Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Dungeon Crawler Carl

D&D meets Hunger Games meets Vonnegut - it reminds me of all of them and none of them. Love that there were both moments that made me laugh out loud and also reflect deeply. Side characters have these profound details and moments, and that’s not usual in a book like this. Some moments were a little crude for my taste but honestly - that’s kinda the point. Devoured it in one day! Stoked to read the rest.

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ohgenevieve's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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katie_holder's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I HATED THIS BOOK!

I question if the author hates women? The misogyny was real. The references were absurd and offensive. Also I hate video games and I double hate books written like a video game (new hate unlocked) I definitely was not the target audience, the target audience would be the men incels who talk about hating women while simultaneously wondering why they can’t find a woman. This book was torture.

I only finished this because of book club, I like going to book club. Also the reason why I rated this a 2 star book was because the audiobook production was fantastic. I will not be continuing this series.

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calyps0ph's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

I loved this book! contains just enough earth pop culture references to not be insufferable like Ready Player One, but is more grounded than the whimsy of hitchhiker's guide (which I loved, don't get me wrong). love the (mild) gore, satire, and crude humor.

the game mechanics (loot boxes, leveling, stat points, etc.) got a smidge tedious—though its clear Dinniman tries to cut out down the unimportant details once readers have adjusted to premise—as well as the xp farming bits, but it's clear from the beginning that the first three levels are TRAINING. I disagree with the people grouching that the story is moving too slow because book 1 progresses through only two levels: if the levels moved any faster, y'all would've complained Carl was OP and the pace was unrealistic. once they get to level three and choose race/class, things will (hopefully) expand beyond defaulting to familiar tactics (explosives and magic missiles), and we'll get to see more inventive boss fights. it's clear that there are overarching political agendas at play, both inside and outside of the dungeon, and there are a number of complex characters that I'm invested in.

if I had to critique something besides the repetition, it'd be Odette's obscenely massive breast armor? I get that it's high-level gear, but with the loot boxes being somewhat tailored to the crawler, I want an explanation as to how and why she ended up with the appearance she's famous for when (if?) we get the backstory on her crawl. as for the rest of the female nudity, I'm not necessarily mad about it... yet. bodies are bodies, and there's nothing wrong with describing them, and right now, Dinniman's grotesque depictions lean more into body horror than sexualization. BUT! that could change. the only other nit-picky thing I have is Donut's Second Chance spell, which is originally described as being able to raise a monster of a lower level than the caster from the dead (Chap. 30, p. 257). In Chapter 45, Carl describes that Donut "could now apparently resurrect monsters up to five levels higher than herself" (396). The word "apparently" makes me think that there's some explanation for this, but for now it's an inconsistency.

can't wait to read the next book! long live science fiction!

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peachmoni's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

It was surprisingly hard for me to get into this at first, but once the action started rolling, I was into it. I'm looking forward to the next installment!

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jassiecones's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I had a good laugh reading this, but I think the misogyny was juuuuuuust too much. Look, I can laugh at a joke like that if it’s delivered well and is surrounded by a different tone throughout the book. This book is not subtle. After the first bro joke it got old quick. Really fun concept, but I personally enjoyed “World Tree Online” better.

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and_so_it_goes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This is a very non-serious book that reads as a dramatic Hitchhiker’s Guide meets RPG mechanics and gamer humor. The beginning is super weak, and many of the piss jokes are not as funny as the author seems to think. However, some jokes did make me laugh.

There were occasional hints of depth like

Carl’s childhood, the boss pleading for her life in Spanish, Mordecai, etc

Yet it was instantly brushed over and was more set-dressing to make the story slightly more unique. I got the impression they are there for a reason but it is not touched upon as much as it could be. The number of people alive going down feels so divorced emotionally. Mysteries are set up and they were fairly engaging. The galactic corporation is more interesting than I thought it would be, mostly because all the higher-ups seem to conceal information a lot, and the hints of political intrigue.

This is a very fast read. It does require gaming knowledge, and I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who wasn’t familiar with those references. The first half is very boring, but the later half did make me understand why people like it. I started to enjoy it in a sort of trashy fun way by the end. I definitely wouldn’t rank it 5 stars but it is what it is.

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tayrayhay's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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