Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

27 reviews

erebus53's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Gun violence, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Vomit, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Incest and Cannibalism

sonygaystation's review

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.75

This book is lots of fun! It started out trending a little “Masculine Author”, y’know the kind… but it was a brief blip in an otherwise very amusing book. I loved the potshots taken at popular gamer culture, especially as someone who is Terminally Online™️ and into D&D, MTG, video games, etc 🫡 I would rate this higher if it was a little less formulaic and repetitive, and used the word “plummeted” less. But none of those things detract from my enjoyment of the book at all! They’re just things that keep me from rating it higher - but I can’t wait to read the next one!! I just have to wait until it even appears at ALL on Libby let alone being able to put a hold on it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Cursing

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Suicide, Sexual content, Child death, and Gun violence

nopenoway0's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

mccarths's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

lonelylooper's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Genocide, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Child death, Dementia, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Fatphobia, Addiction, Cursing, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence

hannahelaine's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Gore, Body horror, Gun violence, Blood, Violence, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, and Cursing

Moderate: Racism and Sexual harassment

samikki's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Blood, and Death

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, Excrement, Cursing, and Adult/minor relationship

All content is in a game-like setting.

colter_hoen's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore and Violence

morallygraynesta's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I thought this was going to be closer to Dungeons and Daddies or The Adventure Zone in level of silliness. Although it’s still pretty goofy it does touch on darker subjects and has a depth I wasn’t expecting. My one big issue is with Carl, he’s supposed to be 27 but he feels like a 50+ self-insert character. I’ve been told this gets better as the series continues

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

mkmiles's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Gore, Murder, and Violence