science fiction, dystopian fiction
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!)
science fiction, distopian fiction
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.
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