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Dungeon World #5
Dungeon World 5
Get ready for the exciting conclusion to the Dungeon World series!
With the help of an unlikely ally, Fred has secretly obtained access to all seven elements for his Core without the Supreme Council of Dungeon Cores’ knowledge; Fire, Water, Nature, Earth, Dark, Light, and Air are now technically at his disposal. However, despite having access to them all, he finds himself behind enemy lines without the use of any but Light and Air due to his temporary Core he had created back in his dungeon. Now, with the assistance of Roady, Ravenne, and Agelstein – three members of the Allroads Government, and Fred’s “bodyguards” – he has to safely make it back to the city before the inevitable deadly response from the local Dungeon Cores at his theft of the Light element kills him.
Trouble is brewing behind the scenes, though, and the Supreme Council is ready to step up their attacks on Fred’s dungeon underneath the city of Allroads. With additional complications preventing Fred from fully utilizing his newly acquired elements, he has to scramble to find a way to not be useless and assist in the defense of his dungeon, his Shards, and all the people in the city above relying on him.
Oh, and on top of that, Fred still needs to figure out a way to save the world…
Contains LitRPG/GameLit elements such as statistics and leveling. No harems and no profanity.
With the help of an unlikely ally, Fred has secretly obtained access to all seven elements for his Core without the Supreme Council of Dungeon Cores’ knowledge; Fire, Water, Nature, Earth, Dark, Light, and Air are now technically at his disposal. However, despite having access to them all, he finds himself behind enemy lines without the use of any but Light and Air due to his temporary Core he had created back in his dungeon. Now, with the assistance of Roady, Ravenne, and Agelstein – three members of the Allroads Government, and Fred’s “bodyguards” – he has to safely make it back to the city before the inevitable deadly response from the local Dungeon Cores at his theft of the Light element kills him.
Trouble is brewing behind the scenes, though, and the Supreme Council is ready to step up their attacks on Fred’s dungeon underneath the city of Allroads. With additional complications preventing Fred from fully utilizing his newly acquired elements, he has to scramble to find a way to not be useless and assist in the defense of his dungeon, his Shards, and all the people in the city above relying on him.
Oh, and on top of that, Fred still needs to figure out a way to save the world…
Contains LitRPG/GameLit elements such as statistics and leveling. No harems and no profanity.
514 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 9, 2020
About the author
Jonathan Brooks
94 books497 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
April 16, 2020
Jonathan Brooks completes another one.
If there's two things we can get from this author is that:
1. he has distinguished himself in the core sub-genre of Gamelit
2. he is able to finish a series in a satisfactory manner.
This is the 4th series he has completed and they just continue to get better. Book 5 of Dungeon World was really bittersweet because, while as a reader you want to be exposed to more of this world that has been created, the story really seemed to have come to a natural, unforced conclusion.
Really enjoyed the ride.
If there's two things we can get from this author is that:
1. he has distinguished himself in the core sub-genre of Gamelit
2. he is able to finish a series in a satisfactory manner.
This is the 4th series he has completed and they just continue to get better. Book 5 of Dungeon World was really bittersweet because, while as a reader you want to be exposed to more of this world that has been created, the story really seemed to have come to a natural, unforced conclusion.
Really enjoyed the ride.
April 14, 2020
Loved the ending. I disagree with others saying this came out of nowhere... There has been a lot of foreshadowing about how the system is different than what is accepted wisdom, and the ending ties all these loose threads together well.
A satisfying conclusion to a great (and very unique) dungeon core series!
(I also really appreciate the start of book recaps! Makes it quick to jump right in without needless exposition overexplaining things to those who are crushing the series one book after the other.)
A satisfying conclusion to a great (and very unique) dungeon core series!
(I also really appreciate the start of book recaps! Makes it quick to jump right in without needless exposition overexplaining things to those who are crushing the series one book after the other.)
May 23, 2020
Great concept and groundbreaking work in a new genre, but the conclusion felt a little rushed, and more like a deus ex machina last ditch effort to save the day with a whole series of literary jumps that were only loosely connected to other things in the other four books in the story. I didn't feel the pieces of this new world falling into place very easily. But it was enjoyable to read! A vibrant world, just the plot armor may be a little too thick. And I'm not sure it needed to be.
April 18, 2020
Nice quick paced and no major loose ends as the series culminates.
On the other hand too much of the book was taken up by the detailed description of a epic battles vs. actual plot.
On the other hand too much of the book was taken up by the detailed description of a epic battles vs. actual plot.
