Matt Dinniman - Reviews

Dungeon Crawler Carl

The Dungeon Crawler Carl series, Book 1
Matt Dinniman
Ace
Fiction, Fantasy/Humor/Sci-Fi
Themes: Aliens, Altered DNA and Hybrids, Anthropomorphism, Apocalypse, Artificial Intelligence, Cross-Genre, Cutthroat Competitions, Dystopias, Fantasy Races, Felines, Games, Stardom
*****

Description

Coast Guard veteran Carl didn't know the world was going to end when he ran out of his Seattle apartment in his boxers and too-small pink Crocs, trying to catch his ex-girlfriend's purebred Persian show cat, Princess Donut. If he had, he'd have at least put on pants. But suddenly his apartment building was just... gone. Squashed out of existence in a blink. Just like every other artificial structure around the world, along with anyone unfortunate enough to be inside them, leaving him standing in the freezing January cold with an angry cat in his arms.
Then a voice speaks in his head, along with letters floating before his eyes. Apparently, a galactic bureaucracy has decided that humans failed to properly claim their home as a sovereign nation, so the Borant Corporation has arrived to take possession and strip its raw materials. However, they're willing to give our species a chance to reclaim the planet... if anyone survives eighteen levels of a dungeon-like reality game that have just been built underground. Oh, and the Syndicate broadcasts these events to trillions of viewers, with every move and word under constant surveillance, so do try to keep the essential extinction of humanity interesting for the sake of ratings, or there will be further consequences.
Carl likes a good video game as much as anyone else, but he doesn't want to live through one, let alone carry along Princess Donut, whom he can hardly abandon to the post-apocalyptic conditions on the surface. So when he sees a staircase appear, he ventures down, little suspecting what awaits him as a "crawler" once he enters the first level. Monsters, loot boxes, boss battles, snarky in-game achievements, an all-powerful AI dungeon master with a foot fetish, a cat who can suddenly talk and cast magic missiles from her eyes... all this, and more too, lies ahead if he can manage to survive. Beneath it all, he'll find a tangle of politics and clashing agendas that may spell the end of every living human - or provide unexpected opportunities to cheat the system and the game-runners out of their prize.
This book contains the first installment of "Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret," an ongoing bonus story set elsewhere in the dungeons.

