Dead Must Die: A Humorous LitRPG/GameLit Adventure

The Realms: Master of the Dungeon(A Side-Quest of The Realms), Book 1

By: C. M. Carney

Narrated by: Reuben Corbett

A side-quest set in the world of the Epic LitRPG Series The Realms.

Simon died once. He'll be damned before he dies twice.

Simon never asked to become the new dungeon master of the Barrow, but a millennia-old teenager stuck in the skull of a dead lich has few life options. After bonding with the Barrow’s dungeon core, he learns they are near death from hunger and only by consuming the life energy and experiences of sentient beings can they survive.

Lucky for Simon a party of murderous adventurers invades the Barrow in search of treasure and glory. They look to be a perfectly tasty meal until one transforms into a mentally unstable fanatic whose specialty is killing the undead in all its forms, especially teenagers stuck in skulls bonded to dungeons.

If Simon can’t master his new powers, defeat invaders bent on plunder and convince the Barrow to take a kinder, gentler approach to feeding, then he will die a second time. And this time it’ll be permanent.

Dead Must Die is a short side quest set in the best-selling The Realms universe. It takes place sometime after Barrow King but before the events of Scourge of Souls.

Buy now and listen to the number one best-selling epic fantasy series.

The Realms - An Epic Fantasy Series. Suggested Listening Order:

Barrow King

The Lost City

Killing Time

Dead Must Die (A Side Quest)

Scourge of Souls

Chaos Rising

Ravaged Land

©2018 C.M. Carney (P)2019 C.M. Carney

Interest gaming story

I don't even know how to play dungeons and dragons or any other games like that. With that in mind, I liked this story. Interesting, different than my normal, great narration.

A fun listen

I found this novella to be a fun addition to the author's other work. For fans of the Burrow King, this is a must listen.

Fun.

No spoilers, but this is a fun romp through the Realms kingdom. I truly laughed out loud a few times.

Thoroughly enjoyable series

Great side story to hold one over until the next book in this entertaining series is available. Well performed by Reuben Corbett, another fine story by CM Carney

Fun little side story.

Dead Must Die is a fun side story to CM Carney's The Realms series, dealing an amusing group of adventurers and the 'rebirth' of a dungeon. It's an interesting story and has some really fun and funny characters.(love the group of adventurers) My only real complaint is that I wish it were longer. Granted it's a novella so of course it's going to be shorter than the much longer main books in the series. That being said, I'd like to know what happens next to Simon/Barrow.

I died laughing!

Fun story and good narration!

Simon - a centuries old teenager is the new dudgeon master of the Barrow, was just settling into his new role. Unfortunately for him enemies have fond there way into the Barrow, and now it is a battle for survival.

Reuben Corbett does a great job with the narration.

This story takes place immediately after book 1 of The Realms.

I enjoyed this audiobook.

Good short.

This is a good short that is more of a 2.5 than book 8. It's not a required read but it's entertaining enough that you should.

Fun Short Story

This book is light hearted and a lot of fun. It helps if you are similar with the ten realms series.

Quick fun listen.

really enjoyed this book, it was a nice continuation to the Barrow king and gave him some closure.

You gotta stay alive!

Full disclosure, I am huge fan of Chris Carney, and I am also a tried and true adorer of short stories. Seeing this it became a no brainer that I would be reviewing it. So, what’s the disclaimer? The novel centers on my least favorite character of the series, the boy Simon who ended up kind of inheriting the mantle of the dungeon that the lich king had been running. The dungeon is all his now, and it wants to merge with him and start munching on adventurers. So, even though it was about my least favorite character I still put on my unbiased earbuds and gave it a listen.
First and foremost I have to say that as much as I like Carney, his attempts at humor fell short with me. I don’t know if it was that the jokes were easy to see coming or if Corbett didn’t translate them from the page to my ears as well as he could have I don’t know. Either way, the humor took it down a little for me the longer the book went on.
On the upside, this almost becomes a dungeon core styled story. Almost, it had some of the elements, but never (most wisely) tried to become that. It stayed in its own little box with Simon mucking around with the dungeon and manipulating its inhabitants, but never became a full on core book.
I did enjoy the story when it wasn’t trying so hard to make me laugh. I really think that a straight story would have worked a lot better; something much more in the vein of the other Realms books that have humor, but not in such a rapid fire unrelenting way, but more spaced out. The book is a nice little gem that adds some flavor to the Realms, and will help feed your need for more stuff in the Realm settings.
The story is fairly fast paced and keeps you interested, and like I said before Simon is a character I could take or leave, and I found myself liking him more as the story went on. I was even glad to see that he had started dating.
I know the narrator, Rueben Corbett from another series that I read a few years back, Dragonia: Rise of the Wyverns. He did a decent job there, and he does the same thing with this tale. The problem that I have is that I’m going to compare him to Armen Taylor no matter what, since Taylor narrates the other Realms books. I have to say that he holds up surprisingly well, too. He does the necessary voices and keeps the story as fun as he can. I had no problems with what he did here and think he was a good fit for the series.
I would happily listen to another short from this series, I just hope the humor isn’t as pervasive next time around. Final score 7.9.


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