Two Wild Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books I Had a Great Time With
The first entry in a recurring series on what I’m reading, why I’m recommending it, and when the audiobook adds to the experience.
I don’t know when or why I stopped reading, but it gradually happened throughout high school and college before bottoming out post-graduation. Like many things in the education realm, I treated reading as a means to an end. It went from something I liked to do or could learn from to something I only did in order to achieve a specific end goal.
So, when college was over, I honestly didn’t think twice about reading. When I got home from work, it was much easier to turn the TV on (also a more social thing to do with my wife). And the lack of reading was exacerbated once I went full-time in the fantasy sports space. The one time I might have read was before bed, and that was replaced by tracking scores and DFS contests on a nightly basis, with no real “offseason” (MLB, NBA, NFL = year-round).
I’ve talked about returning to running when I turned 30. But what really happened is I realized how my work life had led one day to bleed into another, and left my health in a bad spot in a multitude of ways. Running again was one way I tried to turn things around, but zooming out, I tried to detach from the daily grind of fantasy contests a bit more and make room for some healthier habits overall and better day-to-day living.
So it’s not coincidental that my return to reading also happened when I turned 30, and like with my running, it’s picked up steam over the last 5 years or so (I am now 39), something that has become possible since I only do content for one sport now (NFL), instead of three (NFL, MLB, and NBA).
I generally try to read a handful of pages in the morning, though this gets skipped sometimes if I have stacked early appointments. And then I try to read before bed, a habit that dovetails nicely with an effort to have better sleep. I still have a tough time picking up a book in the middle of the day, even when I do have the time for it, but it’s something I’m trying to get better at.
Okay, enough rambling about my reading habits, though. I subscribe to Madison Parkhill’s Substack, and I always enjoy it when he shares what he’s reading. In that vein, I wanted to write this post (and others like it in the future) because I figure if you’ve found this Substack, there’s a decent chance you might like some of the things I like.
What I’m Reading
There are always exceptions, but the crux of what I read fits into four categories:
Non-Fiction Self Development/Educational
Non-Fiction Narratives
Sci-FI/Fantasy Longer Series
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Standalone
I don’t read as much as I’d like, so I get mocked mercilessly by my wife for having a handful of half-read books lying around at all times. But I digress!
For today’s post and the ones in the near future, I’m going to focus on sci-fi and fantasy books. They’re a bit more fun to talk about, and I hope to get some suggestions from others in the comments. I’m also a huge audiobook fan, and those books play well in that format.
With that out of the way, here are two books/series that hit the “wild, funny, surprisingly heartfelt” lane for me.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Brief Synopsis:
I almost don’t want to describe this book because it sounds super niche and might turn off a lot of people who would actually enjoy it. I know when it was recommended to me on X a few years ago that I initially overlooked it until I saw it pop up as a recommendation in a few other spots. It’s crazy how mainstream this series has gotten since then. It’s difficult to find a bookshop that doesn’t carry the latest in the series (A Parade of Horribles), and it’s even being developed as a live-action series for Peacock, with Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door involved.
The genre is LitRPG, which essentially means it reads like a role-playing video game with the main character having stats and skills that develop as well as loot and inventory. In this case, the main character is a guy named Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat Princess Donut. When aliens take over the Earth, a certain portion of the population makes their way into a multi-level dungeon where they become participants in a sick, twisted reality show. Each floor of the dungeon is a “level” like in a video game and there are different objectives, themes, storylines, etc. It’s very much a life-and-death game as the majority of “players” are expected to be killed on each floor.
I’ll try to err on the side of “less is more” with these descriptions because if you’re like me, once I know I am going to read a book, I don’t want to know any more about it than is necessary.
Who is this for:
Like with all series, there’s much more to it than the brief synopsis, and the series is deeper than that description makes it seem, filled with enjoyable social satire. The tone of this series is absurdist and humorous. It’s a dark comedy of sorts, though the humor is more blunt than I typically associate with a dark comedy. You also get to care about the characters, and in particular the main character, Carl, is an interesting combination of a blue-collar, hardworking, tough man who is out for vengeance but one with a great deal of empathy, selflessness, and humility.