April 17, 2026
Title: Dungeon World 5 — A Dense, Divisive, and Ultimately Satisfying End to an Unusual Dungeon-Core Series
Hook and Thesis
Dungeon World 5 by Jonathan Brooks closes the Dungeon World series with the kind of finale that is likely to split readers right down the middle. It has all the qualities that made the series distinctive—hybrid dungeon-core logic, layered world mechanics, large-scale conflict, and a protagonist forced to operate between incompatible systems—but it also magnifies the series’ long-running weaknesses, especially its reliance on exposition, its repeated use of impossible last-minute solutions, and its tendency to drown emotional payoff in battle logistics. The core thesis of this review is that Dungeon World 5 is a satisfying conclusion in concept more than execution: it ties the world together in a meaningful way, but often does so through overstuffed plotting and strained dramatic shortcuts.
Introduction
Final volumes in LitRPG and dungeon-core series are difficult to land. By the end, the protagonist is usually overpowered, the stakes have inflated toward apocalyptic levels, and the carefully limited system from book one must somehow carry the weight of explaining the fate of an entire world. Dungeon World 5 runs directly into all of those challenges. Fred now has secret access to all seven elements, but because of the constraints imposed by his temporary Core and the political-military reality around him, he is paradoxically stronger than ever and more restricted than ever. That contradiction becomes the engine of the finale.
This is a book about scrambling under pressure. Fred has the pieces of godlike power, but not the freedom to use them cleanly. Meanwhile, the Supreme Council closes in, Allroads remains under enormous threat, and the larger question that has haunted the series from the start—whether humans and dungeon cores can coexist without annihilating one another—finally demands a real answer.
Basic Plot Summary
After secretly gaining access to all seven elemental aspects, Fred finds himself behind enemy lines and cut off from most of his new potential. Stuck operating through a temporary Core and limited largely to Light and Air, he must make his way back to Allroads with the help of Roady, Ravenne, and Agelstein. That journey alone would be enough to drive the plot, but the real crisis is bigger: the Supreme Council is escalating its attacks on Fred’s dungeon beneath the city, and the entire defense of Allroads hangs in the balance.
As Fred struggles to regain usefulness and reconnect with the city’s defense, he is forced to confront not just tactical problems but the fundamental brokenness of the world itself. The final conflict unfolds as a combination of siege, survival, revelation, and system-level transformation, pushing Fred toward a solution that must somehow resolve both the immediate war and the deeper imbalance between humans and cores.
Analysis / Evaluation
This is a finale that works best when viewed from a distance. Step back and its structure is satisfying: long-running mysteries converge, worldbuilding threads finally matter, the conflict escalates naturally from local siege to species-level crisis, and the story reaches a genuine ending rather than merely stopping. Those are not small achievements in this genre.
Up close, however, the execution is much rougher. The novel frequently feels overburdened by the need to do everything at once. It has to deliver battles, system explanations, reveals about the world, personal sacrifice, last-minute reversals, and emotional closure. Brooks manages to fit all of this in, but not always gracefully. Many readers responded positively to the ending because it resolves the series’ major tensions, yet others found the resolution too sudden, too convenient, or too dependent on deus ex machina logic.
That tension defines the book. It is intellectually satisfying in the sense that the pieces do come together, but emotionally and dramatically it can feel rushed, as though the story discovers its final answer at the exact moment it needs one.
Characters
Fred remains the strongest element of the series, though here he also becomes its greatest source of strain. On one hand, he is still a compelling protagonist because he is morally earnest, systemically unusual, and persistently motivated by care for others rather than dominance. That continues to separate him from the more smug or cruelty-driven leads common in adjacent LitRPG subgenres.
On the other hand, by this point Fred has become such a nexus of rule-breaking exceptions that the story sometimes depends less on who he is and more on what impossible thing he can do next. That weakens him as a dramatic figure. He is still likable, but he increasingly operates like the story’s override function.
The supporting cast remains mixed. Readers who were already attached to Fred’s circle will likely appreciate how the book tries to bring their arcs to a close. Yet several of them still feel more like functional allies than fully independent characters. The emotional connections are there, but they are often asserted more than deeply dramatized. This is especially noticeable in a finale, where every side character ideally needs a moment of crystallization. Not all of them get one.
Setting
The world remains one of Brooks’ most interesting inventions. The idea of a magical ecosystem structured around cores, factions, convergences, and species imbalance has been the series’ real selling point from the beginning, and this final book finally cashes in on that design. The setting is no longer just a backdrop for dungeon mechanics; it becomes the thing that must be understood, repaired, and reimagined.
Allroads continues to function well as the narrative center. The city under threat, the dungeon below it, and the pressure from external factions all give the story a concrete battlefield while the larger cosmological questions unfold around it. The result is a setting that can carry both immediate tactical stakes and final-arc revelations.
Structure
The structure of the novel is both purposeful and overloaded. Broadly, it runs like this:
This is a sound final-book structure. The problem is density. Too many of these phases are packed with heavy explanation, repeated combat cycles, or emergency complications layered on top of each other. The book rarely breathes. For some readers, that gives it energy. For others, it creates exhaustion.
