I really enjoyed Ready Player One—the nostalgia was great, and it was a dumb, fun ride. But as much as I liked the references, the book made me cringe more times than I care to count, and everything outside of the nostalgia was either bad or forgettable. Still, I decided to give Ernest Cline another shot and read Armada, another video game-centric novel—this time with absolutely no redeeming qualities.
Cline has an obsession with making his protagonists know-it-alls who are effortlessly amazing at video games, and while that was off-putting in RPO, I didn’t realize how bad it was until I started reading Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. This is my first book by Dinniman, and I’m only a few chapters in, but wow—what a refreshing change. The protagonist isn’t some flawless genius, the game mechanics are well explained, and the humor actually lands. You can tell that Dinniman is genuinely funny and well-versed in modern culture, with references that feel natural rather than forced.
Dungeon Crawler Carl feels like everything Ernest Cline wanted to write but completely missed the mark on—though if making millions and getting a decent movie adaptation counts as failing, I guess we should all be so lucky.
by iamwhoiwasnow