Hey all, I’m back with my first Bookish Wednesday in a while. It’s Monster Core Volume 01 by Dante King!

Plot: The plot is pretty standard Isekai/LitRPG, in that our main character Dominic is recruited by your standard goddess to perform some task. The not so standard part is that this goddess is essentially the goddess of the local version of Hell, and she really shouldn’t be doing something like making our main character a Dungeon Core. Also, not really normal is the fact that Dominic is incredibly ruthless and isn’t averse to being evil to get what he wants.

Characters: Dominic, or Von Dominus as he renames himself, is not a nice main character. He’s not a badly done character, but he does go for the evil overlord approach a bit too much. The rest of the main cast isn’t particularly noteworthy either. They aren’t bad, but they aren’t particularly memorable.

Overall: An okay LitRPG/Dungeon Core novel, but it leans into the Evil Overlord just a bit too much to be taken entirely seriously by me. Your experience may be different as I’m pretty jaded when it comes to stories nowadays.

For those who like: LitRPGs, Dungeon Cores, Isekai, “Evil” Main Characters.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.