Once again, I am pedaling the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks to fellow audio drama fans. There is an audio drama for the series, but it's not as caught up. And despite it being an audiobook series, it ruined every other audiobook for me by being too good. Jeff Hayes is a wizard.
The premise? An alien apocalypse turns the world into a giant dungeon that is streamed across the galaxy. Now, the remaining humans must try to survive their way through the end. It follows coast guard veteran Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat GC, BWR, NW Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk. Oh, and she can talk and shoot lasers out of her eyes.
Wait wait wait! Don't leave. I know it sounds insane. I put off listening to it for so long cause I did not think I would like it at all. I'm not really into video games. But it got *me* hooked. Also, it's really funny and gorey. And at first, you might think that's all it is.
No. Beyond the AI having a fetish for Carl's feet and the meth war between the llamas and goblins and all the other insane, weird shit, there are about a dozen heavy themes. Most importantly, the resilience of the human spirit. (And blowing up politicians. And killing rich pricks. That too.)
The series is dark (dare I say bordering on horror), but it's a breath of fresh air. The protagonist is genuinally a good guy (and not a white knight), the objectification of characters is not limited to women, and it's never boring.
And if you listen to the audiobooks, yes, Jeff does all the voices. Even Princess Donut. It's mind bongling.