Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman

Lynnie 

Amy   

science fiction, dystopian fiction

Dungeon Crawler Carl 

In Dungeon Crawler Carl, Earth is taken over by aliens who hope to mine it for essential resources. First however, they subject humans to a game for their amusement, turning Earth itself into a dungeon crawler game where humans must survive alien mobs and each other through 18 levels, growing their audience, collection loot boxes and sponsors, and hoping to survive another day. 

Lynnie's Review

Dungeon Crawler Carl was an entirely unexpected delight and wildly exceeded my expectations! I'm not a gamer anymore and, if I were, I would never play dungeon crawler games. When I did play video games I found no joy in games that required grinding away or killing things... just not my jam. But Matt Dinniman's book amused me endlessly from beginning to end. 

I listened to the audiobook, which probably had a lot to do with my enjoyment because the narrator, Jeff Hays, has a remarkable variety of voices that really brought this book to life! There are times when it is hard to believe he doesn't have someone else in the booth with him, but it is all him. 

Anyway, from the very beginning, I was invested in Carl, Princess Donut and the vicious world of Earth's dungeons. I fully admit that knowing there are several books in the series made it easier for me to read. Knowing that Carl and Donut were going to survive for a few more books made me much less anxious during some of the more stressful boss battles and I'm not even sorry about that. 

This is not a genre I would normally read, but I thought the creativity was really impressive and the humor kept me laughing during a road trip. Was it often brutal and gruesome? Absolutely, but it's a war with aliens. Aren't those always brutal and gruesome in books, TV and movies? That part just didn't bother me that much.

I'm not ready to commit to the full series, but I am absolutely looking forward to the next book.

Amy's Review

Carl, 30-something years old and recently single again, gets forced into a life-or-death game in which he has to fight to survive to each successive level. The game is being televised intergalactically like a reality show. He and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, team up to try to make progress through the game levels, stay alive, win sponsors, and kill the game monsters and anyone else who tries to kill them.

Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman, is basically like reading a video game being played. In fact, it reminded me very much of how the first video games on personal computers were experienced. There were no videos or pictures in the early 1980s. Rather, the computer screen only displayed text (all in the amber color) which described the world the characters inhabited—all the scenes, characters, inventory items, action, etc Reading this book is like that except that Carl’s first-person narration of his own adventure is more personal and insightful than those old video games were.

The novel was funny, action-packed, and creative. The beginning was hysterical! However, for me, once the game play started, it dragged. First, the reader, and Carl, had to learn the rules of the game, then Carl and Donut had to repetitively kill game characters to increase their various statistics like strength, skills, weapons, etc. in order to be equipped to survive in future levels. And then more rules, more killing, more inventory/skills. And again and again. The monotony of the “busy work” of video games is boring to me. I suppose that this is why I stopped playing video games. Also, I’m really not entertained by reading extensive fighting/battle scenes, whether set in wars or video games. And this novel was probably 93% fighting. I forced myself to read a chapter every night before bed until about the 40% mark but I just wasn’t into it. At least the chapters were mostly short but this “plot” wasn’t something that held my interest. Mostly, I just wanted to finish this one to give it a fair shake after all the great reviews I’d heard.

My sister suggested I abandon trying to read it and move, instead, to the highly acclaimed audiobook. The truly astounding narrator, Jeff Hays, was extremely entertaining and kept me listening. But, even with that entertainment boost, this story just dragged for me. I finished it. I get why it’s a hit with the video game-playing crowd. But for me, I needed a more interesting plot besides game advancement. I did appreciate all the creative characters, situations, humor, and potential side stories that will, undoubtedly, be explored further in future books, but I’m not planning to read any more novels in this series.

Jeff Hays gets an A+! He simply has a crazy vocal repertoire and awesomely entertaining voice acting. The overall audiobook production was also sensational (including the ending credits—don’t miss those!)

Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Lynnie      

I hadn't really intended to listen to this second book in the series so quickly after the first book, but with a road trip, I had the perfect opportunity to dive back into Matt Dinniman's insane world of Dungeon Crawler Carl, so I was more than happy to queue up Carl's Doomsday Scenario and enjoy the ride.

Picking up right where book 1 left off, we are once again immersed in the dungeon as Carl and Princess Donut descend to Level 3. Once again, their adventures are compelling, now adding quests to the grind of the dungeon. In fact, there was a lot less grinding for points, experience and loot in this book than in book 1, which I enjoyed. Though, some of the game play was still more tedious than a nongamer like me needed but not so much that I ever wanted to turn it off.

Jeff Hays' narration truly made this book for me. I suspect that if I were just reading it, I wouldn't be as patient with some of the gameplay, but his variety of voices is endlessly compelling and really moves the story along.

Ultimately, if you enjoyed the first book, you're going to enjoy this one and, I suspect, you're going to want to move on to book 3 to find out what comes next. Carl is clearly thinking ahead to try to figure out what the game has in store for him and the other crawlers and I'm eager to find out how that works out.

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

Lynnie 

Another adventure with Carl, Princess Donut and the gang, The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook, takes place on the fourth level of the dungeon, and is more tedious than the first two books. As the book's description states, this level is called the Iron Tangle, and is a mess of earth trains from subway systems to diesel, steam and electric trains, where the crawlers must figure out where the trains lead while finding their way past the mobs to a limited number of stairways. Unlike previous levels, the stairways won't be open until the very end of the level, so crawlers have to stay safe and alive (from the levels monsters and each other) until the stairways open. As expected, mayhem follows.

In this level however, the crawlers begin to cooperate with one another. Sure, not all of them, but enough that it makes a difference in some of the outcomes. While the "show" portrays them as characters, they are learning who each other really is. Whether or not that will make a difference in their long-term survival remains to be seen, but it definitely appears to be laying the groundwork for something.

The grinding and points and mobs, as mentioned above, were certainly less interesting in this book, but learning more about Carl, Donut, Katia, Mordecai and the others continues to fascinate me. I do feel like I should have been taking notes on the characters however, because we are reaching the point where there are so many that I am starting to lose track of them all.

As always, Jeff Hays' narration is remarkable and kept me entertained from beginning to end. I'm definitely looking forward to book 4!
 

Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of our Deadliest Infection by John Green

Amy      

nonfiction

Everything is Tuberculosis is John Green’s second non-fiction book. And it is all about tuberculosis—its discovery, symptoms, prognosis, treatments, history, and future outlook. However, that’s not all it’s about. It also covers humanity’s reactions—statistics, cultures, attitudes, actions, beliefs, inventions, by-products, arts, sciences, and world health processes surrounding the disease. The book is quite comprehensive and not nearly as dry or textbook-ish as one might expect. It’s also fairly short—around 200 pages and less than 6 hours via audiobook.

Green’s last chapter reveals that he knows he has a “megaphone” as a result of his successful novels and YouTube channel and that he hopes his position of influence will make a difference in the future handling of this completely curable disease. He teaches us that, while tuberculosis is extremely rare in rich countries like the USA, it kills a million people every year throughout the world due to many reasons but, mostly, the lack of sufficient funds in impoverished countries. In fact, tuberculosis, a bacterial infection spread through airborn particles, is one of the top causes of global death every year. I applaud Green’s publication of this informative book which might, very well, bring extra attention and aid to the sufferers of this infection.

Green, admittedly, has OCD—specifically OCD regarding germs. So I found it extremely interesting that, despite his specific phobias, he willingly dove in and, dare I say, obsessed over a human-spread disease. He claimed that he became so interested in TB after meeting a charming hospital-bound youth suffering from drug-resistant tuberculosis in Sierra Leone. Throughout the book, he provides updates on Henry’s history and progress, or lack thereof, giving the book’s audience a more personal and relatable viewpoint into the disease.