Themes
The central theme is reconciliation through understanding. Fred’s journey has always been about existing between categories—human and dungeon core, person and system, outsider and protector—and the final book makes that identity the key to resolving a divided world.
Another major theme is limitation. Even with access to incredible power, Fred is not free. The book repeatedly insists that potential without proper structure is not enough. That is one of the more interesting things about this finale: it resists the easy fantasy of “unlock all powers, win immediately” and instead keeps Fred under pressure by constraining his use of what he has gained.
There is also a continuing theme of moral constancy. Fred remains defined by his refusal to sacrifice others casually, and while this can at times make him feel idealized, it also gives the series an ethical center that many dungeon-core stories lack.
Writing Style
Jonathan Brooks writes with utilitarian clarity. His strength is always in explaining systems, progression, and strategic cause-and-effect. That remains true here. Readers who enjoy understanding how things work will find the book easy to follow conceptually, even when it becomes crowded.
The weakness is that Brooks often explains at the exact moment a scene needs emotional or atmospheric force. Several reviewers noted that too much of the book is taken up by long battle descriptions or detailed mechanics at the expense of actual plot or character. That criticism is valid. This finale can feel less like a dramatic climax and more like a narrated operations report with occasional bursts of revelation.
Tone
The tone remains clean, earnest, and action-heavy. As throughout the series, this is a LitRPG that avoids profanity and harem framing, which gives it a broader tonal accessibility. It also means that even when the stakes become enormous, the voice rarely becomes especially dark or psychologically intense.
This works in the book’s favor when it comes to readability, but it also contributes to the feeling that the story sometimes pulls its emotional punches. It is intense in mechanics, not always in feeling.
Impact
As a conclusion, Dungeon World 5 succeeds in the most important sense: it ends. Not only does it end, it ends with a real attempt to resolve the world’s underlying contradiction rather than merely winning one last battle and walking away. That gives the series a stronger aftertaste than many comparable LitRPG sagas.
Its impact lies less in the beauty of individual scenes and more in the satisfaction of seeing a strange premise carried all the way through to a genuine conclusion.
Praise and Critique
Praise:
- Strong conceptual ending that ties together long-running worldbuilding threads.
- Fred remains a morally grounded and unusually sympathetic protagonist for the genre.
- The final resolution feels like a real answer to the series’ central conflict.
- Allroads continues to provide a useful strategic and emotional focal point.
- The book proves Brooks can close a series rather than letting it sprawl endlessly.
Critique:
- Heavy reliance on deus ex machina or rule-bending solutions.
- Too much page space devoted to battle detail and mechanical explanation.
- Emotional payoff is sometimes buried beneath logistics.
- Supporting characters receive closure unevenly.
- The final revelations can feel abrupt rather than fully dramatized.
- The book occasionally reads like multiple final arcs compressed into one volume.
Evaluation
Overall, Dungeon World 5 is a solid ending to a good, uneven, and highly unusual dungeon-core series. It is not the strongest individual book in the saga, and it does not fully overcome the problems that have followed the series from the start. But it does offer a legitimate conclusion, one that respects its own premise and tries to solve its own world rather than simply escalating forever.
Readers who valued the series mainly for character depth or emotional subtlety may leave underwhelmed. Readers who valued it for its systems, its hybrid-core originality, and its commitment to finishing what it started are likely to be much more satisfied.
Comparison
Compared with Dungeon World 4 , this finale is less structurally elegant but more ambitious. Book four was tighter as a siege story; book five is messier because it must also be a cosmological explanation, a world-saving climax, and a farewell.
Compared with Dungeon World 2 , which may have been the purest expression of dungeon defense in the series, this final book is much broader and less mechanically satisfying on a moment-to-moment level, but more meaningful in long-range thematic terms. Compared with Brooks’ other completed series, this one remains one of his more original concepts even if not always his most polished execution.
Conclusion
Dungeon World 5 is an ending that earns respect even where it does not earn full admiration. It is rushed in places, overloaded in others, and undeniably dependent on dramatic convenience. Yet it also does something many genre finales fail to do: it brings the story home without betraying what made it distinct.
Fred’s journey—from confused hybrid anomaly to the one person capable of seeing beyond the war between Humans and Dungeon Cores—finds a conclusion that feels natural to the world Brooks built. That alone gives the finale weight. It may not be elegant, but it is complete, and in a long-form LitRPG series, completeness is no small victory.
Hook and Thesis
Dungeon World 5 by Jonathan Brooks closes the Dungeon World series with the kind of finale that is likely to split readers right down the middle. It has all the qualities that made the series distinctive—hybrid dungeon-core logic, layered world mechanics, large-scale conflict, and a protagonist forced to operate between incompatible systems—but it also magnifies the series’ long-running weaknesses, especially its reliance on exposition, its repeated use of impossible last-minute solutions, and its tendency to drown emotional payoff in battle logistics. The core thesis of this review is that Dungeon World 5 is a satisfying conclusion in concept more than execution: it ties the world together in a meaningful way, but often does so through overstuffed plotting and strained dramatic shortcuts.
