OASIS CORE

This story is brought to you by the author of thieves dungeon, a great fic you should also check out! Blazing fast updates and amazing storytelling combine to bring you this amazing tale.

Definitely give it a try. There may be a few.tense based typos in newer chapters if that bothers you, but I believe that anyone should try at least the first 5 chapters

Oasis Core isn't your typical dungeon core story, and that's a good thing. I didn't go into it with any expectations one way or another, but found myself solidly impressed.

I'll start with the setting, because it's probably the first thing you'll notice. Oasis Core absolutely excels here, with some of the most evocative, visual imagery I've come across in a novel. The world drips with exotic flora, fauna and points of interest, even in the aftermath of an apocalypse. In fact, for what at first appears to be a lifeless desert, it becomes gradually clear the world is absolutely teeming with unexpected surprises, forgotten history and hidden secrets. And it doesn't let up.

The standard genre trappings of, well, traps - as well as survival and gauntlet-running - are less prominent here. Rather, the emphasis leans more towards the core's responsibiliy to heal a dessicated world and the broken individuals within it.

And what individuals! Oasis Core does an absolutely stunning job with its characters - so much so that certain chapters had me in tears. Being created to heal and repair, the core is an inherently gentle (if not especially humble) soul, and chooses to solve problems first with kindness and compassion, struggling with the harsher methods presented at its fingertips and the temptations they present. This makes it an incredibly likeable main character in my book.

The supporting cast is just as good. Shine-Catch the goblin is my absolute favourite, with her foul-mouthed, uncouth mannerisms, heart of gol - well, let's call it pyrite - and sheer unselfconscious charm. Lunar Eye also gets a special mention from me for sheer clever efficiency. I won't spoil the others but they all have their endearing qualities very much in keeping with the story's themes of healing and finding the best in people.

And I need to mention those themes, because they make up the heart of the story. While progression is a, ahem, core mechanic, Oasis Core isn't a story about cold pursuit of power. Everything about it - from its visually vibrant cornucopias, to re-establishing trust among people who have forgotten how, to the sheer reasonableness of its characters, to the main goals of the plot - all speak to a journey of healing. Just like its title, this story is an oasis of optimism among fantasy's sometimes brutal pessimistic desert. Not that this means things are any easier on the characters - this is an apocalypse, after all.

Oasis Core's last stand-out is its inventiveness. I love this in a story. And this was an interesting one, because it doesn't present in the overall plot. If anything, the overarching plot is the one area where this story fell down a bit for me; at times it lost momentum towards its goals, especially after the first arc. It took a bit of getting used to.

However, the inventiveness shines through in the individual scenes and small details. This world is teeming with them. Each monster, each character and each discovery is liable to lead to unique treatments. The ancestral drums of a goblin tribe; the intricate plans of a dead god; the rules that govern various magics, monsters and beings both natural and supernatural. The ability to look at the standard way an archetypal scene would play out and simply... do something different. I appreciate that.

Lastly, grammar - other reviews have mentioned there are many errors and I agree. However, they're the kind of typos you see from writers who know what they're doing. Stylistically, it's pretty clear to me they aren't indicative of a larger problem so much as that the story just needs a proofread. At no point did I find it difficult to read or that the mistakes changed my understanding of a sentence.

There you have it - Oasis Core is well worth your time. It's easily the best dungeon core story I've read to date. Read it when you're feeling lost and need something to restore a little bit of hope, and maybe it will extend a touch of its healing.

This story gets updated maybe too frequently to get edited and adjusted to how fickle RR readers can be sometimes. But its great dungeon core, excellent angle on ecology of a dungeon that isn't about killing invaders etc. A lot of deus ex machina BUT that is literally part of the plot and it helps as much as hurts said core. Quite literally. I say well done, very worth a read, and the author isn't wasting their time or yours. Find your own faults, im just asking you to read it long enough to find them. I'm happy.

Honestly this is alright but the reason for 5 stars is this. I would get you sued for attempted murder if I wasn't already dead.

The stone’s first thoughts were vague and sleepy. It had just come into existence, and that was a very tiresome thing to do.

Just… A few… More minutes…

I'm dying. really.

Our good friend is at it again. for those who missed the thieves dungeon this while not being directly connected in time is definitely in myth.