Who is this not for:
You’ll know pretty quickly whether this book is for you. If you’re halfway through the first book and don’t get the humor and aren’t that hooked, I’d say to stop reading. There are series where you have to grind through the first book, knowing it’s worth it in the end. This isn’t really one of those. That’s not to say the series does not get better, but the style is the same throughout. People who don’t like violence or twisted humor or who want a more realistic alien story probably won’t like this one.
Series Finished?
The series is not finished. The eighth book, A Parade of Horribles, came out in May 2026, and Dinniman has said the series is nearing its planned end.
You have to read this series in chronological order.
Audiobook Boost:
For this section, a 1 means you should read the physical copy (or Kindle) and a 5 means you should listen to the audiobook. This isn’t a rating of the audiobook in a vacuum. It’s how much I think the audio version adds to the experience compared to reading the physical copy or Kindle version. In most cases, I’ve only consumed the book one way, so that may cause a bias.
I know lots of people read this series, but I can’t fathom ingesting it in any other form than the audiobook narrated by Jeff Hays. Jeff Hays is the Michael Jordan of narrators. The combination of him and the written material makes for such a hilarious and entertaining ride. It’s hard for me to imagine a lot of the humor hitting as hard or the characters shining as bright without Hays’ voice behind it.
My Rating (out of 5):
4.4
Incredibly entertaining and finds a good balance between outrageous moments, serious moments, and heartfelt moments without being too corny (not an easy task in this setting). I absolutely love this book for what it is, but if being nitpicky, the over-the-top nature of the setting puts a small cap on its ceiling for me.
The Perfect Run by Maxime Durand
Brief Synopsis:
The second book I’m recommending today is a good option to pick up if you liked Dungeon Crawler Carl and want something similar. It’s not a direct parallel to DCC, but I think that’s a good thing given how good DCC is at what it does. What is similar in The Perfect Run is the absurdist comedy elements, play on video-game mechanics, and social satire.
The main character, Ryan “Quicksave” Romano, makes for an interesting juxtaposition with Carl. Both find themselves in insane situations, have a desire to save everyone, and have surprisingly tender moments. Though he has his theatrical moments, at his core Carl is more your “everyman”, while Ryan definitely thrives on drama and showmanship. Ryan is a bit less stable than Carl, and his journey, at the beginning, is lonelier than Carl’s.
In The Perfect Run, Ryan finds himself in an alternate version of Earth where some humans are able to acquire superpowers. Of course, the Earth goes to hell, with warring factions of varying moral and societal intent. Ryan’s power (and the video-game element of this book) is that he can create “save points” that he returns to any time he dies.
Who is this for:
If you liked DCC, I think you’ll like this as well. There’s a little more wit and wordplay in TPR’s humor, and some of the absurdity is brought on by Ryan himself (whereas Carl is thrust into it against his will a bit more). If you enjoy the time loop premise, that’s an added benefit here.
Who is this not for:
Both recommendations today have over-the-top settings. If you want something more realistic, which can create a sense of higher stakes, you probably want to look elsewhere. Also, the humor is front and center here, so whether or not it jibes with what you find funny is going to dictate your experience.
Series Finished?
Yes. This is a completed trilogy, and you must read the books in order.
Audiobook Boost:
Audiobook
I listened to this via audiobook and felt like the narrator (Eric Michael Summerer) put on a strong performance. But this isn’t Jeff Hays territory. Hays is incredibly unique. I’d put Summerer’s performance on the strong end of your normal tier of narrators, while Hays is in the S tier. These absurdist premises, where humor is a critical component, play a bit better in audio because the performance enhances the written words. At the same time, as I listened to this, I could envision myself reading the actual books and not missing too much.
My Rating:
4.0
Very entertaining, made me laugh, and easy to binge.