Villain Core

Superhero Dungeon, Book 1

Sam Smith, the biggest superhero fanboy ever, was excited to get super powers...until his first evening as a crime fighter meant dealing with the villain Exosuit.

Then Sam died. It was a heroic death, but still not how Sam imagined things going.

To his surprise, Sam wakes as a "Villain Core” - the AI behind superhero training centers. He’s quickly informed that an equal number of superheroes and supervillains will be created for an intergalactic competition over the control of Earth, and Sam must prepare his side - the superheroes - for this grand war.

Which is awesome, up until Sam learns the supervillains are cheating.

With the aid of his AI assistant, Melissa, and a superhero team run by Sam’s old friend, Lucas Lee, now the hero Fury Fist, Sam must grow his training center to become the most powerful Villain Core ever, both to level up the heroes around him and to survive the villains attempting to destroy him.

A Dungeon Core story for fans of superheroes.

©2022 Shami Stovall (P)2022 Capital Station Books

Story is good, narrator is passable

Don't take the headline as a negative on the narrator. He's serviceable, does easily recognizable voices for the characters, and overall wasn't a drag to listen to. Unfortunately, he mispronounces words from time to time, and has odd breaks in his reading of sentences. It's a nitpick, though.

Admittedly, I have only really listened to two "dungeon core" driven stories in the long list of LitRPGs in my library. Stumbling across a superhero one was really the only reason I gave this a shot in the first place. I'm glad I did. Previously, I'd listened to the first part of a series called "Dungeon Life" which isn't a bad story either if you're into that kind of thing, but I didn't find myself resonating with the protagonist in that one (but that's a review for another book), and I almost didn't give "Villain Core" a chance because of it.

Getting to know Sam before he becomes the Villain Core and getting to follow the stories of the other characters in different chapters keeps this one fresh and doesn't limit the listener to just one point of view.

The world building is good. The origin of superpowers is an almost unique take (no spoilers, but it's not the first time I've heard a similar source for supers) and the stakes are set early on.

Overall, if you're in the middle of the Venn diagram between "comic fan," "LitRPG fan," and "dungeon core" fan, you'll probably enjoy this one.

A Great All-Around Story

Seriously, this was fantastic. Action, adventure, etc. Narrators voices were good for all the characters, story had actual progression, it was all super fun. I recommend this for anyone who wants a fun little superhero story.

Good Story - Horrible choice for narrator

the actual storyline was fun, it had enough diversity into i could see it literally jumping out of the pages of a comic book.

very very very poor choice for narration, the entire book was read like a children's bedtime story, the emphasis on words really brought the whole book down. the narrators voice continuously broke me out of the story.


I had to fight just to listen to the entire thing without shutting it off and going to a different book.

I don't care how good a friend you are with Brian Wiggins, or how cheap, but Brian Wiggins I think should be doing children's stories, its like EVERY, line of the book was in all caps and full of exclamation points, even the sad points.

And folks if you haven't started to read this yet, the narrator never gets better.... I repeat the narrator never gets better... if I had known that I would have got the Kindle edition and read the darn thing.

I'll be previewing the next one you do before I waste a credit through audible.

Shocker-ingly good book

Story:
Excellent new book in the dungeon core genre. Great variation on the standard fantasy/dungeon pixie format with a world that feels real and moving towards an Incredible's civilization. I'm really looking forward to the next book.

Narration:
All you need to see if the 'Narrated by: Brian Wiggins' to know it's going to be well read and have easy to recognize voice for the different characters. Brian Wiggins always does an excellent job.

ok so it's not perfect

but it is good I have a few gripes here in there but at the end of the day it's a solid story I wish it had lasted a little longer but what it did well it did really really well both of our heroes are fantastic and there was a alot of inclusion over all it left me excited for the follow up