The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman

On August 24, 2025August 24, 2025 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star Books, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday3 Comments

Publisher: Soundbooth Theater (Audiobook – 1 July 2021)

Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl – Book Four

Length: 18 hours and 3 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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The chaotic fun of Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series reaches another impressive level in the awesome fourth book, The Gate of the Feral Gods, an exceptional read that I could not put down until its gripping and epic end.

I can officially say that I am incredibly obsessed with the Dungeon Crawler Carl books. Taking place after all buildings on Earth are instantly destroyed and turned into an elaborate fantasy dungeon, all in the name of an alien reality show, the Dungeon Crawler Carl books are an incredible series that perfectly utilises its unique concept and LitRPG basis to create a particularly addictive story loaded with crazy action, over-the-top humour and an array of incredible characters. I only started it a few weeks ago and I have so far powered through several books in the series, including Dungeon Crawler Carl, Carl’s Doomsday Scenario and The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, all of which were five-star reads. Indeed, I have had such a great time with this series, that the moment I finished off The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook I instantly started listening to the fourth book in the series, The Gate of the Feral Gods, which continued the series in some outstanding ways.

After surviving the carnage of the Iron Tangle, Carl, Princess Donut and Katia have emerged on the fifth floor of Dungeon Crawler World Earth and must now contend with a new dastardly set-up. Placed into a multitude of small, bubble-contained worlds, each remaining human party needs to assault castles contained within each of the bubble’s four zones. If they succeed in capturing each zone’s castle, the dungeon stairwell will open and they’ll be able to advance to the sixth floor.

While the setup for the fifth floor seems simple, in reality it is a logistical nightmare, as the popular team of Carl, Princess Donut and Katia must navigate and master four very different environments within a rushed timeline, including a desert landscape infested with flying gnomes, a gigantic haunted crypt filled with traps, a besieged sand castle that is home to a powerful mage with relationship issues, and a derelict underwater submarine surrounded by gigantic sharks, all while trying to untangle a unique puzzle hidden in an elaborate quest storyline. Worse, thanks to their high levels, the team are forced to rely on ineffective, low-level fellow crawlers to clear out the bubble’s zones, including those people who have barely survived the previous floors.

However, the elaborate new floor is only the tip of the problems facing Carl. Old enemies from outside the dungeon are desperate to strike him down for the chaos he has caused, while the AI controlling the dungeon continues it erratic obsession with him. As events heat up, Carl is given the unique chance to obtain a legendary artefact loaded with unimaginable power and terrible risk, The Gate of the Feral Gods. If Carl can master the gate, he has the chance to keep his friends and loved ones safe on this floor. But what happens when Carl decides to use the gate to strike back against those who have destroyed his planet? You will not break him, but he will break everything in the galaxy to get his revenge!

Dinniman does it yet again as The Gate of the Feral Gods was another exceptional and epic novel that I could not stop reading. Perfectly continuing the impressive story from the previous Dungeon Crawler Carl novels, The Gate of the Feral Gods was an ultra-exciting and complex novel, that brings laughter, excitement and powerful emotional moments in equal measure. Another book in this series that gets a very easy five-star rating from me, The Gate of the Feral Gods was so damn good, and I had so much fun getting through this insane, but clever, adventure.

I really enjoyed the impressive story that Dinniman came up with for The Gate of the Feral Gods, especially as the author uses the opportunity to feature a more traditional fantasy narrative, while also building on the unique character relationships that have been an impressive part of the previous novels. In a new dungeon floor with some unique quirks, you are once again drawn into the battle for Carl, Donut and Katia’s survival, as they attempt to understand their new scenario as the population of the entire galaxy watches their progress. There are also some great new characters introduced in this early part of the book, who add some excellent human elements to the wider story. Determined to clear their part of the floor, Carl’s team embark on some explosive initial actions, and I liked how Dinniman treated this early part of the story in a more traditional LitRPG manner, as the protagonists follow the quest elements laid out as part of the story. However, it doesn’t take long for Dinniman to throw things completely off the rails, as there are some great scenes halfway through, including the return of an old friend with real inner anger, and a unique boss battle in a flying house that will have you cackling with surprise. However, one of the more impressive events set around the middle of the novel sees Carl start to embrace his anarchist persona, striking back against his oppressors in his usual destructive manner.

