The Escherian Core

Neuro-Divergence, Book 1

De: Michael Dalton

Narrado por: Trevor Jordan, Alyssa Poon

Solve the maze. Find the girls. Win the game.

I was just an anonymous clerk at a game store. Then one day a disgruntled customer ran over me and my hot coworker Kelly–all because of an unreleased game I wouldn’t sell him.

Now we’re trapped in a huge three-dimensional maze where gravity seems optional, competing in dangerous contests with a team of fellow social outcasts.

And failure is often fatal.

But I think I know what’s going on here. We’re gathering territory, I’m gaining strange abilities, and every contest we win adds another member to my team of hot girls.

We just need get to the bottom of this maze. If only we can find it.

The Escherian Core is is a dark base-building isekai GameLit adventure.

©2022 Michael Dalton (P)2023 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

Shockingly good

Not sure where to start, this was surprisingly very good and engaging.

The story itself is a huge mystery, of which only a small part seems to have been revealed to us, but enough to feel satisfactory. Basically people from all over the world/worlds have been gathered in a "cube" like experiment, having to defeat other teams and solve various puzzles all while making their own team stronger through bonding and receiving new abilities. Not all relies on using brute force, in fact quite a lot depends on using knowledge and especially by thinking outside the box. More can be said, but that would be going into spoiler territory.

The MC is likeable and avoids a lot of the tropes we usually see in these type of novels which was quite refreshing. the FL's are also very fun and unique in their own ways. Maybe the building of the team could have been done more slowly, but it kinda works like this also, and makes me wonder how it will develop in the future, while keeping all members relevant (hope this aspect will count in future books). The bonding ability was also quite fun and kept things interesting in that department.

Now for the narration. Alyssa Poon did an amazing job with the female characters, they all sound like different people with various accents and inflections, I could tell all the time which character spoke with it having the need to dwell on it. She also made them feel real and adorable in various ways. Trevor Jordan was also a good pick for the main character, but his role was a bit easier, so to say.

In the end it's a very good book that successfully combined both elements present in the genre while keeping us engaged and entertained. I really hope the next books live up to the hype because I'm quite excited for the next books to come and want to see more of these characters.

A great start to a series

Michael Dalton has had a lot of good stories and this one is continues the trend. I enjoyed everything about this story from the worldbuilding to the base building, the characters and the setting it was entertaining if a little dark. As always Alyssa Poon does an excellent job breathing life into the characters and while it was my first time listening to Trevor Jordan they also did a great job bringing the characters to life and helping make the world the characters find themselves in feel very unique. I cant wait for the next one.

Dalton does a great job writing The Escherian Core

Michael Dalton does a great job writing The Escherian Core. Sci-fi with a fun twist. Great characters, an interesting story, unique powers, and a fun ride. I look forward to book 2! Audio Version: Trevor Jordan and Alyssa Poon do an amazing job together narrating this story.

Different but good !

I like the different take. This is not an OP main character killing everyone in his path. Instead they have puzzle to solve and other teams to defeat. The harem aspects are fairly tame which is a nice change of pace.

Not bad

This is clearly meant to appeal to fans of "Hunger Games," "300" and the like. Young people in groups and couples, who apparently all died, are pitted against each other in weird puzzles and games. The losers die... again?
Oh, and part of the game is incentive to have sex with your teammates.
It's not amazing, but not bad. I dithered about whether to continue the series, but I think I'll try one more and see how it goes. There are still some mysteries to be unspooled.