Leilin’s review of Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1) > Likes and Comments
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I forgot to add! Are you by any chance talking about Le donjon de Naheulbeuk??? I'd forgotten about this gem (but remembered the name right away, hah!). I must have the mp3 files still somewhere on one of my old hard drives... I feel so old now
Good for you for cutting your losses short!!
And I remember Naheulbeuk super fondly but the one I had in mind when I mentioned alexandrines was Reflets d'Acide, actually - do you know it? Takes us back! Not trying to do an old person's shaking fist, yell-at-the-cloud impression while saying "it was better before" but man, those were good!
Ooh, I'd never heard of Reflets d'Acide but now I'm extremely curious! I just downloaded the files, guess I'll just embrace the nostalgia for the next couple days lol
I have been thinking of giving them a new listen too, just have a few audiobooks to get to first - enjoy! And let me know what you think <3
The Goblin thing is about where I stopped. You know, the funny thing is that this book isn't that long and when I found out that they only get a few floors in I realized that this might be the kind of thing where the series shows growth happening, but I wasn't going to waste time trying to dig to the good part. Truth of the matter is that it's just not a complete story and it's written like it's meant to be episodes of a show.
And all of this "what if you were trapped in a killing reality show" thing might have seemed more nuanced before all of the Hunger Games books and all of the reality TV of the aughts. It's so far past that now that it just seems like a book that might have worked at another time with another tone
Agreed, this is just a big step backward, using concepts that are not fresh, and an tone that is (or at least really should be) antiquated!
As for the potential growth, you know, I read that for a book club and the person who proposed it made the point that it did get better over time... and, first, I doubt it can change enough for me to find it palatable at this stage, as clearly the author is not writing the things I find most problematic as such (he's 100% on board). But then, even if it did happen, I have no interest in putting all of that effort into bearing witness to a man's late reckoning and belated attempts at becoming a decent and more empathetic human being - not my journey, all the best to him, far from me. But then again, I am also pretty sure this is not the path this/the author is on anyway.
Wishing us both better readings instead!
I'm stealing the "DudeBrotasy" term because yes. A lot of books like this that get published are the equivalent for the Romantasy slop.
Be my guest! And hopefully we can come to spot them before we even have to crack them open 🤞
Couldn't agree more with your review! And I'm totally adopting the DudeBrotasy term. This is exactly what this book me think of.
I’m interested in this critique, which I’ve seen throughout various threads, especially because the only people I know who’ve read and recommended Dungeon Crawler Carl to me are womenspecifically women who are usually quick to warn me off books with misogynistic undertones or thinly written female characters. So I don’t think this is as straightforward as “the author doesn’t respect women.” Labeling it as a book “written for men” feels ironic, since it relies on its own kind of gendered assumption about what women can or can’t enjoy. The bosses are supposed to be grotesque, exaggerated stereotypes. The alien overlords deliberately latch onto the most offensive, shallow, and dehumanizing stereotypes because it supports their narrative that Earth is violent, degraded, and one-dimensional. That’s the same reason the alien broadcast at the beginning introducing earth to the universe only showed misery and brutality.
That raises a real question: is using an offensive stereotype, while framing it as offensive and wrong, itself offensive? Would the same critique land if the stereotypes weren’t widely recognized as harmful? Or is the only “safe” approach to pretend that prejudice and misogyny don’t exist in our culture at all. To me, the book is doing something pretty common (and valid) in fiction. Showing problematic behavior through villains, and showing the main character reacting with discomfort, disgust, and resistance. The MC is actively repulsed by them, often in the same way the reader is.
I completely agree this book isn’t for everyone, and people are allowed to be offended or uncomfortable. But I do think this particular criticism becomes circular. The author depicts misogyny as part of a hostile, exploitative system, and then gets accused of promoting misogyny for depicting it at all. That collapses any distinction between portrayal and approval. But hey, maybe I am just a victim of my own culture, and I’ve been Stockholm’d into freewheeling approval.
