Shawn B.Tennyson

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Disclaimer: The time to read is not accurate to the time required, there were many outside factors at play in my delay to finish the book and in all honesty my own slow revival to daily reading but it is not an accurate reflection on 1. how long it takes to read and 2. its effectiveness and retaining my interest. From the moment I sat to the read the book, I was engaged and every moment in between I spent reminding myself that I needed to continue. Some minor spoilers hidden below.

Dungeon Crawler Carl was, first of all, a genuinely unique setting/story with characters you won't find elsewhere. To boil it down into its simplest form, it takes the concept of Hunger Games and mixes it with the systems of Dungeons and Dragons/ TTRPG's mechanics to provide a continuously evolving landscape and threat that takes inspirations from the pre-existing systems of those games/mediums and constructs its own version of the rules.
For anyone who is already familiar with game mechanics to a high or low degree, you will find the lingo riddled through this book, which the author: Matt Dinniman does a great job of adequately explaining for readers who perhaps have not come from a gaming/TTRPG background in an efficient and timely manner, so much so in fact that for people familiar with the terms, enemy types and systems like loot and boss room progressions, it never bores or drags on with its explanations, balancing the best of both worlds to engage both types of readers.
Having said that, the book also does a good job of balancing its tone as well. From my initial perception of the book I assumed that it would be more leant towards YA to some degree but some of the descriptions of gore and nods to suggestive explicit jokes are humorous even for the older age bracket and its made clear from early on who the target audience is. That is to say, it is accessible for older teens whilst also plenty entertaining, and almost targeted directly towards adults more generally.
Despite the dark tones though, the atmosphere never takes itself overly seriously, which benefits the story and mood. From the outset, it is made apparent that yes, there will be very odd occurrences and whacky scenarios that both you the reader, and the characters themselves are just going to have to accept and deal with. And for the most part, it works. There were only a few occasions where the realisation of the actual consequences of the characters actions and the seriousness of the scenario as a whole are brought into question with surprising sincerity. You do feel for the characters and the situation they've been placed in, and seeing how these circumstances are dealt with from distinctly different people with different approaches definitely helps distinguish the cast of many characters from each other, but for our main character I would have appreciated a little more serious introspection as the reality of these whacky circumstances is accepted a little too quickly/easily in my opinion but with a full series to read through I have no doubt the tonal switch with come in time to deal with these concerns.
The humour hits home, I especially appreciate the item descriptions given from loot box items throughout the story, the amount of which will increase to the point you'll either need your own sheet to keep up with what Carl and Princess Donut have in their inventories or blindly trust that the author has their own because the list grows rapidly and some items from far back will be brought back into mention in meaningful ways, which I also appreciate that they don't just get thrown into the void of items that never see use or the light of day.

Overall, I think the book does a standout job of introducing the world, the characters, and the explaining the concept of not only the story but the systems in place during it, to the reader in a way that makes sense quickly but is also drip fed throughout as to not overwhelm them either. I thoroughly love the setting of the dungeons and how each floor plays a part of its own, leaving crumbs of interest for later plot points of the story I'm looking forward to see come to fruition. There's a lot teased, especially at the finale of the book, that grips you tight and promises that this is only just the beginning of a wild ride I look forward to partaking on.

Spoilers:
(view spoiler)[ I do have one main gripe and a secondary personal one which are my only reasons for docking it to 4/5 stars. The main one is Carl himself. I mostly like the character, but at no point that I can recall do we come to understand why he seems so confident in his knowledge and usage of the systems the game/world has just introduced him to. He comes with an element of a superiority complex that peeks its head occasionally. I would like to see more doubt, which may be explored in time, or more fear of these foreign circumstances. I don't think it needs to kill the humour or the vibe, but they could even be personal introspective doubts as opposed to voiced out loud. It seems not matter what Carl seems to do, no matter what circumstances come up, no matter the challenge and no matter how dire or new it all is, he never really makes any bad calls or mistakes. At most maybe the one about throwing the bomb in and killing the kids but even then its kind of played off humorously anyways, we see a brief moment of guilt about that but regardless, it still cleared the challenge. He still succeeds. And its never another characters ideas or initiative that solves the problem, even if its their powers or abilities, its always Carls plan or direction that solves the problem, near flawlessly. He also seems to tend to look down on others, as though he's always dealing with children. It can be funny with Donut but at times it just comes off slightly condescending. The other minor issue, just on a personal basis, is it can be hard to visualise some of the boss fights, in particular I found the swine ball hard to keep up with.  (hide spoiler)] 



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