Having established leverage over Mordred and influence in the Cardinian government, Tim is ready to move forward with the next phase of his plan. But Mordred has an ace up his sleeve that could shift the balance of power back in his favor.
Cooper and Nabi attempt to reunite with the rest of the gang.
Stacy and Dave are forced to put their differences aside and work together to avoid capture and execution.
Julian tries to find something productive to do while Chaz goes a little too far with the rockstar lifestyle.
Katherine is done taking shit from old foes.
Randy struggles with moral quandaries. Denise does not.
Complaints first. 1. Had to wait three years for this book. (Bevan is going down the same path as GRRM.) 2. Weird formatting. I generally read Kindle books with white print on a black background. Doing so showed some oddities. Sometimes blocks of text would be blue or gray. I'm assuming these were last minute edits that got inserted under slightly different formatting (or was done so for editorial notation?) 3. Needed another copy correction pass. There were some misspellings, extra punctuation, missing punctuation. Nothing egregious, but it took me out of the moment.
The good stuff: 1. Bevan is still hilarious. 2. The plot moves quickly. 3. The characters are real, which is odd because they are in a fantasy novel. We get real character development in this installment. 4. Bevan kills off (apparently...) a couple of annoying characters. This is good because it resolves a couple of plot lines and moves things along.
General: 1. Too short. I always want more C&C. 2. I'd love to see some actual conclusion to long-running plot lines. Introducing new ones is fine, but some of this is just being drawn out for no good reason. 3. The comparison of Bevan to George RR Martin. (Two of my favorite fantasy authors. Settle down, GRRM, it's a compliment to you that I find you in Bevan's league.) The writing is snappy and things do happen, but Bevan is skating dangerously close to never finishing this story because he has so many plots running simultaneously.
Well, here we are. Book ten. X Marks Your Mom. If the title alone makes you snort-laugh like a seventh grader who just discovered “yo mama” jokes, congratulations—you’re the target audience. And friends, I am that audience.
This one? Solid. Four stars compared to other books in the series. We get legit character development (which feels like cheating in a series that gleefully lives in toilet humor), a plot that moves, and enough banter to make your inner 13-year-old absolutely thrive. I laughed out loud multiple times. Sometimes because the joke was good. Sometimes because it was so dumb it looped back around to brilliant. Either way, I had a blast.
Plot-wise, Tim's master plan is finally starting to get interesting again, Dave and Cooper's relationship is giving me actual feels, and Julian and Chad are a fabulous comic duo of the realm. Katherine remains an absolute badass and deserves her own spin-off, frankly.
Jon & Phoebe, let’s be honest—I’ve never recommended this series to you, and I’m not about to start now. It’s irreverent. It’s crass. It’s D&D on Mountain Dew and poor impulse control. But if you ever do want something that feels like the unholy lovechild of Community’s darkest timeline and The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, well... let’s talk.
Bevan has out done himself in his newest literary masterpiece! taking his characters through paths that not only level them up as players, but as people all together. You will enjoy many laughs as you journey with your favorite characters in this new set of misadventures, tying up some loose ends while creating exponentially more along the way. Will Cooper realize it's OK to penetrate his newfound best friend from behind in a swamp? Will Denise finally find a willing male for her special set of talents? Will Stacy get over her hatred of ettins before she learns to make concentration camps? All these questions and more can only be answered by allowing yourself the pleasure of reading this newest addition of caverns and creatures!
Guilty pleasure- lots of crude humor makes for an accurate take on the real experience of tabletop role playing games. Bevan’s books are the closest approximation of getting together with my old gaming group for a day of monster slaying and eighth grade humor. That’s the low ball; his characters really come to life over the course of the series as does the world in which they exist, and his incorporation of the game’s mechanics is really satisfying. I intentionally dragged my feet reading this because I didn’t want it to wnd. I can’t wait for the next one.
It's amazing how a book series that initially based a lot of charm on sophomoric jokes and crudeness has not only kept me hooked for 10 books, but has evolved so well. Some great character developments for the characters, including a string of moments that George R R Martin would love. This is one of the stronger entries in the series.
Love the author, love his humor and love these characters he has created. PLeased that he has gotten rid of one annoying character What more need I say, for more detail read my previous reviews. I would just like to add my voice to the other reviewers - please don't leave it so long between books again.
I do not like to read. It's usually boring. Critical Failures is so freaking entertaining I don't even wait for the audible version. I will 100% get the audible version, too. The voice acting is the best I've heard!! I love all the characters, even Dave.
This is my absolute favorite book series and X is one of the best so far!
This adventure keeps getting better! I already can’t wait for book XI. The character development has continued to evolve and the separated party are slowly coming together
I lover this guy so I gave 5 for the humor but would take a star for how spiteful and bitter some of the Chars have become but won´t since it makes you laugh out loud and that weighs the heaviest.
It was great to see the main characters come back to themselves after so much challenge and change. Excited for the next iteration and frustrated knowing it's not coming soon
It was so fun to be back in the wonderfully hilarious world of Caverns and Creatures. You don't expect it from such a raunchy and filthy series, but the character development has been phenomenal in the last few books. 👍🏽👍🏽
I'm sad that I'm finally all caught up with this series. I loved this book, and the direction it seems to be headed in. Our characters are levelling up, and while they're still funny, there is also some more serious character progression. I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
One of the best in the series so far. I appreciate that he's tying up some of the loose ends and pushing along the plot. It got pretty hard to keep track of it all there for a while
The C&C crew are back with their shenanigans in this tenth installment, and I was happily surprised to see some of the characters who seem to be learning from their past behavior. Of course, they all continue to make bizarre choices based on their odd interpretations of events. But that’s all part of the fun in this odd tale.