- Dungeon Madness (The Divine Dungeon)

Disclaimer: In the interest of full disclosure: I personally know the author, and I received access to a temporary pre-release copy in exchange for editing services. A review was never discussed, but I enjoyed the book and feel it is deserving of a review. Please note, I did pay for permanent access to the final copy of the book. Also, my personal relationship with the author has had no impact on the following review, unless said impact was grading aspects a bit more harshly. Quick Look: Dungeon Madness is the second book in the Divine Dungeon series and is a fantastic follow up to the first book. The concept is the same in that the main character is a dungeon, but the scenarios play out quite a bit differently than in the first book. Again, this book is a LitRPG novel with hints of the Wuxia genre, meaning that what the reader gets is a book that could be ripped straight out of a video game with some awesome fight descriptions. Recommended For: Readers of the first book. Seriously, this book is difficult to read as a stand alone novel because it isn’t one. It takes place immediately after the events of the first book and ends in a way which just begs for a third. That being said, the first book and this one are relatively inexpensive and quite long, so if you’re interested, I’d recommend picking both of them up. That being said, I’d recommend this series to anyone who really likes video games, anyone who likes dungeon-crawler fantasy, and anyone who likes seeing something new. There are a few dungeon-style novels out there, but very few and the concept is still fresh. --SPOILERS AHEAD-- Pros: This book improved upon almost every aspect of the previous book. The mechanics of the writing took a major upswing: writing quality is much better, the editing is better, and the consistency is better. This isn’t to say the previous book was seriously hurting in these regards, but there is a significant difference. I attribute these to the author and his team being a bit more experienced. After the mechanical issues, the pros start being even better. The magic system gets even more fleshed out while still staying simple enough where I didn’t get confused. The balance of the limitations on things like runes, enchantments, and inscriptions while being accessible to all with the limitless nature of mana while being accessible to a very select few was a brilliant touch. The creatures created in the dungeon show even more creativity on the part of the author, with the floating jellyfish being my favorite. The humor is taken up a notch, and I loved it. Also, while the ending is definitely a cliffhanger, the ending felt less rushed and more minor loose ends were tied up than in the last book. We certainly have a major loose end to deal with in the next book, but I feel like this was a much better ending arc than the first book. The author also improved on a handful of the ‘mixed bag’ issues from the last book. Due to the increasing size of the dungeon and the amount of time the story takes place outside of said dungeon, the book doesn’t physically stagnate from being told in the same place. There is enough variance throughout the different floors and the surface (and the balance of time spent in each is improved) that there is never the feeling like the reader is trapped. On the topic of exposition or world building, as I call it, we see that the author has refined his ability to show us the world. He lowered the overall amount of exposition and built the world through characters’ actions. Even with less exposition, the world kept growing and expanding in my imagination while reading the book, which isn’t surprising as the author’s biggest strength is world building. Mixed Bag: The author uses a bit more meta-humor in this book. He refers to himself once or twice in a humorous fashion. He also refers to a few of his fellow LitRPG authors’ books. Now, I loved this, and many people seem to love this style of humor. That being said, a few people may take some issue with it. It does disrupt the flow and immersion a little bit, as meta humor is intended to do, but I found that it wasn’t enough to get me to even pause, let alone completely stop reading for any length of time. The author also still does rely a bit on exposition through dialogue, but has definitely improved on reducing the amount of such dialogue, especially between Cal and Dani, and replaced it with character building dialogue. Also, we still see rapid character development, especially as we watch Cal begin to become more ‘dungeon’ and less ‘former human’, but again, it fits with the vast amount of power the characters gain due to the uniqueness of Cal. I don’t see a major problem with any of these mixed-bag aspects, but I decided to put them here because they are the most likely aspects to irk people, at least in my opinion. Cons: I have the same con with this book as I did with the last one. The last page sucked. Not because of anything that was on the page, but just because there wasn’t another page after it. Overall: Concept - 10/10 Writing mechanics - 15/15 Consistency - 5/5 Grammar - 5/5 Dialogue - 5/5 LitRPG mechanics - 8/10 World building - 15/15 Monsters - 5/5 Environment - 5/5 Other - 5/5 Characters - 9/10 Narrative - 19/20 Twist - 5/5 Pacing - 5/5 Humor - 4/5 Other - 5/5 Total - 76/80 = 19/20 = 4.75/5