Introduction
Final volumes in LitRPG and dungeon-core series are difficult to land. By the end, the protagonist is usually overpowered, the stakes have inflated toward apocalyptic levels, and the carefully limited system from book one must somehow carry the weight of explaining the fate of an entire world. Dungeon World 5 runs directly into all of those challenges. Fred now has secret access to all seven elements, but because of the constraints imposed by his temporary Core and the political-military reality around him, he is paradoxically stronger than ever and more restricted than ever. That contradiction becomes the engine of the finale.
This is a book about scrambling under pressure. Fred has the pieces of godlike power, but not the freedom to use them cleanly. Meanwhile, the Supreme Council closes in, Allroads remains under enormous threat, and the larger question that has haunted the series from the start—whether humans and dungeon cores can coexist without annihilating one another—finally demands a real answer.
Basic Plot Summary
After secretly gaining access to all seven elemental aspects, Fred finds himself behind enemy lines and cut off from most of his new potential. Stuck operating through a temporary Core and limited largely to Light and Air, he must make his way back to Allroads with the help of Roady, Ravenne, and Agelstein. That journey alone would be enough to drive the plot, but the real crisis is bigger: the Supreme Council is escalating its attacks on Fred’s dungeon beneath the city, and the entire defense of Allroads hangs in the balance.
As Fred struggles to regain usefulness and reconnect with the city’s defense, he is forced to confront not just tactical problems but the fundamental brokenness of the world itself. The final conflict unfolds as a combination of siege, survival, revelation, and system-level transformation, pushing Fred toward a solution that must somehow resolve both the immediate war and the deeper imbalance between humans and cores.
Analysis / Evaluation
This is a finale that works best when viewed from a distance. Step back and its structure is satisfying: long-running mysteries converge, worldbuilding threads finally matter, the conflict escalates naturally from local siege to species-level crisis, and the story reaches a genuine ending rather than merely stopping. Those are not small achievements in this genre.
Up close, however, the execution is much rougher. The novel frequently feels overburdened by the need to do everything at once. It has to deliver battles, system explanations, reveals about the world, personal sacrifice, last-minute reversals, and emotional closure. Brooks manages to fit all of this in, but not always gracefully. Many readers responded positively to the ending because it resolves the series’ major tensions, yet others found the resolution too sudden, too convenient, or too dependent on deus ex machina logic.
That tension defines the book. It is intellectually satisfying in the sense that the pieces do come together, but emotionally and dramatically it can feel rushed, as though the story discovers its final answer at the exact moment it needs one.
Characters
Fred remains the strongest element of the series, though here he also becomes its greatest source of strain. On one hand, he is still a compelling protagonist because he is morally earnest, systemically unusual, and persistently motivated by care for others rather than dominance. That continues to separate him from the more smug or cruelty-driven leads common in adjacent LitRPG subgenres.
On the other hand, by this point Fred has become such a nexus of rule-breaking exceptions that the story sometimes depends less on who he is and more on what impossible thing he can do next. That weakens him as a dramatic figure. He is still likable, but he increasingly operates like the story’s override function.
The supporting cast remains mixed. Readers who were already attached to Fred’s circle will likely appreciate how the book tries to bring their arcs to a close. Yet several of them still feel more like functional allies than fully independent characters. The emotional connections are there, but they are often asserted more than deeply dramatized. This is especially noticeable in a finale, where every side character ideally needs a moment of crystallization. Not all of them get one.
Setting
The world remains one of Brooks’ most interesting inventions. The idea of a magical ecosystem structured around cores, factions, convergences, and species imbalance has been the series’ real selling point from the beginning, and this final book finally cashes in on that design. The setting is no longer just a backdrop for dungeon mechanics; it becomes the thing that must be understood, repaired, and reimagined.
Allroads continues to function well as the narrative center. The city under threat, the dungeon below it, and the pressure from external factions all give the story a concrete battlefield while the larger cosmological questions unfold around it. The result is a setting that can carry both immediate tactical stakes and final-arc revelations.
Structure
The structure of the novel is both purposeful and overloaded. Broadly, it runs like this:
1. Fred’s escape and attempted return with incomplete elemental access.
2. Escalation of the siege and pressure on Allroads.
3. Tactical struggles caused by his temporary weakness and systemic limitations.
4. Revelation of deeper truths about the world and the conflict.
5. Final confrontation, system-breaking solution, and denouement.
This is a sound final-book structure. The problem is density. Too many of these phases are packed with heavy explanation, repeated combat cycles, or emergency complications layered on top of each other. The book rarely breathes. For some readers, that gives it energy. For others, it creates exhaustion.
