Dungeon Crawler Carl

I've been meaning to get to Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl for awhile now, but was also putting it off in case I get hooked because it's a fairly big series. But a friend lent me the book, so I decided to take a break from Landover to give it a read.

In Dungeon Crawler Carl, aliens have decided to mine the Earth for resources. They collapse all the buildings, killing anyone who was inside, and invite the survivors to enter into a newly created dungeon in Earth's interior. This all happened around 2am Pacific time, so most of the people from North America just died. But Carl, our protagonist, just happened to be outside in his underwear trying to get his ex-girlfriend's cat Donut out of a tree when it happened, so he grabbed the cat and made for the dungeon stairs trying to stay warm (and not really understanding what was happening). They quickly find themselves in a D&D-like dungeon where it is kill or be killed. The event is being televised live for the galaxy, and the participants (or "crawlers" as the event calls them) have been outfitted with a HUD-like interface (HUD=Heads Up Display - a common video-game term) in their heads and can level up their skills and abilities and gain loot. Over 12,000,000 crawlers entered the dungeon before the stairs closed, and within the first hour or so, that number is already down to about 10,000,000. The dungeon is deadly and the galaxy loves watching all the gory details (while also rooting for crawlers who manage to beat the odds). If anyone makes it to level 18, they will become the rightful ruler of what's left of the world. But no one has ever made it that far in one of these world dungeons before. So Carl and Donut (who quickly gains the ability to talk and becomes a proper crawler as well) are fighting to survive in this dungeon where the odds of surviving are incredibly low.

I enjoyed Carl and Donut a lot. Their interactions are a lot of fun. Donut is of course my favourite: she is a newly more intelligent house-cat, so while she knows stuff about the world, she's also learning rather like a child. Plus she's a cat: her outlook on life and what's happening is rather different. And of course she has full confidence that she will win and be properly crowned the rightful ruler of the Earth.

I found Carl to be an interesting character, too. He was a coastguard-man who worked as a technician, so he was in fairly good shape and knew a bit about brawling, which definitely came in handy when he first entered the dungeon. Plus he's played video games before and could fairly intuitively figure out the game interface. While he seems like a loner, he has a heart and tries to do the right thing when he can (though sometimes it's hard to decide what that right thing is, especially inside the dungeon). Plus the two of them genuinely care for each other (he was planning on selling all of his belongings in an effort to buy Donut off his ex). 

But the story itself is a fairly dark read. Yes, there's humour. But there's so much death. Everyone (including the mobs) are cogs in this big entertainment machine, so things that happen are quite dark. Like the Spanish woman who was changed by the game makers into a 15-foot monstrosity who was crying for help. Or the goblins who were killed as collateral damage when Carl threw a bomb into the boss room. So while I enjoyed large parts of the story, a lot of moments like that made me really sad, and I'm not sure that I want to read more of the series if it gets even darker (and the author says in the Acknowledgement at the end that it will get darker).

Operation Bounce House

Someone recommended Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl to me a little while ago. While waiting to get a hold of it from the library, his newest book, Operation Bounce House, came out, so I decided to give that a try.

In Operation Bounce House, the people of New Sonora become the target of a corporation's new game, Operation Bounce House, where human players can pay to build mechs and fight against the evil "New Sonoran terrorists." Only....there are no terrorists, just a bunch of farmers who are trying to peacefully live their lives. But unknown to the game's creator, Oliver Lewis and his sister still have functioning bots who help them on their farm, including an advanced AI named Roger who coordinates the worker drones. And after they come under attack, Roger initiates their defensive mode. These farmers aren't going to just lay down and die while Earth steals their land: they're going to fight!

While I, overall enjoyed Operation Bounce House, I have to admit that the premise and plot made me very uncomfortable. I can see something like this happening, potentially even here on Earth right now. The way the Earthers talked about the New Sonorans being "other" and "subhuman" is a known propaganda tactic used in wars (I remember reading about how soldiers in the World Wars would call the enemy by different terms to make them not-human in their heads). So yeah, be warned if you're reading this book: it is very uncomfortable at times. 

 Plus, you know, a lot of people die. It's not a happy book.

But as I said, I still did enjoy the book. Dinniman is a really good writer, particularly in a cinematic sense: I could picture the action really well (and think this would make a fantastic TV series or movie). I loved all the characters and how they all worked together to try to stay alive (and how they decided to stick it to the game company). The worldbuilding was really interesting, how the main characters were part of the "orphan generation" because all their parents who were born on-world died (and how the fix ended up the thing the Earthers used to claim the New Sonorans were "subhuman," even though they were the same with the exception of that one change in their genes so that they wouldn't die like their parents did). 

I also liked how so much only happened because the Earthers were terrified. The very thing they feared would happen did happen only because they attacked New Sonora. Had they left the planet alone, nothing would have happened.

Operation Bounce House is a fast, addicting read (I stayed up really late to finish it last night). If you're okay with the dark subject matter, it's definitely worth checking out. But do be aware of the subject matter as it is an uncomfortable look at where our culture could go.