Overall, I think Green’s book (and his fame) is an amazing tool for getting the word out about how ridiculous it is that one of the world’s leading causes of death is completely curable yet, through human systems’ failures, still kills over a million people a year. There was a section around the 1/4 mark in the book where things got slow for me when Green gave us more pre-medical treatment history than my interest could hold, but once the book refocused on the science, I was all in. I loved the way he included aspects of culture, politics, psychology, and sociology surrounding the understanding and spread of TB including fashion, hygiene, and racism. He threw in inventions, world historical events, and creation of cities which were also influenced by TB. It’s not all science!

The audiobook was narrated by the author and he did an amazing job, unsurprisingly. Of course, I give him an A.

Burn For Me and White Hot (Hidden Legacy #1 and #2) by Ilona Andrews

Amy  


urban fantasy, romance

Nevada runs her family’s small private investigation firm which is a small subsidiary of a much larger company, run by a powerful, magical House. When the parent company assigns a hazardous, impossible job to Nevada’s firm, she knows they are probably going to fail. But the alternative is bankruptcy. She must try her best to locate a criminal before he is killed or arrested and bring him to his family. In the course of her investigation, Rogan kidnaps her, thinking she is tied to the criminal, and she miraculously convinces him to let her go. From then on, the two of them have similar goals.

The first couple pages of Burn For Me quickly described the world in which this book is set. A serum had been discovered in Europe in the 1800s. This serum brought out magical powers in people. Though the widespread problems with people having unpredictable superpowers eventually became evident and the serum usage halted, these powers spread across generations throughout the globe until the current day.

While this summary of the setting seemed a bit abrupt and pointedly informative right at the beginning, I did appreciate knowing what was going on from the beginning. Some books have annoyed me by thrusting me into a nonsensical, unfamiliar world without explanation. Ilona Andrews also successfully introduced the reader to a large cast of characters, little by little, so that you could keep track of them. 

I soon found myself extremely invested in Nevada’s difficult situation. She’d been forced to do the impossible as a pawn in a larger game. I thought her adventure was really fun!

The book cover and title implied that this book was a romance but it really wasn’t so much a romance as an adventure with some mutual physical attraction. After finishing this novel, I saw there were novellas from Rogan’s point of view and I quickly found those on Andrews’ website and read them too. I plan to read the sequel to find out what happens next to Rogan, Nevada, and her family.

The audiobook narrator is Renee Raudman. She sounds a bit like Ellen DeGeneres. But she has a terrific vocal repertoire and is also a good voice actor. I didn’t love her chosen voice for Rogan, but maybe I just don’t like a Texas accent. Funny—I just looked to see if I’ve heard her narrate anything else and I had heard her narrate another book by Andrews back in 2019! And, back then, I also said she sounds like Ellen DeGeneres! I give her an A for this one.

Picking up where Burn For Me left off, Nevada is hired to find a killer. Before you know it, Rogan’s also involved and, together, they encounter a multitude of dangers and manage to survive through their own magical powers and heroics. The romance between the two is unavoidable as they get to know each other better through their time together.

Unlike Burn For Me, I would classify this one as a fantasy romance. This is a fun series to be reading during the summer and I’ll be reading more of the books, although I probably won’t blog about the rest of them unless there is something new to say about them. For the most part, I anticipate just enjoying the ongoing formula of these novels. FYI, this series has the altogether too common fantasy trope of the heroine surprisingly having previously unknown super abilities. But the writers do a good job with it. (Ilona Andrews is the pen name for a husband/wife writing team.)

Again, Renee Raudman did a terrific job with her narration. I think Rogan’s voice is starting to grow on me.

Amazon's The Edge of Everything series

I had the opportunity to read several of the novellas in Amazon's new Edge of Everything series.  —Lynnie

short story collection, fiction, young adult 

Safe Harbor by Nicola Yoon and David Yoon

My favorite of Amazon's The Edge of Everything short story collection by far, Nicola Yoon's and David Yoon's Safe Harbor follows Isabel, an angry artist sent to the Safe Harbor therapy program for teenagers who aren't coping well with their parents' divorce. Finding herself on a college campus with four other teenagers and a therapist, spending the day forced to talk about uncomfortable feelings and family drama, the teens must learn to break down walls if they want to graduate from the program.

I've read a few YA books by Nicola Yoon, most of which I've really enjoyed, but I've read nothing by David Yoon so I can't begin to guess how the writing was divided in this short story. I can say though, that this story broke my heart and put it back together in the best possible way. I was immediately taken in by these characters, their circumstances and their stories and oh, how I wanted them to find their path through.

I really enjoyed the way the teens interacted with one another, particularly the way Isabel's art evolved to show how her opinions of everyone changed as she got to know them. There is a lot packed into such a short story, but I loved every carefully constructed word. If you only read one story in this series, let it be this one.
 

Julia at the Drive-in by Rainbow Rowell  

A long-time fan of Rainbow Rowell's, I was excited to see Julia at the Drive-in as part of Amazon's latest short story collection, The Edge of Everything.

Julia has spent years feeling completely average in her small Nebraska town. She doesn't stand out, isn't popular and doesn't believe she's interesting; Julia just is. Then Chloe, who has lived all over the world, moves to town and chooses Julia as a friend and quickly transforms her life. Chloe helps Julia with her hair, teaches her about makeup and lends her clothes until Julia barely recognizes herself. At the local drive-in before their senior year begins, Julia runs into her crush, Wyatt, and he notices her for the first time... well, ever. While they talk and get to know one another, Julia wonders if he realizes that it's her, or if he thinks he's talking to someone he's never met?

This was a cute story that took me back to some of the older Rainbow Rowell YA stories I remember. I could feel Julia's discomfort at whether or not Wyatt's attention was really meant for her, and how much she wanted it to be. I think everyone can relate to wanting someone to like you for yourself, but also just wanting them to like you. Rowell has such a gift for writing about people who want to be seen, and Julia just gripped my heart in a few short pages. I was only sad when this story ended. I wanted to read more about Chloe and Julia and Wyatt and the other kids in this town, but I'm glad we got a little glimpse into their life.

Winter Breakage by David Levithan

Winter Breakage took me back to the first few David Levithan books I read in the early 2000s, and I couldn't be happier about that. I enjoy Levithan's YA work much more than his books for adults and I'm glad he went back to that genre here, particularly focusing on life before cell phones, with this story taking place in 1991.

In Winter Breakage, five college dormmates, who live in or around NYC, gather for a day together in the city. Andie, Pam, Margaret, Noah and the narrator Eric are friendly at college, if not friends. They exist in that bubble during freshman year where your friendships are based on proximity; you spend time with the people the college has placed in your space. It's not until second semester or sophomore year when you start to choose your major or your roommates that you start to choose your friends so, initially, you spend time with the people who are in your bubble. As they gather, in the glorious pre-cell phone days of 1991, without a plan for the day, they navigate the anxiety and insecurity of trying to find your place in the social order and whether or not you even have a place in the social order.

It's awkward and sweet to see the kernels of what might be real friendship start to sprout between the people in this story. Are they seeing each other for who they truly are? With fewer than 30 pages, we never really find out. But Levithan will take you back to your own experiences of trying to find your place and your people and the connection we all crave. 

The Price of Admission by Dustin Thao 

 

 

The blurb for the Price of Admission is pretty clear about what you're getting into with this novella: two teens who grow up in the same orbit, but divided by class and circumstances. Evan is the son of a hotel maid and Dalton is the son of the hotel's owner. When they find themselves at the same high school, they must figure out how who they are to each other and whether or not they can fit in each other's lives. 