Themes
The central theme is reconciliation through understanding. Fred’s journey has always been about existing between categories—human and dungeon core, person and system, outsider and protector—and the final book makes that identity the key to resolving a divided world.
Another major theme is limitation. Even with access to incredible power, Fred is not free. The book repeatedly insists that potential without proper structure is not enough. That is one of the more interesting things about this finale: it resists the easy fantasy of “unlock all powers, win immediately” and instead keeps Fred under pressure by constraining his use of what he has gained.
There is also a continuing theme of moral constancy. Fred remains defined by his refusal to sacrifice others casually, and while this can at times make him feel idealized, it also gives the series an ethical center that many dungeon-core stories lack.
Writing Style
Jonathan Brooks writes with utilitarian clarity. His strength is always in explaining systems, progression, and strategic cause-and-effect. That remains true here. Readers who enjoy understanding how things work will find the book easy to follow conceptually, even when it becomes crowded.
The weakness is that Brooks often explains at the exact moment a scene needs emotional or atmospheric force. Several reviewers noted that too much of the book is taken up by long battle descriptions or detailed mechanics at the expense of actual plot or character. That criticism is valid. This finale can feel less like a dramatic climax and more like a narrated operations report with occasional bursts of revelation.
Tone
The tone remains clean, earnest, and action-heavy. As throughout the series, this is a LitRPG that avoids profanity and harem framing, which gives it a broader tonal accessibility. It also means that even when the stakes become enormous, the voice rarely becomes especially dark or psychologically intense.
This works in the book’s favor when it comes to readability, but it also contributes to the feeling that the story sometimes pulls its emotional punches. It is intense in mechanics, not always in feeling.
Impact
As a conclusion, Dungeon World 5 succeeds in the most important sense: it ends. Not only does it end, it ends with a real attempt to resolve the world’s underlying contradiction rather than merely winning one last battle and walking away. That gives the series a stronger aftertaste than many comparable LitRPG sagas.
Its impact lies less in the beauty of individual scenes and more in the satisfaction of seeing a strange premise carried all the way through to a genuine conclusion.
Praise and Critique
Praise:
- Strong conceptual ending that ties together long-running worldbuilding threads.
- Fred remains a morally grounded and unusually sympathetic protagonist for the genre.
- The final resolution feels like a real answer to the series’ central conflict.
- Allroads continues to provide a useful strategic and emotional focal point.
- The book proves Brooks can close a series rather than letting it sprawl endlessly.
Critique:
- Heavy reliance on deus ex machina or rule-bending solutions.
- Too much page space devoted to battle detail and mechanical explanation.
- Emotional payoff is sometimes buried beneath logistics.
- Supporting characters receive closure unevenly.
- The final revelations can feel abrupt rather than fully dramatized.
- The book occasionally reads like multiple final arcs compressed into one volume.
Evaluation
Overall, Dungeon World 5 is a solid ending to a good, uneven, and highly unusual dungeon-core series. It is not the strongest individual book in the saga, and it does not fully overcome the problems that have followed the series from the start. But it does offer a legitimate conclusion, one that respects its own premise and tries to solve its own world rather than simply escalating forever.
Readers who valued the series mainly for character depth or emotional subtlety may leave underwhelmed. Readers who valued it for its systems, its hybrid-core originality, and its commitment to finishing what it started are likely to be much more satisfied.
Comparison
Compared with Dungeon World 4 , this finale is less structurally elegant but more ambitious. Book four was tighter as a siege story; book five is messier because it must also be a cosmological explanation, a world-saving climax, and a farewell.
Compared with Dungeon World 2 , which may have been the purest expression of dungeon defense in the series, this final book is much broader and less mechanically satisfying on a moment-to-moment level, but more meaningful in long-range thematic terms. Compared with Brooks’ other completed series, this one remains one of his more original concepts even if not always his most polished execution.
Conclusion
Dungeon World 5 is an ending that earns respect even where it does not earn full admiration. It is rushed in places, overloaded in others, and undeniably dependent on dramatic convenience. Yet it also does something many genre finales fail to do: it brings the story home without betraying what made it distinct.
Fred’s journey—from confused hybrid anomaly to the one person capable of seeing beyond the war between Humans and Dungeon Cores—finds a conclusion that feels natural to the world Brooks built. That alone gives the finale weight. It may not be elegant, but it is complete, and in a long-form LitRPG series, completeness is no small victory.
"Dungeon World 5 is not the cleanest ending, but it is the right ending: one that finally makes the world as important as the battles fought inside it."
