I just finished the Butcher’s Masquerade roughly an hour and a half ago after marathoning the previous books I’ve already listened to so I would miss little. I have never read Dungeon Crawler Carl in its web serial format. I have only known the series from the audible format.
The Dungeon Crawler Carl book series is a Match Made with the SoundBooth Theater really. The seemingly full voice cast adds a hell of a lot to the series, but I have started to ask myself if SoundBooth Theater is a force Multiplier or if it is what is making the web serial much more than the sum of its parts. The thing is, what grabbed me about Carl in my first listen was the Warburton style impression. You know, the voice of Brock Samson, Joe from Family guy, Kronk from Emperor’s new Groove… that voice impression was what had me initially interested along with the litrpg stuff. I honestly don’t know if I am listening for Soundbooth or for Matt Dinnaman and realizing that makes me want to re examine the series more.
I suppose it kind of goes hand in hand with another web serial I’ve read call the Wandering Inn. That too I was exposed to the audio book first. When I got wind there was more, much more, I couldn’t wait for the next audio book and started reading the web serial. I guess I will know for sure if I can do the same for Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Musings aside,
The story of the Butcher’s Masquerade tied up a lot of loose ends, started new plot points with chekov’s gun style tactics, ended most of them but are saving more for later, We are also starting to see Carl and Donut seriously crack under the pressure and under the atrocities both were forced to commit over the past 5 floors they endured. All of t his is good. The not so good in my opinion was how the “meta” aspect is handled outside of the game that isn’t a game. By that I mean the elements that are out of the isekai fantasy. Namely the State of galactic affairs and politics. The focus is on the dungeon crawl for the growing push for revolution outside of it feels more like an afterthought to me, a vehicle to explore important characters like the popov brothers or some of the villains. I can understand that logic as the focus of the book is on the game and not on outward concepts, but at the same time I kind of feel like it feels undercooked. How could one game matter so much in the grand scheme of things that entire star systems systems of governances may potentially collapse, wars start, and revolutions happen? Dinnaman hints at the origins as to why the game matters but doesn’t go much more into it, a tease for a future book in the series I guess. But I feel like not enough is followed through with.
I will say though that it is actually encouraging to see the side characters actually accomplish things outside of the immediate influence of Carl and Donut and such actions can heavily affect Carl and Donut Carl and Donut are the main characters of course, but in this book they felt like they had less plot armor other than a certain skill Donut has that has saved her life several times. I am looking forwards to what comes in the next book and I think I will give the web serial version a try as I am starting to feel that the Soundbooth theater is overshadowing the actual substance of the work for me.
On the subject of Soundbooth Theater, I am very very impressed. I am being drawn in at least the same amount the old Graphic Audio books on Brandon Sanderson’s Elantris and R.A. Salvatores, the Demon Wars Saga. It feels like a full cast with practical effects sounds done in a manner that isn’t overwhelming.