TLDR: If you haven't read Dungeon Crawler Carl..... read Dungeon Crawler Carl! (and actually even better....listen to the audiobook).
I recently completed book 7 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, and it has very quickly become one of my favorite fantasy/sci-fi series. And so here are some reasons you should check it out and get into it.
1) First book is basically a dnd adventure dungeon, fantasy monsters, races, spells, levels. Its what drew me in, it has all the tropes to make a good dnd player go "me likey".
2) But very quickly the series moves from just a zany adventure series into an intense heart felt narrative. You feel the pain of the characters, you feel the stakes, even though the characters at first seem a bit zany, you quickly come to love them.
3) The story does a wonderful job of peeling back the larger narrative. The main character (Carl) knows basically nothing about what is going on when the series starts. But slowly he is made aware of a much larger universe, and you get glimpses into the wider narrative in wonderful bits and pieces, just enough to keep you salivating as to what is really going on out there.
4) The story contains a wonderful mix of insightful competent villains, and mustache twirling idiot villains. There is a fun mix of villains in the series, and while some are just dumb as bricks, only able to do what they do because of the power they wield. And others are highly intelligent and pull off some moves that make you go "holy crap, nice play".
5) This book series basically redefines the "twist". The plot of this series will zig and zag on you so quickly it will make your head spin....and it completely works. So many twists feel "contrived", just to fit the narrative, but in the world of the dungeon there are so many entities pulling at the strings, they sometimes clash in ways that take the narrative in a completely 180 from what you expected....and it works. One of the biggest joys in the series is that you will surprised over and over again.
6) The audiobooks are solid gold. 95% of the voices are done by Jeff Hayes, and he's a master. Seriously some of the female voices I could not believe were him until I looked it up. While reading the series is good, the audiobooks just take it up a notch.
7) Matt Dinniman (the author) is an Anti-Martin. We are 7 books in, and Dinniman keeps cranking them out, with the current book just released a few months ago, and the next one due early next year. This is an author that has my trust he will actually finish his series.
So yeah, I cordially invite you all to join the Crawler Club (or the Princess Posse for those in the know).
I recently completed book 7 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, and it has very quickly become one of my favorite fantasy/sci-fi series. And so here are some reasons you should check it out and get into it.
1) First book is basically a dnd adventure dungeon, fantasy monsters, races, spells, levels. Its what drew me in, it has all the tropes to make a good dnd player go "me likey".
2) But very quickly the series moves from just a zany adventure series into an intense heart felt narrative. You feel the pain of the characters, you feel the stakes, even though the characters at first seem a bit zany, you quickly come to love them.
3) The story does a wonderful job of peeling back the larger narrative. The main character (Carl) knows basically nothing about what is going on when the series starts. But slowly he is made aware of a much larger universe, and you get glimpses into the wider narrative in wonderful bits and pieces, just enough to keep you salivating as to what is really going on out there.
4) The story contains a wonderful mix of insightful competent villains, and mustache twirling idiot villains. There is a fun mix of villains in the series, and while some are just dumb as bricks, only able to do what they do because of the power they wield. And others are highly intelligent and pull off some moves that make you go "holy crap, nice play".
5) This book series basically redefines the "twist". The plot of this series will zig and zag on you so quickly it will make your head spin....and it completely works. So many twists feel "contrived", just to fit the narrative, but in the world of the dungeon there are so many entities pulling at the strings, they sometimes clash in ways that take the narrative in a completely 180 from what you expected....and it works. One of the biggest joys in the series is that you will surprised over and over again.
6) The audiobooks are solid gold. 95% of the voices are done by Jeff Hayes, and he's a master. Seriously some of the female voices I could not believe were him until I looked it up. While reading the series is good, the audiobooks just take it up a notch.
7) Matt Dinniman (the author) is an Anti-Martin. We are 7 books in, and Dinniman keeps cranking them out, with the current book just released a few months ago, and the next one due early next year. This is an author that has my trust he will actually finish his series.
So yeah, I cordially invite you all to join the Crawler Club (or the Princess Posse for those in the know).
Last edited:
