5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
Science Fiction & Fantasy: Slipping Into a Series
If summer brings the sunny promise of more reading leisure time, what could be better than a whole series of books? I've picked out three in various stages of completion: choose your own level of commitment and where to jump in.
In the comically cosmic adventure series that kicks off with Matt Dinniman's 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' (2020), the end of the world as we know it is the start of the story. The titular Carl, a disaffected Coast Guard veteran, is pet-sitting his ex-girlfriend's prizewinning show cat, Princess Donut, when the aliens come. They immediately kill most of humanity and then herd the survivors into a subterranean labyrinth of horrors that turns out to be a competitive reality show called 'Dungeon Crawler World,' enjoyed by viewers across the galaxy. The remaining humans have to destroy monsters, collect treasure, gain powers and move to the next floor of the dungeon before time runs out, or they die.
