Tag: Fantasy (Grimdark)

Book Review (SERIES): Dungeon Crawler Carl (books 1-3)

Erin Penn Leave a comment

My book club introduced me to a new series. I had been hearing about the Dungeon Crawler Carl series for a while; I’ve even been to a convention where Matt Dinniman was in attendance. While I have enjoyed LitRPG in the past, it isn’t that fascinating to me to watch characters level up through statistics. I prefer to read characters growing and expanding their skills and emotions through other means than the mechanisms of LitRPG. But when the group choose to read it, I was like “okay, it is popular and I should be reading stuff that is changing genres.” Little did I know what a game-changer Dungeon Crawler Carl is. The darkly humorous fantasy series has so many levels to it, a properly made baklava might be jealous.

I love this series. I hate that it doesn’t let me sleep when I pick one up from the library, because these books don’t get put down easily. And each books gets longer, making it real hard to read them in a day, let alone one sitting.

This review covers books one through three.  I am reading the hardback editions which include the Backstage of the Pineapple Cabaret. All books are being read in hardback through the library. While paper version is not required, you likely will want to flip back and forth to check things out.

Bonus, my book club recently started using the Storygraph Buddy-Read option. I will publish the comments I made while reading this series in a special blog tomorrow.

Dungeon Crawler Carl Series
Book 1: Dungeon Crawler Carl (levels 1 and 2 of the dungeon – 464 pages)
Book 2: Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (level 3 – 384 pages)
Book 3: The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook (level 4 – 544 pages)
Book 4: The Gate of the Feral Gods (level 5 – 608 pages)
Book 5: The Butcher’s Masquerade (levels6 and 7 – 720 pages)
Book 6: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (level 8 – 832 pages)
Book 7: This Inevitable Run (level 9 – 880 pages)
Book 8: A Parade of Horribles (level 10 – forthcoming in June 2026)

 

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL

The apocalypse will be televised!

You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.

Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.

MY REVIEW for DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL

Oh, goodness the lack of sleep this book gives – pure evil. This is amazing on so many writing skills – the McGyvering problem creation and problem solving, the world, the characters, the humor mixed with the dark, the drama. Yes, very plot driven, but somehow the agency keeps coming into play.

Background politics of those running the game – wow, this is EXTREMELY well-done. Dropped throughout in very small piecemeal bits (not infodumps) – from the planetary to the corporations, from debt to history. The horrific mix of rushing the game (from the early start) to pay off debt, but making sure a LOT of money is generated. Most of the times I’ve seen the background information be dropped on characters in other books (background political mechanisms and it is like, both in fantasy and science fiction, especially military sci-fi), it’s all “oh, so that is how the world works” for both me the reader and for the POV character, but with Carl it is, hmm, let’s put this into the toolbox, we might need it. And then he breaks it out and uses it whenever he can. Just amazing writing – this is what I called layered-writing – and Mr. Dinniman is so far down in the layers it is pure Baklava.

I adore the McGyvering, and Mongo, and Princess Donut (long may her tiara shine). Every character has goals and hopes – which is horrendous against the countdown from 8 billion to 12 million to … every tick of Earth-humanity going towards extinction. This book is at once hilarious and horrific; funny and freaky. I hope Carl doesn’t break.

If you are into (1) dungeons and dragons; (2) science fiction or fantasy; (3) Mcgyver-like problem-solving; (4) human vs. dehumanizing; (5) storytelling; (6) reality shows; (7) talk shows; (8) cats … this book is for you.

 

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for CARL’S DOOMSDAY SCENARIO

“The training levels have concluded. Now the games may truly begin.”

The ratings and views are off the chart. The fans just can’t get enough. The dungeon gets more dangerous each day. But in a grinder designed to chew up and spit out crawlers by the millions, Carl and Princess Donut need to work harder than ever just to survive.

They call it the Over City. A sprawling, once-thriving metropolis devastated by a mysterious calamity. But these streets are far from abandoned. An undead circus trawls the ruins. Murdered prostitutes rain from the sky. An ancient spell is finally ready to reveal its dark purpose.

Carl still has no pants.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. For Carl and Donut, it’s anything but a game.

MY REVIEW for CARL’S DOOMSDAY SCENARIO

I am doling this series out slowly, like once a month. Not because I don’t want to eat these up like candy, but because they CONSUME me while I read them, staying up way too late and not getting other needed tasks done.

They have more layers than lasagna. I stopped counting the layers to world-building and characters at fourteen (!!!). The complex world can be enjoyed at the top-level dark-humor action-flick adventure as a quick read.

But thinking about it, even a little is worth it.

Dig in and level up.

I recommend reading this series in order. And now to sleep and then catch up with the rest of life.

 

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE DUNGEON ANARCHIST’S COOKBOOK

Welcome to the Gun Show!

The top ten list is populated. The sponsorship program is open. The difficulty is ramping up. The first three floors were nothing compared to what Carl and Donut now face.

The Iron Tangle. An impossibly-complicated subway system built out of the world’s subterranean railway systems, all combined and then tied together into a knot. Up is down. Down is up. Close is far. The cars are filled with monsters, the railway stations are less than safe, and the exit is always just a few stops away.

But there is hope. For the first time, the crawlers are all working together. The loot is better than ever. And the secret to unraveling it all may be hidden in the pages of a seemingly-useless book. Welcome, crawlers. Welcome to the fourth floor of the dungeon.

MY REVIEW for THE DUNGEON ANARCHIST’S COOKBOOK

It takes a while for this book to gel; thank goodness Mr. Dinniman had two beyond-incredible books before this one so I was willing to give him the rope to either hang himself or pull me along for the ride, because what a ride this ends up being!

I adore trains, so I went into this with high hopes but the first third of the book is about setting up the puzzle to level four, getting all the pieces in play. Like learning a subway and public transportation system. The second third is getting the solution pieces on the table, like gathering the token, locations, and perfect combination of friends for the most Epic.Night.Out.Ever. The final third delivers on the setup, leaving one at their destination bruised, battered, exhausted, wondering “dude, where is my car”, and euphoric to have survived the ride.

Not as funny as the previous parts of the series, I wouldn’t recommend starting with this one, but the McGyvering and puzzle-solving might be the best yet. The characters continue to evolve, from Donut to the “throw-away” side characters, gaining maturity and horror.

This darkly funny series is some of the best worldbuilding and character creation out there.

Series of Transcripts for Dungeon Crawler Carl

  1. Book Review Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl Books 1-3 (12/16/2025)
  2. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 1 (12/17/2025)
  3. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2 (12/19/2025)
  4. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 3 (12/20/2025)

Flash: Attrition

Erin Penn

84942186 © publicdomainstockphotos | Dreamstime.com

Crunching underfoot within a forest is expected from leaves and last year’s ferns; in the forest of bones, the crunching is from some poor soul’s vertebrae from the Wars of Attrition. Not a place to walk through barefoot.

Not a place to walk through in general. The dead don’t like to be disturbed. Mourning for eternity, the skeletal trees radiated a perpetual winter chill from their bare branches, never budding with hope, despite the summer green and ripening fields Malloryson left behind. He would have never entered these damned woods if this wasn’t, ironically, his last hope. A stick, two days hardtack wrapped in a handkerchief, good boots, and, maybe, a ten-minute lead on his pursuers was all he owned at this point.

That lead became infinite the minute he passed into Dead Man’s Forest, for none but fools would follow him here. Walking around the forest takes days; not a single farmer’s path carved through the bones, chill, and unsettled dead of the blighted battlefield. Pushing deeper, Malloryson slowed his rush, confident the investigators would leave the walking dead man to the dead.

Water would be an issue soon, he thought, his mouth dry from his run. Last night’s gentle rains left red-tinted puddles reflecting oily rainbows, sitting strangely in the hollows between white roots digging into the black earth, bubbling yellow ooze clung to the wet edges like puss.

He pushed onward, looking for shelter and water, pressing against the horror each of his footfalls brought from the muffled crunching in the silent woods.

Once wizards walked here, summoning creatures from beyond to fight the rebel slaves. Humans died in droves, but for the hundreds of deaths, one or two of the monstrous beasts would fall, making the wizards vulnerable just long enough the slaves could kill a magical despot.

And then the cycle of destruction and death would start again, and end again.

Again and again.

And again.

The humans surviving the Attrition Wars didn’t win, so much as they didn’t die.

Malloryson’s hope was, like his ancestors, he was very good at not dying, so far. Unlike the burgomaster’s son, who he had accidently on-purpose killed. That soft throat needed to be squeezed to stop the poisonous words bubbling forth. It had been easy to squeeze tighter.

Malloryson didn’t regret the results. Some people are worth dying for.

The crunching of bones softened the spongy, squishing noises in his memory. A bubble, a gasp, a rattled wheeze.