Review

It's almost impossible not to hear about this explosively popular series in fantasy reading circles these days, but I wasn't sure it would be my thing. After all, I've been disappointed by popular series before, and I couldn't work out if it would be too crude for my tastes, if it was a one-trick pony of a book, or if the humor wouldn't land (as there are few things worse than comedy that isn't hitting the funny bone). But my new job hasn't exactly gotten off to a spectacular start, and I needed to remind myself that walking into a building full of books need not trigger an automatic gut-clench of anxiety, plus I still had a holiday gift card to burn off at Barnes and Noble. So I wandered in one fateful day and walked out with two titles, one of them Dungeon Crawler Carl... and by that night I'd already devoured over 100 pages. It's been so long since a book grabbed me that fast that I'd forgotten what it felt like.
How did it feel? Good. It felt very, very good.
Some writers, dealing with gaming and fan-adjacent subjects, are clearly observing from the sidelines, having maybe seen a picture of a con or walked past someone playing a game and decided that they could fill out the rest with assumptions and stereotypes and humor that's thinly-disguised mockery (borderline bullying in some instances). From the outset, it's clear that Dinnman is not one of those authors. He understands games and gaming and the culture around them from the inside, and he's laughing with, not at, devotees, in the vein of Galaxy Quest's take on sci-fi fandom. As someone who grew up with the Commodore (still considered the top gaming computer for having the most game titles on its platform, last I looked) and who still enjoys gaming (even if I haven't been able to indulge for a while, in no small part due to life being a dumpster fire loaded with tiny dumpster fires adrift in a sea of fiery dumpsters), this put me squarely in Dungeon Crawler Carl's target demographic. From the snarky in-game descriptors and asides to the stats and the level grinding, this is gaming written by a gamer through and through. (A real gamer, who enjoys playing the game for its own sake, not a hate gamer... there is a difference.) The game itself also reveals much about the creators and how they're spinning the extermination of people on Earth.
But there's much more going on than just looting and leveling and sarcastic in-game achievement announcements. Even in the midst of the absurdity, Carl feels the weight of the end of the world. When he looks at Princess Donut, he can't help remembering his ex Beatrice... who is probably dead, along with everyone else he remembers from his old life. As he watches the numbers of "crawlers" drop each evening with the recap broadcasts, he knows what that means about the population of Earth and the fates of his fellow humans, even the ones whose grisly deaths don't make the highlight reels. There's grief and rage and a desperate need to cling to some manner of humanity in a situation engineered to punish empathy. When he comes across a group of refugees from a nursing home, he's told more than once that abandoning them is the wiser choice if he wants to level up high enough to survive the next dungeon down. (Every dungeon level collapses after a certain time, meaning death for anyone who opts to not play or simply doesn't make it to a stairwell... each of which is guarded by a boss monster, of course.) He also encounters crawlers who, like some gamers, decide the best way to level up is picking off fellow gamers for experience points, even when the "competition" is not just pixel avatars on a screen but living, breathing human beings just trying to survive the end of the world. As Carl gets deeper into the "game" and starts encountering some of the administrators running/profiting off the dungeons, and later the third parties (other galactic clans and factions, talk show hosts, and more), he gets the bigger picture of just how massive the machine is that perpetuates atrocities like the one he's experiencing, the profiteering off genocide and the encouragement of more and more sick and brutal displays of power over the powerless, a self-perpetuating engine of escalating horrors. There are strong shades of The Hunger Games (and too many incidents in the real world) here...
I also need to make a few notes about Princess Donut. Dinniman displays some decent understanding of cat showing with her; Donut is a grand champion with numerous ribbons, and she knows it, but there's more to her than just a prima donna (or the standard, lazy stereotype that cats are selfish and hate everyone). Once she gains the power of speech, she becomes a decently rounded character in her own right. Yes, she's got absurdly high charisma (if at the cost of a weakened constitution), she can be vain, and she yearns for attention, but she's also a solid companion and loyal to Carl, and the two become a true team in their journeys as they figure out how to balance their strengths and weaknesses. She even comes around to assisting Carl when he chooses to attempt kindness and compassion over the brutality the game constantly encourages in its crawlers, and she grows as a character even in the space of this book. They succeed (or occasionally fail) together.
There are other characters, of course, some set up as villains and some as potential friends, but most everyone has a hidden side or complications that round them and their motives out. Hints are given about how other extinction "games" have gone; the Borant Corporation is but one of several galactic superpowers who conquer unsuspecting planets and make their natives run a rigged gauntlet on the feeblest promises of survival, all for "entertainment" and profit. (They pretty much admit that the actual value of the minerals they take is barely a drop in the bucket.) Much of this, of course, will likely come more into play as the series progresses, but enough is set up here to be intriguing and add extra complications and weight to many situations Carl and Princess Donut face in their involuntary dungeon crawl.
At the end, Dinniman offers part one of an ongoing story about one of the side characters encountered, further fleshing out not only the world of the game creators and the crawlers but the "monsters", who are all reshaped and repurposed beings forced to endure the games as well, offering further hints of machinations behind the scenes that will bear fruit further down the line.
If there's any real downside, it may be some of the time spent explaining the game mechanics and other minutiae to the reader and Carl, as his "trainer" Mordecai - himself a survivor of his own world's version of the games - fills in details. I expect anyone who hasn't grown up steeped in games with stat screens and skill trees would be confused or bored by the focus on this. Otherwise, I can't think of any drawbacks worth noting.
I was a little on the fence about whether to go with a four-and-a-half star rating. The Great rating is one I don't tend to hand out willy-nilly; there needs to be that extra something to kick a book over the top. The full fifth star was awarded not just because I stayed up late to finish, but because, at 12:05 AM, I was seriously contemplating ordering the next book in the series instead of going to bed. Maybe I'll just have to get back to Barnes and Noble with my next paycheck, assuming life doesn't devour it all before I can get there. The way work has been going, I'm going to need another reminder soon that rooms of books can be pleasant companions...

