Dungeon Crawler Carl - Book Review

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 One of my college friends loves this series and I am just getting into it. This is book 1 of the series. Let's talk about alien politics and video game dungeons. 

If you liked Hunger Games, imagine adding video game rules to the story and having alien planets run the whole thing. Oh, and some crude humor to keep us from focusing solely on the darkness. You are looking at a video game dungeon version of Hunger Games, where the longer you survive the more likely you are to work for the alien planets instead of dying. No one has survived past level 13 of 18 levels. Remember - "kill, kill,kill!"

The review

This is a story about Carl, a man stuck in a dungeon with his ex's talking show cat (Princess Donut). Again, take video game rules and imagine yourself trapped in a dungeon for real - where there is no respawning. We start with 13 million people in the dungeons and make it down to less than 1 million by the end of the book (floor 3).

This is also survival horror. For example, a nursing home got trapped down here and four night crew are trying to make sure they don't die. One had to kill 12 residents because their death would have been horrific by other hands, and it was a mercy to save them from that method of death. We also have crawlers (the name of the participants) that kill other crawlers for their items. These people are marked with skulls, which is how we know someone killed 12 residents. 

Leveling up? A must. At level 3 you choose a class. The AI (or an alien announcer, hard to tell) is kind of like GLaDOS from the Portal games. Death? Not an issue. This is a reality show for the aliens and it makes them lots of money. I keep flashing back to Hunger Games, where to get help you have to be entertaining. Sponsoring is an option here. Patrons matter. Add social media viewing and twitch rules (tuning into different crawlers) and you have the idea. There are even interviews and shows to feature crawlers. 

We have video game bosses, unique weapons, and powerups. Basically, video game logic that endangers you as a human. You heal faster, sure, but you die once and it is over. Some chose to die on level 1. Agatha and her shopping cart somehow persevere. Politics? We got you covered. Galaxy politics are messy. Social media? This game is the social media. We even have fan fiction. 

Conclusions

I loved this book. Five stars. I will read the next 7 (there will be 8 total as of this year). I would like to thank my friend DJ for suggesting the series and sharing the next four books with me. I can't wait to catch up. 

The library list for this book will be long. If you are in a hurry to read it, buy it. If you can wait, most libraries have it. Please keep that in mind before you assume the borrowing list is short. I am borrowing it from someone who isn't a library for that simple reason. 

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Morrow is released! This novella is the story of two women writing a family history for the Morrow family. They find a nasty secret while researching. Will they survive their internship? 

Sign up for my newsletter at this link to get a free first chapter. All you need to plug in is your email. You'll also get a free first chapter of Wrenville, my first novel. 







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