Blurb: (From Book 1) A powerful dungeon. A sheep-herder turned Noble. Their path to ascendance through cultivation. Conquering dungeons and using them to grow has long been the most efficient way to become a powerful adventurer. The only thing keeping the process from being easy is the Beasts that inhabit these places. Questions plague those entering this particular place of Where do the ‘rewards’ of weapons, armor, and heavy gold coins come from? Why is a fluffy bunny charging at me? For abyss-sake, why are there so many monsters? Cal has all of the answers to these age-old questions for a very simple reason. He is a Dungeon Core, a soul forced against his will into a magical stone. With the help of an energetic friend, Cal grows a dungeon around himself to bring in new sources of power. When a threat he doesn’t fully comprehend bares its many teeth, Cal is determined to survive the attempt on his life. Unfortunately for adventurers, the only way for him to achieve his goal is to eat anyone that enters his depths.
Review: This one is an interesting one to review. I got gifted the book by a friend, but have sadly already read the series. I'd just forgotten to add it to the website...... This is fair enough because I read it a year or two the website was created, but it is not a promising sign that I completely forgot to think of it. On the other hand I remember plenty of the plot, so something has clearly stuck. The review therefore needs a healthy grain of salt attached to it.
The concept of this series is interesting. It is that at the center of a dungeon there is a sentient core, which slowly evolves over time. The core controls the dungeon, and juggles having an emerging personality with dungeon design mechanics that grow increasingly complex and powerful. I like it. It's a cool concept. I think this series, however, benefited heavily from being at the front of a wave of litRPG books with a similar-ish premise.
I remember that the main characters were fun to read about. The dialogue was funny, and I enjoyed the general story. The gimmick slowly wore off though, and as the plot advanced to encompass more of the world I started to lose interest. The funny dialogue after a time also seemed to be covering for what I remember often being weak dialogue. It was still a decent read. This series is not a recommend, but I do not regret reading it. If the blurb catches your fancy then it is worth giving a shot, although I imagine the very new subgenre has likely already advanced a bit. The cover artist is also completely uncredited, which is a personal pet peeve.