Carl's Doomsday Scenario

The Dungeon Crawler Carl series, Book 2
Matt Dinniman
Ace
Fiction, Fantasy/Humor/Sci-Fi
Themes: Aliens, Altered DNA and Hybrids, Anthropomorphism, Apocalypse, Artificial Intelligence, Avians, Circuses, Cross-Genre, Cutthroat Competitions, Dystopias, Fantasy Races, Felines, Games, Stardom, Undead
****+

Description

Coast Guard veteran Carl and his cat companion, Princess Donut, along with Donut's new dinosaur pet Mongo, have made it to the third level of the dungeon in the "game" that will determine humanity's fate on the planet they used to call home. They, and the diminishing number of other "crawlers", now have to decide which race they'll transform into (if they don't opt to remain human) and pick a class, decisions that may directly affect their odds of survival. But Carl and Donut both know by now that many of the choices in the game mean little when the powers behind it, and the greater field of galactic politics, are really pulling the strings. Even as they have no choice but to play out their roles, fighting monsters and gaining levels and figuring out the ever-evolving game mechanics, Carl and Donut are still determined to do everything they can to hold onto their decency and, if possible, break the system that's trying so very hard to break them.
This book also contains the second installment of "Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret," an ongoing bonus story set elsewhere in the dungeons.

Review

I never expected to enjoy the first book in this series as much as I did, and happily the sequel both lives up to the promise of the first one and builds on it brilliantly. Carl and Donut have both changed since they first ventured down the stairwell into the first level. Donut's intellectual evolution since gaining the ability to speak continues, as her thoughts grow more sophisticated, though there are still several blind spots, particularly regarding Carl's ex Bea (whom Donut still hopes will turn up someday and they can all be a family again, even as Carl knows the truth). Mongo, Donut's new pet, is also growing and leveling, becoming a useful asset to their little team. Their trainer Mordecai finds his role transformed from a mere trainer to someone who can provide more support, though he still has secrets related to his own run as a dungeon crawler and he may have his own agenda. And Carl himself struggles to juggle the many hats and obligations foisted onto him: celebrity dungeon crawler, co-conspirator with Mordecai, object of a creepy foot fetish by the dungeon-running AI (which might be going rogue), and (hopefully) survivor of a system so rigged that not a single "crawler" from a single species subjected to the cruel and twisted death gauntlet of the dungeons has ever succeeded and won the promised sovereignty of their home worlds back. He also picks up a few new allies and - naturally - more rivals, both within the game and without.
The level itself manages to not repeat the first floors too much, as Dinniman introduces new game mechanics and twists. The third floor brings not only the potential to permanently change species, but also quests and the dangerous "elite" class of non-player characters - which are, in true dungeon fashion, part of much larger franchises and interests, running semi-independently of the whole death-gauntlet-for-humanity main event; becoming entangled in one of their ongoing story arcs can make things infinitely more complicated and dangerous, but it might also lead to certain advantages if a crawler manages to play their cards right, and Carl and Donut both have clued into the need to play the game outside the dungeon at least as keenly as they play the one inside. The end lives up to the title, setting up even more explosive problems for the third installment.
As for the serialized bonus story, this one continues the tale as it explores some of the behind-the-scenes manipulations and mechanics, foreshadowing even greater problems in the making should any crawlers live long enough to encounter them. Even the NPCs are victims in the dungeons, only given enough tools and freedoms to develop a hatred of crawlers and both the willingness and ability to kill them.
The very slight dip in the ratings is simply due to the fact that this time I knew what I was getting when I picked it up, and didn't have that extra kick of surprise. It also flirts with excessive entanglements with all the players, species, factions, galactic powers, and other forces and their various complicated histories, all of which become increasingly important to Carl's and Donut's survival. It remains a very readable and highly enjoyable book, with much more to it than one might expect.

