Reviews with content warning for Gore - Dungeon Crawler Carl

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

20 reviews

jes7037's review

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I loved every second of this book. It made me laugh out loud so many times with its dark, absurd, satirical humor. My favorite bits were when the AI gave info about items and achievements, including the most ridiculous over-the-top pop culture references, memes, and jokes.
Princess Donut is clearly the best character, but Carl is also great and pretty relatable. I'm looking forward to seeing more Mongo in the next book, especially when he starts to get bigger.
The voice acting was also really good, and they conveyed Carl's exasperation (usually with Donut) just perfectly.
I can't wait to continue the series.

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erebus53's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

With this book you get exactly what's on the box.
We meet our main character on a child winter night wearing pink crocs, boxes to s, no shirt and a leather jacket and carrying a squirming prize winning tortoiseshell Persian cat.
His inventory is, half a packet of cigarettes.

This is not your typical dungeon crawl. Not your typical setup. The basis of the story is similar to Running Man meets Hunger Games, in a high-fantasy (plus bombs and guns) rogue-like dungeon crawl, with elements that feel similar to Douglas Adams, and somewhat similar to Diabolo.. kinda. The target audience is pretty clear, it's self-critical of the genre, it's ultra-violent, and has some ridiculous humour, off colour sexual content, and also peppered with some sober deathdealing brutality and remorse.

The audiobook is beautifully produced with one narrator doing a lot of different voices. Dialogue in tunnels has a touch of echo on it, calling over long distances is less loud, robotic AI tooltips or other-being voices have effects on them. The effect is really immersive and very well pulled off.

The story is a lot of fun, and this is only book one.

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nopenoway0's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

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lonelylooper's review

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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bobbobson088's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This book was a lot of fun, especially in audiobook format. It's well produced and the narrator, Jeff Hays, has some serious vocal range.

The humour can be a bit juvenile at times, and there's some rather gratuitous descriptions of various...anatomies. But overall it goes by quick and doesn't detract from the story too much.

Looking forward to reading more in the series!

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hannahelaine's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny inspiring lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Fun! Devastating! Well-rounded and loveable characters! The horror of corporations and becoming naught but a tool in its machine! Keeping your humanity and kindness in impossible situations! The horrific loss of life for both the “good guys” and the “monsters” they must kill to survive, and the morality of it all! Funny and clever! I loved it!

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samikki's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Dungeon Crawler Carl is first-person pop-culture-referencing easygoing light adventure in the style of Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, Dennis E. Taylor's Bobiverse or books from John Scalzi or Andy Weir. It's a first LitRPG book I've read - perhaps not that extreme but a fun introduction to genre anyway. LitRPGs are a bit like games that you read, containing statistics, skill levels and scores for the main characters. I was a bit sceptical about the genre but it ended up being good entertainment.

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