I’m not going to lie. I bought this book because it was a Dungeon Core and because my name is Alex. Yes, I am that shallow.

That aside I had a really good time reading this. Usually Dungeon Core books are about the sentient dungeons growing and creating lots of puzzles and traps, finding or creating the right monsters to properly test adventurers. Meet the Alexes subverts that. The Dungeon in question is more interested in staying alive and with as much freedom as possible. As such it focuses on making people like it, creating an inn full of food, beer and comely staff. And once it has that under control it opens its doors to the world.

This is interesting because it really places the dungeon as a political entity. While there’s always some of that in dungeon core books this really does put the issue of who controls the dungeon and how said dungeon is an asset front and centre in the narrative. And what’s most interesting is that it’s a story often told by the other characters, each with their own motivation for hoping that the dungeon prospers and each getting something else out of it.

Because of this the novel leans pretty heavily on the world it creates and the characters. Luckily both are there to support it. The world is nice and detailed, with well thought out political systems and places. The characters are just as detailed, each having several different layers to them and each acting realistically. I especially liked how we were still getting relevant background to some of them up until the last chapter, and presented in natural ways as well.

There are a few small niggles. Information is presented multiple times, leaving the author repeating himself from time to time. There was also a major plot twist that I didn’t see coming, because I thought they’d told us about it in the first few chapters already. As I said though those are only small complaints. The only really sour note I can think of is the way the book described one character. They made a big deal out of how she was unattractive and ugly and I’m not really sure why. There wasn’t any resolution where she learned that she was attractive on the inside or where someone else fell in love with her or anything. Even the incubi were avoiding her. It wasn’t a plot point with a resolution, it was just brought up every so often and, again, it didn’t really add anything. I can’t work out why it was included. That minor complaint aside I really enjoyed this book. It was a fun jaunt through the world, expressed in a lot of interesting ways.