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4.41 AVERAGE
4.41 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I found this a bit repetitive in places. It didn’t need to be as long as it was, and didn’t really live up to all the hype.
adventurous
dark
funny
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:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
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:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
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:
No
New achievement unlocked! Read this book!
Super imaginative premise - Earth is taken over and survivors are forced underground into a hunger games style (televised) competition, complete with narrators, studio audiences, and video-game-esque rules and prizes.
Super fun characters - especially Princess Donut, the protagonist's ex-girlfriend's cat.
I bet the audiobook is also amazing.
Super imaginative premise - Earth is taken over and survivors are forced underground into a hunger games style (televised) competition, complete with narrators, studio audiences, and video-game-esque rules and prizes.
Super fun characters - especially Princess Donut, the protagonist's ex-girlfriend's cat.
I bet the audiobook is also amazing.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a genre-defining adventure, the likes of which I've never read before. Following Carl and Donut in the dungeon was a DELIGHT. This book was my first dive into lit-RPG, and now I"m not sure I can ever read anything else in the genre. The setting is new and fun, with lots of twists and turns. The characters are memorable and hilarious, keeping you laughing and wondering what will happen next. The action never stops, and while I'm sure Carl and Donut would like a break, I never felt that it was too much or overwhelming as a reader. There was no predicting how a situation might end and the author kept me guessing until everything was resolved. It feels like there are a lot of threads here and I can't wait to see how he weaves them in future books. DCC is my new obsession, and I can easily see it becoming a classic. Thank you Mr. Dinniman! Can't wait to join Donut and Carl on the next level down.
Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley publishing for a copy of this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley publishing for a copy of this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
A hyped booktok book win!
For being such a described “boy book” this was fantastic.
I was in it from the jump. The appropriate tone was struck and if the writing is bad it could be aggravating, but this worked for me. There’s so much world building and exposition dumping but it works. I was laughing, on the verge of tears at some points and even though CLEARLY Carl survives (7 books so far) - there was still tension.
I loved the foreshadowing, the sociopolitical world, the different factions (the Old Age home crew better survive), whatever’s going on with Agatha.
I hope Mordecai survives! He seems chill. I want him to transcend or whatever the next stage for him is.
Some parts are downright sad. When Carl had to kill the first boss: The Hoarder - I was misty eyed.
I absolutely love the no shoes plotline. The thru fare of the AI having a foot fetish is so fun and the call backs/abilities gained are great.
They keep mentioning Carl’s dad and Bea, the ex-girlfriend. They gotta be in the game in future books right? The references didn’t seem like just part of the backstory.
I will be reading the next book - currently on hold at the library! Note - my library has the special editions, I never woulda picked up the original covers (cc BOY BOOK). Also - we got a Bonus Material from Rudy the goblin Shamanka that Princess Donut kinda did dirty that was so poignantly heartbreaking and actually moved the story forward. She wants revenge and I can’t wait to read about it.
“You humans are all the same. This is the seventh or eighth human-seeded world, and it’s always the same. You always want to know why. Why can’t you just accept your circumstances and move on? My people, the skyfowls, we generally lack much longer than you humans. you know why? Because we roll with it .”
“Technology beyond your understanding seems like magic. So as far as you’re concerned, in this place it is magic.”
“Wait, so this is a tv show? Like Survivor?”
“Oh, I loved that show. And as far as you’re concerned, yes, it’s a show like Survivor. But it’s more a Running Man situation than a Survivor one.”
‘I remembered the weird message I’d received before when I jumped on the goblin engineer. I thought it was just a throwaway joke, like most of the descriptions. But it seemed the AI – or whatever it was that controlled the game messages – really did have some sort of foot fetish. It was fucking weird.’
‘I hadn’t slept that long without waking in at least five years. It took the literal end of the world to finally give me a full nights rest.’
“But do you know what happens in a couple days?” I asked.
“The floor collapses,” she said. “Yes, but it is only you who dies when this happens. For us we go to sleep until the next dungeon opens. We will open our eyes, and it will be the same as it has been. Just another day. But one of these days, one of these days we shall wake up, and we will be deeper. That’s what they tell us. Kill the crawlers, get better at killing, and you will get to go deeper. And one day, eventually, we will be so deep the crawlers will never come, And we will finally have peace. We will have peace and a place to live and breed and have our little ones run free and not worry about killing for survival.”
“Did that just happened? Did he really just start a meth war between the goblet and the llamas?”
‘We’d gone below 1 million, and I hadn’t noticed. For every person that ticked away, I felt I was losing a part of myself, a part of my humanity. I thought of what Donut had said before we’d fall asleep, and of the unspoken question she had asked end of the answer I had given her.
Bonus:
“Rory,” the goblin Shamanka whispered to herself. “Rory.” That was her name. Her name. She never had a name before. The idea of having one had never occurred to her. It was hers. Nobody could take it away. Nobody could steal it not ever no matter what they did.’
For being such a described “boy book” this was fantastic.
I was in it from the jump. The appropriate tone was struck and if the writing is bad it could be aggravating, but this worked for me. There’s so much world building and exposition dumping but it works. I was laughing, on the verge of tears at some points and even though CLEARLY Carl survives (7 books so far) - there was still tension.
I loved the foreshadowing, the sociopolitical world, the different factions (the Old Age home crew better survive), whatever’s going on with Agatha.
I hope Mordecai survives! He seems chill. I want him to transcend or whatever the next stage for him is.
Some parts are downright sad. When Carl had to kill the first boss: The Hoarder - I was misty eyed.
I absolutely love the no shoes plotline. The thru fare of the AI having a foot fetish is so fun and the call backs/abilities gained are great.
They keep mentioning Carl’s dad and Bea, the ex-girlfriend. They gotta be in the game in future books right? The references didn’t seem like just part of the backstory.
I will be reading the next book - currently on hold at the library! Note - my library has the special editions, I never woulda picked up the original covers (cc BOY BOOK). Also - we got a Bonus Material from Rudy the goblin Shamanka that Princess Donut kinda did dirty that was so poignantly heartbreaking and actually moved the story forward. She wants revenge and I can’t wait to read about it.
“You humans are all the same. This is the seventh or eighth human-seeded world, and it’s always the same. You always want to know why. Why can’t you just accept your circumstances and move on? My people, the skyfowls, we generally lack much longer than you humans. you know why? Because we roll with it .”
“Technology beyond your understanding seems like magic. So as far as you’re concerned, in this place it is magic.”
“Wait, so this is a tv show? Like Survivor?”
“Oh, I loved that show. And as far as you’re concerned, yes, it’s a show like Survivor. But it’s more a Running Man situation than a Survivor one.”
‘I remembered the weird message I’d received before when I jumped on the goblin engineer. I thought it was just a throwaway joke, like most of the descriptions. But it seemed the AI – or whatever it was that controlled the game messages – really did have some sort of foot fetish. It was fucking weird.’
‘I hadn’t slept that long without waking in at least five years. It took the literal end of the world to finally give me a full nights rest.’
“But do you know what happens in a couple days?” I asked.
“The floor collapses,” she said. “Yes, but it is only you who dies when this happens. For us we go to sleep until the next dungeon opens. We will open our eyes, and it will be the same as it has been. Just another day. But one of these days, one of these days we shall wake up, and we will be deeper. That’s what they tell us. Kill the crawlers, get better at killing, and you will get to go deeper. And one day, eventually, we will be so deep the crawlers will never come, And we will finally have peace. We will have peace and a place to live and breed and have our little ones run free and not worry about killing for survival.”
“Did that just happened? Did he really just start a meth war between the goblet and the llamas?”
‘We’d gone below 1 million, and I hadn’t noticed. For every person that ticked away, I felt I was losing a part of myself, a part of my humanity. I thought of what Donut had said before we’d fall asleep, and of the unspoken question she had asked end of the answer I had given her.
Bonus:
“Rory,” the goblin Shamanka whispered to herself. “Rory.” That was her name. Her name. She never had a name before. The idea of having one had never occurred to her. It was hers. Nobody could take it away. Nobody could steal it not ever no matter what they did.’
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
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
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
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:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I’m such a fucking nerd because I am genuinely very excited to get into the politics and imperialism and capitalism all of it.
It’s a good balance of grim and still taking the moments to focus on humanity and humour. I was not as hooked as some people are but I think if I were listening to the audiobook I would have gobbled it down.
On to the second!
It’s a good balance of grim and still taking the moments to focus on humanity and humour. I was not as hooked as some people are but I think if I were listening to the audiobook I would have gobbled it down.
On to the second!