/lit/ - Literature

Good evening, shit thread. Still reading Human Emperor to round out my Progression Fantasy romp but I finished Dungeon Crawler Carl #2 and decided to post a quick blurb review like the other reviewfags.

Dungeon Crawler Carl #2: Carl's Doomsday Scenario

[Story]
Carl and Donut have successfully made it to the 3rd floor of the dungeon and transitioned to The Over City. After changing classes they now have 8 days to explore the newly emerged storylines and quests regarding the giant Volcano beneath their feet. Learning that any storyline pursued here will occur again on the 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th floors, they're advised by Mordecai to ignore them. Unfortunately Carl and Donut's bleeding hearts won't allow them to. They end up in over their head after tangling with a circus and a bunch of murdered prostitutes, all of it culminating in the collapse of the level...

[Final Thoughts]
I'm reminded of Mass Effect 2 when I read this book. Not because there's anything related plot-wise but because of the storytelling method it takes. This story is isolated to a single floor and the quests that take place there, narrowing the scope for our characters while still building up the stakes outside of the dungeon. This narrow scope lets us focus on characterization and their relationships but there's not a lot of forward momentum, just setup for events deeper in the series. This isn't a bad thing. Carl and Donut don't have a lot of wiggle room with how they react to the world outside of the dungeon but I was somewhat disappointed to see Odette not utilized in the second half of the book.

I'm excited to see more people join the party and to get back into the true progression of things. I agreed with Carl at the end of the book - the quest was a big fat waste of time, they have to focus on EXP and personal growth. Love it. I truly have no gripes with this book other than it exists for setup (I think its one of the shorter books in the series too, so I feel like this may have been the author's intent?)

Audiobook is also still the best way to consume this series, can't recommend it enough.

Solid 7/10.