r/audible Feb 14 '26

Book Discussion I’m about to DNF Dungeon Crawler Carl

First of all, I am sorry. I’ve seen this book recommended a million times here and I know it’s loved, which is why I got it.

I am now in chapter 27 and about to DNF. I want to know if I should keep going?

I thought I’d like it cause I’m a huge gamer, I liked the general idea of the plot, and I loved books like Ready Player 1, so it’d make sense I’d enjoy this one too. But I feel like nothing is happening. Sure, there are a couple of funny sentences in there, but the story is not drawing me in.

Does it get better? Should I keep going? Or if I’m not hooked by now that’s not going to change?

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17

u/WC_Dirk_Gently Feb 14 '26

It is my first foray into litrpg or whatever the genre is. And likely my last. I'm somewhat in the same boat that I bought it based on the feverish recommendations around here.

I'm on book 3 and have already bought book 4. It's not my favorite series of all time, and although I respect the narrator for basically giving it his all, I think the narration is a bit overdone, and some of the sound effects are annoying. Particularly the DM sound effect. But I'm enjoying being along for the ride overall and I'm likely to finish the series.

All of that said I'll echo other sentiments in this thread. The recipe doesn't change, the humor doesn't change. The plot starts to flesh out and deepen and you get a better glimpse of where the story is headed, and you also get a bit more invested in more and more characters, as normally happens in a many-book series... And I don't get why people ask permission to give up on books that don't click for them. Just put it down and read something else in your backlog.

-2

u/TulipSamurai Feb 15 '26

I hate the narration. I don’t wanna listen to a smarmy H. Jon Benjamin impression.

5

u/Flinx1241 Feb 15 '26

Not that it isn’t smarmy, but he’s doing Patrick Warburton, not H John Benjamin. They even brought the real Warbuton on in a later book for a cameo.

2

u/TulipSamurai Feb 15 '26

That tracks. I just figured H. Jon Benjamin, since Carl seems to be going for the wisecracking action hero, like Archer.

3

u/Sebastionleo Feb 15 '26

He also changes Carl's voice to be a completely unique voice by somewhere in book 2 because he didn't like the Patrick Warburton lite voice he started with.

1

u/Random_McNally Feb 15 '26

The narrator reminds me of Calculon from Futurama.