Spoilers: Minor
Genre: Fantasy
Format: ebook/HB/Audiobook
Source: Originally NetGalley (but I bought the HB and audio versions)
Rating: Liked (4.25★)
The Dungeon Book took me a while to get into; I even soft DNFed it at one point, but Hanrahan landed it in a way I wasn’t expecting.
Let me try to explain.
Bait arrives in the dungeon as a baby and is raised by the Denizens who live there. Her life is told by Cornelisus, a talking skull and former master of the dungeon.
That setup, for me, was part of the problem. I couldn’t see it being anything other than a biography of events.
I also think not being a player and being only vaguely aware of the Dungeons and Dragons tropes didn’t help.
Minor spoilers, but this isn’t an epic tale. Bait faces a main choice: does she remain in the dungeon or see who she is in the real world?
Luckily for both of us, she doesn’t stay there for too long, but the characters she meets outside the dungeon reappear later.
Because I pushed through, mostly by listening to Lawrence Neale’s excellent narration, I experienced how the story turned.
Hanrahan’s plans for Bait surprised me, but I was impressed by what he did with the side characters.
The central theme explores what a monster is, and I felt especially sorry for what happened to the Minotaur.
It is a fun, sometimes silly book, with a sober heart that ends up telling a great fantasy yarn.
If you love D&D, the idea of a talking skull, or monsters killing off heroes, then give this a try.
