Kristen’s Take: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Well this one was a wild ride. Dungeon Crawler Carl is an absolutely unhinged, sci-fi, apocalypse-meets-game-show, Hunger Games style adventure centered on the lovable, newly single, and apparently-explosives-savvy Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s show cat, Princess Donut. And yes, it’s as hysterical and manic as that description makes it sound.

I read this one out loud to my husband while we were on long car rides, but it’s violent and full of swearing so we had to read it piecemeal while our toddler was asleep in the backseat. In most stories that would cause the story to be disjointed and hard to follow, but this story is so wild that it honestly didn’t take away from the story at all. So here’s the premise: every couple of Earth years, a massive alien corporation conglomerate takes over a planet and uses it as the host of their intergalactic TV game show, Dungeon Crawler World. This time, Earth is the host planet. Basically all of Earth civilization gets slammed underground, leaving only those who were outside alive with nowhere to go but down into the Dungeon. Inside the Dungeon are a variety of monsters (mobs) who are hellbent on killing every single human they can find. Mobs range from a nuisance to holy-shit-we’re-all-going-to-die problematic, and they only get harder to fight as our heroes descend through the Dungeon. 

This first book of the series focuses solely on the first and second floors, so we can be sure that the insane antics are going to keep on coming in the subsequent books. Honestly this book was so fun and a great break from my typical genre - I wouldn’t necessarily call it a palate cleanser, but it’s fun, unique, and creative. Oh, and did I say unhinged? Yep, we love that.

Spice: 0 / 5

Vibes: 6 / 5 ;)