Dungeon Crawler Carl
Ratings238
Average rating4.3
Has basically everything you would want out of a litrpg book, including actually interesting well-developed characters. Even the small side characters feel fully developed.
Bloody entertaining
Well, it was lot of fun. It had its down moments but overall it's a very entertaining as well as heartbreaking. The things they did to humans are horrible and I hope Carl will get justice for us humans. Goddammit, Donut!!!!!!
First LitRPG I've ever read but definitely not my last. Super fun and fast-paced with some great characters. Funny without overdoing it. A surprising amount of depth to the world and the story.
Side note: The audiobook narrator is spectacular
Occasionally funny, continuously crude. I suspect I would've enjoyed this book more if I weren't grown.
Incredibly juvenile. I loved it.
I loved everything about this book and it's premise. I'm excited to continue reading the series. NEW ACHIEVEMENTS TO BE UNLOCKED.
Im not a LitRpg person - but this has been recommended so many times i decided to give it a go and im glad i did. I have enough peripheral knowledge of RPG to not be totally lost but probably lost some jokes. But the plot is fun and the audio book is nothing if not entertaining.
A bizarre story. The first 50% is basically like watching someone play an RPG, which could get a little boring but fortunately things pick-up when it becomes clear that there ia more to the story than a simple dungeon crawl. I initially thought I was one-and-done, but now I am actually looking forward to the next book…
4.00/5.00
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a greatly paced funny book. The AI comments are real funny. Some good characters, one great character. Some of the action and the various mob/monsters blend together. I think the author is really struggling with action, but shines at comedy, character work and plot lines. Certainly worth a read (better worth a listen). The book starts off with a deep and reflective battle and gets very RPG later in the book, but return to deeper themes later. I am getting a lot of Upload vibes.... (amazon prime show)
Love princess donut. The AI's feet fetish is hilarious. We need better action writing. We need more character moments, more ethical dilemma, more trauma and horror of this situation and less RPG. This book is so RPG!
4.5 stars
Listened on audio. Just a fun book with good characters and humor. Helped break up some of the darker books I was reading
3 ***
This was my first experience with LitRPG. It takes some time to get used to it but once you are in that mode it is almost like listening to the gameplay of an RPG.
I heard the audiobook and the narration was good. Overall a fun read, I had a good laugh a few times.
The first book did not entice me enough to pick the next ones in the series right away so maybe sometime later I will get back to this genre.
My sense of humour tends more towards the British because if I can rapidly guess the punchline or the 'humour' is really demeaning and / or mean, it's not humour it doesn't rate a twitch of the cheek muscles let alone the lips or eyes.
This was really really enjoyable, probably because I loved DnD in college, the two main characters are written well and have great interactions, the announcer is incredibly creative, and the action just keeps going.
The narrator is incredibly talented with his voice. I'd swear the female voices [Princess Donut for example] doesn't sound like a male voice straining at its audible limits. And he does a fantastic job interpreting the announcer's dialog!
If you enjoyed this book give Drew Hayes' NPCs https://hardcover.app/books/npcs a try.
I want to keep reading, sadly none of the library systems I have access to have the book and interlibrary loan doesn't include audio since the '00s when the government started cutting back on funding for the arts and libraries had to cut costs somewhere.
I do not recommend anyone read this book. Not because it's not good but because the audiobook is just amazing and the narrator's voice is perfect. So many funny parts that just wouldn't be the same without his voice. Can't wait to listen to the next one!
I picked this book up when it was mentioned on Fantasy News on Youtube and I'm so glad I did. This is a cool take on the dungeon crawl trope that really looks at the gamut of human atrocity. The main characters are growing and the plot hooked me, especially when I though it would peter out.
I initially started this audiobook a few months ago and didn't really like it that much (I think I got to chapter 2 or so). It just seemed so slow.
Well, I picked it up again recently and holy cow! Its amazing. I love the narrator and the voices and it just clicked for me this time around. I am steaming ahead for book two and I cannot wait.
I had way too much fun reading this! This is the first book I've ever read in the LitRPG genre, and now I need to venture out and find some more!
Thank you Berkley Pub for the arc copy!
First impression: Ready Player One for gamers. (That's not a compliment). Second impression: actually deep, and I love that sassy cat.
I was close to dropping the book after the first few pages. The constant "hilarious" in-game descriptions were really off putting. The whole premise of "what if a regular person was dropped into Warcraft!" was pretty dull, too.
I kept pushing through though because I'm a sucker for a good cat character, and Princess Donut is excellent. I stayed because I do enjoy a good power leveling fantasy when the characters are also good. By the mid point I was detecting some interesting themes on voyeurism and capitalist exploitation.
For the record, though, Matthew Woodring Stover did a much better job on those topics with the Legacy of Cain series - grittier, more complex, and ultimately more horrifying.
So far, I can say I enjoy DCC, but I doubt it'll have a permanent spot on my shelf.
TLDR: I wasn’t sure what to expect from Dungeon Crawler Carl, but it turned out to be surprisingly fun and well executed. With strong characters and a silly premise that works remarkably well, it’s an engaging take on the LitRPG genre—even for those who don’t typically enjoy it (like me).
Food Rating: Dungeon Crawler Carl is like trying a weird snack you weren’t sure about—say, chocolate-covered bacon (who doesnt like bacon) and discovering it’s both bizarre and delicious. Unexpected, but absolutely satisfying.
Dungeon Crawler Carl was a refreshing surprise, blending humor, action, and clever world-building into a story that shouldn’t work as well as it does—but somehow does. The premise is undeniably silly (a deadly, game-like dungeon crawl broadcast as intergalactic entertainment), yet the book’s sharp writing and engaging characters make it both entertaining and surprisingly heartfelt.
Carl, and his feline companion are the heart of the story, grounding the chaos with a mix of humor, determination, and unexpected depth. Even for someone who doesn’t usually enjoy LitRPG-style books, the storytelling is compelling enough that it’s easy to overlook the genre’s conventions and just have fun with the ride.
it’s a fun book! It’s not the kind of book I’ve ever read before and, at first, I wasn’t sure that I liked it. But the humour, the story, the intrigue all hooked me and now I’m excited to line up books 2-7!!
This was great. If you're into World of Warcraft or other similar MMORPGs, this audiobook is for you.
9.5/10
Just pure fun. It was refreshing for me to read something where the humor is front and center rather than just some comedic relief dribbled between all the grimdark. Every single character is likeable and familiar. On to the next one!