I am leaving a review for the series as a whole up to Book 5 in the series, which was the last one available to date as of this review- I like to know if I am going to enjoy the entire series ands not just one book.

Overall, I think this is a worthwhile purchase from that standpoint. I am kicking it down 1 star mainly because the plot of each book gets highly convoluted and hard to follow- there are obscure references which become critical lynchpins by the climax of the story, and if you are only paying half attention to the story they are easy to miss and get lost as to exactly what is going on and why.

Having said that though as the main criticism of the series (for me), I do find the books to be a good listen. They have enough length to them to not feel like you are being short changed (a bit too lengthy if i’m being honest as they can meander at times), but they are overall entertaining and do a good job of keeping your attention as a whole. The characters are very engaging and interesting, the humor is well mixed in and while not really LOL, they do keep you smirking a lot. It is very clever in the overall story arc despite it being absolutely ridiculous (intentionally so) but that is part of it’s charm really. It straddles the quirky humor with some very horrible circumstances and drama in the fictional world (the whole world was essentially destroyed so everyone could be enslaved and faced into a life and death dungeon crawl that is televised for its reality show entertainment value). So yeah, pretty cruel premise, but the author does a good job of making it interesting and adding the right balance of humor and character interaction and development to keep it a good read. And it seems that there will be a way for the main character to win and get revenge on the system that enslaved him (potentially) so we will see how it plays out, but there are hints throughout the books of this happening.

Of course Jeff Hays knocks it out of the part and nails every character and makes them come alive fantastically. Always a big hit to hear them come to life in the audio versions of these books! Soundbooth does a decent job of not overdoing the effects in the series so far but using them at a few select key points to help add to the story, so well done there.

Overall a solid book if you can keep track of what is going on through the 12 – 16 hours of storytelling. I would recommend this one.