The big events of the first half of the book have an impressive impact on the second half of The Gate of the Feral Gods, as the protagonists find themselves in a time crunch. This forces them to go on some risky missions, including invading a giant sandcastle with some unique elements, as well as journeying beneath the waves, much to the horror of everyone’s favourite sentient cat. The various intense challenges faced by the protagonists are usually overcome in some impressively inventive ways, I loved how well Dinniman hints at the protagonist’s eventual plans. While this is unfolding, you get some interesting looks at the wider crawl thanks to flashes of other character’s battles, and Dinniman also provides some intriguing looks at the issues surrounding the outer galaxy.

While all the above elements are impressive and result in some epic moments, it pales in comparison to the final third of the book. Thanks to the titular Gate of the Feral Gods, all hell breaks out (literally and figuratively), as the protagonists find themselves involved in the biggest escort mission ever. Thanks to that, they get into some brutal confrontations, which help to define how desperate things are getting for the characters. The final sequences of The Gate of the Feral Gods helps to cement this novel as a truly impressive part of the series, as Carl and Donut finally face down one of their oldest enemies, while also fooling everyone with a particularly chaotic scheme. The set-up for the protagonist’s bold strike against their foes is very clever, and while there are a lot of hints about what is to come, Dinniman cleverly obscures the entirety of the plan, allowing for some awesome surprises that really show off how audacious the protagonists are coming. This was honestly an incredible end to such a chaotic and compelling read, and it sets up the next book in the series perfectly, allowing for some impressive moments going forward.

I really enjoyed how The Gate of the Feral Gods turned out, especially as Dinniman turned what could have been a filler novel between two major parts of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, into a particularly powerful and intense novel with long-running implications for the rest of the series. Due to its position as the fourth book in the series, The Gate of the Feral Gods is best read by those who have enjoyed the previous entries in the series, even with the protagonist’s useful internal recaps, especially as this book continues to feature and build on a lot of complex ongoing storylines and character arcs. Once again written in the first-person style, Dinniman perfectly showcases his unique scenario, and gifts the reader with so much awesome action, fun humour, compelling characters, and surprisingly enjoyable LitRPG elements. With a bit more of a slower pacing at the start of the novel, Dinniman gives this book time to breath after the crazy conclusion of The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, and allows the characters, and the readers, time to get familiar with the new floor of the dungeon. This complex new setting within the dungeon was extremely well crafted, and its unique features ensured that The Gate of the Feral Gods had a very distinctive feel amongst the rest of the series. The focus on quests and the internal storylines of the level helped to amp up the fantasy vibe of the story, while Dinniman also set up a multitude of additional long-running storylines that have a big impact later in the series. At the same time, Dinniman cleverly continued to showcase the wider universe outside of the dungeon and the way that these exterior events impact the protagonist’s battles, and vice versa, allowing for a particularly compelling narrative.

While I felt that The Gate of the Feral Gods had a slightly slower start, that doesn’t last long, as Dinniman adds in some amazingly exciting and over-the-top sequences that really stick in the mind. The author proves extremely capable of completely going even further beyond the craziness of his previous novels, and I loved how fantastically outrageous things get at times, with giant boss battles, unbelievably dangerous traps, multiple crazy gods, and some deeply human fights, all making this story particularly epic at times. The many, many action scenes within the book are so well written, and I loved how impactful, insane, and usually hilarious these sequences are, and Dinniman makes excellent use of the LitRPG part of the series, with so many cool elements from RPG games coming into play in entertaining ways. Dinniman also does an excellent job expanding on a ton of complex elements of the dungeon in this novel by including various extracts from Carl’s Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, a secret compendium of knowledge from previous crawlers. These extracts are each cleverly written in their own style, and I love how they highlight technical elements of the dungeon, as well as the emotional damage each of these previous crawlers experienced. These LitRPG elements are further made better by the author’s unique sense of humour, which inhabits every aspect of the book and ensures that the reader is constantly laughing at all the insane moments, clever jokes, and over-the-top characters. While this humour might not be for everyone, I felt it was perfect, especially as it blended with all Dinniman’s complex storytelling and the deeper emotional pain of the book, allowing for a very impressive overarching novel.

