Recently I finished The Gate of the Feral Gods, Book 4 in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. DCC is real success story, starting out self-published by author Matt Dinniman before getting picked up and widely distributed by a publisher. The series belongs to a genre called LitRPG, where the characters know that they are in a role playing game and are aware of their stats and (some of) the rules.
In this case, the earth has been taken over by aliens and turned into an intergalactic reality show, where the "lucky" surviving members of the human race are given role playing archetypes to survive the huge planet-sized dungeon run by a mad AI the producers have constructed.
Carl has to compete to survive, accompanied by his (ex)girlfriend's show cat, Princess Donut, who has been given sentience and a character sheet of her own.
It makes more sense in context.
There is much to enjoy about Dungeon Crawler Carl. The books are endlessly inventive, with all sorts of convoluted rules and abilities. None of this Lord of the Rings-style mysterious and subtle magic, here the protagonist explicitly levels up and every item found comes with a paragraph explaining exactly what it does, down to the numerical bonuses to stats.
And this is not just a shallow conceit - the whole series leans like Michael Jackson asking after Annie's health into intricate video game logic. Carl descends onto a new floor, tries to figure out the rules from minimal instruction, min-maxes his stats as much as possible, and uses newly acquired abilities/equipment to break the game in ways not intended by the AI. On top of the day-to-day mayhem, there is a long running background plot involving the gameshow itself and galactic politics.
The most enjoyable bits of the books for me are the sequences where Carl MacGyvers a convoluted contrivance using the game rules against itself to break things as he slowly learns more about the world. Anyone who has played a moderately complex game has done the same thing.
I have read 4 of these now so I obviously enjoy the wacky hijinks. And yet something about the Dungeon Crawl Carl books makes me uneasy in ways I find hard to articulate.
Let me try:
There are plenty of wish-fulfillment books (and films and video games) where the young (usually male) protagonist is thrust into a situation where they can and must use incredible violence to prevail. Its not that they are a violent person - heaven forfend - circumstances conspire to make it necessary to slay a den of orcs or shoot up a gang of drug dealers or punch some aliens. We are not violent people either but maybe if aliens killed our dog we might allow ourselves a small punching spree. Totally justified and all part of the fun, right?
I am not anti violence, or even anti wish-fulfillment. Almost all sci-fi/fantasy is violent to some degree and god knows I've seen whole armies of xenomorphs mown down in my imagination.
The Dungeon Crawl Carl series amps this passed eleven into the high three digits. By book 4, Carl has committed multiple genocides of the NPbOSCs (Non-Playing by Obviously Sentient Character) inhabiting the floors. Even by the standards of sci-fi fantasy, this series is ridiculously violent in ways I cannot endorse.
You could argue that most of the violence is committed against AI generated constructs in an artificial environment but that is just adding another layer of justification. Carl himself may occasionally comment on how horrible it is to be forced to commit atrocities for entertainment but meanwhile in the real world it is us who reads this stuff for enjoyment.
The books are also weird when it comes to stereotyping female characters. Princess Donut is vain and capricious. OK, she is a cat. But other woman tend to fall into one of the bubbly/serious/unfaithful/temptress boxes. It is not a big deal with all the other crazy stuff but it does grate once you notice it.
To boil it down to one word, Dungeon Crawler Carl is mean - a mean story where most of the characters are just unpleasant.
It is possible that the dungeon crawl is some sort of disguised Verhoeven-esque commentary on mankind's propensity for violence. If so it is a very good disguise.
I don't know. Almost everyone else I have talked to has really enjoyed the series so perhaps it is me. I have the same problem with zombie media these days - the protagonists always seem a little too keen to wipe out the inflicted.
Maybe at fifty one I am finally "too old for this shit". The references to Michael Jackson and MacGyver should have clued you in.
In conclusion, the Dungeon Crawl Carl series is an enjoyable take video game logic but one that I personally have issues with. The series continues but four books of this seems like a good place for me to jump off this train.