Dungeon Crawler Carl

this is a mixed bag for me. it's fun, and it's been done to hell and back. it does some things well and other less well. mind you, i've only read to book 4.

firstly, the entire set up and story is where the 'been done' comes in. this kind of story has been big and popular for a long time in japan and korea, at least. (if you like this novel, you should check out wuxiaworld.com, they have a lot of licensed stories of this type. as always, some better, some worse.) but like, there's nothing new under the sun. it's not like, inherently bad that this is so derivative and so clearly inspired by existing media (have you heard of Sword Art Online? Solo Leveling? Tomb Raider King? like, this is not new), but i personally get the feeling that it thinks it's more clever than it is?

and from the way people talk about it, i get the feeling if you don't know where the inspiration comes from, it can seem really original and cool and like, i don't know, that seems to be where a lot of the hype is coming from. and it's not a bad book, but it's not original, and the writing itself is not great, either. it's good! it's not *bad* or anything! but it's not *great*. (again, as of book 4).

i do think it's fun! i enjoyed it.

my major gripe really comes in the form of Mordecai. i find the character incredibly grating for two reasons; one, he's an exposition machine. instead of carl and co struggling and figuring things out, mordecai just... tells them. he makes plans. he tells them to do the thing. it's not wrong to use him since they have him, but as a cheat, it's honestly kind of *more* aggravating precisely because he is, in my opinion, everything that's dull about the Wise Old Mentor trope. also, i just find his character annoying. but that's a personal thing.

like, my favorite part of the entire series so far, is that part where they lose access to mordecai for a long time and have to make do themselves. it's so much fun! they get to actually explore and make their own decisions! and then mordecai came back and i was like. ughh. this sucks. it's not great when the mere presence of one of the major characters makes you think 'this sucks'.

two, mordecai in my opinion encapsulates the most annoying part of these kinds of stories: the big cheat. the big thing the main character has that means things are always skewed his way. i personally am not a fan of big cheats, because like, struggle? is where the fun is for me? if the characters are just cruising through without putting in any work because they have a voice in their ear telling them everything they need to know and should do, that really takes a lot of the fun out of it for me.

like, i am at the point where i have not read passed book 4 pretty much solely due to mordecai, lol.

i don't know, i just think that for a cheat, mordercai is too present in the story, and makes too many of the choices and spouts off too much exposition. and it dilutes everything mordecai touches. it *could* be done well, but too much of a good thing, you know.

again, i like this story. i do think it's a fun, pretty light read. but man, do i have some big pet peeves with it. i would rate this 3.5 if i could figure out how.

Dungeon Crawler Carl is rather like reading through someone's wild D&D campaign brought to life. Centered around the titular Carl and his cat Donut, each book presents new scenarios and challenges to tackle. While some entries in the series are stronger than others, the humor and warmth of the main characters is the undercurrent running throughout.

One of the series' high points is how it moves from Carl and Donut simply trying to survive the dungeon they've been trapped in, to broader concerns about the entities in charge of this twisted game.

While certainly not a deep read, Dungeon Crawler Carl makes for an excellent palette cleanser and secures my recommendation.