The Crafter's Dilemma

<strong>Enjoyable but repetitive </strong><br /><br />I’m giving it four stars but probably closer to three. I like that the other characters are getting more involved, but outside of that it’s starting to get a little repetitive and formulaic. If you like the first two books you’ll probably enjoy this one.

recruits and crafting and evolving. Dwarves encountered.

<strong>Another great dungeon book by Jonathan</strong><br /><br />What is better than a prolific writer. A prolific writer that has consistent quality.<br /><br />The story continues to scratch the dungeon itch and it tends to last until the next book comes around, which is awesome all the way around.<br /><br />If you haven't picked up this or his other series yet, do so.

<strong>Fun, but the plot armor is getting thicker</strong><br /><br />Thankfully, Sandra the dungeon is getting a thicker skin and didn't feel the need to take the blame for every little bad thing that happens. The crafting is fun, the characters are growing in me and I love that the bag dungeon is an undead one with strategy. However, a while bunch of last minute 'rules' about dungeons suddenly came into play that I think are ridiculous and serve only to try and create melodrama. I finished this book, but I won't be reading the next one.

<strong>Increasingly Flawed</strong><br /><br />The writing is clunky, repetitive, and bloated. The characters get stupider with each book. The presented magical effects are so absurdly powerful that the world should be very different.<br />For a series about craftsmanship, it desperately needs more craftsmanship in the writing.

3☆

This instalment of the series was very much about escalating things, the level of threat that the dungeon Sandra was facing increases significantly, both from the current threat of an aggressive dungeon, from the consequences of her and others destroying dungeons and also from the other races who are not all so ready to accept a benign dungeon.<br /><br />While it is quite common for the main characters in this genre to be overpowered or simply able to out-think rivals, it was interesting to see the author portraying a rival dungeon as being ahead of Sandra a lot of the time with better or more effective strategies, whether this will be the usual in subsequent books or is an early learning experience for her, we will have to wait and see. On a similar note, the author has not gone out of his way to make things too easy for the dungeon's larger missions, language barriers are still in place hampering efforts to unite the various races, none of whom are overly keen on her plans either.<br /><br />The narration of this book worked well to enhance the story with the tone being well suited to the dungeon core and being suitably distinctive for the rest of the supporting cast too.<br /><br />Overall, another strong instalment in this series and I look forward to the subsequent ones.<br /><br />[Note - I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.]

<strong>Love this twist on the dungeon core series, Sandra is one step behind this book</strong><br /><br />As Sandra continues to grow and expand her area and forces, she battles another core in an ever escalating war that could destroy one or even bring the wrong attention.<br /><br />More power and growth through crafting, and enchanting especially, sets the tone of this installment. We see her visitors learn to be a team as they build their skills and experience with Sandra’s creations. I wonder what Sandra will unlock next?<br />Compromises must be made and knowledge shared for her lofty goals to be achieved... and I think Sandra does not have a true grasp of what it will take to achieve her goals and convince the races to cooperate against her kind. Except her, of course! ;)

Solid Dungeon story, as you could expect from Brooks.<br /><br />Mr Brooks is the Dungeon Core go-to author, and I like him for it, as I'm a sucker for dungeon management for decades (since the original DK). That limits the kind of story he tells, but it makes him very good at developing dungeon-based stories. The Crafter's Dungeon series is basically "what if the only PvP-enabled Dungeon was also the only sane one".<br /><br />My only beef with this book #3 is that the dungeon has a lot less agency than usually. It's almost all getting socked by the world mechanic, reacting, and more reacting, and trying to juggle all the eggs in the air while crafting the egg boiler. It's a bit fast paced, but it's at the expense of our Dungeon having real choices.

Of all of the dungeon crafting books, I'm liking this series the best. Dungeon core books generally don't interest me, because they can't do much (as is their nature), but I like the way this book stresses the dungeon core's gifts, and has the core actively trying to improve itself, even though it's just a core. If you're like me, and not really a fan of the dungeon core genre, you might want to take a second look at this series, it's a pretty good balance between the whole unmovable dungeon, and the whole crafting thing, and I think the author does a very good job with balancing the disadvantages of being a core with the advancement/learning a core must go through.