Carl is a normal dude. Except that he is stuck in the apocalypse. With his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut. And there is an alien invasion. Plus, Carl and most of what’s left of humanity are involuntarily placed on a Running-Man-style intergalactic game show. And the contestants don’t know who (if anyone) to trust. And the odds are that they will all die very soon. To stave off the inevitable, the characters have to kill monsters (Are they monsters?) and level up.
Is it worth it to go on?
As is obvious from my description, Dungeon Crawler Carl is in many ways an over-the-top, silly book. It’s part video game, part DnD, part glib sci-fi romp. However, beneath the jokes and frequent dynamite explosions lies that central question: Is it worth it to go on?
The characters in the story have to answer the question, and so do we in real life.
In the book (which I think qualifies as LitRPG), as the game proceeds the characters choose their race (e.g., cat, human) and class (e.g., bard) and level up their skills. Without being too on the nose, Dinniman invites the reader to think about the same kind of question. If I do want to go on, how will I do it? Brute force? My mind? Charisma? Will I be trustworthy, or do what it takes to get what I want? Can I rely on anyone?
Don’t get me wrong, the book is a lot of fun – it is a fun page turner. However, since this is a popular book and series and you can already find reviews and details everywhere, I just wanted to point out what held it all together for me.
4.5 rounded up.