The Sword and Laser discussion

After 3,392 in 15 polls the winner of our 10th annual March Madness tournament is Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Here is a breakdown of this year's tournament.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

woot woot \o/

What a surprise!
Luckily I already bought the audiobook on the off chance that this won the tournament and I’m halfway through listening to it so I’m well prepared!

My library copy came in a couple of days ago and I'm about halfway through. Great fun so far.

Ruth wrote: "What a surprise!
Luckily I already bought the audiobook on the off chance that this won the tournament and I’m halfway through listening to it so I’m well prepared!"

I read on Kindle Unlimited last time so bought a copy. I could read again on KU but Matt deserves my money. (Authors only get paid for first read on KU.)

One thing I would say, for anyone considering what format to get this in, I’m really enjoying the audio narration. The narrator (Jeff Hays) does a great job with the character voices and the in-game announcements and really brings out the humour.

I will second the audio book endorsement. After listening to this one I bought all the others in the series and never even considered anything but audio.

Well deserved win. Veronica and Tom will have 6 more books they will want to read after this. I read all 7 in the dead tree format and it quickly became one of my favorite series.

I will 3rd the audiobook.

This is old news, but relevant to our April pick...

https://deadline.com/2024/08/dungeon-...

There doesn't seem to be any recent news about DCC in development, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see if anything happens.

There are 2 versions of the audiobook. Soundbooth Theatre has an immersive audio version and then there is the normal version. Both are good, but I'm partial to the original, it meshes better with the rest of the books.

It sounds like a fun read but since the ebook costs a whopping 26 euros here it's going on my to-buy-when-on-sale list…

Qukatheg wrote: "It sounds like a fun read but since the ebook costs a whopping 26 euros here it's going on my to-buy-when-on-sale list…"

Are libraries not an option?

Trike wrote: "Qukatheg wrote: "It sounds like a fun read but since the ebook costs a whopping 26 euros here it's going on my to-buy-when-on-sale list…"

Are libraries not an option?"

I checked but it's not in the catalogs. Library subscriptions are pretty expensive here and their catalogs are very limited when it comes to scifi, fantasy and foreign language fiction in general. I've got a kobo plus subscription instead, they have a much bigger selection to choose from, but sadly also nothing by this author.

I’m never more grateful for free public libraries than when I learn of a country that doesn’t have them. I would’ve missed out on so many great books otherwise, especially in the early 70s when my parents were living paycheck to paycheck. The library was a refuge and a treasure trove of wonders.

For children a library subscription is free, to encourage reading and improve literacy. And you can always walk in and read any book on the shelves there for free, you just can't take it home unless you have a subscription. I have good memories of going to the library weekly when I was a kid! But once you turn 18 you have to pay, and the library just can't compete with what's available online nowadays.

(For comparison my local library has 627 titles in their scifi/fantasy catalog, local bookstore 753, kobo plus over 70k currently.)

For what it's worth, libraries are often slow when it comes to grabbing self-published stuff since it usually isn't reviewed. My library only got Carl when a customer requested it. And I don't see versions of it available on Hoopla or Libby/Overdrive either. So options might be more limited for this title than for others.

But in general, yeah, free libraries are an amazing community asset.

One of my libraries has the first 4 books in the series. The other has none, but might could get them through interlibrary loans.

I do love the library game, but this series ain't expensive. $5 for the first few and then when they go over 600 pages it's an extra dollar. Whole lot of entertainment for the money.

Apparently I bought this book as my library doesn’t have it either.

As anyone who’s seen my Instagram knows, I have books flying in and out of here constantly, so it’s hard to keep track.

My local library has the first three DCC books in print, but no ebook or audiobook editions, which is unusual for recent releases. No matter though, I bought a copy of DCC months ago and I've been buying the later volumes too. I've had moderate success requesting purchase of new books from my library, but lately, a couple of books I've requested are in some kind of "in process" holding pattern that never ends. Maybe it's budget issues.

Mark wrote: "My local library has the first three DCC books in print, but no ebook or audiobook editions, which is unusual for recent releases. No matter though, I bought a copy of DCC months ago and I've been ..."

I guess I gave up on requesting they buy stuff because I've had faster response with interlibrary loans.

Mark wrote: "I've had moderate success requesting purchase of new books from my library, but lately, a couple of books I've requested are in some kind of "in process" holding pattern that never ends. Maybe it's budget issues."

Yeah, success with purchase requests is very individual library to library. Mine has a budget just for these requests, so we usually buy them (until the budget runs out). Others have budget set-ups where the book you request might be pitted against some other title they really want to buy because of a positive review or something.

When it comes to 'in process' requests, it's hard to say, similar words mean different things in different library systems. In process could mean they're waiting on the vendor, or the item is waiting for cataloging, or they haven't got to your request yet. Baker and Taylor, a huge library book vendor, is in the middle of renegotiating lots of their contracts with publishers and are getting books to libraries late. That could be part of the problem, or it could just be that the librarians are trying to do a lot of things at once.

I am so excited Dungeon Crawler Carl was picked. I started reading the series a few months ago after a recommendation from a colleague. I just started the 6th book and will read it thru the month.

As a previous table top gamer, and now computer RPG gamer, I’m having a lot of fun with these books. I almost feel like I’m reading a video game.

The humor is clever and sometimes absurd, the topics can be dark and jarring, but it’s a fun and wild ride.

Greg F.

Qukatheg wrote: "It sounds like a fun read but since the ebook costs a whopping 26 euros here it's going on my to-buy-when-on-sale list…"

Look up Tassie Daves instructions for changing country in Amazon to pay the US price... NO reason to pay 26 Euro.