Ugh. Tricked by Jeff Hays being in it.

This comes off as a someone who read Dungeon Crawler Carl and said “I can do this!” It’s that same hollow echo you get when someone tries to photocopy lightning. Mimic and Me feels like the author read Dungeon Crawler Carl, took notes on the tropes, and then thought “if I shuffle these around a little, it’ll count as original!!” But they missed the part that made Carl work- Matt Dinniman’s humor and heart under the horror, the pacing that never lets you get bored, and that weird alchemy of satire and sincerity that’s hard to fake.

That’s what Mimic and Me totally misses. It’s like someone reverse-engineered Dinniman’s rhythm but left out the soul. The chaos is there, but none of the charm; it’s all grind, no groove. Even the “meta” nod to DCC just feels like waving a flag that says, “Hey, notice me, I read the good book too!”

Instead Mimic and Me gives you a shallow quest log wrapped in self-aware quipping, like it’s proud of recognizing its own clichés. The worldbuilding’s paper-thin, the emotional stakes are synthetic, and you can almost see the author nudging you with their elbow after every “cool” moment. Jeff Hays showing up just made it worse, because it’s like the book reminded you what competence sounds like. It’s the literary version of someone trying to jam with a master and not realizing they’re off-key the whole time.

Ryan Reid and Dorrie Sacks did not help at all. Some if it is limits of the material but…. Ryan seems OK but really didn’t really seem to embody the character… which is a problem when it’s first person (From one narrator to another take notes from James Marsters from the Dresden Files) And I’m sorry but Dorrie is just… not good. All her characters sound identical for the most part and she has little apparent vocal range.

So yeah, not impressed with this at all and will not be continuing the series.