67 upvotes, 3 direct replies (showing 3)
View submission: Do NOT Sleep on Dungeon Crawler Carl
I tried it because so many people were recommending it but it didn’t do much for me. The video game stats/leveling up stuff was killing me after awhile. It just went on and on. The writing was ok but didn’t wow or surprise me. The jokes were telegraphed. To me it felt like a book tailored for a really specific audience. When i was done i was mildly curious about what would happen in the series but definitely not enough to plow through hundreds more pages of leveling-up minutiae.
But a family member who doesn’t play many video games loved it. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just one of those books that either clicks with you or doesn’t. Maybe listening to the audiobook makes a huge difference.
Comment by stormdelta at 24/02/2025 at 10:00 UTC
35 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Maybe listening to the audiobook makes a huge difference
It's probably still not for you, but the audio version adds a lot in this case.
The narrator is unusually talented, to the point many people mistakenly think there's multiple people voicing it.
Comment by malifer at 24/02/2025 at 12:26 UTC
9 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I listened to the first two audiobooks. The narrator is talented. However the story is boring and not funny. Jokes are similar to 90s teen movie gross out humor and repeated one liners.
Comment by SDRPGLVR at 24/02/2025 at 20:03 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
The video game stats/leveling up stuff was killing me after awhile
That seems to be the primary appeal. What kept me going from the first book when I was really not feeling it was them actually getting to this part. It turns into a podcast you read, and the brain tickles don't come from the same place as reading a good book but rather listening to a quality Actual Play RPG Podcast.
I guess that's the defining feature of LitRPG, which is a genre I'm very new to as well. If the idea of reading stat blocks and evaluating the progression of RPG characters through percentage-based upgrades doesn't appeal to you, it seems not even worth trying.