Dungeon Crawler Carl – Matt Dinniman – Episode 120
The Buddies ventured into Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl, a lit-RPG novel. A lit-RPG novel, for those of you that don’t know, is basically a story told more like a video game RPG (we’re guessing, as this is our first time ever reading one). This book had the Buddies chatting about Cats, Nick Arcade, and the merits of Public Urination. Looking for a light-hearted, good time, with your pals Princess Donut and Carl? Well pick up this book and join us as we venture through Book 1 of Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Intro/Book Report (0:00-2:58)
Stock Up/Down (2:59-22:17)
Favorite Scene/Character (22:18-29:41)
Love/Hate/Listener Mail (29:42-35:59)
Casting the Movie/TV Show (36:00-38:20)
Conclusion (38:21-41:53)
NEXT BOOK: First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂
Alright. Welcome to Book Club. I’m Dylan here with God damn it, Keith. We’re breaking down some bestsellers, and this week, we’ll be discussing Matt Dineman’s twenty twenty hit lit RPG novel, dungeon crawler Carl. If you’d like to recommend a book for us to read or reach out to us in past episodes, you can visit our website, buddybookclub.com, or send us a message on x or Instagram, buddy book club podcast.
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I don’t know how we got it, but I’m really excited about that. Yeah. So Dungeon Crawler Carl, four point five three on Goodreads. Seven book series so far. Pretty exciting stuff.
You were the one to suggest this book. We had come off kind of a streak of serious books, and you needed to get back to your roots of just reading for fun. So you came up with Dungeon Crawler Carl somehow. Yeah. It’s it’s all over Reddit.
It’s a, cult following on Reddit. Yeah. I was kinda surprised when I started doing a little bit of research on it, and I because I knew nothing about it. You and afterwards, I still knew nothing about it in terms of how it fit into how it fit into the culture or whatnot. And looking this up, it was it’s massive.
It’s massive out there. You got us a book report before we jump into our standard categories. Do you wanna fire that up? Dungeon Crawler Carl is a good reminder of why you don’t judge a book by its cover. Oh.
Just by the name and the cover, I would think this book would be a silly video game inspired book with a cat as comic relief. Well, actually, that’s exactly what it is. And I liked it. It’s really hard to articulate why this book is good or why it was fun to read. It’s kinda like listening to that song Cupid Shuffle at a wedding.
I can’t not be happening listening to it. You know what I mean? Like, down down do do do do. You know? It’s just catchy.
It’s fun. It’s simple, but it’s not simple. But it makes everyone feel good when they’re reading. This book is really meant for someone like me. It actually reminds me of a lot of Andy Weir, who I think had a similar or a way to stardom or whatever.
Right? Sure. Self publishing and then yeah. We’ve read some of his books, Project Hail Mary, Martian Artemis. But instead of made up theoretical science about a made up theoretical problem that it’s super complex and repetitive.
This book presents simple problem, like how do you defeat a gym bro based off your current inventory and skill level. Now that’s something I can understand. I give that a glerp clerp. It’s funny because I well, I have two two comments on that. One is it’s fascinating to me how you wrote a paragraph and yet you still can’t read that paragraph out loud.
Really proud really proud of you on that on that front. And two, I always thought it was the Cuban shuffle. It’s the Cupid shuffle? Get get your racism out of here. No.
Honestly, I was like, oh, Cuban sandwich, Cuban shuffle. That just makes a lot of sense to me. Let’s get into some categories here. That’s why we’re here. Stock Up, Stock Down, you go first because you already kinda burned one of mine, but you go first.
Stock Up, a book that isn’t about poverty, hunger, drug overdoses, abuse, and the evils of, mankind. Mhmm. But also it still has a message. Even though it is a silly book, I said that, they have fun, and it’s kind of just, like, a a fun book. It does kind of address still these some of these things.
It talks about, like, kind of just overall bullies. It talks about elderly abuse and just, how we treat the elderly in general. Kinda drives home, hey, some things are worth dying for. Like friendship? Yeah.
Which I really respect. So this is exactly what I talked about with the last book I’ve been referencing in the last few books we’ve done or been a little bit darker, a little bit more, depressing to read. Where this book is just a silly book, but you can still get stuff out of these type of book. You know, we don’t need a twenty hour book on how people in retirement homes are getting mistreated to to show that all people that are are elderly are mistreated. Like, we don’t need that.
We can get it quickly here and you, like, think about it. Right? It doesn’t need to be hammered over your head and lots of words on it. Feels when you’re force fed it, and it’s also done in such a negative way that it’s like, okay. I get it.
And then you start to feel helpless instead of being like, you know what? We should treat care of our elderly better. That’s a good point, but this you know? Instead of like, yeah. This is this is a good rallying cry.
Yeah. Yeah. I agreed. My first stock up and you, unfortunately, because we’re always on the same wavelength, reference it in your book report, but the phrase don’t judge a book by its cover. And I’m specifically here referring to the third edition art.
I actually like the ace cover art much better. But did you have on the Audible one, I assume you have the Yeah. I got that one. It’s like computer generated animation kinda thing. Yeah.
