Jessica
Ever wonder what would happen if you mixed the apocalypse, reality TV, and a game show altogether? You would get Dungeon Crawler Carl. The story starts off semi-normal. Carl’s life has been thrown into chaos. He found out his girlfriend had cheated on him while on vacation, and he broke up with her. He is still taking care of his girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, while she is on vacation, despite the breakup. He decides to take a smoke in the middle of the night. He opens the window to air the smoke out, and the cat jumps out. Carl decides to go outside to rescue the cat from the winter cold in his boxers, jacket, and his ex-girlfriend's Crocs. Then chaos ensues.
Every building and vehicle is crushed, killing the people inside. Stranded, Carl starts wandering the streets with Princess Donut. Suddenly, a staircase appears from the ground, leading downward. They entered the stairwell to try to survive the harsh winter temperature. At that point, they learned that aliens had taken over the Earth and created a dungeon crawl game for the rest of humanity to participate in. Their choices are to either fight through all 18 levels of the crawl, where the point is to kill your way to the top, or survive on the Earth’s surface with no supplies, food, or shelter.
Carl decides to risk the dungeon and carries along Princess Donut. Carl worries about how he is going to get Princess Donut through the game until she eats a prize biscuit that allows her to talk and use magic. She is very sassy and charismatic, which annoys Carl. However, it is a good thing that Carl brought Princess Donut with him. Not only is the cat smarter and stronger than him, which unnerves him to no end (she can shoot missiles out of her eyes), but her charisma is essential. Contestants in the crawl need audience support to survive, which isn’t a problem for Princess Donut because she is an award-winning show cat after all. They ended up forming the Royal Court of Princess Donut, with Princess Donut being the leader.
Carl’s and Princess Donut’s dynamic is pretty entertaining while they try to work together, and Carl’s attempt to calm Princess Donut down about worrying about public perception. One of the things that I like about this book is the reality game show aspect of it. You have the creators of the game pitting crawlers against one another. The crawlers have to participate in talk shows in order to promote themselves in the game. Carl and Princess Donut even have a publicist representing them. It’s a crazy premise, but it works.
There are several books in the series now, and a TV show is being created on Peacock based on the book. I look forward to seeing the adventures that Carl and Princess Donut get into and how the live adaptation of the book pans out.
Originally posted at jdavismallory.substack.com.
Ever wonder what would happen if you mixed the apocalypse, reality TV, and a game show altogether? You would get Dungeon Crawler Carl. The story starts off semi-normal. Carl’s life has been thrown into chaos. He found out his girlfriend had cheated on him while on vacation, and he broke up with her. He is still taking care of his girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, while she is on vacation, despite the breakup. He decides to take a smoke in the middle of the night. He opens the window to air the smoke out, and the cat jumps out. Carl decides to go outside to rescue the cat from the winter cold in his boxers, jacket, and his ex-girlfriend's Crocs. Then chaos ensues.
Every building and vehicle is crushed, killing the people inside. Stranded, Carl starts wandering the streets with Princess Donut. Suddenly, a staircase appears from the ground, leading downward. They entered the stairwell to try to survive the harsh winter temperature. At that point, they learned that aliens had taken over the Earth and created a dungeon crawl game for the rest of humanity to participate in. Their choices are to either fight through all 18 levels of the crawl, where the point is to kill your way to the top, or survive on the Earth’s surface with no supplies, food, or shelter.
Carl decides to risk the dungeon and carries along Princess Donut. Carl worries about how he is going to get Princess Donut through the game until she eats a prize biscuit that allows her to talk and use magic. She is very sassy and charismatic, which annoys Carl. However, it is a good thing that Carl brought Princess Donut with him. Not only is the cat smarter and stronger than him, which unnerves him to no end (she can shoot missiles out of her eyes), but her charisma is essential. Contestants in the crawl need audience support to survive, which isn’t a problem for Princess Donut because she is an award-winning show cat after all. They ended up forming the Royal Court of Princess Donut, with Princess Donut being the leader.
Carl’s and Princess Donut’s dynamic is pretty entertaining while they try to work together, and Carl’s attempt to calm Princess Donut down about worrying about public perception. One of the things that I like about this book is the reality game show aspect of it. You have the creators of the game pitting crawlers against one another. The crawlers have to participate in talk shows in order to promote themselves in the game. Carl and Princess Donut even have a publicist representing them. It’s a crazy premise, but it works.
There are several books in the series now, and a TV show is being created on Peacock based on the book. I look forward to seeing the adventures that Carl and Princess Donut get into and how the live adaptation of the book pans out.
Originally posted at jdavismallory.substack.com.