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

The Dungeon Crawler Carl series, Book 3
Matt Dinniman
Ace
Fiction, Fantasy/Humor/Sci-Fi
Themes: Aliens, Altered DNA and Hybrids, Anthropomorphism, Apocalypse, Artificial Intelligence, Avians, Cross-Genre, Cutthroat Competitions, Dystopias, Fantasy Races, Felines, Games, Girl Power, Shapeshifters, Stardom, Undead
****+

Description

Carl, Princess Donut, Mongo, and their new companion Katia barely survived the third floor of the apocalyptic dungeon whose outcome will determine the fate of humanity... and, in doing so, they made even more enemies than they already had. But their antics are earning them great ratings across the galaxy, and with it opportunities for lucrative sponsors - and the team is going to need every possible advantage they can get, because the fourth floor is a tangled mess... literally.
The "Iron Tangle" is a vast network of railways, from old steam engines to modern monorails, running in endless loops. Among the labyrinth of landings is a puzzle to unravel before this floor, too, collapses and kills everyone who hasn't found a stairway down. Carl remains determined to save as many fellow crawlers as he can, but many people still don't trust him, others want to break up the dream team, and being on the top ten list has put a price on all their heads.
This book contains the third installment of "Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret," an ongoing bonus story set elsewhere in the dungeons.

Review

The third installment maintains the momentum of the previous books, maintaining the action, the humor, and the tension. Carl and Donut are an inseparable team, but they still have secrets from each other, and Katia is still an unknown quantity in many ways; knowing that she came to them under misleading pretenses, can she be trusted to side with them when the chips are down? Their mentor/manager Mordecai, meanwhile, still has secrets from his long and storied history, making him a vital resource... but he, too, has his own agenda, and when a mishap knocks him out of the game for a good stretch of the dungeon, Carl and company must learn to stop relying on him so much. Meanwhile, the politics behind the dungeon "game" itself grow more perilous, as Donut and Carl have managed to make some very powerful enemies. And within the game, of course, there's a whole new slate of "mobs" to battle - and battle they must, if they mean to survive.
Amid all the action and achievements, Carl and his companions never lose sight of the true grim desperation of their circumstances. This is not fun and games for them, or a chance to be the video game hero of their childhood dreams, but a nightmare they cannot wake from, awash in a rising sea of blood, and the only way to keep one's head above water is to cling all the harder to that core of humanity - the thing the dungeon masters are truly trying to destroy in each and every crawler. At its heart, the story is a tragedy, extinction and unimaginable depravity as entertainment, and not a single person or monster the team encounters isn't scarred by that. Every time Carl thinks he's found a way to outwit the system, though, the AI and the showrunners tighten the chains, but he discovers that resistance is indeed possible, and he is not as alone as he sometimes feels.
There are times when the Iron Tangle gets a little, well, tangled, a wash of trains and stations and numbers that feel impossible to keep straight, but it's not necessary to map it all out in one's head to follow the story. The number of side characters is also growing, along with their attendant entanglements. But things sort themselves out if one sits back and lets the tale unfold. Once more, it ratchets up to a tense, and not entirely bloodless or clean, finale, setting up the next adventure/dungeon nicely. Everyone's growing across the board, creating a dynamic team.
As for the bonus story, it adds another character from the book and yet another wrinkle. The whole is foreshadowing developments later down the line, but manages not to be too precious or coy about it. The "game" has always been much bigger than the poor crawlers forced to endure (or, almost inevitably, not endure) its torments, and the bonus story highlights the greater scope and the other lives the game masters are destroying.
It goes without saying that I'll be reading on eagerly, though I'm trying to pace myself; my budget's taken a real beating this month, and I don't want to outread what I've stockpiled of the series before I can buy more.