Overall Assessment:
Strengths: real series closure, strong world-level resolution, sympathetic protagonist, ambitious final payoff
Weaknesses: dense exposition, battle overload, uneven emotional delivery, heavy use of convenient rule-breaking
Recommended For: readers already invested in the series, dungeon-core fans who value finished arcs, LitRPG readers who care more about systemic payoff than literary finesse
April 13, 2020
Worst ending to a series I have read in some time. It feels like the author has no idea how to end it and just tacked on any concept he could think of.
June 13, 2020
This was a pretty good series overall and got better as it proceeded. Though this is only my second series in this genre, plot wise it is pretty unique. I also appreciated that it had a natural ending point.
In this world there are hard rules of the magic / abilities system that all 4 previous books have shown are unbreakable. Unfortunately, there was an instance where the MC did just that - creating a defender even though there are foreign invaders without any sort of explanation of why this is possible or even any mention that this should have been impossible. I was tempted to rate the book lower for this because this was extremely jarring for me and broke me out of the immersion but in the end decided not to do so, since this happened only once.
In this world there are hard rules of the magic / abilities system that all 4 previous books have shown are unbreakable. Unfortunately, there was an instance where the MC did just that - creating a defender even though there are foreign invaders without any sort of explanation of why this is possible or even any mention that this should have been impossible. I was tempted to rate the book lower for this because this was extremely jarring for me and broke me out of the immersion but in the end decided not to do so, since this happened only once.
July 18, 2020
Spoilers
While i enjoyed the previous iterations of the series, this one just felt like too much build up, and "problems" with no pay off in sight, and when he loses his human form i had to skip ahead to see if there was pay off in the end, and i felt unsatisfied by what i saw, and i found myself feeling nothing but negative feelings throughout the rest of it. The mc does "the impossible, even when things are horribly predictable and i can't fathom what the author was thinking, mc isn't believable in this one, nor is the plot. Problems are just piled on top of each other over and over till its a mountain with no relief, that only a deus ex machina can solve, and leaves you overall very unsatisfied. I seldom don't want to finish a book, but this one did it for me.
While i enjoyed the previous iterations of the series, this one just felt like too much build up, and "problems" with no pay off in sight, and when he loses his human form i had to skip ahead to see if there was pay off in the end, and i felt unsatisfied by what i saw, and i found myself feeling nothing but negative feelings throughout the rest of it. The mc does "the impossible, even when things are horribly predictable and i can't fathom what the author was thinking, mc isn't believable in this one, nor is the plot. Problems are just piled on top of each other over and over till its a mountain with no relief, that only a deus ex machina can solve, and leaves you overall very unsatisfied. I seldom don't want to finish a book, but this one did it for me.
September 21, 2023
This is the finale and wrap up of the Dungeon World storyline. Fred has had a lot of hint that something bigger was wrong in their world, but will he figures out what it is in time to save the City of Allroads from the pending attack from all of the Core Factions?
I really liked how it wrapped up, but I will note that there were a lot of chapters of people being killed en masse. I kept chanting, "now Fred. Figure it out now!" There are for sure Deus Ex Machina moments as Fred constantly does just the right impossible thing, even if he takes his bloody time about it. It’s a fast paced story and continues to develop the world it is set in. If you like unusual twists on Dungeon Core stories, this is a decent one. Solid 3 stars.
I really liked how it wrapped up, but I will note that there were a lot of chapters of people being killed en masse. I kept chanting, "now Fred. Figure it out now!" There are for sure Deus Ex Machina moments as Fred constantly does just the right impossible thing, even if he takes his bloody time about it. It’s a fast paced story and continues to develop the world it is set in. If you like unusual twists on Dungeon Core stories, this is a decent one. Solid 3 stars.
September 27, 2025
ok, I've burned my way through this series.
It's fine. I don't know what I should say here - there were some glimpses of characters here and somewhat less stupid decisions, but the whole series culminated in a plot that was set forth beforehand so it's not like huge decisions had to be made once things happened. The action happened, it was at times interesting, although really just throwing power around.
honestly in some ways the short story at the end intrigued me more - although it looks like it ended with some sort of cross-book thing that I really dislike as a method so eh.
Again, 2 1/2 stars maybe is more appropriate but I tend to put books I wasn't fond of (but didn't actually hate) at 2 stars despite how the way the ratings are stated.
It's fine. I don't know what I should say here - there were some glimpses of characters here and somewhat less stupid decisions, but the whole series culminated in a plot that was set forth beforehand so it's not like huge decisions had to be made once things happened. The action happened, it was at times interesting, although really just throwing power around.
honestly in some ways the short story at the end intrigued me more - although it looks like it ended with some sort of cross-book thing that I really dislike as a method so eh.
Again, 2 1/2 stars maybe is more appropriate but I tend to put books I wasn't fond of (but didn't actually hate) at 2 stars despite how the way the ratings are stated.
