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.

A Dungeons & Dragons-style dungeon crawl with the wit and imagination of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Will be sure to get you out of a reading slump as it's VERY addicting!

Goddamnit, Donut!

New Achievement! I read this book!

I managed to make it all the way through the first Dungeon Crawler Carl book without throwing it against the wall!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

This was hilarious, macabre, disturbing, disgusting, violent, and utterly enjoyable! Carl & Donut grinding to level up took me back to my World of Warcraft and Ragnarok Online days. Just utter nostalgia for those carefree game days, without the moral weight of human lives at stake. There’s obviously some intergalactic politics going on, which I’m looking forward to delve deeper into in the next books.

I knew Mongo was going to be that one! Ha!

This is the best GameLit/LitRPG I’ve read so far!

🐈 👑

A fun book, especially if you live D&D or video games. I think the story arc is going to at more depth and intrigue as the series continues, but the first book is mostly silly, though there are definitely dark themes. Looking forward to listen to the next!