Woah? I haven’t posted anything here in years? Yeah – I guess I kinda gave up on “blogging” a number of years ago when only one of all the posts I’ve done ever got any attention. Perhaps, my limited time and focus should be on other creative endeavors, honey do list projects, practicing my drums, etc. Anyhow, I reserve the right to come in here when the moment calls for it, and dump my thoughts. I’ve been writing more lately on one of my book projects, which is good! “Astra Engineer” is progressing. When I get into a habit, the creativity can spill over. and I think this little exercise is one of those times. Yesterday, I finished listening to a series of books on Audible. Spoiler: I loved it. I felt like I needed to write a little “story” about it, in support of it’s author. I did, and I posted it on Goodreads and Amazon and on my Author page on Facebook. Why not put it here too? It was fun to write. Here it is:

I held out for years.
While I’ve always gravitated toward writers I consider “literary”—people like George R.R. Martin, James S.A. Corey, Craig Johnson, and Lee Child—I’ve also found joy in Audible’s entertainment-first crowd. Authors like Craig Alanson and Dennis E. Taylor might not wear the same “literary” badge, but they relentlessly entertain (and often make me laugh, which I crave).

That said, Audible’s algorithm? It rarely gets me. Its “you might like this” suggestions usually feel like someone read my notes wrong.

Enter Dungeon Crawler Carl.
This thing has been relentlessly shoved in my face for years. Every time I saw the title, I rolled my eyes. The premise struck me as aggressively dumb. I mean, what the hell is LitRPG? Gamers trying to novelize their boss battles? A literary Frankenstein stitched together from character sheets, loot and level ups? Then I saw a post on Facebook that said these books have been optioned for a series, on Amazon or Netflix or some such. Because, you know, I believe everything I read on social media. But it was enough. I was burning out on B.V. Larson and this book had a lot of positive reviews (from gamers?).

(Never mind the fact that two of my own unfinished novels are suspiciously adjacent to the whole gaming thing. We’ll ignore that for now.)

What began as reluctant curiosity quickly transformed into full-blown obsession. Within the first hour of Book One, I was hooked—utterly blindsided by the sheer creativity, dark humor, and surprisingly rich worldbuilding. The irreverence! At this point,  I think I would enjoy just reading his spell names list. So hilarious! I literally saw a video from comic-con today of a very Linda Carter looking Wonder Woman, and thought “Where’s Laundry Day when I need it?” Don’t tell my wife I said that.

And Jeff Hayes? The man nails it to the cross. (Did I say irreverent already?) He doesn’t just read the story—he owns the humor and the outrage and the determination of the whole cast! Each character, each absurd moment, each emotional gut-punch lands with surgical precision. It’s theater of the ears at its finest. If I had to pick a favorite narrator, like someone actually put a gun to my temple and said tell me your favorite audiobook narrator in the next 5 seconds or I’m going to splatter your brains on the wall… I would blurt “RC Bray!”  And then, maybe, I’d say, “No, wait, now its Jeff?”

As someone who went into this series completely ignorant of LitRPG as a genre, I didn’t expect to find something so layered and daring beneath the pixelated surface. But Dungeon Crawler Carl isn’t just clever and chaotic—it’s genuinely affecting. The series balances violence, absurdity, and satire with an impressive emotional backbone. The themes hit for realz. (can a 50 something guy say that and not sound ridiculous?) The laughs are NON-STOP. And the plot? It only gets deeper, more complex — and weirder. Is Matt on drugs?

Matt Dinniman’s imagination is, frankly, terrifying in the best possible way. His world is equal parts dystopia, game show, intergalactic politics, and fever dream. Every character has their own, distinct, original voice, which is something every writer strives for. And somehow, it works. It works so well that I binged the first seven books like my life depended on it. And now, it’s over. Sniff. At least until he publishes the next one.

I too, am a writer. Or to be more accurate, a writer of many unfinished novels. And when I encounter work like this—fresh, fearless, unhinged in the best sense—I can’t help but feel inspired. Also deeply jealous. WTF didn’t I do this 30 years ago?

So Matt, if you ever read this:
Until very recently. I was a drummer in two bands. Had to step away because my shoulder feels like Samantha has been chewing on it for a year. My surgeon is going to fix it with his scalpel in the next couple of weeks, because there are no potions available. If you ever wanna jam…

Final score?
10/10 Floating Sex Doll Heads