January 12, 2021
This was a very entertaining series. When I reached the end of the fourth book, I couldn't wait for the fifth to come out! This was one of the first LitRPG series I have read, and unlike some which tend to drown the reader with dry statistics, this one blends the action and the numbers smoothly. Sometimes it plays out more like a tower defense than a dungeon delve, but that deviation is an intriguing change. This series also isn't vulgar or led by an obnoxious "Mary Sue" type either - which unfortunately is surprisingly common in LitRPGs. For those wanting to dive into this new, growing genre, the Dungeon Core novels is a great place to start!
March 20, 2021
Dungeons, And Delvers, And Cores, Oh My! (You get bonus points if you sing it in a Dorothy of Oz impersonation)
Mr. Brooks ends the Dungeon World Series with a surprising, yet satisfying solution (and denouement in the final chapter) to the problems Fredwynklemossering, Fred, is facing. It is also an interesting bit of world building. I could see Mr. Brooks novels being the base for an intriguing RPG, with the addition of a great deal of rules, game mechanics, and dice.
The series is likely an enjoyable read for fans of the high fantasy and LitRPG genres; as well as fans of RPGs, both tabletop and video.
Mr. Brooks ends the Dungeon World Series with a surprising, yet satisfying solution (and denouement in the final chapter) to the problems Fredwynklemossering, Fred, is facing. It is also an interesting bit of world building. I could see Mr. Brooks novels being the base for an intriguing RPG, with the addition of a great deal of rules, game mechanics, and dice.
The series is likely an enjoyable read for fans of the high fantasy and LitRPG genres; as well as fans of RPGs, both tabletop and video.
May 8, 2024
I read the omnibus edition so this review will cover all 5 books.
Was this a great series? No. Was it especially original? No. Was it what I needed right now? Yeah, pretty much. A series about a half-human/half-dungeon setting out, getting in adventures, saving the world. You know, the usual LitRPG stuff.
While the mechanics can be unnecessarily complicated at times it's a pretty straightforward series, with an obvious focus on dungeons, but with all the tropes. Unlike most book in this genre it keeps things fairly PG, which means no nudity but all the violence. I didn't have to think too much, it was a simple quick read, just what I needed.
Was this a great series? No. Was it especially original? No. Was it what I needed right now? Yeah, pretty much. A series about a half-human/half-dungeon setting out, getting in adventures, saving the world. You know, the usual LitRPG stuff.
While the mechanics can be unnecessarily complicated at times it's a pretty straightforward series, with an obvious focus on dungeons, but with all the tropes. Unlike most book in this genre it keeps things fairly PG, which means no nudity but all the violence. I didn't have to think too much, it was a simple quick read, just what I needed.
April 11, 2020
The finale! Fred and gang face off against the entirety of the world’s dungeons. The story progresses from one fight to another. Character development takes a step backwards as each only shows one side of themselves. There are numerous Deus Ex Machina moments as Fred constantly does just the right impossible thing at just the right time to put things right. The resolution chapter was a clear wrap up that was overshadowed by the epilogue. It’s a fast paced story and continues to develop the world it is set in. Enjoy
August 15, 2022
A fine conclusion, although it suffered a bit with the shift to world ending stakes and ancient mysteries.
The conclusion of the series was satisfying enough, although there was a lot of sudden exposition right at the end to bring it all togehter. I also don’t care for authors using numbers to describe death counts. It might sound epic to put 300,000 people die in the final battle, but it’s kind of meaningless to the reader. Also the actual solution Fred comes up with seems to have some serious flaws. However, I got the happy ending I wanted, so I was ultimately pretty satisfied.
The conclusion of the series was satisfying enough, although there was a lot of sudden exposition right at the end to bring it all togehter. I also don’t care for authors using numbers to describe death counts. It might sound epic to put 300,000 people die in the final battle, but it’s kind of meaningless to the reader. Also the actual solution Fred comes up with seems to have some serious flaws. However, I got the happy ending I wanted, so I was ultimately pretty satisfied.
June 27, 2020
Fantasy Lit RPG
I love the whole concept of the story.
Ratings and Stat sheets make you feel like you are part of the leveling process in the story.
If I had to pick 1 negative thing. It would be that things that are obvious are repeated a lot. Not just from book to book. But sometimes within the same book.
Eg. We know Fred is a hybrid dungeon/human core. But that point is made way too many times.
Other than that. Really enjoyed the story.
Thank you
Jovan Fraser
I love the whole concept of the story.
Ratings and Stat sheets make you feel like you are part of the leveling process in the story.
If I had to pick 1 negative thing. It would be that things that are obvious are repeated a lot. Not just from book to book. But sometimes within the same book.
Eg. We know Fred is a hybrid dungeon/human core. But that point is made way too many times.
Other than that. Really enjoyed the story.
