Not all books have to be a grand adventure, or a big dramatic showdown. Some are just small looks into an interesting concept. And that’s what Christmas Core is.

Having died while decorating his office for Christmas Elmer Robbins is expecting to head to the Pearly Gates. What he isn’t expecting is to end up in a Dungeon Core, with his wife, Mary, walled off from him in a different, unconscious part of the core. To reach her he must level up and become a dungeon. And so he sets out to do what he knows best. Decorate for the holidays.

The stakes are pretty low. Any adventurer who dies in his dungeon respawns at a nearby temple so there’s no moral quandaries over what happens to them. There’s mild amounts of threat to him but nothing outrageous. It’s mostly an excuse for the Christmas touchstones that we all know to be turned into killing machines.

It’s not very in depth, because it’s not very long at only 152 odd pages. It’s just a quick look at what a seasonal dungeon might look like. It’s not going to set the world ablaze but it’s a nice diversion for a few hours and was fun holiday reading.

However, I will give a quick warning. As much as I liked this book, I think it works best as a standalone and not part of a series. I’ve read the following two books at this point and my experience was that the concept begins to wear a little thin after the end of this one. Feel free to give it a look yourself but I personally would not recommend them.