Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Welp. It would appear I have joined a cult.
I don’t remember the last time I flew through a book this fast — in just under 48 hours. But that’s usually because I reserve my reading time to when I’m driving or doing some other menial task that doesn’t require any thought. Seldom do I set aside time just to read. But Carl’s Doomsday Scenario was an exception.
This is a book REVIEW. I’m going to talk about a few things in it. Some of those could be mild spoilers. You’ve been warned.
So … the second book picks up on the third floor of the dungeon. Carl and Donut are phenomena in the dungeon crawler world. Oh and now they have a pet velociraptor named Mongo. When they get to the third floor, they’re greeted by Mordecai, who served as their trainer in the first book. After Carl and Donut both pick races and specialties, Mordecai is now their “manager,” which he doesn’t love. Also, Mordecai, who is still voiced by Jeff Hays, now has a new form and a new voice, which sounds eerily like Jim Beaver’s portrayal of Bobby Singer from Supernatural. It’s fitting really because it’s kind of the same roll, really.
Anyway, Carl gets roped into a quest involving an evil circus and everyone nearly dies. But his quick thinking (and willingness to ruffle feathers) saves the day. Carl ruffles some more feathers as a guest on a talk show, Danger Zone with Ripper Wonton, causing someone to try to assassinate him and Donut. That assassination attempt has ramifications. Serious ramifications.
Side note: In my review of the first book, I noted that it was like “Duke Nukem and Hunger Games had a baby.” I’m getting a lot more Hunger Games in this book. Not outright. But subtle hints that the crawl may not really be the story. I think Carl’s gonna burn it all down.
So after the talk show, Carl and Donut get roped into another quest. This time involving dead prostitutes falling from the sky. These books truly do have the ability to amaze, entertain and dumbfound. Again, everyone nearly dies but Carl does Carl things and saves the day.
Carl and other crawlers are rewarded with more prizes than the Borant Company (the company putting on the crawl) can possibly pay for. It’s been noted a few times in the first two books that Borant has serious financial issues. Borant vetoes the prizes (they’re allowed one veto per crawl) and everyone feels really screwed over.
Back to my earlier side note: I feel like Dinniman is setting up a long-running story arch where the crawl is just the theater. The real story is going to be crawlers against Borant. And maybe even crawlers against Kua-Tin, AKA the whole damn system.
As a loyal cult member, I have already bought the third book, Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook. I’ll be back with a review when I’m done.
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