The Price of Admission is the first story I've ever read by Dustin Thao and it covers a lot of ground in a very short time. Evan and Dalton are 9 years old when the story begins and have graduated college by the final page. Watching Evan try to fit into a world of wealthy kids he will never understand, and wondering if Dalton can ever truly accept him is painful for anyone who has ever felt on the outside looking in. 

In some ways, this felt like the one of the most realistic stories in this series, but it also made it the least interesting to me; the beats were entirely predictable as Dalton treated Evan like a cat treats a new toy. Still, I wanted to see how it would play out and whether or not these teens could overcome the stereotypes.  

 

All of these novellas will be published on June 23, 2026 as part of Amazon's The Edge of Everything collection. Thank you to Amazon Original Stories, NetGalley, Nicola Yoon, David Yoon, Rainbow Rowell, David Levithan and Dustin Thao for the advance reader copies.

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

Amy     


historical fiction

Coming out of the Great Depression, times are hard for almost everyone. In small-town Mississippi in 1933, Birdie, her mother, and her grandmother are struggling to make ends meet on their small farm. In desperation, Birdie travels to Oxford to ask her wealthy, married sister, Frances, for a loan. But Birdie finds that things aren’t exactly as rosy as she’d imagined they’d be at Frances’ mansion. Frances is a volunteer at the local orphanage and brings Birdie to help organize the orphanage’s books. She meets Meg, an 11-year-old orphan who’s been mostly confined to the dingy office where Birdie is working, and the two strike up a quick friendship.

This long novel sucked me right in because of the wonderful characters—I couldn’t help but care about them. Told from both Birdie’s and Meg’s viewpoints, both were underdogs in less-than-ideal situations but determined to do the best they could. When their stories started weaving together, I was riveted and made the time to read or listen to The Calamity Club every chance I got. I also loved how the people in this novel do both good and bad things. No one is all good and no one is all bad, as in reality. These people, particularly, were living at a difficult time and had to determine where they drew their lines.

I don’t believe I’ve read a novel set in the post-depression South and I really enjoyed learning about this part of our history. It’s been a long time since Kathryn Stockett’s other novel, The Help, was published seventeen years ago! It was one of the best novels I ever read. The Calamity Club was well worth the wait and has cemented my opinion that Stockett is an amazingly talented author. This was an entertaining, impactful, educational, heartbreaking, and heartwarming novel. Sure, there were some extraordinary coincidences and a few audacious gambles that seemed unlikely, but I still loved all the time I spent in Birdie’s and Meg’s world.

Fortunately, I was able to both read the Kindle version and listen to the audiobook, depending on what was best for me at any given time. In the audiobook, January Lavoy read Birdie’s viewpoint and Jenna Lamia read Meg’s viewpoint. I’ve enjoyed both of their narrations in the past and they showed off their large vocal repertoires and spot-on acting in this novel, as I expected they would. However, I had a problem with Lavoy’s Birdie. To me, she made Birdie sound too sophisticated most of the time. She was from small-town Alabama in the 1930s and her vocal tone sounded much too worldly in my opinion. Because of that, I’ll give Lavoy an A- and Lamia an A. I will also mention that the Kindle and audiobook versions were out of sync with their chapter numbers which was annoying and not something I’ve ever experienced before. One was numbered 3 chapters ahead of the other. I did not bother to figure out how that was possible or which one was incorrect. I wanted to spend all my time absorbing the wonderful story. And then I returned the audiobook to the library before I thought to figure out the discrepancy.

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer

Amy       

historical fiction

During WWII, Alina is a teenager on a Polish farm and her long-time love, Tomasz, is in Warsaw getting a medical degree when Hitler’s Army arrives and takes control of Poland.

In 2019, Alice is doing the best she can to be a good mother to both of her children, one of whom is a genius and the other is on the autism spectrum, despite a husband who isn’t very hands-on with the kids. When her grandmother has a stroke and insists that Alice go to Poland to find some part of her past, Alice experiences her first time being away from the kids while on her grandmother’s mysterious quest.