It’s kinda it it looks like a a video game I played when I was, like, eight years old. Looks like Duke Nukem, but not nearly as cool as Duke Nukem looked. And so I knew nothing about the book and saw the cover and when you reference it and I said, okay, definitely no. This is not gonna be for me, but but I’ll do it for you because I love you. And, within the first ten pages, I was patting myself on the back because it felt like my instincts were correct.
The the entire world structure gets squished like someone stomping a can of Coke, o o okay, and then some AI announces that the survivors can reclaim Earth from a corporation by beating an 18 level dungeon game, which Carl and Donut see and enter. So I was like, whatever. Like, I don’t I don’t really get it. It was kind of did you read Hitchhikers? I did.
Yeah. It was very similar to Hitchhikers. So the the beginning part of it, you know, being a corporation coming in, they have to do a new highway or whatever through Earth. So that part, I was like, well, this has been done before, and this isn’t nearly as funny so far as Douglas Adams. So I was like, whatever.
And it all seemed to happen so quickly, and having played, you know, a handful of single player video games with an intro of, like, video chapter, whatever you wanna call it, this one seemed like the dumbest out of all of them, and it was a book I was gonna read. But but does it matter on the whole grand scheme of things? No. Absolutely not. Once Carl and Donut start playing the game and really after the first tutorial guildhall, I was all in.
Mhmm. I I I just realized this is going to be fun. You know? This after all the heavy things we’ve read, I just need to listen to this because I listened to it on Audible. Listen to it and just enjoy it.
And and it was. It was it was so enjoyable. It was it’s like spotted dick. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that. I know.
I’ve had a couple of things down there. Basically, what I’m saying is it’s totally not what I expected. If someone I went to a restaurant and someone said spotted dick, which, by the way, is a British dessert. It’s a steamed pudding with fruit and custard poured over here. Oh, okay.
Yeah. It’s delicious. Talking about. Yeah. It’s delicious.
Totally not what I expected. And once again, you know, you can’t judge a book by its cover. And also, I just want to say if you go to Wikipedia and look up Spotted Dick, it has a reference at the top. It says not to be confused with pearly penile papules. Don’t click that.
Don’t click that. Noted. I thought it was a different dessert. Not liked one. It is indeed not a dessert.
Alright. Okay. Do not click that. Yeah. So first stock up.
Don’t there’s your book about Discover. What else you got? Cats stock up. Oh. Did you did you have any cats growing up?
I did indeed have cats. I’ve had three cats in my life. Oh, okay. My dad got, my sister and I each a cat as a me and your mom are getting divorced present. Not cat.
I remember. No. They were wonderful cats. They were great cats. They were, like, outdoor straight outdoor cats.
Like, they came in at night and, like, slept there, and they were always around. But it was, like, you didn’t pick up after them. There wasn’t all you know, you didn’t no litter boxes. They were just feral cats pretty much, but they were super sweet and awesome. And then those cats had some litters of kittens, so I’ve had kittens.
And then my mom, when I was in eighth grade, got me a cat. She picked me up from detention after being at detention for, like, my twentieth time, and I think it was a present for that, and she got me a cat. So Oh. Yes. I now have had dogs, but, I’m I’m I’m I’m okay with cats.
I’m not an anti cat guy. Yeah. I’ve I’ve always said and I had similar similar, cats that were I didn’t even know cats could stay in only inside. I was like, what are you talking about? That that was a new thing to me Yeah.
When I get older. But, I feel like I’ve always respected cats. There was a mutual respect there because they don’t really just like everyone. You know, you kinda gotta earn that, which which I appreciate. Obviously, dogs kinda have that unconditional love for most of them.
So there is some of that where you’re like, you didn’t feel like you earned it. So So I do always respect cats. But in this book, I do think they painted cats or donut at least really, really well thought out character. Because not only is she funny, but she’s needy, but she’s also brave, but she’s also a coward, but she’s also, you know, sensitive. But she’s you know, she’s, like, all these different there’s, like, a huge dichotomy of what she is, which is what a cat is, which is, like, why why I think cats I respect them because they’re not just always in a good mood or always this or always that.
One second, they’ll be calling up on you and, like, you move the wrong way and they’ll they’ll, like, claw you in the face. You know? They’re not afraid to do that. So, like, you never know what you get with them. And I respect them and, this book does a good job of painting what they are, really.
Yeah. I mean, I think, Robert De Niro put it best in meet the parents or whatever the case is so you can go and and look up his quote. But he’s basically when he’s, you know, defending Mr. Jinx, Jinxy, he’s pretty much saying, like, dogs you like, they’ll love anybody. You know, all you need is a piece of beef jerky and they’ll be your best friend.
Like cats, you have to earn their affection. Oh, okay. Well, I just stole it from that. Perfect. Yeah.
That’s pretty much what you said. So, yeah. Spot on. I was gonna say animals with, our pets with, food names as as as mine. I didn’t end up going with that.