If you haven't read the previous book in the series, Dungeon Born, I encourage you to go back and try that out first, as it's a fun read and well worth your time and money. This novel is worth your time and money as well, but it doesn’t work as a jumping off point, as it assumes you’ve got at least a passing familiarity with the world set forth in the previous book. Dungeon Madness continues the story right from the last paragraph of Dungeon Born and the writing quality has improved. If you enjoyed the characters previously, you’ll enjoy their continuing story. There are certainly shortcuts taken, especially around the use of "memory stones" to drastically change character behavior and/or knowledge, but the story has a good pace for the most part, probably faster than the previous novel since much of the world building is already done. It is very much the second novel in a series, however. While Dungeon Born could be read by itself, with a satisfying ending but only far-future conflicts, Dungeon Madness starts without much of any primer and ends on a cliffhanger that all but screams what the immediate conflict of the next book will be. It’s not poorly done or abrupt, but a prospective buyer should know what they’re getting into. The thing that annoyed me the most, and kicked me right out of my groove while reading, was a not insignificant amount of meta-commentary; at least twice novel referenced the author himself and several times the novel made references to other role playing game-like novels. Worse, though, was the ham-handed nature of these, with characters asking what it meant and being waved off by whichever character was making the comment. Consequently, I noticed what I presume are references to things I haven’t read, simply because that part of the book was confusing and was waved away by characters. It’s possible this won’t be a problem for some or even most readers, but it certainly was for me. Overall, however, it’s a good book. You should either read it, or go read Dungeon Born and decide how you feel afterwards.

this is a fun book, and the writing is far better than the first book; there is a really tremendous improvement in the prose. It does suffer slightly from being a prisoner of the "more is better" meme (think of those awful batman movies after the first one). On the other hand, at least as many readers as authors believe in that theme, so it may very well resonate w/ a lot of readers. Me, I'd rather see authors increase the impact via other methods rather than simple escalation. Unfortunately, the current trend (and virtually all advice to writers) is more action, more explosions, increase the stakes...this is not the only (or necessarily best) way to increase reader satisfaction. The current trend is like turning everything into a Michael Bay Transformers movie. Ugh. There are many other ways on increase reader satisfaction, to make a more memorable novel, or any other goal. Better technique (itself a huge list of options: better dialog, better pacing, better prose, more engaging characters, clever plot, etc) is arguably one of the hardest paths, but one where this sequel does very well indeed. There are actually quite a few other ways, too, but most guidance to writers these days tends to be of the moronic "save the cat" mindset. Fortunately, the author put in the hard work to improve his writing skills and polish this novel to a much greater extent. I imagine most folks will like it even more than I did. The first one was cute, and clearly had some thought put into it, but the writing was a bit rough. This one is well written on quite a few levels; the prose flows quite well, the dialog is good, pacing is good, the overall structure is good, etc. Good job!

This book takes place right after the events of the first book. I also caught the author using incorrect pronouns at certain times. At other times, Dakota Krout tried to explain certain concepts, and it wasn't quite easy to understand how he was explaining it. But this isn't common enough for concern. The dungeon gets more monsters, and I like how the author takes a race seen in other fantasy or LitRPG novels and gives them creative origins, which I won't spoil here. You won't understand the title of the book until about halfway through, after which you'll be like "oh, that makes sense." A unique way of naming book titles. As things happen throughout the story, they do not feel like they were created out of thin air for the sake of convenience. Everything flows very smoothly plot-wise and everything is tied up quite nicely in the end, even though the ending was not what I expected. The humor during tense situations is also quite nice. This book gave me more chuckles than the first. The run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, and missed punctuation are still prevalent in this book, but not as common as in the first book. There was even one part where somebody was saying something to someone else, and used the wrong name. As usual, there's some strange word choices, like "exploded a kitten". You can say "the kitten exploded", but you can't explode something. But overall it's still a good read if you ignore these errors. I find myself starting to like the secondary main character Dale. The author, Dakota Krout, improves upon the camaraderie between characters and their friends in this second book, whereas the first felt a little lacking.

Would I recommend this book to a friend? Yes Would I read this again in the future? YES I have read several times. Would I pre-order the next book without waiting for reviews? Yes Would I read the next book in the series? YES Readability- 5. Well written. Good word usage. Good wordsmithing. Editing 4 stars. More than a few grammar/editing errors. Intended audience Young Adult to Adult Writing skill Level. Average to better than Average. Worth the price? K.U. Yes. 2.99 to 3.99 CONTROVERSIAL items -- None Another good book. Lots of good reviews on the plot/story and writing so there is not much I feel I can add EXCEPT for the Editing. There are more than a few misspelling, grammar and even some missing words. I should have made a list, since it appears after reading the first book reviews that the author is willing to quickly correct problems. All in All I enjoyed this book and would recommend this for a fun read. Really hoping to hear the Audiobook soon. Recently I have noted some reviewers posting negative comments due to Social Issues/preferences. Just as some people are offended by graphic sex/violence, others are offended by overt Social Justice Warrior tones (see urban dictionary), LGBT or overt religious tones. I think that is a personal preference just like whether you like Space Opera series or LITRPG literature. So rather than rate on what offends me personally I have just decided to add a category for controversial subjects to make potential readers who wish to avoid stories with these controversial issues aware that they are present so they can move on and leave their noncontributory outlooks with them. I enjoyed this story. Fun read and well developed plot and world building. If you enjoy LITRPG it is great take on the Genre. I would recommend reading Dsnake1 review. Pretty much says it all. I would also recommend the audiobook. The narrator tries a little to hard at times, but hits the right note that soon you are fully immersed in the story.