The last echoed against the leafless trees. Not a memory.

The crunch of bones played counterpoint to the scrape of claws from some forgotten creature of the Wars.

Sucking sounds gurgled out from the mud as nearby bones cracked together into a new form.

A grimace splintered the blood-speckled rigor mortis grin engraved on Malloryson’s visage. Really, he had hoped to survive one meal within this cursed place. Part of his mind squealed “run away”, while another part debated if becoming a meal counted as the one meal he had hoped for.

He was done running. Too tired after hours of being chased by the investigators. If he was about to die, he wouldn’t die panting.

Instead he stepped forward to face the bone abomination, dead but refusing to admit it. Just like him.

Approaching the creature weaponless, Malloryson reached out his killer’s hand still dewed with the last breath of a hatemonger. The grotesque froze, tilting the head sideways, confused, before unhinging its jaw, exposing three rows of infinite teeth like a goose.

A mud-red tongue twisted out and looped around Malloryson’s hand, stripping the blood offering. Chill raided warmth from his arm. The tongue jerked back to the jaws of uncountable teeth, and Malloryson stumbled closer. He stared in the non-eyes of the forgotten bones and thought: how magnificent death looked.

A fitting last thought. Malloryson expected never to wake again. The return of awareness wasn’t kind.

(first published 3/5/2023, 650 words – Created from a Workshop attended at Ret-Con 2023 run by Tally Johnson. He provided thirteen possible visual prompts, all ghost/horror related. I choose prompt six which showed a traveler entering a forest of skulls.)

Writing Exercise: Inciting Incident Part 2

Erin Penn

Amazon Cover

My book club this month read “The Poppy War”, a grimdark fantasy novel based on Chinese history.

Its inciting incident leaped out to me and made me think about the 5/24/2022 Writing Exercise on inciting incidents. deconstructing it in my mind.

WRITING EXERCISE: Using a novel you are reading or recently read, take apart its inciting incident. (The manuscript used needs to be at least novella length and the first of the series, to give the inciting incident a reason for being.) Comment below what book you chose and why. Review the previous writing exercise for details about inciting incidents.

My attempt

As I said, The Poppy War inciting incident stood out to me … because it had so little to do with the rest of the story. It could have been removed from the book and virtually nothing would have changed … except it is the pebble that starts the avalanche. 

Quick review on what an inciting incident needs:

(One) Early in the book – check. Aside from the opening flash forward, the marriage proposal starts the book.

(Two) Disrupts the status quo – This is where the marriage proposal becomes important. While life truly is horrible for our protagonist, she is well used to it at this point. She works the shop, protects her little brother as best she can, and knows how to manipulate her adoptive mother enough to avoid the worst of the abuse. Being married even to someone in the same village, will change everything in her life, and not for the better as far as she can see. Especially at 14, to a twice divorced older male. Big disruption.

(Three) Not under the protagonist’s control – And this is where the inciting incident of the marriage proposal is different from her waiting for answers on the test she took. Rin chose to start studying for the Keju test, she arranged for her professor, she took control of her life to take the test. Even while waiting for the answer to the test, everything related to it was under her control. But the marriage proposal, nothing was under her control. Her adoptive mother wants it, the marriage maker didn’t even consult her, her possible intended never talked to her. 

Similar to the inciting incident in Harry Potter is receiving the letter. Nothing in his life ever prepared him for this. But the Sorting Hat, while seemingly not under the children’s control does listen to them and is influenced by Harry’s wish not to be Slytherin. In the Wizard of Oz, the inciting incident is the tornado. 

(Four) Forces a difficult choice – Rin chooses to take the Keju, and then further, chooses to leave home. While the leaving everything she knows behind is as disruptive to the status quo as the marriage, the difference is the protagonist chooses this “Call to Adventure”.

Oh, wow. I figured why the inciting incident bothers me so much. Usually the Inciting Incident for fantasy is a “call to adventure” – something that leads the person into the magical world. But in Rin’s case, she isn’t so much responding to a call as avoiding something unpleasant. The inciting incident so mundane, it doesn’t match the normal expected Call to Adventure or other Fantasy magic. In fact, the inciting incident is so hateful to her she twice uses it to whip herself down a path when things get rough. Anything was better than going back.

In conclusion, the inciting incident of The Poppy War stuck out like a sore thumb, different from normal fantasy and not really fitting in to the rest of the book, and yet it meets all the classic needs of the Inciting Incident – including and especially the fact the marriage proposal wasn’t under her control,