I am also someone that did not like the book.
A list of my criticisms:
(1) Carl’s POV The story is told from the 1st-person, past tense perspective of Carl, our MC. And yet, we receive minimal emotional or mental reactions from him as he traverses the dungeon beyond “I shuddered” or some variation of nausea. He strangled the hoarder with a dog chain and then with said chain wrapped around his knuckles he punches her for an entire minute to kill her. This entire time, she is crying in Spanish. And Carl takes the time to describe how fat she is, how she wears no bra, and when Princess Donut hits her with a missile, he takes the time to describe her pendulous breasts and marred (aka stretch marked) stomach. He never shows signs of regret, guilt or remorse, even though he acknowledges she is a woman forced to be this monster boss. He’s weirdly mute about the whole thing after it happens. I get that he’s trying to survive and this all might be a trauma response, but the PAST tense would have allowed some distance for the narrating version of Carl to provide at least some insight into that if it were the case.
(2) The AI/aliens made the world, but Carl is our eyes and ears. HE is the one describing everything and everyone. Carl as the narrator has a discomforting fixation on fatness and women’s anatomy. MCs with troubling views or actions are common in literature, but Carl is often described by readers as an average person who is relatable and likable. Characters in the book literally call Carl a good person. I’m confused why people giving this book 4-5 stars aren’t saying they love this book while adding with their full chest that it has a fatphobic MC who objectifies women. Fat characters exist, and describing any character as fat is a perfectly fine physical trait to highlight. But these two qualities (fat characters and women’s breasts) are the only ones repeated numerous times in isolation. We even see a fat suit used at one point, whose breasts Carl describes at least half a dozen times.
(3) Why is the hoarder the only boss we are meant to feel sympathy for? What makes the Juicer, the krakaren with many mouths and no humanoid body, the “pudgy”/“fat” 40-something “soccer mom” fairies, the unvaccinated hillbilly fairies, the Shamanka goblins with a university education but no sense of humor and don’t cook, the llamas and dingos and gerbil different? And why is Carl and Princess Donut reacting to all of these encounters exactly the same? Many say there is social commentary here, but if there is, the author is not following through. In fact, even though more men die in book 1, the on-page detailed deaths are all women. It’s possible Dinniman doesn’t realize he’s farming the emotional deaths of women (especially those of color: the hoarder, the “naked” Asian woman with a bullet “between her breasts”, Yolanda), or he’s doing it intentionally. Best case scenario, the author had no plan or idea of what he was writing, and that resulted in a very emotionally imbalanced narrative.
The common argument is that the series gets better. In what way? Does Carl/Dinniman directly address Carl’s fixation on fatness and breasts, identifying it as wrong with the intention of treating everyone with respect? Or does it all just disappear, suggesting the author learned to hide this side of Carl? Whatever it is, that doesn’t change the glaring issues within this first book.