As someone who loves Dungeon Crawler Carl, I was excited to see Matt Dinniman tackle something different. To be clear, I wasn’t expecting DCC, and I didn’t want a copy of it. I was looking forward to a standalone sci-fi story with its own identity, and that’s exactly what this is.
The premise is fantastic, and the world-building is incredibly deep. In fact, maybe a little too deep for my taste. There were times when I felt buried under weapon descriptions, lore, and explanations. The story often seemed more interested in telling me how everything worked than letting me experience it for myself.
I never really connected with any of the characters. It often felt as though they were being moved through the plot rather than driving it, which made it difficult for me to become emotionally invested.
The narration was good overall, though a little monotonous at times, particularly during some of the heavier exposition.
That probably sounds more negative than I mean it to. This is a solid story with some genuinely brilliant ideas, and there’s a lot here to admire. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that beneath all the world-building and explanation was a potentially great character-driven story that never quite got the room to shine.