The DCC series has many fans and does get a lot of praise, particularly as the audobook, which I find really enhances the experience. All 8 books in the series are currently among the top 26 best selling books on Audible, in spite of the 8th book not expected to be released until May/June. DCC is my first experience with the litRPG genre. With such a positive result, I have been trying other litRPG and progression fantasy type books in recent weeks from Audible’s Plus catalog (free books for members). Unfortunately I haven’t found anything else in the genre that is comparable to DCC. Among the few I have read so far, my ranking would be as follows. I also included ratings from the general public as a comparison.
1 . Favorite DCC Book (Butcher’s Masquerade) – 4.8 (Amazon) / 4.9 (Audible)
…
7. Least Favorite DCC Book (Carl’s Doomsday Scenario) – 4.7 (Amazon) / 4.9 (Audible)
8. Sufficiently Advanced Magic – 4.4 (Amazon) / 4.6 (Audible)
9. He Who Fights With Monsters – 4.7 (Amazon) / 4.8 (Audible)
10. Induction – 4.6 (Amazon) / 4.6 (Audible)
– Big Gap –
??. Ready Player One – 4.6 (Amazon) / 4.8 (Audible)
I just finished So Far Gone by Jess Water which I think would make a great book club selection with themes of the different ways people respond to a world gone mad and family estrangement. As well as being a kind of crazy road trip story. I don’t read a lot of fiction but this one kept my attention (I listened to it on audio, and didn’t think the narration was all that well done and it still kept my attention.).
Although I was an early player of computer games (on the Arpanet!), Advent - “YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK BUILDING . AROUND YOU IS A FOREST. A SMALL STREAM FLOWS OUT OF THE BUILDING AND DOWN A GULLY.” the idea of a book based on that idea seems less appealing. I’ve seen a lot of love for the series, and have been tempted.
I think DCC and litRPG would be generally be more appealing to someone who has a basic understanding of RPG video games, Dungeon & Dragons, or similar. With the possible exception of Ready Player One (the one book I did not like), the books all have far more complex mechanics than the Zork style game you mention.
The books I listed above are all in the first person perspective, told by someone experiencing the new world. In DCC, when a person enters the dungeon, the AI gives them strength, intelligence, dexterity, charisma based stats that mimic their real life abilities – 4 = average, 9-10 = highest of any human who ever lived. As players gain levels, acquire items, increase skills, these stats increase and the crawlers experience corresponding changes – being able to run faster, being more charismatic to others, etc. For example, Carl and Princess Donut (Carl’s girlfriend’s cat) initially have stats of:
Strength: Carl = 6, Donut = 1
Intelligence: Carl = 3, Donut = 1
Consititution: Carl = 5, Donut = 1
Dexterity: Carl = 5, Donut = 8
Charisma: Carl = 4, Donut = 5
After eating the legendary pet biscuit, Donut’s stat’s change as follows. Having higher total stats, Donut becomes the party leader and decides to change the party name to Royal Court of Princess Donut and changes Carl’s name to Royal Bodyguard of Princess Donut.
Strength: Carl = 6, Donut = 11
Intelligence: Carl = 3, Donut = 11
Consititution: Carl = 5, Donut = 2
Dexterity: Carl = 5, Donut = 8
Charisma: Carl = 4, Donut = 25
After getting to the 3rd floor in DCC, crawlers have the abilty to choose races and classes, which further changes things. For example, one of the top crawlers in the leaderboard below was a wheelchair bound woman in Medowlark elder care facility with dementia when she entered the dungeon. The Medlowlark staff managed to get her and some of the other residents down to the 3rd floor. She selected a race with mental abilities with hopes that it would fix her dementia and ultimately became one of the most powerful crawlers in the game.
There are hundreds of possible races, many of which are based on Earth myths and legends. And thousands of classes within the different races, with different abilities. For example, Donut’s class of Former Child Actor is only eligible to persons who receive the “Cut!” acting based achievement and have over 1 trillion views . Its benefits include charisma stat boosts, getting a manager/advisor, and being able to choose a subclass on each different floor, among other things.
The different litRPG books all have different mechanics. Some lean heaviliy in to stats and video game type mechanics. Others do not. For example, I am currently finishing up Sufficiently Advanced Magic. There are is no video game like interface or stats beyond a basic mana level. Instead it’s primarily a story of an underdog’s experiences at magic college. The “dungeon crawl” aspect relates the magic system of the world centering around Tower of God like mutileveled towers full of countless rooms with deadly challenges created by the world’s goddess to judge worthiness , including both physical challenges and puzzles. The protagonist’s long term goal is to find his brother who disappeared in the tower 5 years ago.
The appeal in SAM and most of the other series relates to seeing the protagonist gradually develop – both in stat abilities and as a person, as well as a understanding a unique and intersting world that is different from our own. Some of the books also clearly are intended to appeal to the reader’s personal fantasies, picturing them as if they were the protagonist. These are generally the ones I rated lower on my earlier list.
One of the things I like about SAM is it rejects this trope. Corin is not overpowered and does not have a secret hidden power, with a bland personality, so reader can insert their own. He’s more of a non-stellar kid in magic college finding ways to get by in spite of having what is considered the worst possible magic type and gradually becomes increasingly successful, as well as gradually developing relationships with friends and professors. He can be neurotic, overly cautious, dislikes being touched, and is asexual and/or gay – not designed to appeal to the reader’s personal/power fantasy.
I did play D & D one summer back in the 1980s, but it was not my thing. I understand the mechanics as my kids played a lot for a few years. I also read Will Wight’s Unsouled when my older son gave it to me, but I was underwhelmed. I didn’t hate it, but I thought the characters were uninteresting.
Actually after seeing the excerpts from DCC I am no longer even tempted!
When I was trying to decide on which books to try in this litRPG / progression fantasy genre, I saw the Cradle series with Unsouled come up regularly. It seems to be more polarizing or niche than most. Unsouled has lower average ratings on Amazon or Audible than any of the 11 books I mentioned in my earlier post, yet is extremely popular among a certain subgroup of enthusiasts, more so than most others in the genre.
From what I understand it, the book is unique in that it’s a cultivation novel that’s inspired by Taoism/Buddhism, Chinese mythology, and martial arts; yet it’s written in English with a target western audience. As such characters progress by advancing their bodies and souls through elements of eastern techniques, rather than RPG type levels/stats. It sounds sort of like shonen anime/manga, such as Naruto. It’s very different from DCC or typical litRPG. Some love it, and some hate it. The reviews that hate it often mention problems with the main character. I’m not sure where I’d fall. If it was in the Audible Plus catalog or free, I’d give it a try.
Just finished the Correspondent, which was great as others have said. I didn’t think a story told in letters would be so interesting and provide good characterization.
Also just read Klara and the Sun in my book group. We were all a bit underwhelmed, given all the hype. I have read other Ishiguro books and loved them, even Never Let Me Go which was disturbing but great. This just seemed so emotionally flat (even though that is his style to some extent) that it did not really draw any of us in.
I loved Remains of the Day, but hated Never Let me Go (not because it was disturbing but because of the voice of the narrator.) Have never been able to decide whether I should try more of his work or not…
I was surprised I liked Never Let Me Go but for some reason it resonated with me, unlike Klara. I also read Pale View of Hills for book group but have no memory of it at all!
I avoided Klara for ages because it just didn’t sound like my cup of tea. I eventually read it and quite liked it and found myself thinking about it afterwards. It is vastly different from his other work, which I also quite liked.
