If you played and liked the borderlands games, you’ll like this book. It’s hard to get that type of humor right without it becoming repulsive or childish, but this book finds the right balance.
Its funny, but it also has the heart of the Walking Dead. The protagonist is similar to Rick grimes in that he tries to do the right thing, but doesn’t have a messiah complex about it and realizes that there are times that he just can’t do anything despite his desire to do so. It makes you want to root for him.
*tiny spoiler* while talking animal sidekicks are typically annoying and sort of…well, a sidekick, this book managed to turn the talking animal sidekick into a fellow protagonist.
Princess Doughnut grows, she adapts, and most importantly she cares. She’s not just the loveable idiot with the snarky one liners that most animal sidekicks are. I’ve seen more heart and character development from doughnut than any other animal companion (and many protagonists) I’ve ever seen.
What I liked most of all is that Doughnut typically meet Carl halfway with things. Like with her overhearing personality. In the first 10 minutes, Doughnut is annoying (like all animal sidekicks) to the point that i was about to put the book down. But she realized how she was acting, she apologizes, shows true fear of being left alone, and vows to try to do better. Then, she immediately follows through on that vow and tries to become a petter person. She grows as a character and makes her portions of the book just as enjoyable as Carl’s. She puts in just as much effort as Carl does rather than just being a tag along like most animal sidekicks. Basically, she tries, she meets him halfway, and that makes you care about her.
The voice performance for Carl is a bit odd, but the rest of the characters are done superbly! Especially Princess Doughnut’s voice.