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lycaenide's review against another edition
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Blood, and Vomit
Minor: Animal cruelty, Drug use, Racism, Sexual content, and Death of parent
nivlacwise's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
A story of how human world / earth is turns into an rpg game, with stats, loot boxes, rng(esus),
With viewer, favourites, and patrons
You get the idea.
With viewer, favourites, and patrons
You get the idea.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Violence, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death
theleppy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book had me hooked immediately. There are so many moving parts and teases for what is to come later but all of the information and world building never got overwhelming. I crave more of these characters, this savage vicious dungeon world and it's place in a much wider world too. Even though this story's premise and content can be very grim and dark it tempers this with a lot of humor. I found myself feeling very sad but moments later I was cackling with delight. I couldn't wait to start book 2 immediately after I finished this one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Dementia, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
tea_time's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This book had me laughing in all the right ways! The audio was amazing and I would recommend listening to this book 100%
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, and Murder
Minor: Fatphobia, Infidelity, and Sexual content
thedragonswarrior's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Two star reviews are reserved for books that were so bad I did not finish, but had something enjoyable about them. This gets 2.5 because I finished it.
So I want to start by saying this is not a good book, and I would never recommend someone else read it. That being said, the good things about this book are that the action is fun, the characters are sometimes tolerable, and the author does a great job at two things: setting up seemingly impossible problems that the characters solve in interesting ways, and really getting a reader curious about what's going to happen next. This last one is somewhat clumsy and heavy handed, but it is very effective, so credit where credit is due.
This book is also incredibly racist and misogynistic. I'm pretty sure the author thinks most people in South America do not live or sleep in houses, either that or he thinks the continent is on the other side of the planet from North America. The book is full of gross sexist jokes, oftentimes in places and situations where they make no sense. The main character is practically sexless in the ways he responds to conversations about sex or sexuality, but the world around him is disturbingly horny, with the narrative pausing occasionally to breathlessly describe the details of an alien woman's gigantic boobs.
Also I'm pretty sure the author thinks the MC is a good person, but he chose to rob a group of people (racialized and otherized) who just helped him, then kill their leader. He accidently kills all their kids when he does this. How does this make him feel? Just kinda bad! Like a bit of a jerk! And how dare they make him feel bad about it (his words not mine.)
I use this detail to illustrate how incredibly bad at character writing the author is, at least in this first book. He really wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to write a fun and fast paced sleazy trashy adventure book, which he's pretty good at doing! But he also wants his characters to be complex and deep, he wants them to make hard and complicated choices and deal with the consequences both internally and externally, he wants to satirize our world and say something deep and meaningful about it, and at all these things he is an absolute failure. Also his worldbuilding is terrible. What a waste of an intergalactic society.
All in all I will not ever recommend this book, and will actively discourage others from reading it.
So I want to start by saying this is not a good book, and I would never recommend someone else read it. That being said, the good things about this book are that the action is fun, the characters are sometimes tolerable, and the author does a great job at two things: setting up seemingly impossible problems that the characters solve in interesting ways, and really getting a reader curious about what's going to happen next. This last one is somewhat clumsy and heavy handed, but it is very effective, so credit where credit is due.
This book is also incredibly racist and misogynistic. I'm pretty sure the author thinks most people in South America do not live or sleep in houses, either that or he thinks the continent is on the other side of the planet from North America. The book is full of gross sexist jokes, oftentimes in places and situations where they make no sense. The main character is practically sexless in the ways he responds to conversations about sex or sexuality, but the world around him is disturbingly horny, with the narrative pausing occasionally to breathlessly describe the details of an alien woman's gigantic boobs.
Also I'm pretty sure the author thinks the MC is a good person, but he chose to rob a group of people (racialized and otherized) who just helped him, then kill their leader. He accidently kills all their kids when he does this. How does this make him feel? Just kinda bad! Like a bit of a jerk! And how dare they make him feel bad about it (his words not mine.)
I use this detail to illustrate how incredibly bad at character writing the author is, at least in this first book. He really wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to write a fun and fast paced sleazy trashy adventure book, which he's pretty good at doing! But he also wants his characters to be complex and deep, he wants them to make hard and complicated choices and deal with the consequences both internally and externally, he wants to satirize our world and say something deep and meaningful about it, and at all these things he is an absolute failure. Also his worldbuilding is terrible. What a waste of an intergalactic society.
