Demon Core: A Dungeon-Core LitRPG

Demon Core, Book 1

De: D. M. Rhodes, Razzmatazz

Narrado por: Armen Taylor

Shattered by tragedy, consumed with rage, a young man surrenders his soul for the power to destroy humanity in the first novel of this dark fantasy series.

After the death of his beloved mother, Swain is left at the mercy of his drunken father. His only respite from all the beatings and abuse lies in the words he scribbles down, seeking beauty in an ugly world through poetry. He has no friends until one day he meets a girl near his mother's grave. A restless spirit who calls herself Goose, over the years she encourages Swain's creativity, eventually helping him tap into a magical ability he never knew he possessed: a dark energy entwined with his despair, fueled by his anger, and controlled by his poetic verse.

But this revelation is swiftly followed by a cruel betrayal that devastates Swain. Unleashing his power, he transforms into the Demon King and spreads a plague across the land, infecting every living creature in his path. He knows there's beauty to be found among the base and selfish people he encounters—the graceful dancer, the perfectionist painter, the master chef—and he twists their artistic desires to serve him. Hollowed out and reborn as undead entities, they join the corrupted army of inhuman beings bent on conquering those the Demon King believes allowed the world to become a horrid ruin.

Ruhr, the half-elf river-sorceress adventurer, is in the city when it's besieged by demonic forces. The invasion is her opportunity to earn royal wealth and favor. But while her water magic purifies the monstrous legion, the Demon King marches on to remake the world according to his warped vision of beauty . . .

The first volume of the hit LitRPG fantasy series—with more than 300,000 views on Royal Road—now available on Audible and wherever ebooks are sold!

©2023 D. M. Rhodes and Razzmatazz (P)2023 Podium Audio

Decent except one lingering thing

The narration is wonderful, the story is good fun, but the stats and descriptions are a bit too frequent. It felt unnecessary to constantly refer to the characters names, status, and location every single time it was their turn to have their story told. I would have preferred to have been made aware of those things through typical storytelling elements rather than hear an introduction prompt each time. That said, I really enjoyed the characters, the dialogues between each other, and the use of artists by the MC.

Instead of your normal monster fantasy troupes, the MC uses strategies and abilities in a slightly different fashion that I found pretty interesting and refreshing. All in all, I’m curious to see how the author adapts and am excited to check out his next work. Keep it dark and brutal and I’ll definitely keep spending credits.

Also, Armen Taylor really nailed the voices. Especially the Demon King’s.

Very grim, very dark.

Honesly glad i got this book, didnt expect it to be so horrifyingly entertaining. An all out interesting book i wanna see how the bad guy does in the second book.

this was translated but quite good

not what I was expecting based on the description but a pleasant surprise. I do recommend this book and not just because the pursuit of beauty is relentless.

Horrifyingly, beautifully, Interesting

The villian is our protagonist. He is a heart broken poet, an artist scorn. A gifted person neglected. His fall into madness is relatable, and it feels like he's misunderstood the meaning of life. If you’re wanting a Dungeon Core story look elsewhere. If you want a beautifully written story full of well-written characters with human faults and tragedies where you don't know who to root for, then you'll like this.

Great Voice Acting

The story is annoying how much it goes from one character to the next. Some of them there is more info on where the character is, their level, etc then there is on what the character does or says before it switches to the next character. Some of the back and forth from switching from different characters perspective makes sense, but then then some new characters come out of nowhere for a few line then off to the next character. The voice acting was perfect. The brutality of the Demon King was good, and the ways he kills people was unique in many ways especially with all the different nightmares. Those nightmares were original and interesting. The poem powers were also amazing, and the wordplay was also spectacular. The thing that made me hate the story mainly was the unlikeable characters other than the main royal knight who was a decent character, along with the mayor of the one town; those who have listened to the story will understand. Both of those characters I liked. The other main thing that made me hate the story was how often, as I said earlier in this, they change characters.