Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt DinnimanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
LITERALLY WHY AM I CRYING?!? This series is about a dude who runs around in boxers and a leather jacket and his ex-girlfriend’s cat on his shoulder! WHY DOES IT HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS?!?
I think I could have held the line against Feelings if I’d stopped at Book 1. Dungeon Crawler Carl was mostly simply fun--in a really fucked up way, I mean. Y’all, that Hoarder Neighborhood Boss thought she’d died and gone to hell because she was a bad person! I was, as they say, appalled.
Interestingly, that scene is set up to reward the reader who isn’t simply rushing through the text to get to the next explosion… as long as they’re not already literate in Spanish, I guess. I can read Spanish if it’s easy, but my older kid can’t, and when we were talking about the book she hadn’t thought that scene was especially affecting, but THEN she admitted that she hadn’t bothered to translate the Spanish, either. When I told her what the Hoarder had been saying, she was all, “Yeah, omg that’s fucked up.”
I also think it’s interesting that the two most messed up scenes in the entire series, that Hoarder one and the goblin baby one, are both in Book 1. At the end of Book 1, and then much more heavy-handedly throughout the rest of the series, we start getting kicked in the teeth by the concept that the NPCs are beings, too, with their own thoughts and feelings and interior worlds, etc., so the idea of horrific violence against them no longer works to elicit even horrified laughter.
I think it takes about that same amount of time for us to realize that Carl isn’t just an action-adventure meathead, and that even though Donut still has her psychotic cat-like tendencies, she’s going to grow emotionally.
Although--several characters throughout the book call her a child, or child-like, but I don’t feel like that’s an accurate description for how she is, or especially for the relationship between her and Carl. She’s very much exactly as a cat would be if they were suddenly actually a person in a fur suit, and I think that is a major part of why I love this book so much. At its core, Dungeon Crawler Carl is genuinely just a book about a guy who really, really, really loves his cat. And if you, too, have powerfully, aggressively, wholeheartedly loved an animal companion, I feel like you’re going to recognize that and you’re going to get why that’s important. Like, my cat, Spots, is not my baby. She gets on my nerves. She’s spoiled and completely unreasonable. I would also murder an actual human in cold blood to protect her and I doubt I’d even feel bad about it afterwards.
This isn’t my first series in the LitRPG genre, although it’s close--I’ve read the Ready, Player One series, but that’s about it--and I’m definitely not as into the passages about stats and loot boxes and character classes as I could be, although I’ve played my share of DnD so I understand it. And the books where the premise switched to Pokemon or Mario Kart were not as fun as the dungeon fantasy ones. Is the trains premise meant to mimic an RPG genre? Surely not Ticket to Ride, right? Although now that we’re talking about it, a Settlers of Catan book would be SICK!
Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt DinnimanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Carl’s Doomsday Scenario is where the stakes got a lot less like simple fucked-up fun and more like we are torturing these people in such a heartbreaking manner, because it turns out that my meathead Coastie is actually a really good guy who’s had his goodness taken advantage of for too long, and the stuck-up cat brat is actually the pet mom that she herself should have had, and she knows it. Like, genuinely how does the exact same book have me exclaiming both “HEY! IT’S UNETHICAL TO GENOCIDE AN ENTIRE PLANET!” and “HEY! IT’S UNETHICAL TO GIVE AWAY YOUR PET!” I mean, both of those sentiments are obvious, it’s just funny that they’re both themes in the same book.
And the sentiment of beating your head against the wall of whatever unfair limit is and always will inevitably be thwarting you, with no hope that it will get better, but still you beat your head against that wall and proclaim that the wall will not break you, you will break that wall--that’s always the human condition, I guess, but it feels especially like the human condition these days.
Walking the tightrope of portraying that the AI/Dungeon has taken the most stereotypical (and therefore demeaning/dehumanizing) elements of human pop culture for the dungeon while also portraying that the creatures embodying these stereotypes are actually whole beings worthy of compassion (and not, you know, of having all their babies bombed to death) got a little wobbly here--I just don’t know if there was a way of depicting the murders of goblin sex workers that would have successfully walked that tightrope--but I think I got what Dinniman was going for. None of the portrayals were as abject as Book 1’s Hoarder Boss or those goblin babies, but I’m still pouring one out for good old GumGum tonight.
The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt DinnimanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook is the book where it’s probably the easiest to get lost, because not only is there a complicated train system that Dinniman explicitly says you’re not supposed to try to figure out but it’s definitely super weird that you can’t figure it out, but also I’m personally less interested in crafting tables, chats, gems, and just all magical items in general. I did surprisingly enjoy some of the train mob battles, though--very Train to Busan-ish! I got VERY invested in the Katia/Hekla storyline, though--Iceland is so messy!
Also, how many other crawlers do we feel like have been invited to become part of a secret society and just can’t tell anyone?
The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt DinnimanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Gate of the Feral Gods makes the switch from Monster of the Week to Big Bad format, which is a little bit of a bummer for me, because if given the choice I will ALWAYS vote for Monster of the Week, and yet my series are ALWAYS trying to Big Bad me! Sam and Dean, I really did want you to just keep fighting wendigos and vampires and ghosts for 16 seasons!