Megan wrote: "That raises a real question: is using an offensive stereotype, while framing it as offensive and wrong, itself offensive?"
My whole point is that this not what this is doing.
I love that line in your review: Carl's mantra: "they can hurt me, they can even kill me, but they won't break me".
Dude, you're already a monster, there's nothing for anyone to break.
YES! You've caused a massacre, killed in the most gruesome ways possible, and weirdly sexualize everyone, and now you're trying to be all redeemable? Get out with that nonsense
You’re entitled to your wrong opinion : p
Mira wrote: "You've caused a massacre, killed in the most gruesome ways possible, and weirdly sexualize everyone, and now you're trying to be all redeemable? Get out with that nonsense"
Seriously, he's so far gone and playing the victim... I mean, not exactly an uncommon state of mind, I suppose. But also not one from whose POV I want to experience a whole series that's uninterested in being self-aware and calling it out.
Yep yep yep I’m glad I stopped at level one. Also the “snooty cat is cold female bitch” trope is tired as fuck.
Yeah, the cat is what would otherwise be a vapid femme fatale, because of course that book needed one -_-
(Also -> love your profile pic!)
This is the perfect review of Dungeon Crawler Carl. it took most of my complaints and added all the stuff I had not considered.
Hearing from others who did not like it, and for the same or overlapping reasons, is a balm on my heart, so thank you for commenting :)
I stopped writing my review. You wrote everything I wanted to say and more. Shit's so ass.
You wrote there are better lit rpg, do you have any recommendations? I liked Mother of learning and the recommendations stemming from that are all dudebrotasy.
Hmm, that's a hard one - the series I had in mind and mentioned in the review are in French, so not sure how useful that would be.
I have not read it, and clearly it's hard to know what to expect from reviews in this genre, but I think that maybe the Wandering Inn might be better than average in this regard? Again, I have not read it, so take this as just a guess!
Thank you! Rawwwr (photo mention above).
Also clocking correct use of “myriad” on this read, high fiiiiiiive.
When I start new books I sometimes come over here to read or re-read one star reviews of this garbage and be glad that pockets of lucidity and critical thinking still exist somewhere 😻
Thank you for your review. I keep seeing so many people raving about these books online, and I've been considering giving them a try even though they absolutely do not sound like my cup of tea. This sounds far worse than the dreck I expected and I'm so grateful to you for reading it so I can avoid it.
I was two chapters in thinking, "what am i not getting here? Why does everyone love this?"
Thank you for your review! I feel less gaslit now!
AKR_Tea wrote: "This sounds far worse than the dreck I expected and I'm so grateful to you for reading it so I can avoid it."
On to better reads!! Good for you <3
Mel wrote: "I was two chapters in thinking, "what am i not getting here? Why does everyone love this?"
Thank you for your review! I feel less gaslit now!"
Ikr, it's sobering to see how well received this is...
Well said… I probably could have enjoyed one book in this vein but the thought of reading any more leaves me cold
Glad to know I’m not insane. Even though I am definitely going insane reading this garbage. You fully read my mind.
@Patrick: I forget how many levels we are told there are, but seeing how many they covered in this one book, this will drag on forever -_-
@Isla: not too late to DNF and go on to better books! <3
I wish I’d seen this before starting this book. I wanted a fun escape but this book actually made me feel terrible. Thank you for posting this.
I appreciate your review so much. I was getting drawn into the promises of funny cats and raptors. I now know this book would make me actually REGRET purchasing a book. Something I have not felt before. Also please write a book of your own. Lmao I very much loved reading your review.
@Myreads - hope you have gotten rid of it and feel better about your current reads!!
@Nik - Thank you very much and glad this saved you from regrets! Also, is this a crocheted Cthulhu that I see on your profile pic? I crocheted a very similar one a few years back <3
I feel like the positive reviews and recommendations these books get online are some kind of organized effort/psyop
Love you for this! Felt almost crazy for disliking it so much, the hype is beyond insane
I think you make some very valid points and, as a male who didn't find it as problematic as you did (though I did catch myself rolling my eyes here and there and felt its humor was at times dated and sexist), appreciate hearing your perspective, reflecting on your critique as well as my blind spots, and thank you for sharing it.
