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A review by malin2708
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.0
CBR17 Bingo: Rec'd (I honestly don't know how many people have raved about this book, on CBR, other review sites on the internet, as well as in my IRL book club)
By now, most people who are even vaguely interested in this series probably know what it's about, but I'll try to give a brief summary.
Carl is wandering around, half-dressed in the snow, looking for his ex-girlfriend's prize-winning Persian cat, when Earth is suddenly attacked by aliens. All the buildings collapse in an instant and are pushed underground, and anyone who was in any of those buildings is instantly dead. Only the individuals on the surface still have a meagre chance at survival. Those on the surface are given the choice of having to fend for themselves on the surface or go underground and become a player in the Dungeon Crawler World, a multi-level labyrinth game broadcasted as prime time entertainment to the galaxy (in Carl's case, he pretty much only has the one option, since it's freezing outside and he's only half-dressed).
So Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, become contestants in the Dungeon Crawler Game. Princess Donut quickly learns to speak, and she and Carl, despite the extremely steep learning curve, become a good team (but not without some disagreements and conflicts along the way). They need to learn how to fight and how to best and most effectively level up, and they need to become popular enough to get corporate sponsors and online followers throughout the galaxy, if they want to stay alive, which will only get harder and harder the longer they stay in the game.
Every so often, a book or a series comes along that so many different people on so many corners I frequent on the internet all agree is a must-read and just won't stop raving about, to the point where even if I might not have been all that interested to begin with (usually because its an unfamiliar genre to me, or I think it's outside of my fields of interest). The last time this happened, was probably with The Murderbot Diaries, which really became popular during the Pandemic (for very obvious reasons). I had heard about All Systems Red in a number of places and a lot of different sources before I decided to actually give the series a try (what can I say, science fiction frequently isn't my jam), and if I hadn't found the first novellas in an e-book sale (they are needlessly expensive at full price, considering the length of the stories), I might have waited even longer.
I don't think I've really read any LitRPG books before, and even with all the enthusiastic write-ups I saw of Carl and Donut's adventures, I was unsure of whether I would like the books or not. But when Audible had the first book discounted (a lot of people also recommended that I try the audio versions, and they were right), I figured that it was probably time to see what all the fuss was about.
Now that I have listened to the audio, with the excellent narration from Jeff Hayes and all the various sound effects, I don't think I'd want to read the books on paper. While it took me a while to figure out the gist of the story, and it got way gorier in places than I was expecting, I was pretty much hooked before the book got to 20% and now I'm really looking forward to making my way through what exists of the series so far. Audible won't let me hoard more than 6 credits (so mean), so it's good to have something I can use them on every few months.
Judging a book by its cover: I really like the cover designs of the hardcover books that are being issued for this series, a lot better than the cover art for the previous editions. So I chose to include this cover rather than the original.
By now, most people who are even vaguely interested in this series probably know what it's about, but I'll try to give a brief summary.
Carl is wandering around, half-dressed in the snow, looking for his ex-girlfriend's prize-winning Persian cat, when Earth is suddenly attacked by aliens. All the buildings collapse in an instant and are pushed underground, and anyone who was in any of those buildings is instantly dead. Only the individuals on the surface still have a meagre chance at survival. Those on the surface are given the choice of having to fend for themselves on the surface or go underground and become a player in the Dungeon Crawler World, a multi-level labyrinth game broadcasted as prime time entertainment to the galaxy (in Carl's case, he pretty much only has the one option, since it's freezing outside and he's only half-dressed).
So Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, become contestants in the Dungeon Crawler Game. Princess Donut quickly learns to speak, and she and Carl, despite the extremely steep learning curve, become a good team (but not without some disagreements and conflicts along the way). They need to learn how to fight and how to best and most effectively level up, and they need to become popular enough to get corporate sponsors and online followers throughout the galaxy, if they want to stay alive, which will only get harder and harder the longer they stay in the game.
Every so often, a book or a series comes along that so many different people on so many corners I frequent on the internet all agree is a must-read and just won't stop raving about, to the point where even if I might not have been all that interested to begin with (usually because its an unfamiliar genre to me, or I think it's outside of my fields of interest). The last time this happened, was probably with The Murderbot Diaries, which really became popular during the Pandemic (for very obvious reasons). I had heard about All Systems Red in a number of places and a lot of different sources before I decided to actually give the series a try (what can I say, science fiction frequently isn't my jam), and if I hadn't found the first novellas in an e-book sale (they are needlessly expensive at full price, considering the length of the stories), I might have waited even longer.
I don't think I've really read any LitRPG books before, and even with all the enthusiastic write-ups I saw of Carl and Donut's adventures, I was unsure of whether I would like the books or not. But when Audible had the first book discounted (a lot of people also recommended that I try the audio versions, and they were right), I figured that it was probably time to see what all the fuss was about.
Now that I have listened to the audio, with the excellent narration from Jeff Hayes and all the various sound effects, I don't think I'd want to read the books on paper. While it took me a while to figure out the gist of the story, and it got way gorier in places than I was expecting, I was pretty much hooked before the book got to 20% and now I'm really looking forward to making my way through what exists of the series so far. Audible won't let me hoard more than 6 credits (so mean), so it's good to have something I can use them on every few months.
Judging a book by its cover: I really like the cover designs of the hardcover books that are being issued for this series, a lot better than the cover art for the previous editions. So I chose to include this cover rather than the original.