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!

 I was very worried this book would be like Sword Art Online, Solo Leveling, or y'know any piece of media that utilizes video game HUD's and mechanics that has fallen flat for me in the past. But I'm happy to report its so much better. So much more entertaining.

However! This book is incredibly violent and gorey. If you think the premise is bleak, the plot is equally bleak and extremely dark at times. Carl and Princess Donut are seriously going through it this whole book.

Dinniman thankfully has way with comedic timing in writing that jives with me so despite the gore and very heavy themes, I found myself just having a grand ol' time reading about Carl's constant suffering. Princess Donut is a delight though, its no wonder her charisma stat is so high.

At a different point in my life I wonder if I wouldn't have enjoyed this given how gorey and dark it is but it just hit in all the right ways. The sprinkling of small commentary on Carl and Princess Donut's life before entering the dungeon is equally as intriguing as finding out more about the corporation that is behind the entire dungeon crawl. I worry that the series will get too dark for me to want to continue at some point, so I'm really gunning for Dinniman's humor to keep me holding on! 

Grimdark but add a touch of humor and a talking cat with the sass and you might as well call Matt Dinniman a fisherman because my attention? HOOKED.

I've heard so many good and bad things about this book so I was quite apprehensive about being disappointed once I started. You can imagine my surprise when it went above and beyond my initial expectations! Instead of just being within the realm of campy, the serious and often real stakes that Carl and the talking cat, Princess Donut, endured help cement the legitimacy of the story.

The story revolves around our protagonist, Carl, who was literally caught with his pants down as all semblance of society and life as we know it disappears in the blink of an eye. He enters a dungeon together with his cat, Princess Donut, to compete in a literal life-and-death fight against Elden Ring-esque monsters employing RPG game mechanisms.

If you're the type of person who enjoys playing RPG games and probably uses Twitch, then this would be right up your alley. If you haven't played any games recently, then the explanations to get the ball rolling might get a little too info-dumpy and might affect your enjoyment of the series.

I suggest giving this first book a try because there's so much to love! 

To start with, I loved the characters! Carl is a no-nonsense practical guy who's just here to survive despite the dungeon AI's foot fetish obsession and the ethical situations he constantly finds himself plagued with. I like how straight and moral he is, qualities that are hard to remember and hold on to once the rules reward murder and destruction. And there is a lot of murder and destruction that goes on in this book. Like <I>please-look-at-trigger-warnings-before-you-cast-judgement</i> a lot.

His foil is Princess Donut, a cat blessed with sentience and charisma. She is haughty and proud tempered with her love for Carl and her passion for the camera. She'd make a good streamer - one that can potentially make it big on both Youtube AND Twitch. Her antics and choices are ostentatious, which makes Carl's unintentional catchphrase of "Goddamnit, Donut" all the more humorous.

I'm a huge sucker for interconnected alien or monster species that thrive within a particular environment. If you like the anime Dungeon Meshi, I think you'd enjoy this. We are met with a variety of creatures that Carl and Donut fight for experience. They're not just mindless creatures; they are involved in politics and instinct within their race and the dungeon's rules. Although they're NPCs, you catch bits and pieces of their lore through the AI's description which hints towards a bigger story than what we see in this book.

One of the highlights of this story is the streaming concept. It reminds me of the manhwa "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint" so if you enjoyed that, you might enjoy this as well. I like that the characters are challenged by a third aspect - to make their survival as spectacular and as captivating to the average viewer. Carl and Donut's murder spree - because killing sentient and self-aware NPCs to survive is STILL murder - is televised and weighed by billions of lives and in turn, they continue to survive and thrive due to an ambivalent viewer's interest.

There's a lot to unpack there but on the surface, I've found myself enjoying it to even let out more than a chuckle or two. It is a funny book if your sense of humor is wry and dry, which only Andy Weir has wielded masterfully so far.

I highly recommend this book! It's a good book to read if you're looking to be entertained and you want to root for characters that continue to persist against all foreseeable odds. If you don't find the

mass murder, genocide, infanticide, senicide, cannibalism, implied rape, filicide, drug abuse

palatable concepts for the sake of entertainment and to show the bleak, depressing world they live in or you're not a big fan of complex game descriptions, then this might not be the best book for you. And that's okay! 

Overall, I'm off to purchase the second book to figure out what the hell happens next. 

Hear me out…. this book was SO fun to read. Very original concept and constantly had me wondering what was next. I feel like I was tired of the fantasy genre and this was such a breath of fresh air. 

With that being said!! I would comment that this is a fairly vulgar book in terms of shock value with violence. There are also some themes and tropes that are talked about but never spoken about in detail that could be triggering or offensive. I give it 4 stars because there were some parts that I felt uncomfortable with, like the first boss they encounter in the dungeon. 

Overall: thematic as heck! Fun as all get out! I will be reading the next installments (-: 

With this book you get exactly what's on the box.
We meet our main character on a child winter night wearing pink crocs, boxes to s, no shirt and a leather jacket and carrying a squirming prize winning tortoiseshell Persian cat.
His inventory is, half a packet of cigarettes.

This is not your typical dungeon crawl. Not your typical setup. The basis of the story is similar to Running Man meets Hunger Games, in a high-fantasy (plus bombs and guns) rogue-like dungeon crawl, with elements that feel similar to Douglas Adams, and somewhat similar to Diabolo.. kinda. The target audience is pretty clear, it's self-critical of the genre, it's ultra-violent, and has some ridiculous humour, off colour sexual content, and also peppered with some sober deathdealing brutality and remorse.

The audiobook is beautifully produced with one narrator doing a lot of different voices. Dialogue in tunnels has a touch of echo on it, calling over long distances is less loud, robotic AI tooltips or other-being voices have effects on them. The effect is really immersive and very well pulled off.

The story is a lot of fun, and this is only book one.