Reviews - KAIJU: BATTLEFIELD SURGEON: Un'avventura LitRPG

207 reviews for:

KAIJU: BATTLEFIELD SURGEON: Un'avventura LitRPG

Matt Dinniman

3.74 AVERAGE

andrew_matteson's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon (KBS) by Matt Dinniman features a kidnapped artist, forced to play a gruesome, immersive VR game in order to survive. Blending elements of Extreme Horror and Psychological Horror within a LitRPG framework, it tries to be many things, but fails to stick the landing on any of them.

The much discussed, “Chapter 24”, is one of the most gruesome things I’ve read outside of books specifically in the Extreme Horror genre. My issue is not the gore, I’ve enjoyed gore, torture, and trauma in other books. Rather, the chapter creates an unevenness in the larger narrative. Our main character stumbles into a torture scenario with a “whoops, now I’m in it” lack of build up, then moves on with little serious reflection. The speed at which the book jumps back onto the RPG grind/treadmill undermines the potential emotional arc coming out of the experience of torture.

The lack-of-arc critique is not unique to this one moment. The donkey milk, the surgeries, the flashbacks, and even the final reveal all arrive abruptly and resolve just as quickly. They register more as video game cut-scenes, that Dinniman explicitly references throughout the book, rather than moments driving emotional challenge or growth.

I came to KBS after binging the first several books of Dungeon Crawler Carl. There’s a significant contrast between the two, both in tone, but also in Dinniman’s choices to maintain an emotional arc within DCC. While dark (and getting darker as the series goes on), DCC doesn’t make an effort to deal out peak trauma moments every couple of chapters. Carl grows and we get a gradually deepening sense of the horror he experiences.

I wouldn’t generally recommend KBS, especially to fans of DCC. Its extreme horror moments may repel some readers, but for me, they failed to land for lack of build up and resolution. Ultimately, the “cut-scene” like tone of the book’s traumatic moments undermine any lasting impact the narrative had the potential to deliver.

Content Warnings

mayastone's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 4%

This one is on me. I want to pace myself with DCC so I picked this up without reading the summery. This is not for me, at all. I am so scared for Duke. I enjoyed the writing but the content is something I cannot consume. A brief look at reviews and I think this is the right decision. Moral of the story - always read the synopsis.

melodyloves2read's review against another edition

3.5

dark

ericb4257's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

joosep's review against another edition

4.0

It's an excellent story when you like bio-horror and fun 'against the odds' sci-fi action. The latter part made the horror seem darker and more unexpected when there's another grim plot point. But it was mostly a lot of fun, even if humor tended to be more in the dark side. At the end of the 'Heaven section', I even burst out (pun intended) laughing.