Christmas Core

A Holiday Dungeon Core Novella

By: Jonathan Brooks

Narrated by: Miles Meili

A love of Christmas is translated into a unique dungeon experience…

Elmer Robbins loved decorating for every holiday with his wife, Mary, by going all-out with décor at their cozy little house as well as filling his office with holiday cheer. But, when his beloved Mary passed away unexpectedly the year before, it became difficult for Elmer to summon the same sort of enthusiasm in decorating for all of the holidays without her beside him.

However, due to an accident at work, Elmer’s soul is transported to a strange world, where it inhabits an even stranger object called a "Dungeon Core". Soon after his arrival, the new Dungeon Core discovers something he didn’t think was possible: a way to reconnect with the soul of his wife, Mary.

In order to do that, though, Elmer will need to survive and increase the level of his newly acquired form. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know much about fantasy worlds, magic, and monsters; what he does know a lot about, however, is Christmas.

Christmas Core is a short novella set in a unique universe that contains LitRPG and Dungeon Core elements such as stats and character progression.

©2021 Jonathan Brooks (P)2022 Jonathan Brooks

A fun take on dungeon core focusing on holidays!

Jonathan Brooks knows great dungeon core, and book 1 of the Holiday Dungeon Core series, Christmas Core, is amazing! Quite original, the dungeon is focused on Christmas of course, and the locals on the world the MC was sent to as a dungeon core have no idea what Christmas is nor any of its traditions or tropes. Looking forward to book 2 in the series, Valentine Core! Audio Version: Miles Meili always does an amazing job narrating, bringing characters and story mood to life.

Brooks Delivered Again

Brooks delivers another masterpiece. As with his other works, he turned a seeming ridiculous concept into a fully realized story. A Christmas-themed dungeon seems far fetched to the uninitiated, but he made the concept work. I am looking forward to the sequel!

To short!!

Just as you are getting into the story it ends!!! I understand it's a novela but I just wanted more. Looking forward to the next addition.

I was entertained

~Disclaimer: I received a free audiobook copy of this book.~

As I enjoyed the other dungeon books by Jonathan Brooks (The Dungeon Fairy and Dungeon Crafting), I couldn’t resist the free audiobook. April isn’t really the ideal time to read a book based on Christmas, but I suppose it is Easter this Sunday and therefore I’ll claim the timing is right.

I had fun with this. It follows most of the standards you would expect for a dungeon core book, but the holiday themed dungeon makes it fun. I think the dungeon minions, traps and whatnot are imaginative takes comboing Dungeons+Christmas.

It falls in the category of a bubblegum read for me short (150ish pages), relies heavily on its premise (holiday dungeon), and doesn’t have a ton of world building. But a quick read that entertains me is what I look for after a day at work and this fulfills that need.

I nabbed the sequel already because the kindle book was free ATM. I’m interested to see where the story will take us next because we haven’t had enough time to really flesh things out. Plus....I had fun and want to read more.

Narration was solid and consistent. I enjoyed his takes on the characters. I didn’t notice any audio issues.

Amazing listen

I liked how Elmer used his knowledge to make a Christmas dungeon, and I noticed that it was a holiday dungeon so I was hoping that there was more than just Christmas, I know Valentine's is next, but there is many other holidays more if outside the United States. I listen/read the book this time, I like the added sound parts that enhanced the listening experience