Yours was better. I was also hungry though, this whole book. I kept on thinking about donuts. They’re like, donut. I’m like, yeah.
Uh-oh. That’s the person’s name. Damn it. Like I probably had, like, four or five donuts listening to this because I’d be in the car in the morning, and I’d stop at Dunks. I’d be like, well, I’m getting a donut now too.
I’m I’m just being hit in the head with the word donut over and over again. And then after I’d eat it, I’d look at the empty bag and go, goddamn it, donut. I’ll tell you what. I I didn’t know how much sweets I ate until I I always always try to give up sweets for Lent, not because I’m religious, but more of just for something to do. But then I’m literally I’m an addict.
I at times, I’m like, I heard donut. My mouth started salivating. I was like, I need some sort of sweets now. So it’s it’s pretty tough. Not easy.
Yeah. Not easy at all. My next stock up was Nick Arcade. Are you familiar with this TV show back in the nineties? So.
It was ahead of its time, I felt like. Early nineties Nickelodeon game show, two teams play an arcade type game. So it’s pretty much like a, you know, the stand up box arcade game. And then there’s like video game trivia and like both of those things are used to rack up points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game gets to enter the quote unquote video zone for a chance to beat the game wizard and win the grand prize, which is usually, like, a trip somewhere or or whatnot.
Mhmm. But it was like Jeopardy but with video games, and then you also played video games. And the coolest part as a kid was at the end, this video zone was an interactive, like, blue screen, green screen kind of thing where a player stood there and kind of played inside a video game. So you would be in the video game. Like virtual reality?
Yeah. Except it was way before virtual reality. So it was like you’re standing there and looking at a screen and seeing what’s happening, and you have to, like, jump over stuff or, like, touch stuff, whatever the case was. I like it. It was it needed work.
It wasn’t fully fleshed, but, unlike the spotted dick, but the pearly penile papsules. But it it it was like this pretty much. As I was reading this, I was almost feeling there is obviously a video game energy to it because that’s pretty much what Carl and Donut are doing, but it’s such a fun story. It was it was like when I’m playing when I played Dungeons and Dragons the two times before I got kicked out. It was that, but the author created such interesting power ups and bad guys that were touched into reality that it it wasn’t the normal tropes of here’s an orc, here’s a goblin, here’s a wizard, here’s a mage.
You know? It was much more interesting stuff, whether it be the kraken or the the jock guy that you’re the body builder guy that you’re talking about. Mhmm. It’s it was really creative. I really like that.
So bring back Nick Arcade, bottom line. They tried to supposedly, for those who have seen it. They tried to get a Kickstarter. I think it was, like, $350, and they they couldn’t get it done. So what are you gonna do?
Did you get your money back that you donated? I did not. I did not do that. It was not like Silicon Valley. Did you have any other stuff?
Well, it’s staying on the same page. Oh, okay. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X Men, Simpsons, Streets of Rage, Stock Up. I mean, all the classic arcade video game. Oh, so good.
The the biggest thing was the main thing happens in this book is that you get that boss. You gotta find out what the the weak spot is. There’s always hints. It just brought me right back to me as, you know, 10 year old being like, no. You gotta you gotta wait and save your, like, superpower for, you know, when the boss comes and you gotta hit him when his back’s turned and, you you know, all these things you gotta remember.
Grab Bowser by the tail. Yeah. Which did bring me a flashback of a really big pet peeve in my do you remember those games? Some of the games, if you use your special power, you took your health away. Yeah.
You remember that? Yeah. That was so stupid. That that was what still upsets me. I’m I’m actually really upset about that thinking about that.
Is it before, like, the idea of mana came around? Yeah. So I think it was before the idea when there was multiple health bars. Like, a health bar and then, like, a magic bar or whatever the case was. So they didn’t know what to do because to to give you they didn’t wanna give you unlimited magic.
So they said, okay. Let’s just take some of your health away. But that that’s pretty stupid. I mean, I do agree that there is and should be some super powerful magic that might hurt you to cast. You know?
Like, sometimes I’m trying to think of What sword? I’m no. Is that let’s say that for later. No. I’m trying to think of some specialty power that in a game causes you to just weakness.
You know, you’ve used up so much of your magical energy that you’re, like, temporarily weak or almost like the emperor using all of his, you know, lightning power. And it Like, in in, Smash Brothers when you use your shield too much and it breaks? That’d be something like that. Sure. That we’ll count that.
We’ll count that. Simpsons, X Men, and the Ninja Turtles game. Those are those are three. If I ever walk into a an arcade to this day, that’s what I’m looking for. Is there one of those boxes?
For sure. I also have played them somewhat recently because I’ve been, like, an arcade bar. And maybe because you have just put keep on playing quarters in, but I’m like, oh, this isn’t as good as I remember. Well, also at the time, quarters, I I had $20 to my name. So if I’m putting a quarter in to get a new life, that was me spending 2% of of my net worth.
Which was a good investment, honestly. Yeah. This is a serious investment. Where now, I’m just gonna go in with a, you know, an ice cream container full of quarters and just beat the game. Whatever.
