Dungeon Crawler Carl is the Big Bang Theory of our time

It is very much Reddit-style humor, for the most part. Carl's inner struggle takes place across several books, but I remember being a bit bored of him as a character in the first couple. Jeff Hays narration is what kept me listening, that and a desire to know what happened next.

Ultimately, I have had a surprising amount of fun with the series and don't have any issue recommending it to people, especially in audiobook form. That said, some people just won't like it, and that is okay.

I like big bang theory (guilty pleasure) but mostly because I had to move away from my child and wife for 4 months while they stayed behind and that show was one of the only things that kept me sane for whatever reason.

I love DCC and listen to that on repeat because I love it plain and simple. Although I do cringe occasionally at the AI and its humor.

Therefore, good post. Reward? 👍

Big Bang theory made fun of people for liking nerdy things as the punchline. DCC references nerdy things as part of its humor. That's a huge difference.

The inner turmoil stuff is not super prevalent in the earlier books, either. I can see how the over the top absurdity can be grating if it's not your thing (I'm honestly surprised it's finding such a wide audience as it is, even outside of the groups you'd expect). However the enemies being superficial uncreative parodies is kind of the point. The aliens basically skimmed human history/pop culture and half assed the representation in their shitty game show. Also things get less generic the further down it goes.

I guess it's not for you, and that's perfectly fine.

I'm enjoying reading something lighthearted and a bit fun. It fits well into what I'm looking for in a book right now - mostly a sleeping aid.

Definitely an unpopular opinion.

Stop reading (or listening, as it were) today, since there’s no point in putting yourself through such a good story if you’re unable to appreciate the work for what it is.

Of our time? Bbt just started.... Almost 20 years ago. Damn you!

It's always funny seeing people outside the usual LitRPG/Progression Fantasy crowd reading the book, because that's very much who it was written for.

The jokes are dumb, sure, but they're pretty similar to the kind of humor you see throughout LitRPG. I was actually subscribed to his Patreon for most of the series' development, which is probably part of the reason I never ended up finishing it, I was reading it in bits and pieces for too long.

That said, there are much better series out there, including some that are actually complete. If you're interested in the genre, I'd especially recommend some of the original Russian LitRPG, like The Way of the Shaman series by Vasily Mahanenko.

It has a laugh track?

If you're looking for his turmoil and inner conflicts, it hasn't kicked in too much yet. It does become a larger part moving forward

I've been forcing myself through the first book. It alternates between utterly flat and embarrassingly cringe. I feel like Dinniman isn't a strong enough writer to sustain a novel.

They say, 3 whole books in

Got to page two of the free sample where it mentions a cat called Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, closed it immediately

I tried the first book and didn't make it far. I agree that its not funny or interesting.

Simply being unfunny (to you) doesn't make it like BBT. That show also employed laugh tracks to pretend it was funnier than it is (maybe you could find something comparable on the audiobook but you can't put that on the book itself and idk because I don't listen) and a lot of misogyny and other humor about stereotypes (which if DCC has, it's done by characters that are supposed to be problematic).

And yeah the struggle is coming, one thing that's easy to forget is everything happens on a fairly short time frame within its universe. That being said I controversially don't really like the audiobook mostly because I don't like the chosen voices for Carl or Donut. Makes Carl seem like some badass action hero type (whereas I see her as more of a bumbling tinkerer), and it makes Donut seem like a cartoon character (when he's a sassy teen who grew up in pageants and is trying to make sense of her newfound sapience and how to have real conversations with people).

Also "most monsters are only a derivative name on a 2-3years old meme", yeah that makes sense, book 3 came out 5 years ago.

Obviously you don't have to like it, but I disagree with your comparison and some of your interpretation and wanted to voice that.

In that case I presume you are a cocker spaniel. Proceed.

I made it as far as book 4 and decided to take a break after reading them back to back. I haven't been back yet.

I came to them from a recommendation from lemmy, and it's my first introduction to litRPG. I liked them well enough, but I did get a bit tired of there being lots of 'RPG', but not enough 'lit'.

I don't see the equivalency to The Big Bang Theory, though.

I feel like you're expecting Andor when in reality it's quite a bit, and intentionally, less sophisticated.

It's just a fun idea that's decently enough well written. It's more like South Park as far as TV shows go.

eh... I found bbt to be insufferable.

DCC is popcorn. It's actually really, really good popcorn - buttery and cheesy and whatever you love in popcorn - really fucking satisfying popcorn - but at the end of the day, it's not going to sustain you. but it's good lol.

I couldn't make to the second book. I enjoyed Eric Ungland's "Good Guys" series much more.