Ok… so my wife made a new friend last year, and she and her husband are huge nerds. Board gaming, video gaming, fantasy, science fiction, you name it. They’re HUGE into all that stuff.
They’re really pushing me to read some novel series called “Dungeon Crawler Carl”, claiming it’s the funniest, best fantasy they’ve read ever.
But… it sounds awful. Woefully stupid. Like something that 14 year old me wouldn’t have liked. And they know I like science fiction and fantasy, so they’re still pushing. And I keep prevaricating and digging my heels in.
I typically like my science fiction on the harder/more militaristic side of things- I generally have loved Niven, Pournelle, Heinlein, Pohl, Banks, Weir, John Scalzi, Richard K. Morgan, and James S.A. Corey, and have never enjoyed LeGuin at all. Fantasy wise, I’m a fan of Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, Jim Butcher, Sapkowski, Glen Cook, and Fritz Leiber. I have mixed opinions about SM Stirling, Vinge, and Liu. In non sci-fi/fantasy, I’m a big Bernard Cornwell fan.
Have any of you read this book? What did you think? Is it something that someone who likes the sorts of authors I like would also like?
I have read the first book. If you’re a big fan of Dungeons and Dragons and you don’t mind relentlessly sophomoric humor, it’s funny.
I don’t plan on reading any more of the series myself, but my son-in-law, who listens to it as an audiobook loves it, and is on the 4th book.
Everyone I’ve heard comment says the audiobook is better.
I describe it as fast food. But sometimes, fast food hits the spot with the grease and french fries and milkshake that a good home made meal or nice restaurant can’t hit. It’s fun, funny, and drips out the RPG progress enough that you want to see how the new feature or tool will be used. It’s also all plot pushing forward as they rarely take the time to slow down. Then it’s been several books and you realize that the world building and character moments have been there but very spaced out. You can start to see the bigger picture and are potentially invested.
Recommend it. It’s a fast read and doesn’t take itself too seriously. But there is depth that only slowly comes out. The first book is the most shallow but the feel/tone doesn’t really change throughout the series. It’s worth checking out.
I’ve been listening to it on audiobooks, and am on Book 4. I agree that the audiobooks are very well-done; the narrator is excellent.
I concur with the earlier posters: it’s very funny, but often in a very sophomoric way – the humor is often crass and sexual, and there is an awful lot of gore. It also leans heavily into a lot of RPG / MMORPG tropes, so if the OP isn’t familiar with those, some of it will go over your head.
As noted, the storyline in each successive book becomes more complex, and there certainly are some serious bits, but overall, it’s mostly comedy and action, with some more serious character development sprinkled in.
I really enjoy DCC, as do most of my gaming friends, but given the authors and styles that the OP describes as his favorites, and his preference for more serious, “hard” SF, I’m honestly skeptical that he’d enjoy it.
I would go further and say it absolutely needs to be listened to rather than read. The narration single-handedly lifts it from “stupid" to “stupid but a good time.”
Since several people have mentioned this I thought I should point out that there’s a name for this genre: LitRPG, settings where reality explicitly works like an RPG game. In some cases, they are literally fictionalized versions of RPG campaigns like Andre Norton’s Quag Keep.
I read a lot of it, mostly over on the fanfic site Royal Road and the forums Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity; it’s one of those things you either like or can’t stand as far as I can tell. I’ve never read Dungeon Crawler Carl specifically though, it sounded too grimdark for my taste (the Royal Road stub even has the “Grimdark” label).
I can see that; the premise of the series itself is pretty danged dark, and it’s really violent. OTOH, at least IMO, while the two main protagonists are certainly flawed, they do try to make good choices and help others; it’s not as nihilistic as I think most grimdark would be.
I sympathise, because although I’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons since 1979 , not all stories hit the mark for me. (I haven’t read the series you mention.)
Tolkien was the father of roleplaying (I reread Lord of the Rings every decade.)
Larry Niven wrote mainly SF, but his roleplaying stories are excellent.
Fritz Leiber moves the story along in a cheerful way.
What’s so funny is that I received that book (in hardback) for Christmas this year.
So I’m going to read it, though I haven’t yet.
I like the LitRPG genre (though it’s like 5% decent 95% total crap in my experience). The LitRPG genre is one where it’s a world where somehow role-playing game stuff is real, or treated as real. It might involve someone in a virtual reality environment, like you see in the anime series Sword Art Online or the book and film Ready Player One, or it might be a story where there is some kind of sci fi event warping the real world, or it might just take place in a fantasy world where RPG elements are part of how that world works. And the amount of RPG elements can vary widely; sometimes people end up with “classes” and gain “experience” and “levels”, and interact with some kind of virtual interface. Other times it’s a lot more subtle, and doesn’t explicitly feel like a video game or tabletop game come to life. But the rare instance where LitRPG is good, it is something I really enjoy, because I am an RPG fan and it blends a couple of my hobbies into one thing.
I have not read this book at all, but it gives me a LitRPG vibes, and it’s good enough that people are recommending it, so I’m cautiously optimistic.
I haven’t read it, and I was curious, so I consulted Goodreads. It has a 4.49 rating (out of 5) there. It’s interesting to me that the most enthusiastic reviews are short, and focus on the fun and funny writing. A few longer and more thoughtful reviews were not as enthusiastic. My conclusion was that this was not for me (not to mention I have no experience in RPG or any of that).
My conclusion from the reviews I read: If you are a person who can laugh at anything if it’s written well enough, this might be for you. If you find some ideas and events too awful to laugh at, you might not like it.
FWIW, I’m very familiar with most RPG / D&D tropes and have played more than my fair share of D&D, both live, virtual, and the various video games, starting with Pool of Radiance back in the day.
I don’t know that I’m quite enough of a nerd-culture celebrant to enjoy it. A lot of it is still too dorky for me, which I know sounds hypocritical and odd.
I tried the audiobook. I was joining Audible (HAD to get some Andy Weir before a long train trip), and so many had people raved about Carl…
I agree with the OP. Immature, low-hanging-fruit fantasy.
As a thought experiment, I just shared it with Me as a Middle School Nerd… he just rolled his eyes and said “Come back when you’ve got something as good as Tolkein, or as clever as The Phantom Tollbooth.”
, not all stories hit the mark for me. (I haven’t read the series you mention.)