Yeah. So my last stock up is Audible. I I really hate to do it. But goddamn it, Bezos, because I was all but ready to give up my Audible subscription. We had kinda talked about this on the last pod about how you can pause it every year because I’m just racking up credits like Princess Donut racks up torches.
And then I find out that this book is an Audible exclusive. It was really the only place I could find it not in paperback. And even then, it even didn’t have it in my local library or whatnot. So in order to even get the audiobook, it had to be through Audible. And the audiobook’s great.
Jeff Hayes, who I thought was Patrick Warburton, putty for the sims for the Seinfeld fans out there. Oh, he did sound like it. I thought it was him for several chapters. And then, you know, the new achievement. It annoyed me at first, but then I found myself saying it in my in my daily life.
You know? I’d feed my baby, like, two ounces of sweet potatoes, which is her new max that she eats. And I after she finishes, I look at her and go, new achievement. Or, you know, she’s doing new hand signals. Whatever the case is, even we we somehow we’ve had guests.
So we somehow managed to use all the mugs in my house between coffee and tea. And I looked up and I go, we used every single mug in this house. And I exclaimed to the world, new achievement. So, yeah I’m pissed at Audible because now I’m gonna have to spend all of my credits on the rest of these books. Which maybe it’s a good thing because then I can actually cancel Audible, and I’m not throwing away these credits.
But either way, they sucked me back in just when I was out. During, like, your quarter analogy, it feels like I’m just fucking I I don’t I don’t even think about it. Before, I used to be like, I don’t know if it’s worth that credit, but now I’m like I piss credit to this point. Oh, buddy, I have the Great Courses audiobook on the New Testament. I have that.
I spent a credit on it. Why? I have no idea. Yeah. It’s pretty much it’s pretty much a class on the Bible.
Because one day I’m sitting there, and I was like, hey. The Bible. It’s a pretty important book. Even I’m not religious. I don’t care.
It’s all parables and whatnot. But I was like, oh, I should probably learn about it just to know. And and I download. That’s how much I’m wasting credits. I’m legitimately throwing it into my life.
You’re not even pissing them. You’re pouring them out. You’re really Hot hot diarrhea and credits right now. Oh, the opposite of pissing. Good point.
Yeah. Yeah. What about stock downs? Stock down, I only had one, and it was writing about something you like stock down. The problem with this book is that it really gives people, like me and people that wanna be aspiring writers hope is because you take out something that’s like, oh, this is like something that he’s just really passionate about.
That he probably likes video games. He probably likes Dungeons and Dragons. He probably played played them growing up. And we think the same way or at least I think the same way. And this is something I would write this exact book in sixth grade.
The difference is Mhmm. And by sixth grade, I mean last year. But the difference is I’m a terrible, terrible writer. He, like, somehow is able to take this subject matter, which reality of when you summarize it and when you talk about it, like, it’s really just him fighting bosses, which is what what I how I’d write my creative papers Yeah. In sixth grade.
But he’d made it somehow entertaining and not feel like it’s a slug or not feel like and then he fought this guy and then he fought this guy and then he fought you know, that’s what how I would write it. So it does inspire you to be like, oh, I could I could do this, but then only only very few people could do actually what how he pulled it off. So that’s the stock down. Does that make sense? It does.
I feel like Matt was and I you know, we’re on a first time basis. I think he must have been a dungeon master at some point for a D and D because he created the the story very much lines up with how someone would create a D and D quest. Oh, okay. It’s just the actual bad guys and what aren’t out of some book. He’s just creating this out of thin air, which really good dungeon masters will do, but I think this is to another level.
And I do agree that he interwove enough story within there that it didn’t seem like it was just boss battle, boss battle, level up, boss battle, boss battle. Yeah. Yeah. Although I will get into some of that later on. But, my stock down is public urination.
So I myself am a big fan of inconspicuous public urination, as is Jack, although he went not so inconspicuous. And when you’re in a dungeon fighting for your life with an omniscient AI, it’s probably not the best idea. So he really, you know, fucks the shit up, everyone’s shit up, by peeing on that wall, unleashing the rage elemental, which was level 93, and supposedly only dissipates after claiming 66 666 souls. Tough tough look for the rest of the group all because some guy decided to pull it out and pee on a wall. So but he was warned.
So to be fair, he was warned. So Yeah. I I will say that makes me think of just in general how they made all these rules to to basically be able to get rid of homeless people. But then they still apply them now even though homeless people are everywhere to the general public. Mhmm.
And that Like open container, public urination, public like, that’s just what homeless people are doing 9095% of the time the day. But they made those rules just be able to be like, alright. We’re gonna force these so we can kick these people out. But then, like, me me and you go out and we, you know, need to take a piss on the side because we’re we’re dying and and then they arrest you for that. You know?
Mhmm. I don’t care. I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t like it. Yeah.
The whole rule’s not fair because they’re like, okay. You don’t have a home. You can’t pee outside. And then you go into a business. They’re like, ew.
