Dungeon Lord

Over all too soon!!

I'll be honest here, I am beginning to listen to just about everything I can find that Jeff Hays records. The man is vocal monster, and his range is scary. DL sees him providing ever newer voices to his repertoire and th world is better for it. The man is a vocal monster, and I think his taste in choosing what to read is almost at the same level. I don't know how he picks his books, but I have never heard him narrate a dud. Annie Ellicot does a great job here, too. the pair work seamlessly together that is reminiscent of Old Time Radio Dramas, but much much better.

DL 1, looks to be like the first in a long line of books; I am happy to say. It has a great style, lots of humor, and a gross and terrifying monster to trouble our "evil" Dungeon Lord and his minions. Hugo keeps the book nicely paced, and it is always interesting. Additionally, it handles the "I live in a video game" troupe in a cool way. One of the things I really enjoy is getting to watch the main character level up, and I had to laugh when the MC complains that he hardly got any experience for killing a high level monster. The explanation he gets was completely justifiable, and not something you see in these LitRPG novels nowadays. The hero is clever, intelligent, and brave but not suicidal or stupid. He behaves in a logical and reasonable manner.

This is a great book, and I most highly recommend it to you. Go read it now, so we can get more of Lord Wraith's adventures.

35 of 38 people found this review helpful

A litRpg

This was a good book. One stranger to another it’s worth the buy. And will most likely quickly climb the ladder to become one of the top stories in its category. I think the narration was excellent and stayed consistent throughout the story.
The plot itself was believable enough.
What I really enjoyed was the different monsters and how the narrators used their studio to maximize the creepiness of each monster.
Buy it, love it.
There was one sex scene which wasn’t to much or to long and it’s a very very small portion of the book.
Excellent book

43 of 54 people found this review helpful

story but the screeching was pretty unbearable

the screeching of the spider Queen is almost Unforgivable. Jeff Hayes does a good job but the story is a bit lackluster and has some Kinks.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A LitRPG with a twist

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

This is a funny story and a nice twist on the LitRPG genre. If someone asked me for a recommendation within the genre, I'd would mention this.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The narrator is easily the best part about this audio, capturing the humorous vein of the story, and providing a fun cast of voices. If I had to make one change, I'd cut out the constant stat readouts. I'm sure they're fine in the book where you can skim over them, but they disrupt the flow of the audio too much.

Which scene was your favorite?

The fight scene with the spider queen.

Could you see Dungeon Lord being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Nah!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

The dark never felt so good...

If you are a fan of the Literary Role-Playing Game (LitRPG) genre, you will enjoy listening to "Dungeon Lord" which is the first book in what appears to be a future series of books taking place in this new and unique fantasy world. Hugo Huesca does an exceptional job in crafting a world full of fresh, different, believable and multi-dimensional elements; both characters and environments. Add in the amazing production quality and narration from both Jeff Hays and Annie Ellicott of Soundbooth Theater and you are given the best of both worlds. Jeff and Annie do not overpower the story, but instead both story and narration come together to form an amazing fantasy tale that keep me entertained and surprised along the way.

What happens when a group of people from the same office are a part of an online guild where one's physical world boss takes out his gaming frustrations on the staff when they mess up? This is where one of our characters early on takes matters into his own hands and unbeknownst to him, he discovers he is given the option of working for the side of dark or potential long-term impressment. I do not want to spoil the story, so you will have to read of this sounds interesting. What complicates matters even more is that Ed (our main character) has always battled the dark and has been a hero of light in all his gaming. Once injected into this fantasy world, mimicking the game he was playing online, he need to make the right decisions as this is no longer simply a game, but truly a battle for both life and death. This new game Ed has been placed within only has the option of "perma death", so there is no return when you make the wrong choice. Will he continue to fight for the side of evil or will his light side win over the day?

For me the book's opening, world, and characters made it a listening pleasure. I'm not one for books that are focused solely on the darker side of fantasy (I always played the Paladin), yet the author includes a fair amount of humor, light-hearted antics, and even some romance to break up the mood when needed. The book itself did not feel overly dark nor gloomy, but there was always the pull between the two forces upon our main character; think Luke Skywalker from StarWars. I enjoyed a few of the characters that are often classified as being more on the side of evil such as witches, but we are also given a few that are not including a bard; yes, a bard. When Edward begins to build his new party, one is reminded more of the island of misfit toys than a band of heroes; which is not a bad thing for this journey. Each of the characters needs to depend on the other strengths and weaknesses for them to survive. The author did a great job of integrating the various characters along with their many quips into this band waning to save the land from a much more powerful and menacing creature; the mindbrood. I often found myself laughing out loud observing the actions and interactions between the drone creatures and the other characters.

There is a fine-line one needs to walk when they have the desire to be both a hero and a instruments of the dark. Early on when you are trying your hardest to make friends and alliances while always being challenged by others for the podium of evil, the struggle is real for Ed. In this book, not only is the mindbrood one of the big encounters, but also the many encounters with hordes of spiders (I do not like spiders) and a few other evil classed monsters. For me the book set up the situation quite well and at times felt predictable, yet in the end, the author did a good job of surprising me with the unexpected. I very much enjoyed the premise and the view we are given into the birth and difficulties of establishing a new and power dungeon that will be able to hold off the forces of future adventurers and heroes. There was always this feeling of gloom throughout the story but is did not feel oppressive. One gets a good sense of changes occurring in the world and with the main character as the dark weighs on his heart and soul. The question of will he succumb to the dark or be able to overcome its pull and follow the light? This and much more is answered in the past of this book.

