Random Review: Dungeon Crawler Carl (Book 1) — The Hardest Book to Recommend? | Original Geek

A guy in his boxers. Crocs. A talking cat. Try recommending that to a normal person — they'll look at you like you've lost your mind. Then they read one page of Princess Donut, and they're in the cult too.

Steve and Jeff roll the D20 and let the dice pick the angle on Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 1 by Matt Dinniman. Top-three characters, the odd-couple buddy-cop dynamic, the great info-dump debate — and why this series turns readers into believers.

Impossible to sell, or exactly why the cult works? 🎲

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Transcript

Steve (00:05)
Alright, so here's the deal. Welcome to the original geek. A random review. We set the topic, the dice set the direction, we know what we're reviewing, just not how. So today

Jeff Shaw (00:15)
Dungeon

Crawler Carl I have to s I have to say it that slowly 'cause it's a tongue twister.

Steve (00:22)
It and and this is book one. We're this is our review

Jeff Shaw (00:25)
Book one.

Steve (00:26)
of just book one. We will be doing random reviews of all eight books. those will be released so this will be part of the and then ten. We're gonna keep rolling.

Jeff Shaw (00:32)
And then nine and then ten. And then we'll

beg Matt Deniman to write a twelfth, thirteenth.

Steve (00:39)
huh.

Jeff Shaw (00:40)
We don't want it to end.

Steve (00:43)
Well, and then we're gonna do reviews once 'cause I can't imagine the T V show will take too long. We'll talk more about that. But anyway, let's get into our our random review. wait, I never remember. You have a better memory.

Jeff Shaw (00:57)
I have to roll for you.

Steve (00:58)
Okay. So roll away.

Jeff Shaw (01:00)
So rolling

for Stephen Scarfo. A roll of fourteen. You got a successful diplomacy check. The awakening of Princess Donut. Donut

Steve (01:13)
Mm.

Jeff Shaw (01:14)
eating the intelligent pet biscuit. The birth of an icon. Having a pampered, prize-winning Persian cat suddenly gain sentience and immediately start criticizing Carl's fashion choices while casting magic missiles.

Is the best decision Dinnerman ever made. She instantly becomes the heart of the book. Disgusts.

Steve (01:38)
I mean, I feel like I got a softball. This is this is easily one of the easiest things for me to agree with. I still find it diff like incredibly difficult to explain to people what this means. You know, I was talking to so my brother in law's sister came a visit yesterday and her sister, which is his brother

My brother-in-law's other sister, I guess. This is a weird family tree. But anyway, I recommended the books to her. And when I was first trying to recommend the books to her, I find, you know, it's you it's the same description I gave you guys at the beginning. it's a guy in his boxers with Crocs and a cat, and the cat ends up talking. And people look at you like you're out of your goddamn mind, right? They they look at you like you're a friggin' wacko. That's stupid. But then you read the way he writes donut.

And you know, he has a history of, you know, before he wrote these books, he was a guy who went to cat shows and and drew pictures of cats for people that he was an artist. He is an artist. So he he had this idea of who these cats were. And to create this, it's a crazy combination of like a spoiled, petulant child who grows to have like a heart of gold, who really cares about Carl.

It is it is easily she is easily and I think it's not a a stretch to say for probably most people, one of the top probably three favorite characters for everybody in this book. If it's she's not your top, she's gotta be in the top three. some of the best lines. we were talking before we started recording. She has this recurring format of a line of you know how I feel about that? You know, it's you know how I feel about the Avengers, Carl. Like it's always that.

Jeff Shaw (03:34)
Yeah.

Steve (03:35)
and so yeah, I love it. I think she's I think she's a great character.

Jeff Shaw (03:39)
Yeah, Princess Donuts. it's funny 'cause you were talking about how you were trying to recommend the books. I also did the same thing. I was at a a business summit last week and we were talking about different books and like the natural progression. I like recommended a couple that were akin to the things that were being talked about. And then I'm like, wait, stop. Everything I said, forget it all. DCC. That's

Steve (04:06)
Ha ha ha

Jeff Shaw (04:08)
it.

stop like cause they had already like put in

Steve (04:11)
Yeah.

