It's funny ‐ I'd seen so many people say "I thought Dungeon Crawler Carl was going to be so stupid, but I ended up loving it!" that I went this with expectations that were a bit too high. I was expecting something pretty amazing and it...wasn't quite that.
Don't get me wrong, it was a pretty entertaining read. The book equivalent of cheap candy. I won't criticize the writing too much ‐ it's serviceable ‐ but I think the book was intended to be a fun action-adventure ride so I judged it on those terms.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is litrpg: a science-fantasy story not just inspired by computer RPGs, but video game rules and structure like
stats, levels, achievements, and such are explicitly part of the narrative. The characters level up and know they have leveled up.
The premise of the series is that aliens show up on Earth and transform it into an MMO dungeon and force the surviving humans to
battle through it. Carl and Donut (his pet cat who becomes sentient) fight monsters, level up, find loot, meet survivors. The aliens
are broadcasting the game as an intergalatctic TV show and Carl/Donut eventually acquire a PR agent and viewers and followers on intergalactic
twitter.
I don't know if in the litRPG genre as a whole the characters are always literally in a game and aware of it, but it's DCC how is structured.
Carl and Donut level up and make choices about where they put upgrade points, etc.
So yeah, overall it's a fun read; there's lots of action. I think it would be a stronger book if it were a little bit shorter. There's a bit too much fat and I found the battles got a bit repetitive. Carl doesn't have much of a personality: sort of generic, grumpy man but with a heart of gold. Donut is pompous and vain. But they snark at each other, care for each other, and make a decent Odd Couple pair.
Where it actually falls down a bit for me is that periodically the author decides "This book should be more dark and serious" and Carl will pause to remember that he had a bad childhood and/or get upset about the frankly horrific situation they find themselves in. The premise is bleak when you pause to think about it. 99% of humanity killed, the survivors let to fight to the death in a constructed dungeon for the entertainment of a bunch of aliens. Carl will be (rightly) angry and upset for a paragraph or two and then we'll get back campy, over-the-top fight scenes. It's jarring in that Marvel movie way where the tone whipsaws from Serious Movie Moment to Time For A Gag! A book can have both funny and serious moments of course but there should be an effort to blend them better. In DCC it felt like, "We pause now for a Dramatic Moment. Slapstick comedy will begin again shortly."
The book introduces crumbs of a larger world. There is political manoeuvring among the various factions in the Galatic Syndicate that runs the game and from what I'd heard this becomes more important as the books go on, which should be interesting. And good to know. I couldn't imagine how the series might have kept its legs for thousands of pages if it were just narrating a romp through a dungeon crawl.
I'll continue reading the series (it looks like my local library has the whole series!) although I'm not in a huge rush. But something to reach when when I'm in the mood for a fun, silly read.
And now I'm returning to Circe!