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Robert Bevan

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Critical Failures (Caverns and Creatures Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Robert Bevan (Author), Joan Reginaldo (Editor) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 3,894 ratings

Book 1 of 9: Caverns and Creatures

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What if you and your friends got to live the game for real? What if you and your friends were assholes? After relentlessly mocking their strange new Game Master, Tim and his friends find themselves trapped in the bodies of their fantasy game characters, in a world where the swords, the magic, and the gastrointestinal issues are all too real. They learn hard lessons about tolerance and teamwork, and a new meaning for the term “dump stat”. Ha ha. Just kidding. They don't learn shit. Never before have comedy and fantasy come together so much like a train wreck, in which each train was carrying a shipment of burning dumpsters. You just can't help but continue to stare. Don't be the last of your circle of nerds to read this book. Shake the Dorito crumbs out of your neck beard, grab your large sack, and prepare to enter the world of Caverns & Creatures. Get it NOW!

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0088XPHOK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Robert Bevan (June 5, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 5, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2295 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 284 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #61,910 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #50 in Comedy (Books)
- #144 in Arts & Photography (Kindle Store)
- #179 in Performing Arts (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 3,894 ratings

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Robert Bevan

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Robert Bevan took his first steps in comedy with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and his first steps in fantasy with Dungeons & Dragons. Over the years, these two loves mingled, festered, and congealed into the ever expanding Caverns & Creatures series of comedy/fantasy novels and short stories.

Robert is a writer, blogger, and a player on the Authors & Dragons podcast. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, two kids, and his dog, Speck.

Find him online at http://www.caverns-and-creatures.com

Or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/robertbevanbooks

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4.3 out of 5

3,894 global ratings

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Uff Da

Excellent read !!

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2024

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Has to be one of the more entertaining books I've read in a long time. There's action, comedy and a good story line. If you are in to D @ D you will enjoy this book. I can't wait to read the next one in the series!

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2024

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The humor is a bit crude, but it was a fun adventure. I'm not really sure if I liked any of the characters, but I did like the idea behind the plot.

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Melissa AKA LoneCreatureTM

Entertaining, funny and well crafted

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2014

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There is no failure here.

Thank you, Robert for an entertaining and funny read.

The cussing, while lots of it and coarse, was in context, and jokes pretty realistic and fit the story's theme.

The plot was good (mainly situated in the prison and the meet point in the forest), dialogue spot on, and pace was excellent. Characters were developed through dialogue mostly and by interaction with other characters (this was remarkably crafted) and some drop comments made. I loved that the author allowed these things to happen naturally, he didn't just have a big drop point for facts and figures but let those unfold along the way. What I loved the best was how he was able to use the characters to 'teach' about the game, if newbies, without coming off preachy about it.

The other thing I valued about the characters was the connection they all had. They fought amongst themselves but when the going got tough, they banded together. And, the characters make mistakes, argue or fought it out, and then forgave and moved on.

Aside from being a great read, I really recommend this book to other writers because there is an interesting component that Robert uses that is easy to forget — a good antagonist, or restrictions. In Robert's book he uses both. There is an antagonist who has all the power by throwing the characters into a 'world', and the characters are restricted in the things they can do as a result of the game. This adds real interest and tension into the story. I imagine this will develop as the story continues. Robert, of course, also uses it to twist into comedy and brings out the 'quirk'.

The ending was cleverly written and plotted. Poor Tim! And that's all I'll say on that.

Have bought book 2 and can't wait to read it.

4 people found this helpful

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Jeremy Dinsmore

Juvenile humour, good for some cheap laughs.

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2023

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Pretty base humour overall. I won't lie, I was taken aback by some use of the F-slur in the book. However, I also feel like this was a somewhat more realistic take on how an average gaming group might behave if they were put in the position this team was. are they r/rpghorrorstories material? Sure. But I've seen good and bad gaming groups both online and IRL, and these characters felt... maybe a little Flanderized and one-note, but uncomfortably close to real, regardless.
I got some laughs. Crass humour isn't bad, when it's executed correctly. With an equal number of hits and misses, I figure this book rates a 3/5. It's not a bad book, it's not an instant literary classic; it simply is OK. The ending was too abrupt, but the protagonists appeared to be getting their feet under them -- if not actually growing as people -- by the end of the book.
If you have a thick skin and aren't bothered by liberal use of profanity and descriptions of bodily fluids and gore, this book and its sequels may scratch an itch for you.

One person found this helpful

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Jonathan

A nice start

Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2024

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For fans of D&D and isekais, this book brings about fun adventures and immature comedy that most would love. Save for some punctuation errors, this was a fun read.

