Dungeon Crawler Carl [REVIEW]

When I was much younger than I am now I would get deeply obsessed with book series. In Elementary school it was Goosebumps. I would tear through each and every one I could get my hands on in a single day during the summer. Sometimes, I’d tear through two of them. In middle school I was obsessed with Animorphs, the Warrior series, and Harry Potter. In high school it was Twilight, the Abhorsen trilogy and The Hunger Games series. However, at some point I just couldn’t find a fiction series that seized all of my attention. That I devoured and felt completely enraptured and compelled by to keep reading. Whose world I wanted to explore and know about. For somewhere around fourteen or fifteen years I stuck to nonfiction. To exploring the research and knowledge of experts and professionals in order to expand my knowledge base and taking none of that wonder and pleasure that I experienced reading in my youth into my daily life. That is, until I was introduced into the Dungeon Crawler Carl series of books.

How much I love these books caught me flat-footed. My brother recommended them to me and admittedly I was a bit skeptical at first. Mostly because I didn’t realize my brother knew how to read (tech guys, amirite?). I was hooked immediately. The spoiler free synopsis is this: aliens take over the Earth, kill almost everybody, and then let the survivors have the choice of trying to survive on the surface with all infrastructure obliterated or take their chances in a game show dungeon crawl. Hilarity ensues (and by that I mean they genocide humanity; oops). I found the pitch extremely compelling which is why I gave it a chance. The content? Absolutely astounding. Dinniman has a lot of parallels with Douglas Adams both in tone and pacing in the first book of his series. Dinniman however demonstrates a perverse knowledge of weird sexual kinks and odd proclivities and leverages them to make his characters, particularly the dungeon AI, horny and weird with surprising relevance to the plot. None of the characters in the narrative are simply portrayed as unrounded human beings without base desires of their own but rather as whole and complete people trying to survive in this post-apocalyptic hellscape they find themselves in. Even the “NPCs” who exist within the dungeon are real people (well, non-human persons) who, like the crawlers, simply want to exist and survive.

The themes and underlying commentary in the first two books I’ve read so far (there are currently seven in the series and the eighth comes out in September) are pretty blatant. The first and most obvious one is the commentary on reality television especially in the competitive reality TV space. Where we consume other people’s struggles for entertainment all the while these people we are watching are fighting for a dream and a chance at something. The prizes on these shows can be life changing for a lot of the folks who participate in them which is why they participate. Just like the prize for the crawlers would be the same even more so. The second major theme is the commentary the books have around the attention economy of the internet. Views, followers, and favorites are vitally important for the crawlers to stay alive and get through the dungeon and obviously if people are watching one crawler’s craw through the dungeon they aren’t watching another’s. Favorites in particular are important but each viewer only has a finite number to use during the crawl. The more eyeballs you get on you the more resources you are afforded to survive and the better the production team treats you during your time in the dungeon. The attention of the masses is a currency like any other.

Is the prose perfect? Not at all. There were points in the two books where I had to reread a paragraph or two because I was slightly confused as to the positioning of the characters or where everyone was located. In the second book there was a scene where I had to reread it a couple of times because I wasn’t really sure if the characters were on a roof or on the street or inside of a building. There are even slight stretches where the writing feels a bit perfunctory and repetitive and Dinniman leaves a lot of many character descriptions up to your imagination. That’s understandable considering the sheer number of characters that pop up in the narrative. Where the writing shines is in the humorous use of RPG staples and in the dialogue between the characters which is somehow real and absurd at the same time. Plus, the overall humor and tone of the book is top-tier. He also makes a few random jabs at incels and alt-right morons which is much appreciated.

If you are a D&D nerd, MMO freak, or general shitposter on the internet you’re going to appreciate what this series has to offer. The hardcovers of the first two books are fairly cheap on Amazon though if you don’t want to support that steam roller (I buy from them because I lack integrity and regular transportation; living that bus life) you should be able to find his books at your local book store. I look forward to seeing where this series goes and what Dinniman does after he wraps up this smash hit.