The thing that made The Gate of the Feral Gods really stand out was the author’s focus on character introductions, growth and powerful human moments, as the protagonists, their allies, and the various beings involved in the running on the dungeon, continue their chaotic journey together. As with all the books in the series, the plot of The Gate of the Feral Gods revolves around protagonist and perspective character Carl, through whose eyes we see the plot unfold. The perpetually exasperated and intense heroic figure who is desperately trying to save everyone he comes across, Carl continues to struggle in his role of leader and must keep coming up with dangerous plans to save his friends and beat the latest challenges of the dungeon. While mostly serious, there is some fantastic humour and deeply sympathetic moments behind Carl, and it proves fascinating to see him struggle to maintain his anger and place as the reasonable one in the group, especially when it comes to his habit of blowing everything up. The author also really dials up the rebellious anarchist aspects of Carl in this novel, as he starts fighting back against everyone he holds responsible for Earth’s destruction in some very cathartic ways. Throw in the continued hints at the character’s traumatic past and his growing connection to all his friends, and Carl proves to be an excellent central character for this incredible book.

While Carl is a great main protagonist, this series would be nothing with his sentient cat companion, Princess Donut, who continues to be the highlight of most of the scenes she is in. An overly dramatic, imperious and fun figure who maintains many stereotypical cat elements, Donut is the heart and soul of the book, and you have to laugh at all her funny jokes, entertaining reactions and the unlikely friendships and interactions she has. Dinniman has fun building up the cat aspect of the character in The Gate of the Feral Gods, especially in the sequence where Donut finds herself underwater, and it was so damn entertaining to see her freak the hell out at times. Much of the book’s humour also revolves around her unlikely partnership with Carl, and the way the two play off each other is just amazing. While most of her personality and appearance is humorous in nature, it hides a deeper heart to it, as Donut’s child-like nature ensures that she is very reliant on Carl, and it was deeply moving to see them bond even further in this novel, and you can clearly see how close they are, even during the moments when Donut is deliberately annoying her human. Probably one of the best cat characters in modern fiction, Princess Donut is so much fun, and I deeply enjoy every scene she is in.

While most of the book’s focus is on the central pair of Carl and Princess Donut, Dinniman continues to expand the incredible supporting cast of the series in The Gate of the Feral Gods, and I loved the brilliant storylines and development that occurs around these secondary figures. This includes the third member of the protagonist’s party, Katia, who serves as the more reasonable and responsible member of the team. It was fascinating to see how much Katia comes into her own in this novel, especially during a period where Carl and Donut are out of the game for an extended time, and she really steps up as a compelling alternative leader to the supporting cast. Donut’s manager, Mordecai, a former crawler with issues, was a wonderful mentor figure for much of the story, and I quite enjoyed the interactions he has with the rest of the characters, especially Carl, while his attempts to keep his charges from doing anything too crazy are often ignored. I also continue to be deeply entertained by the AI running the dungeon, whose over-the-top commentary, descriptions and jokes, add so much awesome and often concerning humour to the story. There were some hilarious moments in The Gate of the Feral Gods where the AI continued to act a little crazy as its personality evolves to match the dungeon’s participants, including his continued messing with Carl, his weird foot fetish, and its own rebellion against the showrunners and people outside the game who are trying to restrict its fun. Dinniman clearly had a ton of fun when it came to writing the AI’s actions, and it is so entertaining to see how crazy things get around it.