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Max Isaacson

Great laughs, great times.

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2017

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A great book for those into fantasy and an excellent book for the Tabletop role-players out there. The characters are hilarious and easy to relate to in how they tackle the quests and problems thrown at them in the "Game" world of Caverns and Creatures. At first, I admit, when the book started and all you had was the initial dialogue from the main characters, the immature and insulting remarks almost made the book seem like it would be that way in its entirety but I was quickly corrected as I kept reading when Robert really began to paint pictures with his words to describe the scenes from the typical grubby food joint in the modern world to the massive city of Cardinia inside the Caverns and Creatures game. The four main characters really grew on me quickly as well due to how they remind me of myself and my friends. I also loved the way Robert Bevan mixed fantasy and modern cultures with how the NPC's (Non Player Characters) in the game actually believe their world is real and the fools talking about Hit Points and Ability Scores are completely out of their minds. The first book seemed to end rather abruptly and in a way I didn't expect but by the time I read the ending, I was eager to see what happened next and immediately bought the next book in the series and I wasn't disappointed at all. For those new to fantasy books and for those familiar with the genre, I highly recommend Critical Failures as well as the the d6 Caverns and Creatures short stories.

3 people found this helpful

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Matheus Azevedo Barbosa

Real RPG experience

Reviewed in Brazil on May 4, 2018

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Bought it by accident (I was new on kindle), but did not regret a bit. I Just need to say that I saw me and my friends playing an RPG while I was reading the book. It really gets the feeling of a bunch of idiots trying to do something epic with Benny Hill on the background.

One person found this helpful

Firestarter

Quick read, fun book.

Reviewed in Germany on January 2, 2019

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If you have basic knowledge of how rpgs work, you will have fun reading this. I was laughing out loud several times. I have to warn you, the end of the book is a little bit disappointing. For me it can't really be considered a real ending of a book, think of it more as a start of a series of books than a story on it's own. It cleverly ends the book where you are so engaged that you have to buy the next one.

Natsu

Non avevo grandi aspettative, ma mi ha sorpreso

Reviewed in Italy on August 31, 2019

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Cercavo un libro che trattasse una bella storia basata sulle meccaniche dei giochi di ruolo cartacei e le aspettative che avevo sono state superate alla grande.

I punti di forza dell'opera secondo me sono 2 :

1) Storia poco convenzionale ai classici del genere Fantasy . I protagonisti non sono eroi che devono salvare il mondo e si renderanno ben presto conto che vivere realmente un'avventura fantasy non è cosí semplice come si possa pensare. E che anche le piú semplici questioni di vita quotidiana possono rivelarsi piú complicate del previsto ;

2) Le meccaniche di gioco sono fedeli e spesso citate e soprattutto risultano poco pesanti anche per il lettore piú inesperto, grazie alla narrazione semplice e senza troppi giri di parole

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Roger McIntosh

Good fun read

Reviewed in Australia on July 23, 2021

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Fun read
Good pace, the jokes were good, and good characters to follow, looking forward to reading more of them

Andrew Lawston

Stupidly fun

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 23, 2015

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If you were a kid in the '80s, you'll probably remember Dungeons & Dragons, wherein some wholesome American kids got sucked into an RPG world. You can soil your treasured memory of this classic animation in two ways.

1) You can rewatch Dungeons & Dragons. It's shamefully awful, and the cowardly Eric is the only remotely sensible character in it.
2) You can read Critical Failures by Robert Bevan.

Books where people get sucked into role-playing games and computer games are apparently a thing, which surprised me more than it ought to have done, really. And they tend to be a fairly comic thing, because the premise is inherently absurd so you might as well run with the comedy. With Critical Failures, Bevan takes this to new levels with a barrage of Mum jokes, swearing, copious foul-smelling bodily functions and general depravity. And that's *before* the party are magically transported into a carefully name-changed "Caverns & Creatures" realm by a narked "Cavern Master".

You can only get away with this level of filth if you are very, very funny. With so many gags in one book, Bevan could never hit them all out of the park, but the strike rate is impressive. This is a very funny book indeed. He also has fun with the absurdities of D&D (including speaking with a foreign accent to denote the use of a different language) - but this is all done with a dash of respect for the source material. I'm not a gamer myself, but I recognise someone poking a bit of fun at something he loves dearly.

There are currently three books in this series, and a host of short stories. I'm going straight on to book 2, and I'll see you on the other side.

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Critical Failures (Caverns and Creatures Book 1) Kindle Edition

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