“Goddammit Donut!”
New Achievement: Hype train!
Congrats, you succumbed to the DCC hype and have now successfully binged the first book. Welcome aboard the hype train, choo choo motherfucker!
Reward: Ha, joke’s one you. The book itself was the reward! But you are now one of the pathetic suckers with an inexplicable DCC addiction, so enjoy dealing with that!
Honestly, what can I say about Dungeon Crawler Carl that hasn’t already been said way better by others before me? It’s beyond bizarre, it’s funny as all get out, and it’s way more addictive than it has any right to be… yet somehow it just works?
If you have been living under a rock and somehow don’t know what this story is about, then listen up: an average dude goes outside in his boxers to save his ex-girlfriend’s Persian cat from the cold… and then the apocalypse happens. Aliens pulverize all constructions on Earth (RIP to all the people still inside buildings) and turn the planet into an 18-level dungeon. And the few lucky (?) people who survived get the opportunity of their lives: they can enter the dungeon to become participants in a thrilling intergalactic game show watched by billions of aliens. Basically, it’s a LitRPG mash-up of Dungeons and Dragons and The Hunger Games, except make it absolutely batshit crazy in the best way possible.
Now, forget Carl, he is fine (okay I admit his tragically funny first person narration is beyond entertaining), but I think we can all agree that the true showstopper is of course the one and only Grand Champion, Breed Winner Regional, National Winner Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk! As soon as Princess Donut opened her little pretty mouth to speak, I was in love. If she doesn’t have any fans, then I am dead.
And really, it was all the ‘slower, quiet’ (insofar as this book gets slow or quiet) moments between these weirdly endearing characters that I personally enjoyed most in Dungeon Crawler Carl. The dialogue is brimming with razor sharp wit and hysterical banter, and I loved the tentative development of some unexpected alliances here. And don’t get me started on the talk show sequences, those were pure gold for me.
No, I can’t sit here and pretend that every aspect of the storytelling worked for me, but I also just could not stop reading; well, listening really, because excuse meeee, this audiobook production is phenomenal! Anyway, I am already not the best at visualising, so a lot of the descriptions of the wacky dungeon settings, crazy alien creatures and weird loot items just went in one ear and out the other. Especially during the hectic boss fights, that lack of immersion (totally due to my own struggles) only added to the confusing chaos, but hey… we made it out alive, so there’s that.
Ultimately though, the fact that I could so easily ignore my quibbles and just strap in for the wild ride should say enough about Dinniman’s insanely strong execution of this unhinged premise. Dungeon Crawler Carl is absolute GAS. And goddammit, now I am invested in these characters… so I guess that can only mean one thing: bring on the next one, fuckersss!
I don’t know how I found this book, it is definitely not in my typical cadre (British detectives are my go to). However, the audio version hooked me and I now have listened to every book in the series! Listener/reader you will not be disappointed!
Glurp, glurp!
That line about immersion and boss fight and things going in one ear and out the other is sooo true, like the underwater shark battle for example i had to lisin to that like 5 times because I kept zoning out or something and it’s my second time reading the whole series for the 9th book and I really want to understand! I still love the books and the characters but sometimes so many things are happening and you get so lost, mostly during the boss fights.