While all these returning major characters are great, one of the best things about The Gate of the Feral Gods was the way in which Dinniman brought in outstanding new characters, as well as reintroducing figures we haven’t see for a few books. Some of the best new characters include Louis and Firas, two out-of-their-depth crawlers whom the protagonists must rely on. Thanks to the encouragement of Carl and the others, they start to become much more effective as the book continues, and I loved their compelling growth in The Gate of the Feral Gods, as well as their impacts in their later books of the series. I also must mention fun new character Samantha, renamed that by Donut from Psamathe. A minor deity of unrequited love (or crazy ex-girlfriends), Samantha is a banished god trapped in the decapitated head of a magical sex doll. Loud, rude, crude and constantly threatening every character’s mother, Samantha is probably the most over-the-top character in the series (which is saying something), but boy is she entertaining. Perfectly introduced amongst the chaos of this book’s story, Samantha perfectly fits in amongst the main characters and becomes a major comic relief for much of the series. Other great characters include some other fractious crawlers, the return of Chris from the first novel, who has gone through some major personality changes, a variety of insane gods including some unfortunately named demons, and various NPCs, whose existential plight becomes a major ongoing arc in the series. All these characters, and more, allow for quite an entertaining and at times moving novel, and I really appreciate how well Dinniman utilises them in The Gate of the Feral Gods.

As with the previous Dungeon Crawler Carl novels, I ended up listening to The Gate of the Feral Gods on audiobook, which is such an incredible experience. These Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook are so damn good, and it’s one of the key reasons I have been able to so effortlessly binge this entire series. The narration, done by the very talented Jeff Hays, perfectly captures the insane and over-the-top nature of the series, and so many elements of The Gate of the Feral Gods, including its humour, the intense action, and the impressive LitRPG inclusions, are deeply enhanced by having the story read out. Hays complements this narration with unique and very fitting voices for all the characters, and I love all the elaborate and often hilarious tones that come out as a result. It’s impressive how many new voices Hays comes up with each audiobook, and I loved the excellent consistency between audiobooks for the recurring characters. The long-running voices for Carl and Donut are just perfect, especially as Hays perfectly captures the various emotions hidden within both figures. I really love how much extra humour you get from hearing Carl’s exasperated voice at times, while the entirety of Donut’s excessive personality, including her hilarious overreactions and continuous outrage, are just amazing. The rest of the cast are also voiced extremely well, and Dinniman pulls out some fun voices and accents in this book, including an acceptable Australian accent from a crocodile-themed crawler. However, one of my favourite voices is still the one he uses for the Dungeon AI, and it is so much fun to hear Hays’s voice the various excited, mocking and occasionally deranged announcements and descriptions from this figure. Throw in some subtle sound effects and vocal enhancements, that add even more umph to the narration, and The Gate of the Feral Gods is an exceptional listen. I absolutely powered through the 18-hour runtime, and I cannot recommend this format enough, as you guaranteed to have an absolute blast listening to it.

With even more incredible carnage, character development and the author’s incredible humour, The Gate of the Feral Gods was another outstanding novel from Matt Dinniman. Perfectly continuing the extended Dungeon Crawler Carl narrative and adding in some excellent, long-term characters and elements, The Gate of the Feral Gods is an amazing entry in this epic series, and I honestly couldn’t stop enjoy this novel. I loved The Gate of the Feral Gods so much that I instantly dove into the next book in the series, The Butcher’s Masquerade, the very second I finished it, and I am so very glad I did.

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Altered Realms: Ascension by B. F. Rockriver

On February 9, 2021August 20, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Science Fiction3 Comments

Altered Realms cover

Publisher: Audible (Audiobook – 18 November 2020)

Series: Altered Realms – Book One

Length: 21 hours and 26 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Amazon Book Depository

In the mood for a really cool LitRPG novel? Look no further than one of my favourite debuts of 2020, the impressive first book in the Altered Realms series, Ascension by B. F. Rockriver.

Welcome to the magical land of Entarra, an elaborate world filled with all manner of complicated people, creatures and war, where death lies just around the corner. For simple hunter Eli Miller, his life consists of protecting his family and his small grove from outside forces, the most dangerous of which are the Adventurers. The Adventurers are a dangerous group of seemingly immortal beings from another dimension who treat his world like their own personal playground, killing and destroying all they encounter with little concern for consequences and the lives of the citizens of Enterra.

When a group of Adventurers attack his home, killing him and his family, Eli finds his worst nightmare coming true when, after being stabbed by a mysterious blade, instead of dying he becomes an Adventurer. Forced to become a whole new person, Eli returns to his hometown, only to discover that no-one recognises him and that he is now bound to the rules of Enterra, with quests, character sheets and a bodiless guide voicing advice in his head.

As Eli begins to explore the limitations of his new life, he soon begins to realise that his world was not what he thought it was. Enterra Online is a vast and futuristic video game, of which he and his family were NPCs, or non-player characters. Determined to find out if his family also somehow survived and get revenge on the people who attacked and killed him, Eli begins to play the game and soon becomes involved in a quest to save the land from the mysterious Blight. Teaming up with fellow Adventurer Don Nutello, Eli begins to master his new character and level up. But as the two progress even further, the finds that something is very wrong with Enterra Online. Forced to contend with mindlessly controlled Blighted creatures, dangerous magic users and corrupted Adventurers, Eli will need to use every bit of his resolve and courage to face his destiny. If he fails, it could mean the destruction of Enterra and every person and NPC trapped within.

This was an interesting and compelling read from a brand-new author who has created an excellent LitRPG novel. I have to admit that the Literary Role Playing Game genre, which features fantasy or science fiction adventures set within the environments of a game (rather than a tie-in novel, like a World of Warcraft book for example), is one that I am not massively familiar with. I have only really read one or two of these sorts of books in the past (the first two novels in Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller’s Last Reality series, Otherworld and OtherEarth are the only ones coming to mind at the moment), but it is a genre that I have always been interested in as there are some fantastic-sounding LitRPG novels out there. A couple of weeks ago I was in the mood to try something new and thought that this would be a good place to start, especially after I came across the synopsis for Altered Realms: Ascension. Ascension is the debut novel of exciting new author B. F. Rockriver, which I believe was previously released in parts online, and it ended up being a particularly fun and exciting read. This was an outstanding debut and a particularly good introduction to the LitRPG genre for me.

I thought that this was a pretty impressive first effort from Rockriver, who tells a rather intriguing tale in Ascension that felt to me like a fun combination of Sword Art Online and the upcoming Ryan Reynolds film, Free Guy, as an NPC starts to play the game he is trapped within. Told primarily from the point of view of Eli, Ascension contains a vast and compelling narrative filled with adventure, action and substantial world-building, as Eli turns from a hapless, yet sentient, NPC into an Adventurer, and is forced to play Enterra Online the same way the human players do. The story takes a little while to get going, with the author building up some key elements in the beginning, but once the main character gets killed and then respawned as an Adventurer, allowing for the intriguing RPG elements to work their way into the plot, the book really picks up. The reader is than treated to an intriguing bit of world-building as the gameplay of Enterra Online is explained, before the confused protagonist is dropped back into the world, understandably freaking out. After some false starts and the introduction of the book’s other main character, Don, Eli starts getting into the game, as he needs to gain levels and equipment to get revenge for his family. This leads the two characters to get involved in a series of interesting quests that may directly impact the survival of the entire game, forcing them to venture towards an ancient temple to cure themselves, and the world, of a magical, sentient disease known as the Blight. Along the way they’ll contend with dangerous creatures, friendly and malicious NPCs, hostile Adventurers with conflicting motivations and world-changing events that are impacting both the game and the humans trapped within. All of this leads up to an epic and exciting confrontation as Eli and his friends come face to face with the corrupted Adventurers who killed his family.

This narrative proved to be extremely exciting and captivating, and I found myself getting really caught up in the adventures of this excellent and conflicted protagonist. There are a number of amazing elements to this book, and I very much enjoyed seeing the author combine the LitRPG elements with a classic fantasy adventure tale and some cool advanced science fiction elements as well. The author does an excellent job setting up his game world throughout Ascension and the reader quickly becomes deeply concerned with the fate of Enterra Online and all its players and NPCs. I also loved all the very cool action sequences featured throughout the story, and there are a number of intense and deadly scenes that really stood out to me.

