Book Review - Rogue Dungeon: A litRPG Adventure (The Rogue Dungeon Book 1)
I read a lot. Like, a lot. I definitely get my money's worth out of Amazon's Kindle Unlimited. So I thought it would be fun to start reviewing the books I read. Mostly sci-fi/fantasy genre fiction, so don't be disappointed if you don't find abstruse prose in the demesne of my literary sights. See how annoying that is?
OK, on to the review.
Like most of the books I go through, this one was recommended by Amazon's recommendation engine. It's actually one of my favorite sub-sub-genres that I'm enjoying - the alternate viewpoint litRPG. If you're not aware, litRPG is the sub-genre of following characters as they go through an immersive role playing game. Imagine the near future where VR is perfected and you could actually experience World of Warcraft or any other game from a real first person perspective. It's a narrative built on top of that concept. The alternative viewpoint is my favorite twist on this concept where the main character is not the hero of the game, but the bad guy or some other character.
In Rogue Dungeon, we have an alternate viewpoint inside of a hero's journey. Graf is a deposed noble trying to get back at the usurper king who killed his family. A spell goes wonky (think Harry Potter in the fireplace kind of wonky) and he ends up in our dimension/universe/whatever's VR RPG. Unfortunately, he's a level 1 dungeon monster and will have to kill off lots of players to level, reorganize dungeon society, and stage a coup if he is to be able to go back home.
I like the concept of being a stranger in a strange land. Learning the ropes, grinding up, and going through the heroic story arc. That's the good part.
There were quite a few bad parts though. The magic system needs a lot of work. It's not internally consistent. For some reason there is a mix of Italian fencing terms thrown in along with Japanese armor terminology and various exotic weapon names. The table graphics don't work well on a kindle. The main character calls everyone, "mate." All together it just makes for a clunky style that detracts more than it adds to the story.
Overall rating: meh. It's good enough that I will read the next installment, but it's not one that I'm really excited about.
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