this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2026
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Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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Mini, spoiler free review of Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman (lemmy.ca)
submitted 5 days ago by AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
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Carl is outside in his boxers trying to get his girlfriend's cat out of a tree when everything with a roof on the planet is destroyed and the smaller number of survivors are made to compete in an intergalactic dungeon game similar to D&D. If this sounds kind of dumb, I described it correctly; it's kind of dumb. It’s also fairly entertaining and has a good amount of heart. People who have played any sort of role playing game, like World Of Warcraft, will probably be extra amused.

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[–] Abyssian@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Spoiler review: This series is "science" fiction with no emphasis on actual science. It's about as genuine science fiction as Anne Rice's vampire and Atlantis books. The books should be labeled YA. It's Twilight for video game fans, more in the recent trend of books for people who don't read books.

If you want well written science fiction pick up something from Neal Stephenson. If you want fantasy go with Brandon Sanderson.

Sorry to hurt folks feelings, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who had this series enthusiastically recommended and bought it without knowing the truth.

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

To give additional options, because Stephenson and Sanderson aren't everyone's cups of tea (producing insanely large tomes like Reamde, Cryptonomicon, and the Way of Kings), you may also consider the following, which are either hard scifi (requires few, if any, scientific discoveries we currently lack), speculative SciFi (requires one or two unexplained leaps of scientific advancement, but thoroughly explores the mechanics and consequences thereof), or speculative fantasy (any magic system is internally consistent, operates in particular ways, and the interactions between them are explored)

  1. Adrian Tchaikovsky, creator of the most - realistic alien species in literature: Children of Time Series (Spec. SciFi (but only barely), Tyrant Philosophers Series (Spec. Fantasy), and an insane number of standalone stories among the three genres listed above, such as Alien Clay, Shroud, and And Put Away Childish Things
  2. Dennis E. Taylor, for those with crippling reference-itis and enough of a science background to want the author to regularly presume the reader's knowledge of plate tectonics and special relativity: Bobiverse Series (Spec. SciFi, but only because of "subspace" and optoelectronics), Outland Series (Spec. SciFi, because the portal's function is never explained)
  3. Andy Weir, who makes every book a high-school science class (in the best way) with a plot: The Martian & Project Hail Mary (Both Hard SciFi, and I'll fight anyone who tries to claim that the astrophage makes PHM speculative), also, several short stories, including The Egg (Spec. Fantasy) and James Moriarty, Consulting Criminal (Historical Fiction/Mystery)
  4. David Mitchell, who is like if James Michener wrote historical fantasy: Cloud Atlas (Historical/Speculative Fiction), The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, the Bone Clocks, & Utopia Avenue (all Historical Fiction with Minor Fantasy Elements)

If you want something more in line with YA, but with hard magic systems, consider "The Will of The Many", by James Islington, or "Sufficiently Advanced Magic" by Andrew Rowe.