Author: Matt Dinniman
Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl #1
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopia/Adult
Publisher: Dandy House
Publication Date: October 2, 2020
Edition: 464 pages, Kindle Edition
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Bookshop | Powell's |
Synopsis:
The apocalypse will be televised!
A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.
In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.
The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.
Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.
You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.
You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game—with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.
They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.
A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.
In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.
The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.
Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.
You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.
You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game—with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.
They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.
***********
Like many of us have, I'd been hearing about this book/series for quite some time. But only now got around to reading it. While I have read/watched reviews for this book, I still wasn't sure what to expect. This book was pretty gratuitous with violence at times, so there were moments when I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep reading or not, or if I wanted to continue the series (spoiler, I am about halfway through the second book right now), but I kept reading and things started to even out a little. The plot picked up, and the world-building aspects with in invaders started to expand and there was some payoff with things in a way that made the violence bother me less. This book is listed among "humorous" on Goodreads, and humor is so subjective, that I wouldn't call this book humorous. The 'humor' verges on edge-lord humor, so take that as you will.
Now, the characters. I liked most of them. Carl and Donut are enjoyable characters to follow. They are good foils for each other. Donut was annoying for about half the book, but she grew on me. I'm just not sure if she's written by someone who likes cats or not.
There's a lot of side-characters, and I don't know how many are going to be relevant for the length of the series. The one main-side character is Mordecai, Donut and Carl's dungeon guide. He's the only one who makes consistent appearances through the book. The duo meet up with a man who has a dozen or so elderly people in his care because of some random circumstances. Their storyline covers about the last half to third of the book. But beyond that, (and me from the future, being as far into the second book as I am while writing this, know they haven't shown up yet) I don't know what their impact on Carl and Donut's story they'll have. I am curious about what will happen to the elderly folks when they got to floor 3 and what will happen to them.
I do hope that the latter books aren't just them going floor to floor and we get to learn more about these invading alien corps, and what they really want. I want there to be a bigger picture with higher stakes that really feel like they matter. Depending on where book2 ends, that will be how I decide if I keep reading the series.
No comments:
Post a Comment