What IS this kind of book, anyway? It’s not simply a book written about games or gaming. (I have some posts about that, if you’re interested.) It’s a novel where the main action consists of leveling up (as in an mmorpg or a Dungeons and Dragons game) using “stats”–shorthand descriptions of the powers and skills the characters wield. Is LitRPG interesting at all to non-gamers? I’m not sure it is.

But I play mmorpgs, so I found my first steps into this type of book to be pretty fascinating. I must admit, I read excerpts of some of the first of these (Russian and South Korean, mostly), and I found them drab. Why read about it when you can DO it? Here’s an interesting post explaining the whole phenomenon, from the beginnings of the craze–and actually, the Wikipedia article is quite good, especially the bibliography at the end of the article. Go there if you want to do a much deeper dive into LitRPG than my post is giving you here.

So. . . I had never tried one of these books. Then a gamer buddy of mine (thanks, James!), and ANOTHER buddy (thanks, J.R!) recommended the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, by indie author Matt Dinniman, and I was hooked. I’ve read the first one. Now I’m deep into the second.

Early thoughts: These books are indeed about “leveling up.” They are indeed about “stats.” But they are hilarious. When Earth attracts the attention of an intergalactic tv-ish production broadcasting the gruesome deaths of millions to an audience of gazillions, Carl, the narrator, finds himself suddenly thrust into a dangerous game with multiple levels to survive. Unfortunately for Carl (actually–mini-spoiler–fortunately for Carl), the sudden game-apocalypse arrives when he is outside in the middle of the night rescuing a treed cat, and without his pants. Pantsless Carl is a recurring funny trope of the novel. And the cat, Princess Donut, is the novel’s co-protagonist. Both are great characters, and anyone who has ever played one of these games will wince in sympathy as they dash out of one peril straight into another, always striving to reach that next, uberer level.

I don’t know if all LitRPG is this amusing, but if it is, I’m a fan. Guess I’ll find out.

I should say this: Once, I was part of a Goodreads group of speculative fiction fans. We’d decide on a book, read it, and post our thoughts. I discovered something really interesting. The posts were all apples and oranges. Some people read the books–as in, through their eyeballs. Others processed the same words, but through a different organ, their ears. Reader-readers and audiobook readers are two entirely different animals. (“Can be two entirely different animals”? I may be overstating it.) An audiobook reader will frequently focus on the production values of the audiobook and the skill of the narrator as much as on the skill of the writer who penned the words–often more on those aspects. It strikes me that a lot of consumers of LitRPG will be audiobook consumers, maybe a higher proportion than in other subgenres of speculative fiction. This is only a hunch. I’d love to have data to back it up. Anyway. . .a long wind-up to my point. I, an eyeballs-reader, loved Dungeon Crawler Carl. Not sure about one of my two gamer-friends who also loved it, but the other is a mostly-ears man. He says the narrator is just great. I wouldn’t know, but if you too are a consumer of audiobooks, here’s an endorsement from someone who does know.

And another thing: The Dungeon Crawler Carl books have been criticized for their callous violence. Geez. Get a grip. That’s what these games are all about. Don’t like it? Don’t read it/play it. No one’s holding a gun to your head and making you. . .except. . .shhhh. . . that really fugly goblin, just around the corner? Is that a gun it’s holding? A big gun, too, aiming right at your head. But you have +10 Strength and +8 Agility. You can take him!

Ok. Seriously. The author of these books can write. I like that in a novel. It’s my favorite stat. I also want to make a cat toon on my mmorpg and name her Princess Donut.