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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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Body horror, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Dementia, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, and Infidelity
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.
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.
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!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Cursing
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Murder
Minor: Suicide, Sexual content, Child death, and Gun 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
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
pacifist's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Murder, and Death
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Gore, Murder, and Violence
greystory's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I went into this expecting more humor than I got, I think, and that's not anyone's fault but mine. I went into this pretty blind and having never read any LitRPG before.
I hadn't anticipated how much the reader is reminded of just how shitty the circumstances are in this wild scenario. Our dungeon crawler Carl and therefore us as the reader are constantly reminded of how many lives have been lost as a direct result of this dungeon creation and people being forced to fight in the dungeon.
Between running into fellow dungeon crawlers and the publicly broadcasted show about the dungeon, Carl is faced with not only the horrors of the dungeon himself but how it's impacting others in the dungeon. Carl is arguably faced with some of the best and worst of humanity. I'm already dreading the day we hear about the loss of another dungeon crawler that's been featured prominently in the show but Carl has never met.
That doesn't even begin to unravel the additional layers of dystopia in this fucked up world, from the political power plays of the alien overlords running the dungeons to meeting and learning the mobs Carl is fighting in the dungeon have families and hopes and dreams. It's all pretty fucked up and while Carl gets time to rest, there isn't really time to process trauma - only survive.
There ARE humor bits threaded in that help to keep the story a bit more on the lighter side than it would be otherwise. Princess Donut's entire character feels purposeful in keeping things tempered.
Where I have some residual concerns is how some of the dungeon humor is intended. It's not always clear to me if some of the things said by the dungeon announcer, mobs, some other characters, are intended to be funny to the reader or not. Some times it's made clear Carl doesn't find it funny. Sometimes it's very clear that the dungeon or people observing the dungeon from the outside are enjoying something that is, in fact, really fucked up and not funny at all, but other times it's not clear and that's where I'm squinting and giving hella side eye.
I hadn't anticipated how much the reader is reminded of just how shitty the circumstances are in this wild scenario. Our dungeon crawler Carl and therefore us as the reader are constantly reminded of how many lives have been lost as a direct result of this dungeon creation and people being forced to fight in the dungeon.
Between running into fellow dungeon crawlers and the publicly broadcasted show about the dungeon, Carl is faced with not only the horrors of the dungeon himself but how it's impacting others in the dungeon. Carl is arguably faced with some of the best and worst of humanity. I'm already dreading the day we hear about the loss of another dungeon crawler that's been featured prominently in the show but Carl has never met.
That doesn't even begin to unravel the additional layers of dystopia in this fucked up world, from the political power plays of the alien overlords running the dungeons to meeting and learning the mobs Carl is fighting in the dungeon have families and hopes and dreams. It's all pretty fucked up and while Carl gets time to rest, there isn't really time to process trauma - only survive.
There ARE humor bits threaded in that help to keep the story a bit more on the lighter side than it would be otherwise. Princess Donut's entire character feels purposeful in keeping things tempered.
Where I have some residual concerns is how some of the dungeon humor is intended. It's not always clear to me if some of the things said by the dungeon announcer, mobs, some other characters, are intended to be funny to the reader or not. Some times it's made clear Carl doesn't find it funny. Sometimes it's very clear that the dungeon or people observing the dungeon from the outside are enjoying something that is, in fact, really fucked up and not funny at all, but other times it's not clear and that's where I'm squinting and giving hella side eye.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Gore, Death, Child death, and Child abuse
Moderate: Animal death and Blood
Minor: Bullying and Abandonment
toris_stories1's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
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? No
5.0
This was my first LitRPG, but I really enjoyed it. I also laughed out loud so many times while reading! Highly recommend!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Cursing
Moderate: Murder and Sexual content
bonniejo514's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Violence, Death, and Murder
nick13's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-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
That was an absolute blast to read! Donut and Carl are a great combo, I just couldn't put it down.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Death, Murder, Suicide, Abandonment, Child death, and Child abuse