Good deep characters, plot that is both epic in scope and deep in complexity. 

The dungeon here is driven to build for there survival. For the survival of the world and that of others to come. 

Mysterys of the world that popped up during the thieves dungeon find them selves in song froming here. 

Follow a dungeon core as it seeks to save the known universe. Though it also just wants to keep it's friends alive. Well that and turn the desert green.

The story is rushed, full of grammar mistakes and terrible spelling. Also it's not finished, just stops suddenly. The general story is OK but goes of to weird places and doesn't explain much. There is a vague sense of tention building but it splutters about and fades. Thieves Dungeon was about the same. Half a story and never finished. The Author rushed threw the first 20 + chapters without really knowing where the story was even going. I don't know why but it really needs to be rewritten to make more sence. Also an ending would be great. I actually enjoyed reading it most of the time, it's just disappointing knowing that with some effort and a slower pace it would of been amazing.

This story is good. And I can not stress that enough. The author makes good on their experience when they wrote Thieves Dungeon. They wrote that by the way.

 The story follows a Dungeon Core made by who knows what. My theory being a cosmic space duck. On a mission to restore a world some random god leveled into a desert. The grammar is great, I can't find any typo's or anything else. So it beats out hundreds of stories all ready.

 If you liked the lonely Dungeon as well than this story is probably for you. As it has a similar world, though not one consumed by an unending hellscape of illegal magic.

 All in all. I liked this book and hope you will too.

Fun dungeon core story from an excellent author. 

Unlike most dungeon core stories, this one has a built in tension...a countdown that drives the narrative. Mostly. 

Unlike the authors other great dungeon core story (Thieves core) this one is not a murder hobo. 

Great world building. Much time has been spent on it. The world more a mood as a lore dump...a world in decline. P

This story had an interesting premise: A oasis dungeon core.  Now, I have not read Thieves' Dungeon, but I've heard good things, and so was hopeful coming into this. Those hopes stumbled into the main pool and couldn't get out. 

Style: Echoing other reviews, it's very well done and refined.  

Story: This is a real mixed bag.  On the other hand, the premise of an oasis dungeon (specifically an open-air dungeon) is great. And the several chapters we spent on building are lovely. The mystery of the dead world is also a wonderful itch for our protagonist to scratch. 

Most of this gets dumped and we head off into a different direction entirely.  The dungeon-building is dialed down significantly (though not eliminated), with a greater focus on creating critters. But, for various reasons, the protagonist acts less like a dungeon and more like a genius loci, i.e., a protective spirit of a place. And then, most of the mystery of the history gets stripped away by exposition.  Yes there are details to fill in, but all the essentials are already known. 

As a closing point, as the author himself noted, he appears to have eight different magic systems in the universe. Moreover, he's not piggybacking off of common magical systems, but instead appears largely to be working bespoke. That doesn't strike me as clever or imaginative; that strikes me as asinine.

Grammar: Excellent.

Character: The protagonist, antagonist, and the goddesses are all great.  Everyone else is meh.  

The animals are wholly unsatisfying as characters because, well, they're animals. And this extends to the lemurs as well, even though our original lemur appears to (at the very end of his own mini-arc, which was not great) seems to gain sapience. Maybe?  

The goblins, including Shiny, are weird.  First, as a worldbuilding matter, I find the goblins as a species very non-distinctive; i.e., if you replaced every "goblin" with "human" or "halfling," I'm not sure I'd be able to pick out enough inconsistencies to start to question it.  If anything, they are so human, that making them other than goblin might improve their impression. Second, I don't like Shiny.  First impressions are good and all, but then it quickly becomes that she has little talent, is a poor learner and so has little skill, but has insane luck.  Not someone I want to root for. 

Finally, because of the above, neither of the mini-arcs with Shiny or the lemur grabbed my attention, and I ended up skimming the latter. The author acknowledged receiving a lot of flak in another work about doing this too much. I've not read that other work, but here, it's not about doing it too much; it's that the characters are uninteresting. 

This is fun story to read. Excellent characterization, each character has their own distinct personalities,even the non sentient ones, and grammar is excellent with with little mistakes. A well designed system that is easier to understand and follow.and world building is marvelous with great mythology thus far shown.  I would recommend this to any dungeon core readers. And looking for to the progression of the story