Good morning everyone. I hope you are all well.
Yesterday I finished reading Critical Failures: Caverns and Creatures book 1 by Robert Bevan. Target wise I would say the intended audience was teenage/ young adult males and perhaps South Park fans.
The book itself is not too dissimilar from the concept of the 80s cartoon Dungeons and Dragons, where a group of teenagers are pulled into the fictional world and need to learn to survive using their skills. In the case of Critical Failures, this occurs thanks to a request for a new Cavern Master to run the game. It follows the journey of the characters as they come to terms with their pre-relocation actions and their character’s stats and abilities.
I wanted to read this book as, although I had characters rolled and scenarios ready, I have never actually had the chance to role-play and it is something I have always wanted to do. I thought the premise sounded like fun. The book itself contains a lot of toilet and adolescent humour, so if that’s your cup of tea it is good for a chuckle. It doesn’t matter if you have any experience or knowledge of role-playing as initially the rules are explained and as things become real there is no need to know when a dice roll is needed, or if a person contains the skills. The author does a good job in ensuring that the story s not hung up on game rules, thus avoids alienating non-players.
For me, I would like to have seen some more character development and some branching off of personalities as experience tempers them, which may come in the second or third book. I get the feeling that book one is more of a scene setter than anything else, but I am sorry to say that although I enjoyed the book for what it was, with so many other fantastic books on my reading list, I don’t think I will be continuing with the series.
Find it on Amazon – Kindle edition:
K.J's Athenaeum 