In my opinion, The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook is the point at which this series really takes off and comes into its own. Prior to this, it’s still very good, but you miss the continuity from hunt to hunt and the community that builds around Carl. This book is where we first meet Katia, who is critical to that sense of community. I believe it’s also the first time we meet Prepotente, but everything before Gate of the Feral Gods blurs together to me so much that I […]

Personally, I think that the bones that make Dungeon Crawler Carl are there from the very first book: gruesome brutality combined with gut-busting humor, consistent rules and exploits of those rules to advance within the dungeon, and a very human cost that you feel to your bones. However, I also think that the series doesn’t come into its own and become the Dungeon Crawler Carl that’s surging to the top of the zeitgeist until Carl get’s the Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook. Once that happens, “I Will Break You […]

Really cheating my ass off with this one, but whatever, I’m giving myself a little grace because my love for and rereading of this story is sincere. I finished Dungeon Crawler Carl and truly, immediately restarted them. I really can’t remember the last time I did this with a series. I do it with movies, TV shows, and even video games often, but restarting a book series as soon as I’ve finished it is something I haven’t done since maybe middle school with Redwall. In Dungeon […]