Also, I know I excused the prostitution storyline from Book 2, because I get that the AI/Dungeon Planners are taking the worst/most stereotypical versions of human pop culture as their premise, but Dinniman. Must we have ANOTHER sex worker storyline?!? Two sex worker storylines is too many sex worker storylines. Make Juicebox a regular waitress and stop being weird.
Oh, wait. If you count Samantha that’s three sex worker storylines. Dinniman, you’re starting to reveal too much about your psyche. Like, this is becoming My Dad Wrote a Porno levels of unconscious revelation.
I do appreciate, though, that at least we’re not getting any sex/romance storylines with Carl, thank goodness. Let me enjoy his competence and developing character arc in peace, please! Plus the emotional growth of his platonic life partner, Donut. I’m worried that at some point they ARE going to break him, but until then my favorite thing is watching him craft a complicated plan to save everyone, and then throw bombs at it until it works.
I also remain very worried about Donut’s Constitution.
The Butcher's Masquerade by Matt DinnimanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Butcher’s Masquerade leans very hard into the discomfort of existing in a universe that is built upon the oppressed as status quo, with bullying evident all the way from top to bottom. This universe is built upon the goal of no matter how low you go, you should always have a dog to kick. And we’re starting to see how some of those dogs are and have been fighting back, and how it’s starting to maybe pay off.
Also, even a Dungeon Crawler universe has lawyers!
Also also... poor Prepotente.
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt DinnimanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I know for sure that I'm a basic bitch, because Prepotente shrieking out of nowhere will never not be absolutely hilarious to me.
I never played Magic the Gathering or Pokemon, so the premise of this book is a little bit lost on me. But I still haven't figured out what the train game from Book 3 was supposed to be, either--Ticket to Ride? Chutes and Ladders?--so it's fine. My mind definitely skimmed over all the card game rules talk, though, so I'm glad that Donut was paying attention!
It feels really unfair that not only are the aliens trying to kill Carl, but they're also trying to existentially torture him, as well. But at least they've got the excuse of being villains--what on EARTH was up with Bea?!? WHY IS SHE SO CARTOONISHLY EVIL?!? Genuine question: is she a sociopath? She has to be a sociopath. Seriously. Who DOES this?!?
It's interesting, though, that everything revealed about Bea paints Carl as a guy with a good heart who was just floating through life. If he'd ever paid attention to or emotionally invested himself in Bea, there's no way that he wouldn't have noticed all that she was up to. And not to victim blame, but I can't help but feel a little sorry for Bea. Her machinations were absurdly easy to suss out by someone who paid the least bit of attention to her--I mean, the CAT sussed them out!--so how little attention could Carl have been tossing in the direction of his very own live-in girlfriend to not have clocked a single bit of it.
How she didn't try babytrapping him is beyond me!
But anyway, in Book 1, Carl was a video game character. The writing was fine, but he, as a person, didn't have a ton of depth. It's wild that even though this scenario is terrible, this is the most alive he's been since he was a little dude holding his mom's hand and looking out at the Grand Canyon. This is the most love he's given and received. The most family he's had. He's got a devoted platonic life partner who shares his goals and is a true peer and companion. He's got a purpose now. He's passionate. What he's doing is important.
Deep down inside, do we think Carl might be kinda happy here in the dungeon?
This Inevitable Ruin by Matt DinnimanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Our anti-capitalist anti-heroes really come into their own on this level. I kind of wish that the Carl of Level 9 could go back in time so I could see how he'd handle Level 1's Hoarder, or Level 2's GumGum, with his newfound understanding of how this universe works. And I think it would be even sadder, because I don't think he *could* have handled them differently!
Is there meaning in suffering, even when the suffering itself is pointless? It's certainly helped Carl gain a lot of leadership skills, I guess! Seriously, though, I feel like this book does have a lot to say about what it means to suffer, to be a victim. Whether you're a goblin baby or a dungeon crawler or are caught up in Donut's Giant Ball spell or are one of 120,000 children trapped inside Lucia's mind or your cartoon villain girlfriend is monstrously manipulating you and you don't even know it, your experience has meaning, and the meaning of that suffering travels beyond just you.
I also love the through-line of those who strive to help the vulnerable. And not just the already desperate, like those on the surface repeatedly attacking the kinder center, but also Katia, who just wants to comfort a terminally ill baby for the time she has left, and Mordecai, who's one of the few game guides genuinely doing his best. Same for Carl's lawyer. It keeps the vast number of those who are thrilled to victimize the vulnerable from feeling too oppressive.
All that being said, though, I genuinely had no idea what was going on in most of the book. And it was fine. I should have just tossed a bunch of bombs at the plot and I could have been like Carl!
A Parade of Horribles by Matt DinnimanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Sooo... we're doing Mario Kart, I guess.
Also, boo, Capitalism!
The only other thing I have to say is that Carl REALLY should have gotten rid of that one specific pet biscuit...
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