Jeff Shaw (04:12)
like an audible order someone else put in one for Libby which is online yeah library that you put like I'm I'm like forget it take it out whatever I said dungeon Carl and Carl and I did not bother to photo the explain other than I'm in the cult and you need to be too that was it. So Princess Donut is a huge part of this cult. this character and think

the structure works really well. So, Carl is this very grounded, and initially, for those who start like getting into it, you might think, this is just another bro. Like, he plays video games, he criticizes his girlfriend, he's smoking, and and he goes to the gym. Like, my god, is this a bro book? Like, and he is not a bro. I like

Steve (05:04)
Yeah.

Jeff Shaw (05:04)
that becomes clear.

But not right away. But Donut is this it's the odd couple. It's Felix and Oscar. It's like every

Steve (05:17)
yeah.

Jeff Shaw (05:18)
like it's Thelma Louise. It's like every partner has to be different. lethal weapon. Like it's

Steve (05:23)
It's it's the buddy cop. It's a buddy cop yeah.

Jeff Shaw (05:27)
got like yeah, exactly. So Donut and Carl could not be more polar opposites, but as Steve already said,

Best friends, best buds, just ride or die. This is it. And so I think, nice. for those of who are who are listening, jump onto YouTube, watch the segment 'cause Steve has used his three D printer to create a Carl and Donut figurine. It's fantastic. So and I wan wanna say one more thing about Princess Donut.

My wife reads like I talked about how I read Faster than Steve. Cr j generally, not with DCC, but generally, my wife reads faster than me, reads so many more books. And so she's always got this big catalog of things. And I like you have to this is it. With Princess Dona, 'cause we we have three person cats, we go to cat shows, like we have a double grand champion and Horace, one of our cats.

So it is, it's part of our life and so I I I knew she would get into this and of course she's also joined the cult. so

Steve (06:45)
yeah, I think she dove in deeper than you at first.

Jeff Shaw (06:50)
no, I mean it might come across that way. I mean I have I have

Steve (06:53)
She's more vocal about it. She's

Jeff Shaw (06:55)
one t shirt, the Desperado Club, and it's got donut on the back. She does have two and there's these chocolate bars that a a company

Steve (07:03)
Yes, the mave bars.

Jeff Shaw (07:04)
came up got those. yeah.

Dirty Shirley bars.

Steve (07:10)
the dirty Shirley. I I just I'm listening to book six, five, the the Bedlam Bride. And she talks about getting a virgin dirty Shirley. And he's like, that's just a Shirley Temple. It was great.

Jeff Shaw (07:21)
Yes. Just a Shirley Temple. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.

Steve (07:27)
all right. Now for Jeff.

Jeff Shaw (07:29)
For name.

Steve (07:30)
Here we go. I got a four, a failed dexterity.

The Info Dump Aval Avalanche, the sheer volume of systems menus and stat sheets in chapter one, menu fatigue. Getting the universe dissolved is bad enough, but having to read through pages of system pop ups, class descriptions, and basic mechanics right off the bat felt a bit clunky. It takes a few chapters for the narrative to smoothly integrate the math. What do you think?

Jeff Shaw (08:00)
Alright, so it's a decent call out. and at first I didn't think 'cause my wife, who talked as a super fan, she didn't get some things that I thought, what, really? You didn't get that? But then I because of the game mechanics. So I

Steve (08:21)
Yes.

Jeff Shaw (08:22)
think even though this is an info dump, if you've never played Baldur's Gate or

other role playing game computer games because really having an infinite inventory, this is kind of like one of the things or or seeing a health bar. Like if you've never

Steve (08:41)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Shaw (08:41)
played an arcade game, a video game, 'cause the thing is if if you've only done pen and paper role playing games, if that's all your experience was watch which was my wife was had in barely that, with RPGs was was was pen and paper.

you would find a lot of the mechanics a little alien. And so I feel like even though this was a lot of information, it was necessary. To assume that people didn't know things was not the right way to go. There was only one time when I'm like, come on. Carl, who does play video games, what did not know what the fog of war meant. It was the one time I'm like, come on.

