Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Book Review: Fall of a Dungeon House by John Stovall (City of Masks Book 1)


     James was born with the unique perk to be an overlord, but as third son to the next Dungeon lord his chances to use it are slim. His grandfather, Leviathan - who was over level 50, found a way around this by securing the first Tier 2 dungeon core and a monster boss willing to ally with the new faction. When Leviathan is killed the Toledo house passes on to James' father and he learns of this path his grandfather intended for him. The only problem is the Dark Gods do not want this champion of the light to succeed and James' family is slain. Being level 1 and betrayed by those closest to him James escapes to the wharf and must now find trustworthy allies to seek his vengeance, secure the future his grandfather intended, and stay alive. 

    I received a physical copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. When I read that it was a LitRPG I expected the traditional type of someone playing a VR game and us reading the adventure. In this book however, it is just a normal adventure story with leveling up and perks. Basically if an RPG decided there would be no actual players only NPCs who didn't know it was a game and they were left to their own devices. That is the best way I have to explain this. It was a big difference from what I have come to expect from this genre, but I enjoyed the read from cover to cover. I also hope to be able to read the rest of this series when it comes out. 

    James is 19 in this book and he acts it. Thinking with his dick for large portions of the book while Flea, who is of a similar age, calls him on it. You can tell that he lived a sheltered life from his inexperience and how he refers to things throughout. Flea tries to act tough, but with her slim build it is basically like a small child threatening you. All bark and no bite. Although Leviathan was only portrayed in James' thoughts and in journal excerpts he was probably my favorite character in the story. 

    This book ends at a good stopping place, but with much more of the story left to complete. You don't feel like the author paused mid thought like in some books. Also, this book is one of the seemingly rare anymore that titles the chapters. There is even a Theory of a Deadman title as one. Not that I'm complaining. It made me smile when I read it. 

    This book is available on Amazon for $4.99 by clicking here. This book is available on Kindle Unlimited. 

2 comments:

  1. Great review! I hadn't heard of this before but it sounds really interesting, it's not my usual read, I love that it's like a normal adventure story. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thank you! LitRPGs are still a relatively new subject for me as well, but I've enjoyed the ones I've read.

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