Thank you for this. I've been on the fence about reading this book, and after reading this (especially the spoiler), this is ABSOLUTELY not for me!
As a dude, I agree 100% this is the equivalent of romantasy for men. DNF’d about 50% of the way
good for you for leaving this review!! i got like 40% into the book last year and just felt so weird about it. it felt like i was reading some teenage boy’s ao3 story. the author’s fans literally think he’s god, it’s scary
@RJ and Bruna: I know, it's pretty disheartening to see how well this has been accepted and even loved...
@Eric: very cool to hear this, I appreciate your willingness to keep an open mind and put yourself in others' shoes - the world needs more of that!
@Danielle and Edouardo: glad you guys either dodged that bullet, or at least cut your losses short! On to better books :)
@Bianca and Linda: thanks, you guys!
@Leah: agreed, part of his fanbase is... well let's say that they prove the points of the book's detractors, so at least it's illustrative of the problem the rest of us have with it!
This is so well written, you should write a book yourself! I read this like three times blown away by all of it.
Chances are the you won’t come all the way down here to read my comment, but here I go anyway:
If you are an avid reader of Sci-fi and Fantasy genres, judging the tone of the series by the first book is always a mistake. A lot of the hardcore sci-fi/fantasy genre is misogynistic and “DudeBrotasy” but this one is not. When I started this series, I absolutely did not connect with Carl, could barely stand Donut and found it utterly crude, unemotional etc etc…. You get the point. But it is an addictive read. I don’t need all my books to be high brow literature…sometimes a trashy quick read is what you need at the moment. Anyway, as I get into the second book and further, I start seeing that all of this is a satire. It’s a commentary on how all this crude, gory stuff is being enjoyed across the universe(much like trashy reality shows humans like so much), how only the worst of humanity can be portrayed to a larger audience as the truth and how the viewers gobble it all up with relish(social media reference, anyone??). There is an argument to be made for the readers who are enjoying this book are also in the same boat.
Carl definitely matures as a character and there are so many strong female characters that actually have meaty roles(Let me tell you how rare that is in a lot of sci-fi series without them being damsels-in-distress).
So my recommendation is if you found the first book to be a page turner, give the next book a chance and see if it gets you hooked.
Anyway thanks for coming to my Ted talk!!!
Meghana, I appreciate your TedTalk so I'll try and reply!
So first and foremost, I very strongly disagree that a series can/should only be judged as a whole or that one should persist and wait for it to become good, if they didn't like its start. It's an argument that, in my experience, is usually made for one of two reasons : either when it becomes hard to defend the merit of a work (usually when faced with strong and hard to disprove arguments to the contrary) but when one still wants to defend liking it / or when one just doesn't mind as much what's being reproached to a work and thus had no trouble continuing with it.
I'm going to assume that maybe you could fit the second category here: you did like it on some level, since you found it addictive and a page-turner - it sounds like you didn't mind as much as I did the flaws I described, then. So no, I honestly don't believe it will get better for someone who felt like I described above.
I read primarily SFF and I agree with you that it's not too hard to come across misogynistic things in that genre, but that's not a good enough reason to give this a pass, imo. There can always be worse! (Though imo this is really scratching the bottom of the barrel, even if it seems you've seen even shittier!) It remains that there's a lot of SFF out there that manages to avoid making an ass of itself, too!
Finally, I won't just repeat my review about why this isn't satire and doesn't get that pass, but I will say that I like your point about how meta this is in how it really doesn't reflect too well on the readers enjoying this... because yeah, I totally agree! So let's not! We can do better and read better and demand better. Even low brow, trashy reads (and I have read and enjoyed my fair share too) can, and imo should, be asked to have a modicum of heart.
