This was a fun first book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series of LitRPG SciFi novels. I enjoyed this first installment very much. It was an intriguing concept with great action and comedy. I have tried LitRPG or Progression Fantasy before and not been very impressed with it; however, this book changed my opinion of that genre tremendously. I almost did not read it because of that, but I am very glad I did. This book was emotional, fun, and dark in places. Dinniman does an excellent job of bringing multiple aspects together – gaming, politics, friendship, and battles. I would encourage anyone who enjoyed The Running Man movie (based on a PKD short story) or who liked Hitchhikers’ Guide or some of John Scalzi’s humorous sci-fi to check out this series. I think you will enjoy the humor, the character development, the surprise twists, and the world building.
Also, I listened to this audiobook on Audible, while reading the ebook, and was very impressed with the narration by Jeff Hays.
Highly recommended all around, but especially as an audiobook!!