I always hesitate to read WWII-based novels. It’s just that they are so heart wrenching and infuriating and I’ve already read so many stories from that time period. It’s not like I’m uninformed. It’s the opposite. I feel very well-informed about the atrocities, despair, and hatred of the Nazis as well as the strength, love, and resilience of the survivors. I’ve read stories from soldiers’ points of view as well as secret operatives’ and civilians’. I just don’t enjoy the depression I feel when I’m forced to face the realities of the Holocaust. But this novel came highly recommended and, honestly, there wasn’t any other appealing audiobook available at the library. So, I decided to give The Things We Cannot Say a try.

I’m so glad I did! I was completely engrossed. Both storylines had great characters and situations that pulled me in. Alina’s and Alice’s situations were entirely different and they highlighted how the times have changed since WWII. Neither one could have imaged what the other had to deal with. I wanted to know how everything would turn out in both of their stories. Plus, I had to find out about Alice’s grandmother’s secrets. Kelly Rimmer’s writing was perfectly paced and her characters’ situations were never boring. The trials these characters faced felt very authentic. As predicted, it was both a heartbreaking and heartwarming story. As someone whose family is from Poland, the stories felt even more personal and interesting to me. And I thought the way the mysteries played out, while not surprising, were well done in terms of the story-crafting between the timeframes and stories.

The audiobook was narrated by Ann Marie Gideon and Nancy Peterson, each narrating one of the points of view. They were both terrific for their roles and had a nice repertoire of character voices and accents. I’ll give them As.

Culpability by Bruce Holsinger

Amy    

family drama

The Cassidy-Shaw family causes a fatal accident while their minivan is on auto-drive being commanded by the van’s Artificial Intelligence system. The 17-year old behind the wheel and the father in the passenger seat share the blame for causing the accident. But, as the book continues, we learn there were also extenuating circumstances which weren’t their fault. The matter of Culpability for the accident takes center stage in the novel, but the story also includes a multitude of other AI systems being employed in the characters’ lives. When AI is involved, who is responsible for decision-making? The AI or the people who created the AI?

As our lives continue to be inundated with the increasing presence of AI systems, making life easier in many ways while also raising a number of serious concerns, I was spellbound by this book. I loved the way Bruce Holsinger included various AI technologies, affecting people in ways from small to immense, making the reader feel both positive and negative about AI. It is being used in this world for both good and evil. We see AI being used in everything from individual smart phone apps to global warfare. It made me think a lot and also educated me on some aspects I hadn’t considered regarding AI. With AI, programmers have to define risks for the AI to use in its moral calculations. But the AI does not have a conscience.

The mother in the family happens to be an expert in AI algorithms. Snippets from the book she is writing about the ethics of AI, called “The Culpability of Artificial Minds”, is peppered throughout the novel. These serve to educate the reader about AI outside of the central story, filling in the AI picture more completely. Overall, I didn’t learn as much about AI as I anticipated. However, the amount of detail felt perfect for this novel. It didn’t get bogged down in overly technical explanations. Rather it tried to balance AI facts with the way it was directly affecting this family.

Holsinger conveniently made the father a lawyer, presumably, in order to speed up the character’s understanding of legal issues the family faced. At first, that made me roll my eyes. It was a bit too convenient that the parents worked in AI and law. And, also, for a lawyer, the dad was a bit slow to catch on to unfamiliar legal issues. But I understand why the author made those choices and was actually grateful for his efficiency in the flow of the story. There was also a bit of family dysfunction, issues of the haves vs. the have-nots, blame, and intent. I found it all fascinating. This novel is going to make for a great book club discussion!

The audiobook narrators were really terrific. January LaVoy always has a stellar vocal repertoire with spot-on voice acting and this was no exception. And Stacy Carolan was new to me but did a terrific job bringing the story to life. He also had a very good vocal repertoire. I give them both As.