Get out of here. You can’t use our bathroom. I’m not you know, we’re rocking a hard place here. Where am I supposed to pee? That’s all I’m trying to do.
So Or, like, if you have a a open container, a lot of times, you end up having to, litter instead of throwing it away because you don’t wanna carry it around with you because you’ll get arrested for it. Brown paper bag it. That’s the rule. Oh, well, yeah. I don’t what if I don’t have a brown paper bag?
The wire? Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t. You just put the you just put in a brown paper bag.
That’s when you buy the booze. We I’ve been on the beach here in San Diego, and I’ve seen people get tickets for having it in red cups. By themselves drinking, not not bothering anyone. They’ll be on the beach. Drinker.
You’re trying to just relax, smell the ocean, and listen to the breeze. And some dude, fucking dickhead, will pull up in a four wheeler, blow gas in your face as he drives by. He’s going, like, 25 miles from the beach, probably trying to run over a kid. He shows up. He’s like, hey.
Are you drinking here? And it’s like, who is this saving? Yeah. What what are you doing here? I can I don’t understand it if I’m on the beach shotgunning beers, which I should also be able to do because, it’s America?
But going up and, like, investigating don’t get me started. I’m sorry. Okay. Yeah. I mean, should be a there could be a boss in the in the front of Doomgate.
Was, but I’m just Public urination. Yeah. Now now you’re just upset about open container laws. Let’s get into some favorite characters. So we got obviously the big two, Karl and Princess Donut.
I guess you could Mordecai could be one, the Maestro, potentially. Agatha, who played a tiny role, but I feel like she’s gonna play a bigger role for sure. Odette, maybe the entire team, Meadowlark, you know, the elderly folks you’re talking about. Mongo, perhaps? I don’t know.
Who who’s your favorite? I mean, I’m a sucker for the wise old mysterious guy. So I did like Mordecai, but I think Donut is the the one he just gotta go with. I know it’s a major character, so it’s easy pick. But like I said before, she’s kinda made you respect Kat.
She’s well rounded. She’s, like, the comic relief. If Donut wasn’t there, this book would be Totally. Significantly, significantly worse. Yeah.
I think you could substitute Carl for a lot of different people. He’s kind of can be whoever, but Donut’s really the thing that keeps the the whole story together. I agree. It it’s Princess Donut for for me as well. She’s she’s a show cat.
She’s one of those ugly flat nose cats, which I find to be hilarious. I would never own one, but I think they’re hilarious. I do also agree that I love the wizened basically Basil exposition is what Mordecai is as well. Because he’s kind of telling you what this whole thing means. And they introduce him initially as looking like Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so I was already all in once they once they said that.
So I will go Princess Donut, but, an honorable mention for for Mordecai. Mhmm. Did you have a favorite part in this one? Yeah. I mean, clearly, the glerp glerp scene was was the best.
There there’s no scene where a bully gets what’s coming to them. That isn’t I I’m not gonna like. Carl handled it so well. Yeah. Those things are just the best and, I like the the premise of the show is funny to me.
The the audience reaction is funny to me. Them turning on him, the main guy, funny. Everything was great. I no. I agree.
That was that was my favorite scene. There were so many boss battles that I enjoyed. Like, the whole thing you know, like, maybe murdering the goblin chief and killing the goblin younglings, but the whole book is just a fun ride interposed with trips to trading guilds where we open boxes, get new powers or items, and then get get some exposition for Mordecai. I feel like when they pulled them out for the talk shows, those were kind of bigger parts of the actual story, and the one with the Maestro was great because it was some info with also some foreshadowing and then also just beating up on a bully. Whichever which everyone loves.
Do you have a favorite bad guy in this one or creature in the dungeon perhaps? I mean, I’ll give you a few for examples. You have goblins, bad llamas who, like, spit lava, and I think they’re meth dealers or something or meth users. I like that. Yeah.
I think they were scatterers, the cockroaches that are basically just for smooshing and leveling up. Rot stickers, they’re like black ravioli that stick to you and blow up. Brindle grubs, which have, like, multiple levels. Dingoes have multiple levels, I think. Oh, no.
It’s the troglodytes. The troglodytes are humanoid, komodo dragon type things. They have multiple levels. Back or Bashers, Pygmies, Virtuosos, Danger, Dingoes, Metal Band, Loving Canines that have Kobolds as their slave masters. Those are all just like the Grinder type guys, but then we also have the bosses, the Hoarder, which is the first neighborhood then the first neighborhood boss they meet, the ball of swine, which is kinda like the rat king of tuskings in a ball form, the, crackeron clone, Ralph, the frenzied gerbil, and then the the jacked up juice guy, who you had.
Any of those or maybe someone I didn’t even because there’s a lot. He really does create a lot of different bad guys in this. Who were they talking to that they were charming? Those are goblins. I think Yeah.
I liked I just liked that scene in general, the the goblin whole scene where, like, you can turn a bad guy into neutral because of your charm element, which, I thought was an interesting thing. But overall, for the best bad guy, I thought the, Jim bro guy. I thought it was just a I thought it was a funny character. I was just exactly thinking of, like, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or It did seem like, you know, Bebop and Rocksteady or something like that. The Craig Karen one, I thought had the funniest definition, but whatever.
