Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.41 AVERAGE
4.41 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
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:
No
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
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:
Complicated
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
This feels like the kind of book that someone either loves or DNFs early - a quick look at the review scores bears that out. I would've been a DNF, save that it was recommended to me.
The book does have some aspects to recommend it. If the humor hits for you, it'll be funny (hit or mostly miss for me, and occasionally tilts into offensive in ways I very much didn't like). There are the threads of a good story in there, and in the second half the story starts to come into its own a little more. The characters are all very unique, and have a mostly consistent characterization while being pretty easy to root for. Consistent if expected themes - Dinniman knows what he wants the book to be About(I specifically like the way that Carl continues to try to draw a line between "crawlers" and "monsters", even as monsters come from earth some of the time, and even when not are as often victims of this system. It's a part of the book that doesn't stoop to Telling so much, letting you puzzle out what feels "right", and what you'd have done in Carl's place) .
That humor though... get ready for foot fetish jokes, a rag on "special needs", light racism, blowing up kids, and plenty of juvenile one-liners. I honestly couldn't tell if the joke was supposed to be taken as a joke, or the joke was that others would actually think it was funny sometimes.
Where it most fell down for me is in the mechanics of the "game" - the "worldbuilding" I guess. I'm a gamer, I'm a DM, I love many of the systems that this book uses. But those systems - your ability scores, your inventories, your skill trees, literal health bars - they work in games because they're abstractions of real abilities. In order to make the game work, they need a number. DCC takes these abstractions and then reifies them back in a way that didn't work for me. It couldn't seem to decide whether they were game mechanics or really reflective of a person.
For example, Donut has a high "charisma" score. This means that, asking effectively the same thing to a group of goblins, Carl takes aggro, while the goblins fawn over Donut. It's not reflected in a character's approach, it's treated like a game mechanic. In fact, how does one raise their charisma level? Killing monsters. Which somehow makes you more charismatic. And yet, these ability scores are also consistently described as actually pertaining to the person - higher intelligence making you smarter, higher strength literally making you stronger. It works for many readers, obviously, but it made scenes feel disjointed to me.
Becoming better or "leveling up" is also not a matter of skill, but of killing enough enemies to gain "experience points". Again, real experience and intelligence (figuring out the clues to a battle, coming up with clever ways to defeat enemies) is conflated with a sense of "experience points" consistently by folks doling out exposition, but within the story feel clearly delineated. Carl gets an intelligence of 3, though always seems to figure things out (perhaps it would fit this under his hidden "wisdom" score). Perhaps this disconnect is purposeful, meant to highlight something about the mindset that these intrinsic parts of ourselves can be "gamified", but it never felt that way.
There was also a very heavy focus on the systems of the game. The beginning is very exposition-heavy, which I get to some degree; it's setting up a much longer series and getting it out of the way early. We need to know how the mechanics (effectively "magic system") work. But it takes a while to get any momentum, and even longer when it feels the need to stop us to go through the contents of every "loot box" that the characters open. Those moments are never appealing, and luckily, as the book goes on, many of those aspects fall away.
The mechanics and story become more seamless, at least, though never totally. "Mentally clicking" on something to use it was never going to be my vibe. But the story starts glossing over "loot box" hauls and focusing on only the important gets, aspects of a broader story come into view, we don't have as much meaningless monster killing ("grinding") and focus more on actual story threads, it became much more readable. Future books probably are more readable, though I won't be continuing. Still, the latter part coming together bumped this review up a half a star. If you read a preview and vibe with the humor, and are looking for a long series, a large number of people obviously love this series.
I'll also give a shout-out to the audiobook narrator, Jeff Hays. His voice-work is incredible. I don't like audio-dramas, so it didn't improve my own experience, but the talent is undeniable and for those who like an audio-drama like vibe where someone voices each distinct character, this fit that bill. The Range.
