Book Series Review - Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Man, I haven't done one of these in forever. It's not like my movies and TV show reviews either. With those, I was still watching movies and shows I just wasn't really reviewing any content officially (although I did drop my ratings in Letterboxd still). Books were a bit of a different story altogether because I just wasn't reading anything anymore. For those that know me or knew me growing up, that's practically unheard of. I'd always have a book in hand no matter where I went. Bars in Korea hanging out with my friends. In school (where I would actually get in trouble for reading during class). Even at work (where idiot coworkers who thought they were funny kept stealing and hiding them - you know who you were - I still remember that). But all that is besides the point. I was, pretty much literally, always reading.

I can't really remember when, but at some point, I stopped. I found it becoming harder and harder to get "sucked" in to the worlds I was reading about. That had been a really easy task in the past and so I was baffled as to why I couldn't get into reading again. I tried reading things like American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Brandon Sanderson's works (a few different ones and I am probably going to try again at some point), even one of my all time favorites, Stephen King. Nothing worked. I just couldn't focus. So after a time, I just quit.

I loved being an avid reader. I really did. Reading was and still is the ultimate form of escapism from this ultra-depressing, violent, and often terrible world, for me at least. It has been ever since I was kid. So despite not having a real desire to read, I kept stubbornly refusing to give up on it. I kept buying book after book in the hopes that one would be the key to unlocking my passion for reading again.

And so, with all that being said, I finally succeeded. I found that book, or rather books (which is even better - I do love a great series). They are, obviously, the Dungeon Crawler Carl Novels by Matt Dinniman. I won't really go over each one individually in this review, maybe at a later date after I've reread them all, but I will kind of go over them as a whole. Note though, as of right now I haven't finished the series that's currently available...yet. I am still reading This Inevitable Ruin but am on Part Three now and will probably finish it soon.

So here we go:

Series Name: Dungeon Crawler Carl

Novels: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Carl's Doomsday Scenario, The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook, The Gate of the Feral Gods, The Butcher's Masquerade, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, This Inevitable Ruin

Written By: Matt Dinniman

General Overview: Dungeon Crawler Carl (DCC) is a popular LitRPG series by Matt Dinniman about an intergalactic game show where Earth's survivors are forced to navigate a massive, monster-filled dungeon for the entertainment of alien viewers. It blends dark humor, gore, and surprisingly deep character development as protagonist Carl and his ex's talking cat, Princess Donut, level up, build followers, and fight for survival through 18 deadly floors. The series combines post-apocalyptic survival with RPG elements, turning the end of the world into a televised spectacle where clout and entertainment value matter as much as combat prowess.

These books are, flat out, amazing and anyone that disagrees can fight me (jk - I am a pacifist and an amputee and, more recently, a cancer survivor so if you fight me who's the one that's really gonna look bad - hint: not me). It honestly didn't take long for me to really get "sucked" into the book like I mentioned above. It wasn't exactly right from the moment I started reading but it was damn close. Matt Dinniman's writing style, at least in the first book, wasn't world class in my opinion. There were some areas where it even felt rudimentary (the sentence structures anyways) and it had a lot of repeated words really close together that a thesaurus might've come in handy for. However, what I really loved was the premise. The world building. The characters. The humor. And the dungeon system itself. That more than made up for anything that lacked from his writing style.

Now I will be the first to admit that I am not perfect. I am an author too and there are TONS of mistakes in my novels as well and if I had the money I'd hire a pro editor immediately to look each and every one of them over. So what I said in the prior paragraph does not come from someone who thinks their crap don't stink. Believe me.

Despite the things that I didn't quite like about the first book, I have to say, the level of improvement in the writing from the first book and down the line to the last is nothing short of remarkable. You can visibly tell how much better Matt becomes as he tells the story of Carl and Donut, sorry...Donut and Carl (if you read the books, you'd know the cat would like her name first). That was part of the enjoyment of these books for me, honestly. I liked and even cheered on Matt (in my head) at how much better his writing got. The characters gained even more depth and their growth wasn't forced on us but a natural progression. Details were more fluidly woven into the story instead of regurgitated in multiple paragraphs. Plots that were somewhat basic in the first book gained interesting twists and turns.

And of course, the structure of leveling up.

That is somewhat of a new premise that I learned I really liked. Solo Leveling has a level-up system as well and I think I've watched that anime maybe three or four times now. Matt does an insanely great job of keeping all the details and mechanics of leveling up together so that it makes sense and doesn't contradict itself. That is a crazy amount of things to keep track of. Speaking from experience again, writing is fun but it is also exhausting. Trying to remember all the details of how your world works can often be frustrating and I've had to refer to my "world bible" so many times it gave me headaches. Matt does it effortlessly (although I know it probably took an insane amount of effort to accomplish).

Another sign, for me anyway, of a good series is that each novel is self-contained. It has a beginning, a middle, and a conclusion. Yet, despite that, it still connects seamlessly with the rest. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (which are some of my absolute favorite novels) are a great example of this. His Furies Series (on my top favorites list as well) does a great job of this too. DCC, however, is much more unique when it comes to this in that it has these self-contained novels but at the same time, they all feel like they are just one very, very long book. Each one leads right into the next but still has a definitive conclusion. This is one of my favorite aspects to the DCC novels. That uniqueness and ability to create separate stories but still have them contained within a much larger story is truly inspiring. It's a great example of taking something that has been done before (like dungeons and leveling-up) and doing something new with it. I can only hope to create something similar with my own novels and stories.

I can honestly keep going but I'll cap it at that. Again, DCC has an amazing premise, awesome and funny characters, and a great plot. I would recommend this to anyone to read, even those that might not like this genre.

For bringing back my love of reading, I'd like to personally thank Matt. If I ever see him in person, I definitely will.

Ratings:

Dungeon Crawler Carl - 3 of 5 stars

Carl's Doomsday Scenario - 3.5 of 5 stars

The Dungeon Anarchist's - 4 of 5 stars

The Gate of the Feral Gods - 4 of 5 stars

The Butcher's Masquerade - 4.5 of 5 stars (probably my favorite one so far)

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride - 4 of 5 stars

This Inevitable Ruin - 4.5 of 5 stars (so far - I love the military strategies, troop movements, and, of course, the absolute chaos)

As always, thanks for reading! Like, share, and comment too. It really does help.