I did find the writing to be a little rough in places, and there is room for Rockriver to grow as an author. For example, there was a bit of repetition throughout the novel, as a number of key plot points kept getting brought up again and again. While some of this repetition was done to replicate how an online game talks to its players, a lot of it was the author providing unnecessary re-examinations of certain story elements, character back story and emotional responses, which I felt interrupted the flow of the novel. I also felt that Rockriver should have ended Ascension a lot sooner for a more climactic finish, as the novel continues for a number of chapters after the book’s big showdown. While this later section of the novel contained a lot of interesting and enjoyable moments, I do think that perhaps the author could have saved most of them for the next entry in the series. Still, overall this was an excellent read, especially with the inventive and exciting story, and it does set up the rest of the series quite nicely.

As I mentioned above, Ascension proved to be quite an outstanding introduction to LitRPG novels, a genre that Rockriver is clearly very passionate about. Ascension contains a huge amount of RPG elements which are seamlessly woven into the story. Once the protagonist wakes up as an Adventurer, every element of a classic MMORPG comes into effect, with Eli choosing a race, gaining experience, being forced to complete quests, obtaining skill points, distributing attribute points, deciding his class and a huge range of other game features a player in his situation would have to consider. I felt that this was an incredibly realistic portrayal of what an avatar in a game would experience, and the author covers this in exceptional detail, down to the pun-ridden quest titles and the funny names of the other Adventurers Eli and Don encounter. Rockriver has also created an impressive and vast MMORPG to serve as the setting for his novel, and it actually sounds like it would be a really cool game to play (you know, minus the ethical implications of the AI and the deadly disease which tries to turn you evil). I have to admit that I did not quite know how all the various skill and quest updates would play throughout the book, but Rockriver did an excellent job working them into the story and it felt very natural to see Eli get an update, new skill or experience. All the LitRPG elements also work incredibly well in some of the action sequences, and seeing the protagonist get debuffs or watch him lose health, mana and energy during a fight actually added to the intensity of the scenes. The author also works in some intriguing twists to the gaming world, with the protagonists set to face off against a major antagonist threatening people both in the game and outside of it, and I quite enjoyed how this raised the stakes of the narrative. Overall, I really fell in love with Ascension’s LitRPG elements, and this is definitely a genre I can see myself getting into.

I really enjoyed some of the characters featured within Ascension, as Rockriver has come up with some amazing complex figures for this clever LitRPG story. The main character is Eli, a former NPC who is turned into an Adventurer and swiftly becomes a key figure in saving Enterra Online. Eli proved to be a really intriguing character to follow, as he is forced to adventure whilst facing a major existential crisis. Due to the situation surrounding his death and rebirth, Eli is an emotional mess, grieving for the loss of his family, while simultaneously finding out that they never truly existed. This makes him a particularly deep and intriguing character to follow, as his new experiences changes his perspective completely. Thanks to his complete lack of knowledge about anything related to online gaming, Eli proves to be the perfect protagonist for this book as every element of this game is explained to him in great detail. I also quite enjoyed the fantastic handicap that Rockriver installed to his main character halfway through the book, as Eli learns a Berserk Rage move that forces him to lose control when he is close to death or encounters one of the players who killed him and his family. This causes a number intense scenes throughout the book, and I really appreciated the incredible scenes that the author wrote around the first time Eli lost control, which got pretty dark and bloody. While Eli was not the most consistent character at times, as he occasionally experiences some random personality changes, it was still really interesting to see him develop, especially as a number of intriguing elements about his past become quite essential to the plot.