Her profile, like, she’s got multiple shrieking tentacles, births disease laden minions, creates and sells harmful products, debates scientific experts, and proselytizes to the weak minded. The the info sections on all these were really fun, so I liked hers the best. I kinda felt bad for the hoarder, which was the first one they did. It was just I did too, actually. Of a woman, and, like, it was, like, a Hispanic woman who just has lots of stuff, and she’s dirty.
And I was like, okay. I think you’re supposed to feel bad for her, though. Yeah. Because I think even Carl says, I think this is a real person that they interposed with some of the the the game. You know, they like put some put some game in her.
That’s tough. And especially later when you kind of find out that with the goblins when when they turn those two goblins and then he kills all the goblin babies And I one of them, Odette or someone, pretty much says, yeah. They’re just creatures too. They they don’t they’re anti crawlers because they don’t want the crawlers to kill them. They just want to get to a final level where no one’s gonna get them.
They wanna get past level 10 where there was not gonna be any crawlers anymore, and they can just live their lives. Yeah. So yeah. It, yeah. It It was a lot it was just a lot of fun bosses, and the way he explained them, I thought was really good.
I didn’t really understand much of Ralph the Frenzied gerbil at the end there, but maybe that was just me. K. Some of them were a little chaotic, but yeah. What about did you have a favorite, like, loot or like item or power up or anything along along those lines? I don’t know if I have I think one of the things that I was one of my hates is that I thought they did focus a little too much on the loot and the like it that became where it became much more this person’s really into RPGs.
And like I like I like I said I think the loot element’s cool but like if you were to make this a TV show or movie they would downplay that significantly. It would just be like there would be like a level on their their, like, their name. They they level up, and they show them to get stronger all of a sudden. Like, they’re just bigger all of a sudden and or, like, faster all of a sudden. You know?
Things like that where it make more sense to a viewer. They definitely got in the weeds with the the loot stuff. So Yeah. There were some big ones that I felt were important because they’re gonna play in later, specifically, like, Princess Donuts Enchanted Ground of the Sepsis Whore, which is plus five intelligence, plus five good first impression, can turn mobs on your side or get NPCs to work with you, which she does. And, like, all attacks have fifteen percent chance of inflicting sepsisix, debuff.
But, you know, but once the adorna wears it, they have to slay the blood sultan and all of the members of the royal family, which is on the Ninth Floor. So we know, okay, this is a cool thing, but, also, once the Ninth Floor happens, shit’s gonna go down. So that one, I feel like they spent the time explaining and that made sense. But then there were so many other ones that we just didn’t really need so much. Like, Donut’s talisman of the slate butterfly.
Like, okay. Yeah. It kind of played a thing. But outside of that and just saying, like, okay. Karl has more smush skill, and he now has this war gauntlet, which will make his hands not break all the time.
Outside of that, I I didn’t feel like we needed all the explanation for all the loot because because there was a lot. What about loves? Let’s get into some love hates. What did you, what did you love about, Dungeon Crawler Car? The biggest thing is just the originality.
How different it is and how, unique it is. It’s just so something I haven’t really read before. Really, it is it is simple, but it is a lot of fun, you know, reading and it didn’t seem very long. It just felt felt like you’re kind of on the journey with him and it it was actually pretty good world building for something that you wouldn’t think would be a great world building element. Right?
Yeah. I I agree with that. I also liked the the dungeon bosses themselves, which we’ve talked about. I thought they were very creative. And then talk about creative, the creative way that Carl uses his loot.
Because I don’t play many of these games, but I know that you can have a backpack and your backpack can have a backpack, and you end up getting all of this loot. And Carl’s doing that. He loots legitimately everything that’s not bolted to the to the floor. And you’re like, okay. Well, when is this gonna matter?
But, you know, him trading his meth that he got for the llamas for his chopper, or specifically his goblin copper chopper, his Carl’s Jugaboom, which, you know, the revved up toilet grenade moonshine plus goblin oil and corked with a torch, and he creates it. And, you know, he gets now he has, like, a licensing for it or or whatever the case is. That’s why I was getting able to get Andy Weir stuff. Is it like it’s like, oh, this is funny that he’s combining these things to make something that explodes. You know?
It makes more sense where anywhere they’re like, so there’s this, fungus that we need to to get rid of. And so what I’m gonna do is take these molecules of h two o and then come back. I’m like, what the fuck are you even talking about? Yeah. It’s just dumbed down, but in Yeah.
It’s a no feel dumb. It’s just like it Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It’s just like, oh, this is fun.
It’s fun. I don’t need to feel like I need a science degree for this. Yeah. And the thing is to, back to the originality thing is this has been made already. So, like, Fall Guy, Wreck It Ralph, Mario, like, those are all video game movies and things like that.
