Green Dungeon

Garden Core, Book 1

By: M.E. Merrell

Narrated by: Marni Penning, Andrew Russell

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Master Gardener Jennifer Conners is transported to a magical world to rebuild a dungeon filled with fairies and nymphs.

Unfortunately, a past enemy of the dungeon will stop at nothing to destroy her.

The Green Dungeon has lain dormant for thirty years. Now, a new Garden Core has been discovered. Jennifer Conners, a human with a trace of elfin blood, has been brought to the garden. Armed with only her knowledge of plants, her love of nature, and a Garden Fairy named River, Jennifer must rebuild the garden or perish.

However, just as Jennifer realizes being a Garden Core might be her true calling in life, a villain threatens her very existence. He brings a magical weapon with extraordinary powers and a raging desire for revenge.

But Jennifer is no ordinary Garden Core. She's armed with modern science, futuristic horticulture, and the help of her son's adventuring group.

Can a new, unconventional Garden Core and an inexperienced group of adventurers defeat a man fueled by hate? The fate of her world hangs in the balance.

©2023 M.E. Merrell (P)2024 Podium Audio

dyslexia strikes again

personally I misread the title and thought it said greencore assuming it'll be all about nature dungeon and really it was but it was more about a garden than strictly nature but it ended up being good too.

Comfort food LITRPG. Whimsy with empty calories?!

I was specifically looking for a dungeon core that centered around gardens and plants. This sets down the roots for a strong series and I'm interested if it does continue as a series.

That said, what I got instead was a litrpg romp about saving your family, making new family, and a whole lot of 'mom jokes.' You can really tell the author is having a good time writing this, and you will too-- as long as you don't think about it too much. This book didn't let me put it down, and I was pulled in by its whimsy and fun-characters. For that, it gets a solid C+

It's LITRPG and it delivers on that. It's weirdly horny when it has no right to be, weirdly interesting when it has no right to be, and delivers that McDonalds fast food deliciousness you know you shouldn't be consuming when-- I don't know-- "Heart of darkness" or "Man and his symbols" still exists to read?

Listen, I'd probably rate this lower if it weren't geared specifically at ME. You have a bunch of flowers and plants. A bunch of fairies and nymphs. And a garden core.(it's in the title!) It throws a lot at you to chew on, and it makes you want to explore more! This book had good enough bones they get stuck in your teeth, and I'd love to learn more about it.

If this series continues with a sequel.

Something that caught me by surprise for a Dungeon core book; this book is probably three quarters urban fantasy, and one quarter dungeon core with the dungeon core as a critical plot element. Not a bad thing-- a surprising thing.

It's worth your time, but this is a book that is budding, not yet in bloom.

[insert gardening pun here]

I loved this book for several reasons:
Firstly, both narrators were brilliant. Each character had a distinctive, fun, and recognizable voice.
Secondly, the characters themselves were fun and loveable with plenty of room for growth (pun intended).
Thirdly, as someone who had been a middle-aged woman since he was a 12-year old boy I feel like I need to see more plots in the genre revolve around middle-age women and their relationships. This scratched that itch.
Conclusions: I can't wait to see where the story goes from here and I can't wait for a sequel.

Imagine some suburban single mom got turned into a dungeon. That's the story...

It feels like a mom wanted to be a cool mom so she wrote a self insert book in a genre her kid likes.

good points:
-I enjoy the plant/garden theme
-It has interesting connection between worlds and is fairly unique.

bad points:
-MC and her kid are way to lax with the person that kills her and essentially destroys the family...
-Takes a long time to get to anything interesting and even then the dungeon is minimal at best when any action starts.
-$45 is absurd, even the sale price of $30ish is way too much

I'd say if you have an extra credit and don't know what to do with it, this isn't a bad pick.

Grotesquely flippant.

I barely made it past the complete disregard the son apparently has for his moms murder because he has the hots for her murderer. Not to mention the other characters, who we're supposed to like, absolute lack of care and empathy. Only wanting to know what she can do for them. I found the ease in which this was all accepted so easily, completely off putting. I had to stop though at the hoe nymphs, this book should be titled: The Garden Brothel.

boring

It is a wierd mix of boring, contrived stakes, strange happenings, and weak magic system. Using two voice actors didn't help. There are plenty of Isekai into a dungeon core books. This book adds way to many supporting characters for the dungeon. This basically gives her easy mode from the start that she still fails at. Author then creates an enemy that is OP for reasons. The entire ethics of kidnapping someone’s mother to force them into becoming a dungeon is basically ignored because of a pretty face. If the dungeons were so important, Green World would have entire system to protect and restore them. Elves/fairies/fay should be lined up, or drafted. There should be no reason a Half Breed elven, or anyone else, should have to go rogue and take someones mother. It felt clunky.