If you are at all familiar with Jeff Hays and/or Soundbooth Theater productons, you know what to expect from one of their releases. The audio is some of the best available and the team ensure that they only give the best to their listening customers. I liked the inclusion of some of the sound effects which were not overdone and helped make the book pop. It is the little subtly things that make Soundbooth Theater one of my favorite audiobook publishers, they focus on what is important to listeners and make sure everything to they do is right. I did not notice any audio artifacts and both characters narrated their parts very well. If I had one suggestion, it would have been to have the spider queen's voice a bit slower as it was more difficult to comprehend if you are one who listens to audiobook at more than their normal speed; like myself.

For parents and younger readers, this book includes a plethora of vulgar language. There are also scenes of sex and humor incorporating sexual innuendos. If you are easily offended by either of these, I would suggest you find a different series to listen too.

In summary, when I was done with this book, I wanted to jump right into the second one in the series to see where our main character would go next. However, at the time of this review, it does not yet exist in audiobook format. The book itself can be read as a standalone novel, yet at its end we are presented with many paths or directions the team could go in future releases. I look forward to more book in this series and highly recommend it to others who enjoy the LitRPG genre.

Disclaimer: I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

A Good Listen (But a Warning)

I've been growing more fond of LitRPG novels lately, and this one is an excellent listen. The plot and characters are believable, the decisions they make under stress are thought out, and the errors they make are understandable. The narration was also excellent, though I would have liked that the guest narrator was used more in all the female roles. Which... brings me around to why I rated this a little oddly.

-- Minor Spoiler --
A child dies in this book. It is horror movie worthy. The voice actress is so on point, and the imagery so shocking, that it was all I could do to stand to listen. Violence towards children is a particular sore spot of mine when it comes to media, so I include this for people who might feel as I do. It was as good listen, but it made it nearly impossible to finish. Though, I will give the author and the narrators my compliments for evoking such a strong emotional reaction that I had to pull over and calm down.

So... yeah. With that caveat, enjoy. I do not mean to dissuade anyone from enjoying this book. I just felt like there needed to be a warning here.

17 of 28 people found this review helpful

Work in retail hell? Consider selling your soul!

Deals with dark gods: Check.
Requisite sex scene: Check.
Lowly minion dies in battle: Meh, I'm not telling.

It's good, not excellent, maybe a bit predictable. The dungeon mechanic is different which is nice.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

More colorful than the cover

The dark side recruits a experienced gamer to be a new Dungeon Lord. Interesting mix of stuff from across the LitRPG genre a bit of portal, a bit of dungeon core (Lord). I had a little trouble following the very beginning (prologue?). The rest of the story flowed well. Jeff Hays did a great narration and Annie Ellicott did great creepy monster voices. The little batlin was my favorite. I'll listen to the next one when it comes out.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

A fantastic first book with the promise of more!

This book hits you on so many various levels it is hard to tell you what it is all about. On the surface, it is a standard LITRPG/Portal/Dungeon book, which as you can see hits three sub-genres right out of the gate. The MC is an average dude who is subjugated by his boss, and works in misery; his only break comes from playing an MMORPG with his co-workers once the shift ends. The joy of joy, his boss horns in on the action an manages to make his life miserable AFTER work by screwing up their gameplay and then blaming others. The MC, Edward, is then put in a tough position by his boss, and opts to punch the guy out and quit. Immediately thereafter, he is contacted by an entity, not of his world, that offers him a chance to become a dungeon lord (actually replacing the one his team had killed the night before). It turns out the game world Edward has been playing in is real, and the evil there wants to overtake it. To do so, they need agents, such as Dungeon Lords to do their dirty work. Edward accepts the deal but swears that he will not do evil’s bidding, and will be his own person regardless of what happens.

Things pick up the minute he arrives, and Edward struggles not only to survive but to save some others with whom he finds himself with when he arrives, they are the agents of the now deceased Dungeon Lord that his team killed. Once he gets things straightened out he sets off to establish his own Dungeon. The Story is comical, filled with action, and at times quite horrifying. I’ll get to the horrifying part in a bit. Edward is a very likable character, he is an upright guy that refuses to bend over and do what he’s expected to do (hence the punching of his boss, will evil never learn?). The underlings all have great personalities and could steal the show if Edward let them, but his presence manages to dominate the page or the spoken images of the narrators. Some of the best things about the whole concept is the part where Edward realizes that he lives in a “real” video game and that he complains when he doesn’t get enough XP for killing a tough MOB.

While the story fluctuates between action, comedy, and drama there comes a point when horror is suddenly introduced, and damn if it doesn’t work. The impact of the nightmarish creature is greatly amplified by the narration provided by Soundbooth Theater. Jeff Hays blasts his way through this tale and elevates the story to great heights, but the real scene stealer is Annie Ellicott, who plays the monster so well, and so full of emotion that she manages to make it heartbreaking and terrifying all at the same time, and that is not easy to do. She simultaneously elicits both horror and sympathy for the monster, and for a newcomer to the narration business I have to step back in awe. She was amazing.

Overall, this is a fantastic first book in what promises to be a long line of novels. The writing is top notch, the plot is perfection, the pace is pulsing, and the narration makes this more of an adventure than you would expect. The sound quality is perfect, with a nary hitch in the giddy-up, and the storytelling, as I said, is unbelievable. Personally, I really look forward to more from this writer, this series, and the narrators. They are all top quality. You will undoubtedly enjoy this novel, and I see it as a five star across the board piece of fiction that you rarely find.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author/narrator/publisher.
Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.
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bad echo

I was enjoying the story but I had to stop listening. I'm not sure if it was the equipment used but there is an awful echo that I just couldn't stand anynore.