But this has took it in another way, in another direction that I feel like we haven’t seen anyone else make. Even though it’s, like, a common, you know, buddy cop type thing, but in a video game, you know, that’s what this is. But it’s, like, much different than that, it seems like. Did you have any hates? I already mentioned it, the level up stuff.
It did seem to get a little carried away, a little in the weeds of the RPG stuff. I think it would have been just cooler as like because some of it just seems like they’re just in an l a video game. It’s not where it should have been more like these people have such advanced technology that they can, like, almost like the matrix where they can all of a sudden give the the person more muscles. Like, they could like, oh, they have some, you know, biology thing where they just go in and give the person more muscles. They can get make them faster by doing x y z.
Whereas this where it would be like, and then I like, my health bar went down, so I, you know, I started I feel like I should’ve been connected more to the real world in some way because he is a human. He’s not in a video game. You know what I mean? Does that make sense? Yeah.
It does make a lot of sense. And I agree with the store well, like, the leveling up stuff because there isn’t a ton of actual story in this. It’s mostly just fight scenes, leveling up, opening loot in safe rooms with some exposition from Mordecai, and I’m okay with that. It worked for me. I do agree there’s a little bit too much leveling, like, opening loot stuff and talking about that.
And there also potentially was a little too much of just, okay, let’s go out and smash these things and level up a bit. But it worked for me. I could see how some people wouldn’t like that though. So it’s in my hates because I didn’t necessarily hate it, but I could see how people would be looking for more of a defined story and not finding it. And, additionally, associated with that, I’m not sure about the political stuff in it.
I’m sure it’ll become clearer as Yeah. To, like, the players and their motivations. And, likely, there’s some, you know, social commentary in there, like, we kinda talked about. But whether it be Boren’s company party, the CoA team, the syndicate, the government, I wasn’t following that at all, really. Were you were you following that?
Yeah. It seems like they’re giving you breadcrumbs, but, but, like, the book didn’t really end. So there was no payoff Yeah. For the breadcrumbs. So I was fine with honestly, if you doubled the length of this book in order to give it a proper ending, I would’ve I think I would’ve started to get a little bit tired of okay.
And then they go to this boss. And then, you know, like, whereas when it ended, I was like, oh, great. I’m happy that it’s kinda over. Whereas, like, you think of a a Red Rising or Harry Potter, I’m like, triple the length of this book. I don’t give a shit.
You know? I don’t keep making this as long as possible. Need all the political stuff, and I know we’ll get there, and I’m fine with it coming in piecemeal as the rest of this stuff is happening. For listener mail, I just had one one quick thing, actually. You’ve got mail.
My sister’s in town with her kids, and, they might have listened to a couple minutes of our pod or something. I don’t know. But he did come my nephew, who’s eight, did come up to me and said that I sound, quote, boring, weird, and terrible. I need more expression is what he said. So I’m I’m gonna do better.
And Paul is me or you? He was talking about me. He did give a five star. So he said five stars but this, which I appreciate. That’s all I ask for.
Feedback is a gift, like I said. So I’m gonna try to give more expression, whatever that means. But, I think I think I know what he means. You know? But, boring, weird, and terrible.
He’s he’s coming in to humble us. That’s that’s it. Yeah. I would like to get a little more, reasons for the terrible makes sense. That’s obvious.
Well, you can’t get any more reasons because I did throw him off a bridge. So Oh, okay. Alright. Good. Yeah.
Things that are lingering that make me wanna continue reading is we got race selection coming up, which I’m excited about, level nine, like what’s gonna happen to Donut, who really is Agatha and what is her purpose, this Frank q feud, like, it’s gotta come to a head soon, so I’m excited to see what happens there. And we just, at the end, get introduced to Mongo, and I think he’s gonna turn this dynamic duo into a terrific triumvirate. So I’m excited to see that how that relationship progresses with specifically him and and Princess Donut. I will say when they’re like, and you know what Mongo actually is, and I’m like, a T Rex. And then they’re like, no.
It’s actually the name from, like, a T Rex. A T Rex. And then they’re Velociraptor. Velociraptor. I was like, what a letdown.
I thought it was gonna be a T Rex. What the hell? Yeah. Well, Velociraptor’s pretty cool. Yeah.
I think they’re pretty pretty, rugged. So cast the movie, Universal and Seth MacFires Fireland’s Fuzzydore Productions acquired the rights to adapt Dungeon Crawler Crawl into a TV series. We had Christopher Yost who worked on Ragnarok and The Mandalorian. He’s gonna write the series, so that’s potentially pretty exciting, especially with these backers. There’s no real other information.
Doesn’t know if it’s gonna be live action or animation or whatever. Do you have a preference whether you’d want it to be live action or animation? Live action. Yeah. Oh, interesting.
I would I think I’d like I’d like animation. I don’t think you could do it live action without a huge budget and crazy CGI type stuff. I think animation would be way better. Yeah. That’s true.
I think that it but in my mind, it’s almost already animated. I don’t know if that’s because of the cover, but just in my mind, it’s plays out animated. It plays out like a video game, whereas I think I want it to come to to real life, make it make it more grounded a little bit. But that’s But I I yeah. I just don’t even know how you do, like No.
