Audible Studio...More Please!

If you have a problem with base humor, you will want to pass this book up.

I played Dungeons & Dragons when I was young, which is where Caverns & Creatures comes in without bothering a trademark. I would say all folks that enjoy MMORPGs would like the book but younger readers may not realize D & D is the predecessor of online fantasy gaming and will not find the humor of 20-sided dice and the pains of a dungeon master as funny as the older folks that played games before the Internet; however, C & C shares enough MMORPGs characteristics, especially since the characters are sucked inside the game, that fantasy gamers would enjoy this book almost as much.

I emailed a request for the rest of the series to be put on audio. I don't think the audio version exists but there are a number of books. Maybe if I get enough votes here, audible will raise an eyebrow at how many people like it.

283 people found this helpful

Such a hard review to write...

I wanted to love this story. After devouring the four Alter World novels by D. Rus and becoming a true fan of the lit-MMORPG genre, I went right into this novel with high expectations and a readiness to enjoy a good story. What I got was fart jokes and characters that did not seem concerned at all that they were somehow transported into a DnD world. The premise of this book is fantastic. Where my review goes off track is how the stoner geniuses that are our characters in this story somehow hijacked the excellent writing and dropped the entire IQ of the narrative and storyline by 100 points. Again, the writing is well done and well delivered. However, the characters seemed to take over where the story went and made it all about in-fighting and commenting/describing snot consistently coming out of one of the characters orifaces.

Great premise, NO SUBSTANCE. 3 stars for good writing and high marks for a narrator that did an amazing job switching between the voices of many different characters. 0 stars to the characters that allowed the story to go nowhere.

32 people found this helpful

Very Entertaining

I thought this book was very entertaining. Shakespeare it was not, but there was a nice coherent story with good character development. This will obviously appeal to people who have played games like D&D. I mean it references character sheets, charisma, random encounters, and rolling a 1, so there you go. It is not a 'gritty' book. There is much joking and bumbling along with the action. It goes pretty much how you would expect it to go if a bunch of casual gamers had to actually become their characters. Some of the content was kinda stereotypical, but I still think it was handled in a funny way. I enjoyed it. If you like gaming and don't take yourself too seriously, I think you will enjoy it too.

The narrator was awesome. He did great with the different voices and characters and their expression.

97 people found this helpful

I wish I could get these hours back.

Honestly, there's a good idea for a story here - but you wouldn't know it, because it's suspended within a barrage of overly descriptive jokes about bodily fluids and too many instances of the word "gay" as a pejorative. Now, I am normally not one to decry crass humor - if done well, it can be great! But this reads like someone transcribed their teenage D&D sessions onto the page, word-for-word, without running it by an editor first. It had potential, but they squandered it by making many of their characters so unlikeable that I finished this book and thought, "who cares?"

Now, I know this is the first in a series, and maybe it gets better - but I just couldn't get past some of what I felt were glaring problems in this first one to care to seek out the rest.

12 people found this helpful

Fun, but...

I enjoyed this book. I kept going back to it and finished it in a few days. That said, this has to be the dumbest group of people to ever get stuck in an alternate universe. They also swear, a lot. Nearly every other sentence has the f-word. If you can forgive those two things it's an entertaining book.

38 people found this helpful

Voicing and Pacing

Disclaimer: I have only gotten a few chapters in so far.

I enjoy the premise and I like the idea. I love DND. One problem I have is that it is based of an older version of DND where the rules are slightly different, so I will need some time to adjust.

The voice actor pains me. Along with the writing format. The characters are nearly inseparable from each other. Everything is fast paced and I cant tell who is talking or saying what. I have to pause the book every 15 seconds to figure out what exactly is going on. The voice actor is trying but is speaking too fast and his voices aren't completely separate. The writing has "He said, she said, they said" type of writing. Names are thrown out and around like candy on Haloween when you visit your grandparents.

I enjoy the comedic aspect, but it is going to fast for me to enjoy right now. I will edit this when I finish the book.

Edit: It turned out that this book is mainly an introduction to the characters and the game mechanics. There were quite a few laughs once you allow yourself. I will get the next book at a later date and see if it gets better now that the formalities are out of the way.

P.s. I do not like how short the books are. Each book is expensive for the amount of content. It seems like the creators are milking it by splitting the books more than necessary.

7 people found this helpful

ATTENTION AUDIBLE: GET THE SEQUELS RECORDED--NOW!

What did you love best about Critical Failures?

It was different, engaging, and the characters were hysterically funny.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Critical Failures?

The horse in the jail.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Constantly laugh-out-loud. No crying. It was delightful.

Any additional comments?

I'm not now, nor even have been, a teenaged boy. I am a 60 yr old female. I have never played Dungeons and Dragons, had only a vague idea what was involved in that game. This book was a great introduction to that world, especially as one character was being introduced to it himself, and the story was fun, funny and a great listen with an excellent narrator. I immediately went to download the sequel, only to find it is NOT ON AUDIBLE. GRR. I will listen to/buy whatever else this guy writes, and I have already sent this book to a relative in hard copy, who also greatly enjoyed it.

30 people found this helpful

Really Funny if you are a Nerd who played RPGs

Where does Critical Failures rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Top 10

What was one of the most memorable moments of Critical Failures?

I was listening to the book while working on the bench in the lab and I had to laugh out loud. People thought I am crazy and I actually had to stop listening for a while to get myself under control. The characters are carbon copies of my old RPG group from 20 years ago. I would tell you why but I don't want to spoil the moment.

Have you listened to any of Jonathan Sleep’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Incredible range of voices that are never annoying

13 people found this helpful

Bought the second book 30 sec after finishing this one

Yup. I liked it. Played on a car trip with the fam (older kids). Lots of cursing, and hilarious. Be prepared for a barrage of F-bombs.

12 people found this helpful

Crude story, average performance, but potential is there

I picked this book up on a whim, despite mixed reviews, and now that it's over I don't know how to feel about it.

The story itself is intriguing, but it's held back by repetitive writing. A lot of the book is characters repeating information to each other, often having the same conversation with different people. While this may be on the realistic side, as introductions will need to be made over and over as new people meet established misfits, it can be grating. This is not helped by our reader, who is trying to make unique voices for each character, but often settles for an agitated whisper for most of them. The worst of these offenders is the only female character, all her lines are delivered the same way: agitated whisper, whether she's screaming or making polite conversation.

The book is a comedy, and it's really hit or miss. There's an overabundance of your mom jokes, and crude humor about bodily functions. Occasionally, the bodily functions humor furthers the story and I honestly commend the writer for that. Not to mention, outside of the reliance on your mom jokes, there are some genuinely funny lines and situations. I laughed a few times out loud listening to this, I would be lying to say I disliked it as a whole.

But that doesn't mean I really liked it either. I do like the general story though, and I want to see how it plays out. I will be purchasing the next book, but I realize this story won't be for everyone.

D&D players, if you don't take yourselves seriously and accept being made into awful, bottom of the barrel stereotypes; you'll probably enjoy the book. There's something enchanting about seeing the rules of pen and paper applied to real life, and it's the progression of these characters levels and their level of character that I want to see more of.

Cheers.

5 people found this helpful