“Carl, having just been cheated on by his girlfriend and left with her cat, Princess Donut, decides to enter the dungeon and finds himself thrust into a deadly competition with uncountable viewers across the galaxy watching their every move. Upon entering the dungeon, all "crawlers" are given a virtual HUD (heads-up display) along with an assignment of stats representing their physical and mental abilities, which can later be increased and various other enhancements. Early in the first novel, Princess Donut becomes able to communicate with humans due to a special consumable item known as a Pet Biscuit that Carl received for bringing the first cat into the dungeon. The biscuit also enhances Princess Donut's base stats, causing the dungeon to view her as the leader of her and Carl's two-person group, which she dubs the "Royal Court of Princess Donut". As the series continues, Carl and Princess Donut encounter several other dungeon crawlers that become both enemies and allies of the Royal Court.
“The dungeon levels are filled with traps, puzzles and monstrous creatures ("mobs", short for mobile or mobile object), all designed to test the contestants' strength, cunning, and teamwork. As Carl progresses through the dungeon, he gains experience, levels up, and acquires new skills and equipment, typical of litRPG stories. Carl also learns that there is an ongoing power struggle between the corporations that run the various seasons of Dungeon Crawler World, which has caused the Borant Corporation to speed up the competition in order to stave off its competitors from acquiring it.”
I had been aware of this series for some time (probably when Ace Books acquired the originally self-published titles in the spring of 2024), but as person who was not into Role Playing Games or oftentimes very violent Grimdark video games, or reading novels based on these games, I kept putting them off. Plus, there was a rapid release of the books (two in 2024 and five in 2025) that would’ve meant clearing a lot of my TBR read shelf space to add them. As well, beyond book two, the rest of the series (including book one), averaged 400 plus pages, with book six and seven clocking in at 832 and 880 pages, respectively. I just don’t have the time to get through so many long novels anymore.
The book is not boring, though, because it has a lot of dark humor and over-the-top violence (which becomes a huge problem as the book progresses). It’s bizarre, outlandish, and absurd, and sometimes silly (the foot fetish part being one of them), but there were at times I found the book repetitive. I’m unsure if it needed at 440 pages to tell its tale. But this is a thing I have taken umbrage with a lot of today’s fiction – books that take too long to arrive at their point, and then they just end abruptly.
Still, I now know I’m not the target audience of this series and will probably not venture further than book one. Mostly for the cartoon violence, but mainly I found that Dinniman really does not take a serious look into Carl’s physiological effect that all this killing is doing to him. There are hints, buried in the jokes, but me thinks that Carl –if he survives all the levels- will come out more damaged than anything he’s wrought in this game.
No comments:
Post a Comment