I don’t know. I look at bosses. Because we’re idea guys. We give them the idea. They figure the other stuff out.
I don’t know. I’m not too worried about that. I think some pretty cool animation would be fine. Did you want to have anybody cast it for it in in your mind? I mean, I think the easy and obvious answer for Carl would just be a Chris Pratt or Ryan Reynolds type.
So I’m trying to think of who else can fit in that. So it basically needs to be like a buddy cop guy. No. Actually, who I would like now that I think about it is, who I think is underrated is the guy from New Girl, Jack Johnson or or, Damon Wayans Junior. I like both of them.
Oh. Both would be good. Yeah. Jake Johnson. Sorry.
Not Jack. Jake Johnson. I went low hanging fruit with Chris Pratt. So I just think of, you know, he bet that’s that’s super low hanging fruit. It’s not even fair, honestly.
But I also thought of more of an animation, and I’d be fine with Patrick Warburton doing the voice because he was so close to what the Mhmm. The guy who did the, the thing. Yeah. Yeah. The audiobook.
And then for Donut, I did, Kate McKinnon. She would obviously be animated. Kate McKinnon? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I like that. I didn’t have a donut. Mhmm. She’d be animated, so he’s gonna be live action that they Oh, I bet.
Computer generated CGI thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
What about for the pearly penile papules? What what would you who do you cast for that? Well, that’s where I cast a doctor to come in and help with that as usual. They usually give you a little penicillin. No.
It keeps back again for another penicillin shot. Yeah. Clear that right up. No big deal. Alright.
I actually wanted to do it for our rating section. I had two questions. One, I’d like to add a, Who is this book for? So I’d like to say, Who do you think this book is for and what do you rate it? And, also, are we still cool with going out of out of four buddies, or should we more align with Goodreads?
And I only ask because I I asked I was at Caroline had a birthday party, and there was a friend’s house or whatever, and they read. And so I asked her about, like, demon copperhead, what she would give it. She was like, oh, I give it, like, three. And I was like, oh, okay. But everything’s at a five.
So now it’s, like, it’s skewing my whole my whole thing. Yeah. So And the conversions, when I’m, like, when I’m thinking about it, yeah, I’m like, I’m the one I say it’s a three at a four. That’s really a 4.25 at least. Yeah.
You know? So that’s why I’m, like, oh, that doesn’t convert the same way. Do we convert it to five? Do we change to five? Yeah.
Alright. So, Keith, who do you think this book’s for, and what do you rate it out of five buddies? Based off of Goodreads, you could tell it’s not a very, woman centric book. I think it’s probably for someone that likes video games and grew up playing video games and grew up playing RPGs and, is into that stuff. And then out of five, I’d give it a 4.1, I think Oh.
Is where I’d sit. Yeah. Yeah. It’s good rating. Good rating.
Yeah. Which is funny because I would have given it a 2.75 out of four. So which doesn’t equate. Right? Yeah.
It does equate. But that’s alright. Yeah. I’m not into I mean, I do like video games. I’m not into RPGs.
I think it’s for anyone that enjoys sci fi or fantasy but wants to try something a little different. Oh, okay. Because it’s short. It’s it’s not a long book. It’s not a lot to invest in, and it’s fun.
So if you it doesn’t have to be like, if you’re need this beautiful big world building, it’s probably not for you. But if you’re looking for a little something different, try it out. You know? I I think Yeah. I think you’ll like it.
It’s like spotted dick. And I would give it I’d give it four buddies. Like, I really wanted out of all the series we’ve read, I really wanted to, like, continue this one immediately. Probably because it doesn’t end on any sort of cliffhanger or anything. It just, like, ends.
I’m like, oh, we gotta continue the story. But it was it was it was super fun. It was such a change of pace from what we’ve been reading that I’m I’m excited to to get into the next one. So, yeah, I think four out of five is is pretty good based on, like, the small qualms we have. Yeah.
It kinda it did remind me of Columbus Day. That’s that’s the book I was referencing. I think I talked to you about Yeah. The expeditionary one. Yeah.
Which was, like, the same thing where it’s, like, kinda the main guy’s kind of a goofy guy, but it’s, like, kinda world world at stake. Superpower AI sidekick thing. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. I agree. So That that aligns. That aligns for me. Yeah.
Well, that’s Dungeon Crawler Carl. Everyone out there, have fun out there, and remember to kill, kill, kill. Keith, what do we got coming up next? We got First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston. So it’s a quicker one.
It’s a thriller ish. Ish. Yeah. Back to our, Reese Witherspoon book club. Oh, it is a Reese Witherspoon.
I didn’t even see that. That changed my terms with her after Yeah. After the last one. I can’t remember where that one was. We we apologized, and now I might be rescinding my apologies no take backsies.
But I think after this one, we might need to jump back into some Carl because I’m gonna need a cold shower. Alright, Keith. Well, I’ll catch you for that next week probably. Alrighty. Alright.
Bye now. Bye now.