The book does have some aspects to recommend it. If the humor hits for you, it'll be funny (hit or mostly miss for me, and occasionally tilts into offensive in ways I very much didn't like). There are the threads of a good story in there, and in the second half the story starts to come into its own a little more. The characters are all very unique, and have a mostly consistent characterization while being pretty easy to root for. Consistent if expected themes - Dinniman knows what he wants the book to be About
That humor though... get ready for foot fetish jokes, a rag on "special needs", light racism, blowing up kids, and plenty of juvenile one-liners. I honestly couldn't tell if the joke was supposed to be taken as a joke, or the joke was that others would actually think it was funny sometimes.
Where it most fell down for me is in the mechanics of the "game" - the "worldbuilding" I guess. I'm a gamer, I'm a DM, I love many of the systems that this book uses. But those systems - your ability scores, your inventories, your skill trees, literal health bars - they work in games because they're abstractions of real abilities. In order to make the game work, they need a number. DCC takes these abstractions and then reifies them back in a way that didn't work for me. It couldn't seem to decide whether they were game mechanics or really reflective of a person.
For example, Donut has a high "charisma" score. This means that, asking effectively the same thing to a group of goblins, Carl takes aggro, while the goblins fawn over Donut. It's not reflected in a character's approach, it's treated like a game mechanic. In fact, how does one raise their charisma level? Killing monsters. Which somehow makes you more charismatic. And yet, these ability scores are also consistently described as actually pertaining to the person - higher intelligence making you smarter, higher strength literally making you stronger. It works for many readers, obviously, but it made scenes feel disjointed to me.
Becoming better or "leveling up" is also not a matter of skill, but of killing enough enemies to gain "experience points". Again, real experience and intelligence (figuring out the clues to a battle, coming up with clever ways to defeat enemies) is conflated with a sense of "experience points" consistently by folks doling out exposition, but within the story feel clearly delineated. Carl gets an intelligence of 3, though always seems to figure things out (perhaps it would fit this under his hidden "wisdom" score). Perhaps this disconnect is purposeful, meant to highlight something about the mindset that these intrinsic parts of ourselves can be "gamified", but it never felt that way.
There was also a very heavy focus on the systems of the game. The beginning is very exposition-heavy, which I get to some degree; it's setting up a much longer series and getting it out of the way early. We need to know how the mechanics (effectively "magic system") work. But it takes a while to get any momentum, and even longer when it feels the need to stop us to go through the contents of every "loot box" that the characters open. Those moments are never appealing, and luckily, as the book goes on, many of those aspects fall away.
The mechanics and story become more seamless, at least, though never totally. "Mentally clicking" on something to use it was never going to be my vibe. But the story starts glossing over "loot box" hauls and focusing on only the important gets, aspects of a broader story come into view, we don't have as much meaningless monster killing ("grinding") and focus more on actual story threads, it became much more readable. Future books probably are more readable, though I won't be continuing. Still, the latter part coming together bumped this review up a half a star. If you read a preview and vibe with the humor, and are looking for a long series, a large number of people obviously love this series.
I'll also give a shout-out to the audiobook narrator, Jeff Hays. His voice-work is incredible. I don't like audio-dramas, so it didn't improve my own experience, but the talent is undeniable and for those who like an audio-drama like vibe where someone voices each distinct character, this fit that bill. The Range.
That went by so fast! I couldn’t get enough of this video game type storytelling style. It’s AMAZING!
A guy, a talking cat, and a baby velociraptor-what a motley crew. I would say that if you like Rick and Morty, sarcasm, interdimensional reality tv, meth llamas, and video games then this is the book for you!
I can’t wait to see what race and class Carl and Princess Donut pick on Level 3!
A guy, a talking cat, and a baby velociraptor-what a motley crew. I would say that if you like Rick and Morty, sarcasm, interdimensional reality tv, meth llamas, and video games then this is the book for you!
I can’t wait to see what race and class Carl and Princess Donut pick on Level 3!
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
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:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Not exactly what I expected going into it, but not bad. If Borderlands and D&D had a baby and made it into a book. A bit too gorey and violent for me in places. But fun.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood
Minor: Sexual content
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Fascinating premise and FANTASTIC audiobook production. I just think it kinda drags a bit. We could spend a little less time on each level bro
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