All in all I will not ever recommend this book, and will actively discourage others from reading it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
abirchtealeaf's review against another edition
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Look to be clear this is a light novel. Maybe it doesn't look like but the title of this should be.
How I ended up in the dungeon with nothing but my cat, underwear, and dynamite.
Taking this book as what it is. It's tremendous fun. The action goes fast enough to almost make you forget how horribly bleak the setting is. It's a decent take on the genre and compared to something like solo leveling, omvient readers viewpoint, or even any power scaling dungeon, crawling book it comes off less serious and more lovable.
Now to be clear this book comes with a pretty big list of trigger warnings. If none of those bother you and you want something fun. It's a pretty good read.
How I ended up in the dungeon with nothing but my cat, underwear, and dynamite.
Taking this book as what it is. It's tremendous fun. The action goes fast enough to almost make you forget how horribly bleak the setting is. It's a decent take on the genre and compared to something like solo leveling, omvient readers viewpoint, or even any power scaling dungeon, crawling book it comes off less serious and more lovable.
Now to be clear this book comes with a pretty big list of trigger warnings. If none of those bother you and you want something fun. It's a pretty good read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, and Blood
The book goes fast and doesn't linger but it's a dark setting. It's seems intentional that everything is awful and yet there is no time to longer on it.andeil's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.25
A fun read, I really enjoyed the litRPG genre. I have to admit that the dudebro teen humor was a bit hit-or-miss—while entertaining initially, it became tiresome as the story progressed (I found myself frequently eye-rolling). As someone who has been playing RPGs/TTRPGs for over 15 years, I felt the narration fell short at times. I also never became invested in Carl as a character, not even at the end of the book, when I felt the story as a whole became more interesting - I even found him tiresome at points.
Nonetheless, I LOVED Princess Donut and take it from someone who struggles to concentrate while listening to audiobooks: this audiobook is a must-listen; Jeff Hays' hilarious narration saved me from DNFing it a couple of times.
Overall, it was a fun read, and, while the humor may not always land, I plan to continue with the series as a light break from my other readings.
Nonetheless, I LOVED Princess Donut and take it from someone who struggles to concentrate while listening to audiobooks: this audiobook is a must-listen; Jeff Hays' hilarious narration saved me from DNFing it a couple of times.
Overall, it was a fun read, and, while the humor may not always land, I plan to continue with the series as a light break from my other readings.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Child death, and Fatphobia
mattrose's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Child death
rorikae's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
'Dungeon Crawler Carl' by Matt Dinniman is a fun, urban fantasy that follows one man and his cat when they get pulled into an alien competition.
When aliens invade and pit the surviving humans against each other in a televised dungeon battle, Carl is paired up with his ex-girlfriends cat, Princess Donut. Now with the ability to speak, Princess Donut and Carl will have to battle against hordes of enemies, brutal humans, and the system itself to get further into the dungeon and a chance at survival.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a lot of fun. Carl is a character that is easy to care about paired with one of my favorite cats in fiction. Princess Donut is hilarious and she adds a lot to the humor in the series. Outside of the humor, Carl is a deeply caring person who gets himself in trouble because he wants to genuinely help the people that he encounters. He is a good placeholder for the reader as he is learning about the weird alien game he is living within right alongside the reader. This world is populated with interesting creatures, horrifying personalities, and new twists and turns around each corner. This is a great start to a series that I will definitely be continuing with. There are some solid mysteries about the world that are set up in this volume and I also cannot wait to spend more time with Carl and Donut.
When aliens invade and pit the surviving humans against each other in a televised dungeon battle, Carl is paired up with his ex-girlfriends cat, Princess Donut. Now with the ability to speak, Princess Donut and Carl will have to battle against hordes of enemies, brutal humans, and the system itself to get further into the dungeon and a chance at survival.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a lot of fun. Carl is a character that is easy to care about paired with one of my favorite cats in fiction. Princess Donut is hilarious and she adds a lot to the humor in the series. Outside of the humor, Carl is a deeply caring person who gets himself in trouble because he wants to genuinely help the people that he encounters. He is a good placeholder for the reader as he is learning about the weird alien game he is living within right alongside the reader. This world is populated with interesting creatures, horrifying personalities, and new twists and turns around each corner. This is a great start to a series that I will definitely be continuing with. There are some solid mysteries about the world that are set up in this volume and I also cannot wait to spend more time with Carl and Donut.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Fatphobia, and Blood
Minor: Infidelity
liline163's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail