Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon

By: Matt Dinniman

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

Length: 20 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

A private server. A digital playground. An alliance of the world's most sadistic, most depraved minds. A place to bring their prey, to hone their skills.

Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon. Survival horror. One of the most brutal, most terrifying full-immersion games ever made. A place where fantasy characters such as elves and dwarves clash with technology, where giant monsters roam the hills, entrusted with protecting the gates of heaven from the demons who would tear it all down.

A game where one plays the last of the battlefield surgeons: a healer tasked with keeping the behemoths alive at all costs.

But on this server, they don't care about the game. That's not why they're here. They've come because of the game's most unique feature: full pain. Realistic anatomy. The ability to bring their victims well beyond the body's normal breaking point. And most importantly, the ability to bring them back and do it all over again.

Trapped in a bloody, merciless nightmare, Duke only has one goal: to survive. And in order to survive, he must play the game. He must win the game. And to do that, he must become the most cruel, most ruthless monster of them all.

©2019 Matt Dinniman (P)2020 Tantor

really gorey gross goodness

I recommend it if you can handle heavy gore.
the in game mechanics are super interesting and the story, in between description of very gross torture and otherwise disturbing content, is quite thrilling with good twist in turns as the main character gets more corrupt

amazing book, I loved it! not for everyone tbh

definitely not for everyone but if you aren't squeamish or prudish it should be fun . I honestly hope someone does a graphic novel or animated mini series.

One of the very few books that has me torn..

Dungeon Crawler Carl brought me here. Most of the reviews I read prior to purchasing said something along the lines of gory or gross. While there are some anatomy elements, I didn't find anything particularly gory or gross. I haven't come across another story with the premise of the MC's character abilities, so that was refreshingly original for me. I have several issues with the book that I didn't enjoy. There are a couple very long stretches of the story that took much more effort to write than adding any actual substance to the story as a whole or any points to the plotline. I came close to quitting the book at one such section after listening to the "filler" for over an hour. The other big issue I had was the constant negative elements of the story. At nearly every branch of the story if there is a possible negative outcome, that's the direction we take. I understand building tension and adversity in storytelling, but experiencing an 80% negative adventure isn't enjoyable to the reader or listener. Taking the journey through this book becomes a slog. There are some decent twists in the story, a couple are heavily foreshadowed. There is moderate resolution at the conclusion, and of course it ends on an extremely negative note, keeping consistent to that theme.

Much darker than expected

Here is a detailed exploration into many forms of brokenness, loss and madness. I've got an especially high tolerance into emotional pain and hardship and there were times even my instinct was to pull away from going through with the characters. It's well written with one goal being to disturb you at your deepest foundations.

Quite good book

First: The book is *not* as gorey and scary as some other reviews claim. It’s pretty nice actually.

The story is written in a quite dull way, not much scenery, not much character development, a lot of pointless fillers that doesn’t lead anywhere… but, the core components of the story is so clever and thought through that it, together with a great ending, makes it worth a listen. Its not fantastic, but ”ok” when you put bad and good together. The voice actor is fantastic, Joe makes it stand out.

Wow

Ok ima be honest and say this is most insidious, crazy, descriptive, gore-based book I’ve ever read in my life. I’m almost at a complete loss for words but I would read it again. I don’t know what that makes me but it’s like watching a train wreck and not looking away.

Holy good God this is darker than Joe Abercrombie

I really can't believe how dark this book got. I mean damn. If you're a gorror fan, this shit is right up your alley. It's kinda like if you took the spirit of 1984s' mind and body torture and shoved it into a videogame but with real world consequences. I really wanna cuss a lot to describe this book. Lots of Holies followed by profanities.

Pain, despair, and more pain!!!

This is not a story for most people. If you have a tight stomach, moral high ground, or are squeamish in any way stay away! This is a story of pain in all of its facets, with a virtual reality story about healing giant monsters to fight demons and angels as a background setting.This shouldn't of been called battlefield surgeon, but a guide to sadomasochism. If you're here because of the dungeon crawler Carl series, try his other works before coming this way. This is a super disturbing tale about loss, pain, and the worst people one could ever have the displeasure of encountering in any circumstance. I was not a big fan of this, and the message one would pull from this is a bit distressing and melancholic.

My first horror novel

Well, it wasn't for me. I usually don't read horror books but I was in desperate need of a new book and I've read some of his other ones. I didn't like the way parts of it made me feel, but I still needed to know what happens. In the LitRPG books I've read, the protagonist never really has to make bad or questionable moral decisions, something always works out. In this one, harsh reality and bad situations rein true. Now I know that's part of what I'm trying to escape.

Not what I expected, but good.

I picked this one up after burning through the entire Dungeon Crawler Carl catalog in a week and salivating for more. This is not that, BUT it is a good book. The messed up stuff that happens in this one is played a lot straighter which give it more weight. There are parts in this book where I actually cringed listening to it (you'll know which part the second it starts) but I couldn't put it down. I needed to know how it ended. If you are expecting a light-hearted and humorous LitRPG like Crawler Carl then you will be disappointed. Don't buy this book because you want more of that one. Get it because you want to read a gritty, often heartbreaking story that happens to take place in a game.