Critical Failures V: V is for Five by Robert Bevan- A Book Review

Blurb:

Many view “hitting rock bottom” as foundation on which to rebuild one’s life, a place from which one can only ascend.
Gamers know to search for a secret door leading down to the sewer.

Author: Robert Bevan
Publisher: Robert Bevan
Pages: 302
Release Date: 12/04/2017
Series: Caverns and Creatures #5
Genre: Fantasy/Comedy
My Chosen Format: Kindle
My Rating of Critical Failures V: 5 out of 5
Purchase: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Audible UK, Audible US

Review:

Previous reviews in the series … yes, I know, it’s strange that I went from book two to book five. I was re-reading the series and discovered that I owned book five and hadn’t read it yet. So got excited and jumped ahead. But I’ll be getting back to my re-reading soonish.

One thing that I love about this series is that its a solid self-published success story. Any time I see an indie author with a wildly popular series it makes me happy.

Critical Failures (Book 1)

Critical Failures (Book 2)

The Critical Failures series is certainly not for everybody. Its full to the brim with college humour, insults (literally every kind of insult you could imagine and various you couldn’t), dick jokes, crass behaviour and, if you’re the type of person that gets offended by any form of humour/language that is even the slightest bit unsavoury … then this one certainly isn’t for you.

It is, however, pure, unadulterated, mindless (yet clever as well) fun. As you can probably guess from the D20 on the cover, this is set in a D&D style world (magic dice sucked the players into the game and turned them into their characters.

This series features a hilarious cast of characters that seems to be added to more and more as the books progress, including a half orc that is so un-charismatic that he has no control over his bodily functions. A misunderstood sex offender that’s discovered Jesus and a rapey policeman that’s been turned into a female dwarf hellbent on humping anything that moves.

Following on from the events of book four, the characters split apart from the main group and, unknowingly, work by themselves to get to the same place as everyone else.

The underlying plot of trying to get their hands on the magical dice in order to transport them all home is ever-present and tantalisingly out of reach for our would be heroes.

I’ve seen a lot of reviews for this complaining that it ‘just stops’. Personally, I feel it stops at a point that sets the next book up wonderfully. Anyone who expected a complete finish needs to have the concept of an ongoing series explained to them.

There’s a lot of misery in the world right now so it was great to be able to crack open a book that would make me laugh out loud. That is something this series excels at. No other book/series has had me laughing half as much as this one.

I look forward to diving back into Robert Bevan’s world of stupid fun.