Aside from Eli, the other main character in the novel is Don Nutello, a player who befriends Eli when he spawns as an Adventurer and follows him throughout the game. Don plays a humanoid turtle race, known as a Turta, and has chosen to play him as a monk class, dressed in purple and fighting with martial arts and occasionally a staff (I wonder who his favourite ninja turtle is?). Rockriver gives Don a particularly intriguing background as a former soldier playing Enterra Online long-term as a treatment for his PTSD, flashes of which come through into the game at times, and his role as a healer in the team is related to his former profession as a medic. Don proves to be a particularly great supporting character to Eli, not only helping him to understand the game but giving him a different perspective on the other people playing as Adventurers. Don also has a very appealing pacifistic edge to him, choosing not to attack people or sentient AI if he can help it, which does get the characters in trouble but helps to distinguish them from the antagonists. Don ended up being my favourite character in the end, and I really enjoyed his unique partnership with Eli as they formed a fantastic and deep friendship over the course of the novel.

In addition to Eli and Don, Rockriver has also loaded this book up with a series of intriguing side characters, most of whom are NPCs in Enterra Online. I liked the contrast in how the NPCs are blissfully unaware that they are in a game, while most Adventurers are portrayed as selfish and murderous. This is mainly because the Adventurers are unaware that the NPCs are sentient, and are playing the game the way they typically would for an MMORPG. Indeed, I routinely do all the same bad things when I play games, everyone does (or so I tell myself so I can sleep at night). This interesting dichotomy in the perceptions of the world between these two unique groups was pretty interesting to see, and I very much enjoyed seeing a game where every NPC is fed up with the invading human players.

I also have to highlight some of the fun Adventurer characters in the novel, most of whom are fairly typical of the sort of people you would encounter in the game. For example, the third person to join Eli and Don’s party is Michelle, a sexy female troll with an attitude, who serves as their tank. Michelle is one of those players who flaunts their avatar’s sexuality, even though you are a little uncertain whether they are a guy or a girl in real life. Michelle was a rather sassy and fun character to follow, and she definitely evened out the serious personalities on the team. I also quite liked some of the selfishly antagonistic Adventurers who the heroes eventually go up against, and game players will easily see parallels between them and the worst sort of people you’ve played against online, even if some may be influenced by things outside of their control. Each of these excellent characters adds a lot to this great book, and I look forward to seeing how they develop in the future instalments of this series, especially with some major changes impacting the Adventurers long term.

In order to enjoy Ascension I ended up grabbing the audiobook, which proved to be a fantastic way to experience the fun story. Ascension has a pretty hefty run-time of 21 hours and 26 minutes, which is almost one of the longest audiobooks I have ever listened to. Naturally, this took me a little while to listen to, although once I got really caught up in the story I found myself getting through it even quicker, especially with some of the epic combat sequences, which I never wanted to interrupt. I always find that the audiobook format is a great way to fully absorb all the details contained within a novel, and this was particularly true with Ascension, as Rockriver has come up with an amazing amount of inclusions that are really great to absorb in this format. This audiobook also featured the excellent narration of Maximillian Breed, a relatively new audiobook narrator, who has so far vocalised an interesting collection of fantasy and science fiction novels. I felt that Breed was a great choice for this epic audiobook and I enjoyed listening to his narration of Ascension for the full 21 plus hours. While it took me a little while to get used to his voice, I felt that it fit into the story really well, and I especially liked the somewhat robotic/computer generated tone he used whenever the system talks to the protagonist, such as during a quest update, or when it provides details about equipment or skills. All of this makes for a great listen, and I would definitely recommend the audiobook format of Ascension to anyone interested in checking out this fun book.

Ascension by B. F. Rockriver is a fantastic and impressive debut novel that serves as an outstanding first entry in the Altered Realms LitRPG series. Rockriver has come up with a clever and captivating tale that masterfully utilises video game elements, cool characters and some awesome action sequences to create a first-rate read. I had an absolutely incredible time listening to this book and I cannot wait to see where the series goes next. Rockriver is currently working on two separate novels at the moment, the second entry in the Altered Realms series, Uprising, and a companion novel, Origins, which examines the backstory of several key Altered Realms side characters. Both sound like a lot of fun, with some superb covers (BTW how epic are the covers that Ascension had!), and I look forward to reading them. Until then, Ascension is a guaranteed exciting read for LitRPG fans.

Altered Realms Cover 2