Thank you for voicing this. This book was highly recommended to me, but i dont know if i can do it. Im at chapter 15 and the first boss was really... like the whole book seems tone deaf, but that one was wild. Its making me feel queasy. My hackles were raised with how quickly the book jumped into explaining the game mechanics. Like, the character is supposedly like confused and upset by it, but there's no depth there. Its like... if he wanted this to be like a lighthearted adventure rpg then write that, but he *tries* to center it around heavier emotions, but there's so little care for the readers experience or like genuine empathy that i think the book becomes what it's trying to criticize? Gory trauma pornography?
Nyx wrote: "he *tries* to center it around heavier emotions, but there's so little care for the readers experience or like genuine empathy that i think the book becomes what it's trying to criticize? Gory trauma pornography?"
You nailed it with this, I agree. This story is unable to generate anything tactful, even when it comes to the serious aspects of its subject matter. And you make a good point: it fails to such an extent that it uno-reverses itself, becoming what it's claiming to criticize.
Yes, I agree with you on every single point
The cat has a lot of charisma (stat wise, clearly I must be immune) - there's more of us!!!
The first boss fight was absolutely designed to feel much worse for the audience (especially those who translate enough to catch the hoarder lady talking about her child dying because of her neglect--but then again that might also be a reason for us to feel less bad for her, which I don't appreciate). But then it's nothing new to me, I've read enough shounen manga series with main characters' over-the-top struggling with their first fight before a series of powerups and training montages. No one can convince me the mechanics of litRPG are that much different.
But then again, where else can the next generation of gamers go, when the old gaming forums with hundreds of posts long conversations on ethics of killing everything you meet and stealing from friendly NPCs are gone and forgotten?
Thank you for this review! I completely agree, I have struggled to formulate for myself why I disliked this book so much and you just explained it perfectly!
I really appreciate this review. I have been waffling on whether to pick this book up - it comes so highly recommended and the premise is enticing. But the reviews giving examples of the high-school level gaming humour and thoughtless treatment of themes/women have given me the ick.
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I forgot to add! Are you by any chance talking about Le donjon de Naheulbeuk??? I'd forgotten about this gem (but remembered the name right away, hah!). I must have the mp3 files still somewhere on one of my old hard drives... I feel so old now
Good for you for cutting your losses short!!And I remember Naheulbeuk super fondly but the one I had in mind when I mentioned alexandrines was Reflets d'Acide, actually - do you know it? Takes us back! Not trying to do an old person's shaking fist, yell-at-the-cloud impression while saying "it was better before" but man, those were good!
Ooh, I'd never heard of Reflets d'Acide but now I'm extremely curious! I just downloaded the files, guess I'll just embrace the nostalgia for the next couple days lol
I have been thinking of giving them a new listen too, just have a few audiobooks to get to first - enjoy! And let me know what you think <3
The Goblin thing is about where I stopped. You know, the funny thing is that this book isn't that long and when I found out that they only get a few floors in I realized that this might be the kind of thing where the series shows growth happening, but I wasn't going to waste time trying to dig to the good part. Truth of the matter is that it's just not a complete story and it's written like it's meant to be episodes of a show. And all of this "what if you were trapped in a killing reality show" thing might have seemed more nuanced before all of the Hunger Games books and all of the reality TV of the aughts. It's so far past that now that it just seems like a book that might have worked at another time with another tone
Agreed, this is just a big step backward, using concepts that are not fresh, and an tone that is (or at least really should be) antiquated!As for the potential growth, you know, I read that for a book club and the person who proposed it made the point that it did get better over time... and, first, I doubt it can change enough for me to find it palatable at this stage, as clearly the author is not writing the things I find most problematic as such (he's 100% on board). But then, even if it did happen, I have no interest in putting all of that effort into bearing witness to a man's late reckoning and belated attempts at becoming a decent and more empathetic human being - not my journey, all the best to him, far from me. But then again, I am also pretty sure this is not the path this/the author is on anyway.
Wishing us both better readings instead!
I'm stealing the "DudeBrotasy" term because yes. A lot of books like this that get published are the equivalent for the Romantasy slop.
Be my guest! And hopefully we can come to spot them before we even have to crack them open 🤞
Couldn't agree more with your review! And I'm totally adopting the DudeBrotasy term. This is exactly what this book me think of.
I’m interested in this critique, which I’ve seen throughout various threads, especially because the only people I know who’ve read and recommended Dungeon Crawler Carl to me are womenspecifically women who are usually quick to warn me off books with misogynistic undertones or thinly written female characters. So I don’t think this is as straightforward as “the author doesn’t respect women.” Labeling it as a book “written for men” feels ironic, since it relies on its own kind of gendered assumption about what women can or can’t enjoy. The bosses are supposed to be grotesque, exaggerated stereotypes. The alien overlords deliberately latch onto the most offensive, shallow, and dehumanizing stereotypes because it supports their narrative that Earth is violent, degraded, and one-dimensional. That’s the same reason the alien broadcast at the beginning introducing earth to the universe only showed misery and brutality. That raises a real question: is using an offensive stereotype, while framing it as offensive and wrong, itself offensive? Would the same critique land if the stereotypes weren’t widely recognized as harmful? Or is the only “safe” approach to pretend that prejudice and misogyny don’t exist in our culture at all. To me, the book is doing something pretty common (and valid) in fiction. Showing problematic behavior through villains, and showing the main character reacting with discomfort, disgust, and resistance. The MC is actively repulsed by them, often in the same way the reader is.
I completely agree this book isn’t for everyone, and people are allowed to be offended or uncomfortable. But I do think this particular criticism becomes circular. The author depicts misogyny as part of a hostile, exploitative system, and then gets accused of promoting misogyny for depicting it at all. That collapses any distinction between portrayal and approval. But hey, maybe I am just a victim of my own culture, and I’ve been Stockholm’d into freewheeling approval.
Megan wrote: "That raises a real question: is using an offensive stereotype, while framing it as offensive and wrong, itself offensive?"My whole point is that this not what this is doing.
I love that line in your review: Carl's mantra: "they can hurt me, they can even kill me, but they won't break me".Dude, you're already a monster, there's nothing for anyone to break.
YES! You've caused a massacre, killed in the most gruesome ways possible, and weirdly sexualize everyone, and now you're trying to be all redeemable? Get out with that nonsense
You’re entitled to your wrong opinion : p
Mira wrote: "You've caused a massacre, killed in the most gruesome ways possible, and weirdly sexualize everyone, and now you're trying to be all redeemable? Get out with that nonsense"Seriously, he's so far gone and playing the victim... I mean, not exactly an uncommon state of mind, I suppose. But also not one from whose POV I want to experience a whole series that's uninterested in being self-aware and calling it out.
Yep yep yep I’m glad I stopped at level one. Also the “snooty cat is cold female bitch” trope is tired as fuck.
Yeah, the cat is what would otherwise be a vapid femme fatale, because of course that book needed one -_-(Also -> love your profile pic!)
This is the perfect review of Dungeon Crawler Carl. it took most of my complaints and added all the stuff I had not considered.
Hearing from others who did not like it, and for the same or overlapping reasons, is a balm on my heart, so thank you for commenting :)
I stopped writing my review. You wrote everything I wanted to say and more. Shit's so ass.You wrote there are better lit rpg, do you have any recommendations? I liked Mother of learning and the recommendations stemming from that are all dudebrotasy.
Hmm, that's a hard one - the series I had in mind and mentioned in the review are in French, so not sure how useful that would be.I have not read it, and clearly it's hard to know what to expect from reviews in this genre, but I think that maybe the Wandering Inn might be better than average in this regard? Again, I have not read it, so take this as just a guess!
Thank you! Rawwwr (photo mention above). Also clocking correct use of “myriad” on this read, high fiiiiiiive.
When I start new books I sometimes come over here to read or re-read one star reviews of this garbage and be glad that pockets of lucidity and critical thinking still exist somewhere 😻
Thank you for your review. I keep seeing so many people raving about these books online, and I've been considering giving them a try even though they absolutely do not sound like my cup of tea. This sounds far worse than the dreck I expected and I'm so grateful to you for reading it so I can avoid it.
I was two chapters in thinking, "what am i not getting here? Why does everyone love this?" Thank you for your review! I feel less gaslit now!
AKR_Tea wrote: "This sounds far worse than the dreck I expected and I'm so grateful to you for reading it so I can avoid it."On to better reads!! Good for you <3
Mel wrote: "I was two chapters in thinking, "what am i not getting here? Why does everyone love this?"
Thank you for your review! I feel less gaslit now!"
Ikr, it's sobering to see how well received this is...
Well said… I probably could have enjoyed one book in this vein but the thought of reading any more leaves me cold
Glad to know I’m not insane. Even though I am definitely going insane reading this garbage. You fully read my mind.
@Patrick: I forget how many levels we are told there are, but seeing how many they covered in this one book, this will drag on forever -_-@Isla: not too late to DNF and go on to better books! <3
I wish I’d seen this before starting this book. I wanted a fun escape but this book actually made me feel terrible. Thank you for posting this.
I appreciate your review so much. I was getting drawn into the promises of funny cats and raptors. I now know this book would make me actually REGRET purchasing a book. Something I have not felt before. Also please write a book of your own. Lmao I very much loved reading your review.
@Myreads - hope you have gotten rid of it and feel better about your current reads!!@Nik - Thank you very much and glad this saved you from regrets! Also, is this a crocheted Cthulhu that I see on your profile pic? I crocheted a very similar one a few years back <3
I feel like the positive reviews and recommendations these books get online are some kind of organized effort/psyop
Love you for this! Felt almost crazy for disliking it so much, the hype is beyond insane
I think you make some very valid points and, as a male who didn't find it as problematic as you did (though I did catch myself rolling my eyes here and there and felt its humor was at times dated and sexist), appreciate hearing your perspective, reflecting on your critique as well as my blind spots, and thank you for sharing it.
Thank you for this. I've been on the fence about reading this book, and after reading this (especially the spoiler), this is ABSOLUTELY not for me!
As a dude, I agree 100% this is the equivalent of romantasy for men. DNF’d about 50% of the way
good for you for leaving this review!! i got like 40% into the book last year and just felt so weird about it. it felt like i was reading some teenage boy’s ao3 story. the author’s fans literally think he’s god, it’s scary
@RJ and Bruna: I know, it's pretty disheartening to see how well this has been accepted and even loved...@Eric: very cool to hear this, I appreciate your willingness to keep an open mind and put yourself in others' shoes - the world needs more of that!
@Danielle and Edouardo: glad you guys either dodged that bullet, or at least cut your losses short! On to better books :)
@Bianca and Linda: thanks, you guys!
@Leah: agreed, part of his fanbase is... well let's say that they prove the points of the book's detractors, so at least it's illustrative of the problem the rest of us have with it!
This is so well written, you should write a book yourself! I read this like three times blown away by all of it.
Chances are the you won’t come all the way down here to read my comment, but here I go anyway:If you are an avid reader of Sci-fi and Fantasy genres, judging the tone of the series by the first book is always a mistake. A lot of the hardcore sci-fi/fantasy genre is misogynistic and “DudeBrotasy” but this one is not. When I started this series, I absolutely did not connect with Carl, could barely stand Donut and found it utterly crude, unemotional etc etc…. You get the point. But it is an addictive read. I don’t need all my books to be high brow literature…sometimes a trashy quick read is what you need at the moment. Anyway, as I get into the second book and further, I start seeing that all of this is a satire. It’s a commentary on how all this crude, gory stuff is being enjoyed across the universe(much like trashy reality shows humans like so much), how only the worst of humanity can be portrayed to a larger audience as the truth and how the viewers gobble it all up with relish(social media reference, anyone??). There is an argument to be made for the readers who are enjoying this book are also in the same boat.
Carl definitely matures as a character and there are so many strong female characters that actually have meaty roles(Let me tell you how rare that is in a lot of sci-fi series without them being damsels-in-distress).
So my recommendation is if you found the first book to be a page turner, give the next book a chance and see if it gets you hooked.
Anyway thanks for coming to my Ted talk!!!
Meghana, I appreciate your TedTalk so I'll try and reply!So first and foremost, I very strongly disagree that a series can/should only be judged as a whole or that one should persist and wait for it to become good, if they didn't like its start. It's an argument that, in my experience, is usually made for one of two reasons : either when it becomes hard to defend the merit of a work (usually when faced with strong and hard to disprove arguments to the contrary) but when one still wants to defend liking it / or when one just doesn't mind as much what's being reproached to a work and thus had no trouble continuing with it.
I'm going to assume that maybe you could fit the second category here: you did like it on some level, since you found it addictive and a page-turner - it sounds like you didn't mind as much as I did the flaws I described, then. So no, I honestly don't believe it will get better for someone who felt like I described above.
I read primarily SFF and I agree with you that it's not too hard to come across misogynistic things in that genre, but that's not a good enough reason to give this a pass, imo. There can always be worse! (Though imo this is really scratching the bottom of the barrel, even if it seems you've seen even shittier!) It remains that there's a lot of SFF out there that manages to avoid making an ass of itself, too!
Finally, I won't just repeat my review about why this isn't satire and doesn't get that pass, but I will say that I like your point about how meta this is in how it really doesn't reflect too well on the readers enjoying this... because yeah, I totally agree! So let's not! We can do better and read better and demand better. Even low brow, trashy reads (and I have read and enjoyed my fair share too) can, and imo should, be asked to have a modicum of heart.
Thank you for voicing this. This book was highly recommended to me, but i dont know if i can do it. Im at chapter 15 and the first boss was really... like the whole book seems tone deaf, but that one was wild. Its making me feel queasy. My hackles were raised with how quickly the book jumped into explaining the game mechanics. Like, the character is supposedly like confused and upset by it, but there's no depth there. Its like... if he wanted this to be like a lighthearted adventure rpg then write that, but he *tries* to center it around heavier emotions, but there's so little care for the readers experience or like genuine empathy that i think the book becomes what it's trying to criticize? Gory trauma pornography?
Nyx wrote: "he *tries* to center it around heavier emotions, but there's so little care for the readers experience or like genuine empathy that i think the book becomes what it's trying to criticize? Gory trauma pornography?"You nailed it with this, I agree. This story is unable to generate anything tactful, even when it comes to the serious aspects of its subject matter. And you make a good point: it fails to such an extent that it uno-reverses itself, becoming what it's claiming to criticize.
Yes, I agree with you on every single point
The cat has a lot of charisma (stat wise, clearly I must be immune) - there's more of us!!! The first boss fight was absolutely designed to feel much worse for the audience (especially those who translate enough to catch the hoarder lady talking about her child dying because of her neglect--but then again that might also be a reason for us to feel less bad for her, which I don't appreciate). But then it's nothing new to me, I've read enough shounen manga series with main characters' over-the-top struggling with their first fight before a series of powerups and training montages. No one can convince me the mechanics of litRPG are that much different.
But then again, where else can the next generation of gamers go, when the old gaming forums with hundreds of posts long conversations on ethics of killing everything you meet and stealing from friendly NPCs are gone and forgotten?
Thank you for this review! I completely agree, I have struggled to formulate for myself why I disliked this book so much and you just explained it perfectly!
I really appreciate this review. I have been waffling on whether to pick this book up - it comes so highly recommended and the premise is enticing. But the reviews giving examples of the high-school level gaming humour and thoughtless treatment of themes/women have given me the ick.
Thank you for this! I struggled through the first 3 chapters and was feeling more and more unsettled, enough to pause and check a couple of reviews. I'm very glad I saw yours, because I know reading about the first boss and the baby goblins would have f***ed me up. On the Dnf, avoid-this-author pile it goes!