Dungeon Lord
by Hugo Huesca
About This Audiobook
Ed Wright takes a deal with the dark god Murmur and wakes up in Ivalis as a Dungeon Lord — the setting's designated villain class, complete with dungeon, dark powers, and batblin minions. The twist is that Ed refuses the job description. He builds his dungeon like a decent man with a fortress: protecting the misfits who wind up depending on him, negotiating instead of monologuing, and only picking fights with people who deserve it. That good-man-in-an-evil-role tension is the series' engine, and Hugo Huesca plays it believably instead of cute. Heads up on structure: the opening is a slow burn, and the actual dungeon-lording takes a while to pay off — reviews knock the first-act pacing consistently. Worth the wait. The Soundbooth production, with Jeff Hays leading and Annie Ellicott voicing several of the women, is exceptional even by their standards. 7.1K ratings at 4.5, and weirdly absent when people list the genre's best dungeon books.