Steve (09:28)
Yeah.

Jeff Shaw (09:28)
This is a

rookie writing mistake. Carl is a is a gamer. We've all gamers know the fog of war. So it's the fog of war for those who actually don't know it, who might be

Steve (09:38)
Yeah.

Jeff Shaw (09:39)
listening to this, is you're only aware of the things that you've already seen. If it's outside of your field of vision, it's fogged or grayed out. So on any gaming map or in your perception, you can't see it if you can't see it. But if you've seen it, then it's revealed. The map is revealed, you know it.

You've seen it, you've experienced it. If you haven't known it, seen it, experienced it, it's grayed out. So that's the fog of

Steve (10:03)
Yeah. Yeah, and I I agree. It he would definitely know that.

Jeff Shaw (10:05)
And he would know that as a gamer.

Steve (10:09)
It was one of those situations too where you can tell Matt was trying to g maybe not info dump, but he was trying to I I think the info dump terminology in that question is a little harsh. There was a lot of information and you're right, it's a lot of stuff for people who've never done this. So I think that was he was trying to find a way to talk about the fog of war.

without being probably repetitive about this is this from the game and this is this from the game. And so to have Carl not know what the the fog of war was maybe felt a little more vr like it was more variety of how to expose this information. Maybe almost he was trying to avoid an info dump, so he made it like a discovery that the character made.

Jeff Shaw (10:53)
Right. Like if he just said, Hey, put this potion in your

hot list, not everyone knows what a hot list is.

Steve (10:59)
Right.

Jeff Shaw (11:00)
Like, they don't know that. So I felt like he had to do that. The only time I felt like, this is what Kristen felt like, and I won't no spoilers for later books, but like there's a later book where it's a card, like a Magic the Gathering card format. And that,

Steve (11:17)
The Teggy.

Jeff Shaw (11:18)
because I don't have much experience with that.

I like, that's what Kristen felt like. Okay.

Steve (11:24)
Yes. Yeah, 'cause there's I

I have noticed, and again I don't want to go too deep on other books, but every level is a different kind of game. All the way up to a parade of horribles, which is more of a racing game. And do you know what I mean? Every the different variations,

Jeff Shaw (11:40)
Yeah, there's different ver variations of the game.

Steve (11:44)
of how that goes. So

Yeah, I I agree. I think there was a lot of data that he had to get out and it was important for people and I think it does help bring people into the genre. It did for me, and I am a video gamer, I'm an RPG guy, like I love all that stuff. So I was able to take it all in pretty quickly, but him using those mechanics and creating this world is what makes it so rich. If if you

And maybe it's a narrower niche to start with and that that description helps bring more people in. But I don't know. You guys tell us your thoughts. if you're watching this, I'm sure you're a fan of Dungeon Carler Carl already.

So I did not say this at the beginning, so hopefully you're still with us. We let AI generate these, not the system AI. There'll be no foot fetish questions, but they it generates a qu a list of questions. We don't know what they are until we do the the sh the episode. We try not to read through so this is just us talking off the cuff. We're gonna do one of these for all eight books and like Jeff said earlier, nine and ten, and we're gonna force Matt to write eleven, twelve, and thirteen. we'll get a Brandon Sanderson thing going on. We'll get him to write

Yeah.

Jeff Shaw (12:58)
That's right.

That's right. George R. Martin didn't stop at three. He said it was a trilogy. He didn't stop there. Well, and then he didn't.

Steve (13:01)
No. He just kept going. No, and then he stopped.

But Alright. Well, you know, like, subscribe, follow us, and by God, go out and get Dungeon Carla Carl if you don't know what it is yet.