Matt Dinniman: Dungeon Crawler Carl (2020, Independently Published)
English language
Published June 10, 2020 by Independently Published.
At first I thought it was too on the nose and crude in its humor, but it is very charming and fun in the end. Not a groundbreaking book but very enjoyable.
Marine tech Carl, along with the cat, gets isekai’ed into a “Running Man”esque nightmare of a dungeon crawl.
I was dubious at the start, but it grew on me as I progressed through the book and was a light, enjoyable read. The characters are not interchangeable Emmas, the writing is fine, and often actually amusing when it tries to be funny. This is definitely a book for people who enjoy gaming, TTRPGs, or LitRPGs, I’d not recommend this series to anyone unfamiliar with any of those things. I’ll be reading more of these.
I forgot where I stumbled upon this book, but I gave it away as a present and the guy read it recently and was full of praise. So I read it, too, and can tell you: wow! Easy to read, funny, and page-turning by itself.
Aliens come to Earth and, reminding us of the Volorians from Douglas Adams, present legal claim to all of Earth, which we humans could have avoided by making or own claim before a court we never existed.
Very shortly after most humans are dead and all the rest is offered to fight through a dungeon. Whoever makes it to level 18 can reclaim Earth.
And so we go down with Carl and his cat into the dungeon. Turns out, Carl is the first to bring a pet cat into the dungeon, so they get a buff and thus, Princess Donut is a …
I forgot where I stumbled upon this book, but I gave it away as a present and the guy read it recently and was full of praise. So I read it, too, and can tell you: wow! Easy to read, funny, and page-turning by itself.
Aliens come to Earth and, reminding us of the Volorians from Douglas Adams, present legal claim to all of Earth, which we humans could have avoided by making or own claim before a court we never existed.
Very shortly after most humans are dead and all the rest is offered to fight through a dungeon. Whoever makes it to level 18 can reclaim Earth.
And so we go down with Carl and his cat into the dungeon. Turns out, Carl is the first to bring a pet cat into the dungeon, so they get a buff and thus, Princess Donut is a Dungeon Crawler just like Carl himself. A former show cat, she is now bent on becoming famous, for the dungeon crawl is watched on universal TV around the, well, the universe.
Sure. The story is a bit repetitive, but has anyone of you ever played Elden Ring or the like? Of course they are repetitive! Yet the story is fun as hell, it is interesting to see how Carl and Donut do, and the game messages are fun as well.
I went ahead and ordered book 2 and 3 of this series, because at the end of the first book, Carl and Princess Donut made it to the 3rd level (race and profession can be choosen) and did I mention it's 18 levels overall?
This book had no business being as much fun as it was. Even though I had seen it recommended by friends, I went in skeptical, but was sucked in right away. It's by no means high literature, but Carl and Princess Donut's escapades are a delight. What this book lacks in substance it makes up with pure candy-coated silliness. This was the perfect weekend read.
Admittedly, I am solidly in the target demographic, being an avid TTRPG player, and there was plenty of fan service along those lines. Added pluses for some nose tweaking to the manosphere as well. On the surface, this could have come across as a different take on Ready Player One, but this one didn't leave the same bad taste in my mouth.
There's a lot of world building going on in this first book, with many hints of darkness to come, and without …
This book had no business being as much fun as it was. Even though I had seen it recommended by friends, I went in skeptical, but was sucked in right away. It's by no means high literature, but Carl and Princess Donut's escapades are a delight. What this book lacks in substance it makes up with pure candy-coated silliness. This was the perfect weekend read.
Admittedly, I am solidly in the target demographic, being an avid TTRPG player, and there was plenty of fan service along those lines. Added pluses for some nose tweaking to the manosphere as well. On the surface, this could have come across as a different take on Ready Player One, but this one didn't leave the same bad taste in my mouth.
There's a lot of world building going on in this first book, with many hints of darkness to come, and without spoilers I can say the ending is kind of abrupt and odd. So I'm taking this down a star. I'll have to see how I feel about the second one plays out and ends to really understand if I like it as a series, but on the whole I found this first entry delightful.
An interesting premise and easy, quick read. Sometimes tries a little too hard to be funny.
Auch wenn der Schluss keine riesigen Überraschungen mehr bot. Solider Trashlevel und ich bin mehr als gespannt, wie es im nächsten Buch weitergeht.
