Children of Fear: A Paranormal LitRPG Dungeon Core

Spirit Core, Book 2

By: Jonathan Brooks

Narrated by: Sarah L. Colton

After successfully completing his objective inside the house in South Carolina, the transformed soul of serial killer Clive Logan was randomly transported to another location as his reward. Something about the new house he found himself in was quite different, however; whereas the Spirit Core had previously “haunted” a house filled with only adult targets, two children that apparently lived in the new location - a young boy and a slightly older girl - were thrown into the mix.

As an emotionally absent serial killer, he didn’t care that they were children - he would kill them if that was his objective. Fortunately for them, Clive soon learned that instead of killing the two young kids, he needed to leave them alone because their innocent souls were essentially off-limits. At the same time, the fear-based attacks that had worked so well for the Spirit Core in South Carolina were practically useless against the parental protective instincts the two adults in the house possessed. This made them more fearful for their children than they were for themselves, negating the majority of the fear he would normally generate.

Luckily, there was a solution for that. While harming or killing the children was forbidden, recruiting them to Clive’s side was not only allowed, but encouraged; if the attacks on their parents came from them instead of the Spirit Core, none of their protective instincts would kick in. A simple solution - but working alongside children was never something he had prior experience with, nor did he count himself as much of a team player.

To succeed in his new objective, however, serial killer Clive Logan was going to have to rely on a couple of kids who liked dinosaurs, cars, and unicorns...

Warning: No children are physically hurt in this audiobook, though the ones integral to the story are affected in other (mental and emotional) ways. This is also the tale of a serial killer doing what serial killers do, so if you are opposed to either of these warnings, turn back now...Contains LitRPG/GameLit aspects such as statistics and leveling, as well as Dungeon Core elements.

©2019 Jonathan Brooks (P)2020 Jonathan Brooks

Amped up the terror

I loved book 1 of this series. Book 2 is even better. The escalating horror builds well, the introduction of new mechanics make sense. The final crescendo of action is spectacular and I would love to see it someday translated to a screen.

This book also progresses the series narrative and sets the stage for things going even more crazy in book 3.

Horrifying

A well written and wonderful narration makes this book so chilling. I can't wait until the next book. I received this audio book free and voluntarily reviewed.

Fell a bit flat for me

I enjoyed the first Spirit Core book for what it was, a former serial killer (spree killer?) turned into a ghost whose goal was to haunt a couple to death. In this one, the protagonist is in a house with kids and the rules suddenly change so that almost everything he has to do is via the children, or "minions" as is frequently restated. I was anticipating a slow corruption, having the kids maybe get encouraged to play pranks and then ramping it up with them maybe getting cold feet that they had to be talked into. Instead, I think implied to be hastened by Clive keeping them on a constant drug high through his ability to introduce contentment in them, they become malicious very quickly, and homicidal with one accidental use of him applying an auditory hallucination to them. Maybe that was the point of the narrative, that all kids are one drug trip or false friend away from jumping into killing, but it just didn't appeal to me.

As a side note, it's good that the agents of Heaven are at least cottoning on to that there's something wrong going on, but I'm really hoping that the third book doesn't continue to have the bishop arriving too late, to borrow from Monty Python, always on the back foot. Honestly, I think that's also another area where the book fell a bit flat for me, in that I never really got a sense that Clive was genuinely in trouble despite arbitrary (yet very precise) deadlines given to him. Potential roadblocks appeared, but were eliminated just as quickly. In comparison, the first book felt like he really had to build up his power and use it creatively and that there was a genuine chance he could fail.

The narration was good. Unlike the first book, I listened to it as an audiobook without reading the text, so the statblocks raced by even faster as largely meaningless noise for me, but that's the nature of trying to move LitRPG into the audio environment.

A rather good sequel!

A good sequel to a good core book. some new mechanics explored and more souls collected. overall a good sequel to the first book. I will say the pacing felt a bit worse but not enough to lose a star.

spooky!

definitely worth listening to! The characters are great and the idea of the book just hits all the right buttons!