The second book in the series mostly delivered. I liked most of the book. I enjoyed the dungeon building and the new mob making. I liked some of the dungeon delving with the human PC and his new party. I liked a few new characters that were introduced.Some of the interaction with the dungeon and the main human character got a little bit trite at times though. I think the author went out of his way to make both characters butt heads and say stupid things to one another in this book just to get more conflict established in this book before they come to terms and cooperate. A few nitpicking complaints from me though. I am wondering why the high elves and the other elves besides the dark just never arrive to even try to stake a claim on the tree in the dungeon. It seems like a big snafu but I guess it could be explained later. Also it seemed like Frank totally changed in this book and began ignoring helping the mc unless he was forced to and even stopped caring about how the dungeon camp was run. In the first book he was right on top of dealing with most situations and leading in this second book he pretty much tries to shrug issues off and ignore them or downplay them most of the book until they are right up in his face. It struck me as odd for instance that He would not have taken an active hand in and arranged a city planner in this book when he was all about that in the first book and same thing for security. He does so little that the Dark elves everyone is worried are assassins actually end up filling those jobs. I have a hard time believing anyone else on the mountain was happy with that happening but by ignoring setting up anyone else to take care of those jobs the guild pretty much handed it over to them on a silver platter. To me the guilds and Franks attitude and intelligence seemed to shift quite bit between the first book to the second book.

I love this series and can't wait for the next one I hate the fact it was left were it was rage at the betrayals it's hard not to get attached to the main characters i hope the next one lives up to the anticipation and is not short i love long books and this story is just to good to not be jam packed full of good content. This series is one of my favorites a solid 10\10 yeah there are things I do like about this series like the books are a little short for how awesome they are you breeze three wanting to know what happens then you reach the end and rage over not knowing and the time for a new one to be released so you can buy the next. It will suck you in get you attached to the characters and at the end leave you craving more 😂 i just ask please take your time with the next one to make it super awesome and at the same time FOR THE LOVE OF MY SANITY PLEASE HURY, but take your time with the sequel. 😆

Was very entertained by the first book due to having origin stories. Now the characters are growing and looking a little too overpowered. Events start to look too convenient too. Dungeon lore, while the detail was initially welcome, is starting to get onerous. I'm now feeling the grind as the descriptions of characters go through the process of leveling up but hardly make real contributions to the story. At the very end, the plot at least started moving forward, then ends in a cliffhanger. A little bit too little too late for me. While I enjoyed the ride, and couldn't put it down, I'm a little disappointed to find that in retrospect, there was too little substance so far. I guess another issue I find us the economics of this. Both in monetary and the magic system. It seems like the abundance of money going around should have much more detrimental effects on the economy, but doesn't. The magic uses the concept of Chi and cultivation, which is popular in Chinese novels. This gives an abundance of "free" energy akin to playing a shooting game with unlimited bullets. These issues really wreck the believability of the world. Essentially, it's falling into the same tropes that make most of the Chinese fantasy novels sink into and utterly boring.

Another solid entry in this series. Very enjoyable, although those new to this series would do well to read Dungeon Born first. This novel did end on a 'cliff-hanger' but anyone sufficiently interested to read the second book of a series likely has enough interest to care about the characters and look forward to book #3. Good character development and believable world building.

I was going to write all kind of things. About elves, massive fights and weird creatures. But the ending just kinda has me in shock so im just going to read the next one now

Great fun. Good cliffhanger ending. Has the same feel of The Galactic Mage series (which lost its way to my mind), but I hope DK has a long term vision for Cal, Dani, Dale at el. Sorry, but I hate the cover art, sometimes you do judge a book by its cover and I almost didn't buy into the series.

I ll try my best as i am not an english native speaker. This book is a nice follow up, a coherent suite to the first one. We follow once again our 2 main characters, Cal and Dale, two facets of the same world: dungoen and adventurer. The world building is well done and every piece fit together, i like how there is logic in the way the world works. Actions from the characters have consequences and they can turn out either good or bad unlike so many others LitRPG where everything seems to fix itself without the MC doing anything. At the end of this volume, the plot really starts to be interesting as what seems to be main threat reveals itself. Good promises for the next book as we should see more of the world than our newly built dungeon town. In conclusion, it s not just a LitRPG story, it is simply A good novel. Keep up the good work and can't wait for volume 3, your joke on 2019 nearly killed me at the end! This part is for the author: Even if i see progress in Dale behaviour, along with his gain in knowledge and understanding of the world, i think he still lacks a good 2 pages where he questions himself about his past actions ( his first murder). Careful SPoilers: Also, kinda silly our poor Dale fall for the same trick twice....like he didn't learn anything from his first kidnapping.... Finally, the enchanted item used at the end to runaway looks a little too much like a deus ex-machina intervention to me. You should have introduced the fact that this kind of item existed earlier in the book (maybe a conversation with amber? a POV from Nick? a warning from Hans, rumors about illegal items entering the town or whatever).

Uma escrita fluida e de fácil entendimento, acredito ser um boa continuação, indico para aqueles que querem treinar o inglês ...