Dungeon Delving for Loot and Levels

Dungeon Delving for Loot and Levels, Book 1

By: M.E. Thorne

Narrated by: Katana Jones, Jonathan Waters

Waking up in a theme-park world run amok was a bit rough. But leveling up to be an epic hero, seizing a mountain of treasure, and romancing a bevy of beauties isn't too bad.

My name is Danny Abbott. I went to bed thinking I had just another day at the office waiting for me. Instead, I find myself in Dungeon World, a planet-wide RPG-themed amusement park. The monsters are real, the perils are deadly, and the people in charge are long since gone.

Sure, "Maintenance Worker" sounds like a weird job to be stuck with, until I find out that it lets me reroll chests, disable traps, and access the park’s hidden paths and back halls. And then I realize the world is my oyster; I can be rich, I can be powerful, and I can romance as many beautiful, exotic women as I want.

Survive. Level. Conquer.

Warning: This novel is not appropriate for all ages; it contains descriptions of violence, unconventional relationships, and limitless adventure.

©2022 M.E. Thorne (P)2022 Podium Audio

A Really Nice Start!

Certainly an interesting starting premise and the characters and setting are a bit different than usual. I found the story very engaging and I’m intrigued as to where we will go from here!?

An interesting, and well done, medley.

This book very strongly feels like the author took a little Death end Re;Quest, a little .hack, a little Sword Art Online, a little Ghost in the Shell, and a little isekai harem hentai and blended them all together. Although you can strongly feel some influence from each of those sources, in the end the author does a great job of pulling it all together into a whole story rather than just being a jumble of parts, sorta like a fruit or berry shake with findable bits of real fruit in it. The biggest flaw, to me, in the story is that there are a few very obvious signs of something a bit more (I won't say what, as it seems like it will be a spoiler even in volume 3, as I'm almost done with volume 2 and it hasn't been clearly stated just yet) that the MC fails to notice, despite the fact that he's supposed to be well grounded in our Earth's sci-fi, and it is something that has come up in several sci-fi works over the decades. Otherwise, the story is great and it should really be a 4.9 star rating, but we can't do fractional stars and it just isn't quite 5 star because of that.

The performance is great, except for where they have the glitched text spots. They always use the same sound effect, at the same length, regardless of how long or short the glitched spot of text is supposed to be. This has the effect of throwing off one's perception of how long some of those bits of glitched text are, and makes trying to guess at what's supposed to be there much more challenging. Podium needs to take some lessons from either Idea Factory International (who dealt with this fairly recently in Death end Re:Quest 1 and 2) or Bandai (who dealt with this 20 years ago with .hack) for how to incorporate sound effects to represent glitched text in spoken lines. Well, them or the companies that developed those games, as due to how poorly it is done drastically hampers an otherwise excellent performance.

Overall, the book is fun to listen to, and I've been enjoying the second volume as well and can't wait for the rest to be available to listen to.

A unique isekai adventure with some good fun!

M.E. Thorne writes an interesting and unique Isekai fantasy series. Book 1 gets us started on this amusement park world adventure and it is a unique read. Sure, the tropes exist, but the story is interesting and fun to watch unfold. The MC is likeable and it's fun to watch the world unfold in front of him as he learns about the world, the system, and of course finds some amazing companions along the way. I look forward to book 2 in the series and the next series from M.E. Thorne! Audio Version: Katana Jones and Jonathan Waters bring the story to life audibly and do a great job with the overall narration and their respective characters.

Great intro to spicy content

I was looking for a book that introduced spicy content but also was good for action/fantasy. This fit that well!

Refreshing and Fun

I really loved the premise and execution of this book. It's a fresh take that is lighthearted while remaining compelling. The unique world and character class made me chuckle more than once, but I had no trouble remaining immersed in the story. The narrators also did an excellent job of bringing the characters to life. Highly recommend it on all fronts and can't wait for more.