Gave this book a shot based on some friends' recommendation and because I needed something to listen to on my runs, and despite my difficulties getting the audiobook to function on my watch, it was well worth the effort. DCC has undoubtedly been taking off in popularity, and it's not hard for me to see why. The humor is extremely tailored to millennials, especially those immersed in a variety of nerd culture (but especially gaming), and the jokes pretty consistently (for me at least). I found the character of Carl to be quite endearing, which I wasn't expecting; I often struggle to care much for traditionally masculine male leads. But he's a good blend of reserved and proactive as a protagonist, and he bounces off Donut and the other supporting characters well. Complementing the strong humor and character work, the worldbuilding definitely appeals to me in the way that things are "gameified." One of the many gripes I had with media that portrayed video games while growing up in the mid 00s was a lack of understanding and generic portrayals of alleged game mechanics. It was, about 99% of the time, very easy to see at a glance that the writers of a show or book never played many games (or at least that material had been edited to appear that way to be more palatable to a general audience). But DCC has nuance and understanding of game mechanics that are, in turn, translated to be both fun to read and learn about, and gets one thinking about how those mechanics naturally expand on each other. That all is to say, there are no references to high scores or extra lives or other wildly outdated game mechanics that don't make sense in the context of the world and story, and instead, the book explores the element quite in-depth in a way that rewards those who already are familiar with that material. I quite enjoyed this first entry and I look forward to listening to the rest of the series on my runs.