Shadowcroft Academy for Dungeons

Year One

By: James Hunter, Aaron Michael Ritchey

Narrated by: Henry Kramer

Length: 13 hrs

Publisher's summary

Build a dungeon. Slay heroes. Survive finals.

Wounded Army vet Logan Murray thought mimics were the stuff of board games and dungeon manuals...right up until one ate him.

In a flash of snapping teeth, Logan suddenly finds himself on the doorstep to another world. He’s been unwittingly recruited into the Shadowcroft Academy for Dungeons - the most prestigious interdimensional school dedicated to training the monstrous guardians who protect the Tree of Souls from so-called heroes. Heroes who would destroy the universe if it meant a shot at advancement.

Unfortunately, as a bottom-tier cultivator with a laughably weak core, Logan’s dungeon options aren’t exactly stellar, and he finds himself reincarnated as a lowly fungaloid, a three-foot-tall mass of spongy mushroom with fewer skills than a typical sewer rat. If he’s going to survive the grueling challenges the academy has in store, he’ll need to ace the odd assortment of classes - Fiendish Fabrication, Dungeon Feng Shui, the Ethics of Murder 101 - and learn how to turn his unusual guardian form into an asset instead of a liability.

And that’s only if the gargoyle professor doesn’t demote him to a doomed wandering monster first....

From James A. Hunter - best-selling author of Rogue Dungeon, Bibliomancer (Completionist Chronicles Expanded Universe), and the LitRPG epic Viridian Gate Online - and Dragon Award-finalist Aaron Michael Ritchey comes a brand-new Dungeon Core novel, like nothing you've ever heard before. Funny, funky, and full of Gamelit goodness, this is one novel you won't want to put down.

©2021 Shadow Alley Press (P)2024 Shadow Alley Press

great fun

has all my favorite tropes. academy setting. dingeon cores. solid game mechanics. and underdog story. worth the credit and time.

Interesting story read by an unteresting Narrator

I went into this book not expecting too much other than James hunter's ability to tell a story. Some reviews were a little bit concerning but I dove in anyways. I'll stay up front that I enjoyed the story more than I thought I would, but I felt the narration was lacking. In fact, the narration almost had me putting the book down near the beginning. but the story itself eventually kept my attention.

I listen to a lot of litRPGs and cultivation books, so while I liked the game mechanics and the act of cultivating for power, I feared that the story would get bogged down too much by said mechanics and cultivation. however I was pleasantly surprised that neither were too much of a focus and it allowed the story to flow much better than most lit RPG and cultivation books. I'd say that's probably my favorite thing about this book, not to mention that again I feel the story was pretty good.

Not to be the dead horse but Henry Kramer is a bit too stiff of a narrator for me to enjoy. he didn't even really sound that interested at first and almost had a droning feeling to the way he was narrating. It did get kind of better and I will say that I was a bit surprised that he could do a distinct female voice, but even those characters felt mostly stiff.

Must listen to it faster.

It was a good story. The narrator pausing after each sentence was distracting. I did enjoy it.

This book is everything it says it is.

Its dungeon core meets Harry Potter.

Funny, fun, doesn't take itself too seriously.

It won't change your life or reinvent the genre, but it will entertain you. If it wasn't for work and sleep I would have done the entire book in one sitting, it was that fun.

Harry Potter with dungeon cores!

I loved this book! very heavily inspired by Harry Potter but I'm here for it! if you like dungeon core books and enjoyed the Potter series you'll like this book!

I really liked the premise

this series was really good. I really liked the premise of this book, the Mc dies and gets transported to another world and has to fight for power. it's nice to see the version of a villain mc. not really a villain but the heros are necromancers in stuff. the thing i don't like is they killed him, he didn't die on his own. he was living and they killed him then they made him a mushroom while having him fight to stay alive. I like the mushroom tho, I was looking for a book where the Mc was a panda or a weird race instead of being human.

The cons. This books narrator is weird. having the speed at 1x is to slow having it any higher is to fast. I also would like some more exploration in the story too. I think sages of the underpass was better than this story just because it was a little bit more serious.

The pros. What I said about how I think sages of the underpass was better because it was more serious is actually a double edged sword. The thing that made this book so good is its humor. The character progression is also really good. I would've liked more world building and a better performance of the plot. but other than that this book is really good.

if you like a serious humor type book where there's alot of detailed and good fighting this book is for you

Loved it!

An awesome take on the dungeon core - magic school genre love how the adventurers are evil not just greedy.

Enjoyable. Interesting characters.

Someone compared it to HP, but that's reaching a bit. HP doesn't have a monopoly on a divided school using a scoring system. It's like saying all RPG books will get sued for having a human transported into another realm that uses leveling.
Other than that, the author's voice was a bit halting, but rarely did it pull me out from the story. That could be a personal preference so it very well may be cumbersome for others. The ending felt a little rushed, but I'm still interested in waiting for the sequel.

READ (listen to) THIS BOOK NOW!

Yep, this book is Harry Potter, If Hogwarts was a murder magic academy. The MC, and his friends are excellent and likeable. The teachers all are great in their way, even the "Bad" one. It's just a good story and I'm hoping it does continue on to a entire series.

whoever gives this book less than 4 🌟 is wrong

This book is good. Its fun and unique, I can see a few people not enjoying, but overall very fun and I am looking forward to book 2.

I have seen some weird negative reviews, don't trust them.
one person claimed this is a clear Harry Potter rip-off, because in case you didn't realize Harry Potter is also about a mushroom man training to have his own dungeon. like I said. don't trust them.