The City and the Dungeon

And Those Who Dwell and Delve Within

By: Matthew Schmidt

Narrated by: Doug Tisdale Jr.

The City is an immense metropolis of crystal spires and wondrous magic. Beneath is the Dungeon, a vast underground world, and a source of endless treasure guarded by grotesque and deadly monsters. No one knows where the Dungeon came from, or why.

Any who would dare face the dangers and riches of the Dungeon must first be transformed into a delver, a quasi-immortal creature whose every attribute is defined by numbers. Yet, the "immortality" offered is but illusory, for without consuming the crystal found only within the Dungeon, a delver will inevitably die.

One young immigrant braves the Dungeon to remit money to his family, only to find much, much more. Friends, power, and secrets of the Dungeon.

Perhaps even love.

©2017 Matthew P. Schmidt (P)2018 O and H Books LLC

Okay.

It was decent. The characters were real but none of them had any real flaws. Every battle is told as if it is epic but it is all rather unexciting and end quickly.

With the extreme pace that is set, the MC and party become so OP it doesnt even matter. The author is clearly telling me there is danger at every turn, but I dont feel it. Some characters "die" but I dont feel anything when they do.

The MC doesnt really have any motivations. The Main party just sort of bunches up together. The spells and classes are all over the place and dont mean anything to me. The Stats as number dont really have meaning. The spectrum of colors is an interesting twist on the leveling system however.

The conversations between party members often become philosophical and even religious which even if it is fake religion is rather frustrating to listen to. That's just me though.

I finished this easily in a day and it managed to keep my attention, I didnt hate it but it didnt really do anything for me either. I would only recommend reading it for the world building.

Thus it is a 5/10.

Fun and Videogamey

I recently got into audible because of Ready Player one so I have been on the hunt for more books that read like video games.

The city and the dungeon definitely delivers a literary gamer experience.

I enjoyed the world-building and lore, also I felt like it explained a lot of the inside terminology fairly well for non-gamers.

The one area where I this story would've deviated from video game formula would be to maybe give a few of the monsters more personality, just to change things up.

A good story but...

I liked the story, in and of itself. That was great even. A nice litrpg to enjoy. What I didn't enjoy were the constant lapses into theology. It didn't help that it felt like I was being preached too. If it happened once or twice that would be fine but it happens again and again to the point that I had to hold back from rolling my eyes whenever it happened. It just feels so out of place and doesn't connect with the rest of the story, which I feel, really detracts from the experience. If you're Christian, you might enjoy this, as the theology was basically Christianity with some fantasy elements. I'm not however, so it just felt like a waste of time.

Good fun, minor complaints

I really enjoyed this book. It's a fun take on RPG systems come to life. like an MMO slice of life story done really well. the author doesn't take it too seriously so there isn't any "actually this is terrifying." edgelord takes on it which I like. I enjoy the world building but I could do without some of the religious debates the characters engage in, some of it feels extraneous and can bog it down. At least for me. I'm also really unhappy with the ending. It ends so abruptly it's practically mid-sentence. I was enjoying the story so much that I was unhappy it ended at all but it really does feel jarring. I hope the author continues in another book. i'm very interested to see where it goes from here.

written like one big flashback

the whole thing gives the impression that it's just one big flashback or bibliography. not really story telling as the entire book seems more of a letter written home to main character's sister about the events of main character's life... leaves much desire for world building and the discovery of life as it unfolds rather than history lessons and short explanation of "just the way things are now"