Dungeon Crawler Carl (2020) ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ by Matt Dinniman
I read Dungeon Crawler Carl, the first in a series by Matt Dinniman.
This is the first audiobook I am adding to my list of read books, so this review will be heavily influenced by that fact. You could argue that this is not really reading a book, but you know what? Get away from me with that hogwash. It is absolutely the same as if someone is reading you a story, and didn’t we love that when we were children? A good audiobook that immerses you into the story can definitely be an equivalent if it is done right. And these audiobooks are done extremely well. It is read by Jeff Hays, a very talented artist that does all the voices of the characters. Yup, even Donut. But we’ll get into that later.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is also the first piece of gamelit that I have ever read. It is written like a love letter to the role playing open world genre of video games, and I am absolutely here for it. It begins with a man named Carl and his girlfriend’s Persian cat, named Princess Donut, who survive a near extinction event which destroys all man made structures and throws anyone who wasn’t inside a building at the time into a brutal game of survival. Think Borderlands meets D&D. They soon realize they’re on a television show where viewers watch their fight for survival in a cruel reality show sort of program. There are more than a dozen levels, but no one has gotten through them all. Will Carl and Donut do it? Well, you’ll find out if you read the series! This book follows the first two levels, which are considered the tutorial levels.
The story is exciting, and you grow to love the characters, which, as stated before, have been given voice by Jeff Hays. He does all the characters, which I didn’t know until I saw a clip of a live reading on Youtube. The characters are endearing, and it is fun to discover the way everyone in the story grows. There is a lot of humor in the story to balance the grim and gory aspects, and I think it’s a worthy listen for anyone who loves video games and good character development.
