Dungeon Crawler Carl
mattdinniman.comI'm currently listening to the 6th of this series, it's a very fun listen.
There is a also "sound booth theater" version of the first book where the characters are all voiced by an actual cast member and there are sound effects. It was incredibly impressive, like an audio movie. I wish the other books had SBT versions too.
It seems like for the past five years, DCC has been at the top of every ratfic rec thread, and despite this, the sum of the discussions I've encountered has amounted to a bunch of people saying they enjoyed it.
What do people who like it also like? What's DCC about? Who /are/ you?
Cult member here.
I started listening to audiobooks (not this one) about 5 years ago, after a job transfer that meant driving 2 hours a day, in slow traffic, with little attention needed (due to a tunnel repair that will likely take decades).
Keep in mind that I was some time ago an avid reader, capable of devouring an entire book in a single night. But for a decade or so I found myself feeling eye fatigue while reading and I just stopped reading books altogether.
Driving and listening to audiobooks just works for my brain, in a way that radio's unoriginal music or taking hosts or podcast do not. Without listening to audiobooks, driving is boring, frustrating, tiring. When I listen to an audiobook, I become attentive, focused, wide awake, and most importantly it transforms a bad part of my day into a part of the day I genuinely enjoy.
As long as the book is engaging and narrator is good.
Now my first exploration into the format was 'The Expanse' series, then 'The Siege' trilogy, and maybe a dozen more, including non-fiction like 'Longitude'.
English is not my first language and I found that while original french audiobooks can be great (I really enjoyed 'La Bête' trilogy by David Goudreault) I found that translation are generally very bad for audiobooks.
Eventually I had the pleasure of listening The Bobiverse Series, engaged on the subreddit and saw a recommendation for DCC. Then another and another.
The premise seemed so ridiculous. The litrpg 'genre' appeared horrifyingly bad and off-putting. And yet I kept seeing it over and over again, so I tried the first book.
Now it won't be a surprise to any seasoned reader that it's not the genre, the premise or the author that makes a good book. It's a lot more personal, in the genuine connection with the soul the story can generate, through humor and horror, hope and fear, love and hate, curiosity and ehat I like to call 'brain tickling'. And, for me at least, Matt has done this at a level I've never felt before, with a guy in boxers and a talking cat, no less.
The audiobooks for this series are extremely entertaining.