Dungeon Crawler Carl was originally recommended to me as “a book about a half-naked man running around with a talking cat named Princess Donut” and I was skeptical. I am so very glad I started listening.
The plot itself is entirely bizarre with humanity being forced into a real-life dungeon game where everything they do is a level-up skill and the enemies are alive. So many of these that I’ve found just turn into gamer-saves-the-world power-trips but it this doesn’t. Everything is hard, there are no random ultimate “this thing will save you all the time” devices, but the zany abilities and crazy fights are still so enjoyable.
What I wasn’t expecting was how human the characters feel. There aren’t any “good” or “evil” characters, and even those that seem to be one or the other are soon shown in different light. No one is a goody-two-shoes where every decision is made with morality and justice as their guiding light and that *somehow* makes everything work out. Everyone knows this is a sh*t situation and the author isn’t afraid to show characters on their knees at their lowest points. This is a story about people, normal people that do good and bad things, and I think that’s what I liked most.