s nemeses is metal grates and all of its battles with and hatred of metal grates seem entirely fresh.

Jeff Hays excels with this series. All the many characters are distinct, wonderful, new, and vital to the story.

Highly recommended.