Thank you
Jovan Fraser
September 13, 2020
Very few of these types of books have a really "good" protagonist. And by that I mean, there is no moral ambiguity to be found in Fred. He has the best interests of his friends, his people, and the entire world over even his own happiness.
Part Dungeon Core, part human. Fred the Dualborn is one of the most interesting characters I have read about in quite some time. And a fantastic return to a better status-quo was the reward at the end. Fantastic fiction for the lovers of RPGs.
Part Dungeon Core, part human. Fred the Dualborn is one of the most interesting characters I have read about in quite some time. And a fantastic return to a better status-quo was the reward at the end. Fantastic fiction for the lovers of RPGs.
December 26, 2021
It's like the author knows this is his last book in the series, so he is trying to stuff as much stats in the book was possible.
Ah yes. The Ole' artificially weaken the protagonist so you can make drama and have him struggle to do the most basic of things he used to do. So Entertaining!!
I finished the series, but I did not enjoy it. Maybe if I read this years ago, and it had less stats.
2.5/5 Stars
Ah yes. The Ole' artificially weaken the protagonist so you can make drama and have him struggle to do the most basic of things he used to do. So Entertaining!!
I finished the series, but I did not enjoy it. Maybe if I read this years ago, and it had less stats.
2.5/5 Stars
May 28, 2026
Okay, not terrible. Nice wrap up of the series and everyone's lives :) clean language.
The romance was more than I liked for my taste.
Not sure if I'll read more from this author. Maybe of the others don't have a couple or romance, I don't like his style for that area. Closed door but too close or intense. Maybe I like twhst they call the sweet romance better? I just don't care for his style.
The romance was more than I liked for my taste.
Not sure if I'll read more from this author. Maybe of the others don't have a couple or romance, I don't like his style for that area. Closed door but too close or intense. Maybe I like twhst they call the sweet romance better? I just don't care for his style.
June 15, 2020
Fun read
I’ve read through the entire dungeon world journey and have enjoyed the entire ride. The end here makes me sad but it does feel like the cycle was complete. The twists there at the end I never saw coming and it finished in a way that felt fresh to me. I highly recommend this series to anyone that like dungeon core books or has yet to read any :)
I’ve read through the entire dungeon world journey and have enjoyed the entire ride. The end here makes me sad but it does feel like the cycle was complete. The twists there at the end I never saw coming and it finished in a way that felt fresh to me. I highly recommend this series to anyone that like dungeon core books or has yet to read any :)
June 6, 2020
A good finish, would love more
The series wrapped up in a way that didn't feel too rushed. There was a bit of a surprise twist that could have used some more details, but overall was a very enjoyable read.
The series wrapped up in a way that didn't feel too rushed. There was a bit of a surprise twist that could have used some more details, but overall was a very enjoyable read.
July 12, 2020
Great ending to a good series :)
Very satisfying ending to the story! Explanations of world mechanics and some descriptions of fights were a bit of a slog to get through, but it was an overall very enjoyable read. I will definitely be checking out the author's other works!
Very satisfying ending to the story! Explanations of world mechanics and some descriptions of fights were a bit of a slog to get through, but it was an overall very enjoyable read. I will definitely be checking out the author's other works!
July 22, 2020
Good bye dungeon world
This was a great series and I enjoyed all the books. I got a bit worried in this book but I love how most of the ends resolved themselves in the book... on to a different series by this author
This was a great series and I enjoyed all the books. I got a bit worried in this book but I love how most of the ends resolved themselves in the book... on to a different series by this author
August 12, 2020
It was alright. The plot finished up, but it had lost any sense of urgency or stakes a couple of books ago. If you liked the rest of the series, you may as well finish it, but don't expect anything too mindbreaking.
January 14, 2021
A really fun read. I read all 5 in a few weeks and really them. The ending was fitting and not a let down at all. I enjoy the genre and this set of 5 books is a pleasing addition and belongs among the great such as D. Rus etc.
February 4, 2021
Core madness
Interesting evolution of the main character / dungeon core over the series. This one suffered a bit from endless hordes of monsters fighting with the main character and allies.
Interesting evolution of the main character / dungeon core over the series. This one suffered a bit from endless hordes of monsters fighting with the main character and allies.
May 27, 2020
Awesome!
Awesomely binge worthy!
Ending is great - ties it all together and leaves openings for possible new branches!
Thank you!
Awesomely binge worthy!
Ending is great - ties it all together and leaves openings for possible new branches!
Thank you!
June 10, 2020
Enjoyable series
Enjoyable and well written, the last book didn't get too tedious when the plot adapted. Series is definitely worth reading.
Enjoyable and well written, the last book didn't get too tedious when the plot adapted. Series is definitely worth reading.
June 13, 2020
I'm glad this didn't end up as an infinite series...and the ending was fairly satisfactory. The world building especially was good, and the history of the world was well imagined :)
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