Anyone saying that DCC is not sci-fi is wrong. I'll assume you haven't read it. The ENTIRE STORY is about an Alien syndicate causing the apocalypse on Earth to force humans to play what is essentially a real life video game. It's run by aliens, and hyper advanced AI. It's full of real functional science portals. The fantasy elements of the book are artifice for the game. This is some pretty weird gatekeeping. I think people are getting sci-fi and hard sci-fi confused. Just chill out. There is no lack of Sci-Fi in this world, and if you haven't read DCC you are doing yourself a disservice.
this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2026
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Are you replying to the person you meant to?
I’m putting this at top level. It’s for anyone engaging in this silly argument.
Okay, works for me. I was the OP who posted my review of DCC, and the one who said I feel there's a spectrum between Fantasy and SF, not a hard line, and that DCC in my opinion is slightly left of center.
At the end of the day viewing DCC as fantasy is perfectly fine, and not invalid, just wanted to address the silliness that it wasn't sci-fi.
I'm about a third of the way into the first book. A friend of mine has been reading the series, and he said it'd be right up my alley. Between that and everyone on the internet talking about these books, I figured I'd give it a shot.
Immediate regret. From the moment I started reading, I was getting flashbacks to reading Stephanie Meyers twenty years ago: the repetitive language; mundane grammar; weird, heavy-handed characterizations. The presentation was similar to the bad fanfics and YA novels that were coming out when I was in my 20s.
I keep trying to give it the benefit of the doubt. I get the impression that the main character is supposed to be a little dim, so maybe the first-person narration is supposed to be reflecting that? But even that only explains some of it. It's otherwise so trope-y and winking. Reading it honestly feels like watching Spielberg's Ready Player One again, where the point is not a good story, interesting characters, or even good craft, just nodding at the in-jokes.
I'm going to finish this first book this weekend, because I made the mistake of buying it. But unless something substantially changes in the next couple hundred pages, I will not be continuing the series.
So, yeah, I'm glad people are reading it and enjoying it. Just wanted to provide a different opinion from all the comments glazing it, because it doesn't have universal appeal.
I appreciate that hot take. First books, IMO, tend to be more formulaic. I'm currently reading and on book 5, and there's been a number of times the author's used strong vocaublary or literary devices that I've appreciated. The feel of the series has certainly made some adjustments, and it makes sense considering he's at six and change years writing it at this point.
Ready Player One is kind of a good comparison; both in that case and in this one, my expectations were pretty low, but I enjoyed reading them. My reading list is mostly populated with nominees and winners of the major SF&F awards, but I decided to read this one based on recommendations from folks here in Lemmy, and because of folks I talk with a lot online (I play wow classic). I wasn't really expecting it to be amazingly well crafted, but I still maintain is silly fun.
I agree and I’m not the biggest fan, but it does get much better if you can get through the first half of book 1.
Doughnut Holes represent! All hail Princess Doughnut. I just finished book 4.
DAMMIT DONUT!!!
Awesome. I assume that means that at least the second and third are good? Do the books get more or less entertaining as it goes along?
Book 3 can be a bit of a slog if you get wrapped up in trying to decipher the Iron Tangle. The point is that the entire thing runs on vibes, not hard rules. The point is to confuse the reader right alongside the crawlers. But lots of readers ended up struggling as a result, because they wanted to figure out the specific rules of the floor. Anyone who claims to have figured out how it works has either missed a rule or made up some of their own.
Books 4 and 5 are where the series truly hits its stride. I’d say 7 is probably my favorite. 8 was probably the worst so far, mostly because it spends a lot of time setting up potential plot hooks for later. But that also leaves lots of potential room for growth with later books.
Good to hear the series stays worthwhile.
I finished the most recent, #8. I think it was the weakest of the series, just because there are so many plot threads and characters to help track of at this point.
Huh, okay. Not many series can stay even decent for eight books, so that's encouraging.
The floors are quite different, which keeps it interesting. If'n you liked the first one, I'm reasonably confident that you'll like the rest.
Thanks. I decided to go ahead and read the second one now (I often read other things between books in a series).
I enjoyed them; They were pretty good. maybe a bit cliche, but hey, that's part of the charm.
I'm on five and it's mostly stayed constant. I haven't seen it get better or worse.
Good to know, thanks
Not at all similar to “D&D,” the genre is LitRPG
edit: glurp glurp, motherfuckers
Hmm, okay. I never played D&D, but has friends who did.
Okay but what happens to his girlfriend's poor cat???
I'm interested in checking these books out, but I'm a big weenie who can't handle anything bad happening to innocent animals. And I'm not exactly mentally stable lately -- lol -- so I'm currently trying to avoid anything like that that could send me spiraling. (I know it sounds ridiculous and I'm working on getting help, I promise lol)
So, uh... Can anyone tell me if there's any bad stuff happening to any animals (like the aforementioned kitty???) in these books? 😅
There is a running joke among the fanbase that the cat (Princess Donut) is actually the main character, and Carl is just along for the ride. There’s a reason Carl’s catchphrase quickly becomes “God damn it Donut!”
Minor Early Book 1 Spoiler
Donut essentially has an Enlightenment spell cast on her, which raises her from being a regular pet to being an actual sentient dungeon crawler. She gains the ability to speak, cast spells, etc... She gets a major stat buff to go along with this. However, she maintains the haughty prissy attitude that goes along with being an award winning show cat, so her being the defacto leader of the party ends up getting them into antics because of her behavior.
Larger (but still vague) series spoilers
She does go through some pretty heavy stuff throughout the course of the series, but it’s mostly handled as if an intelligent (though naïve and impulsive) sentient character is dealing with them. She has a very solid character arc so far. There are some tough scenes throughout the series, because the dungeon is designed specifically to treat the crawlers inhumanely. But again, she’s sentient and fully capable of understanding (and planning/reacting appropriately) to what is happening around her.
Aside from that, there is also Prepotente, a goat who had the same Enlightenment thing happen to him. He isn’t introduced until several books into the series, (he is part of a different dungeon party, an entire flock of goats being led through the dungeon by his former goatherd) and he is treated like a crawler just like Donut is.
There is plenty of death and destruction, to be clear. It’s a game show designed to kill the contestants. Almost as if Squid Game were being run like a futuristic and very over-the-top Legends Of The Hidden Temple/Takeshi’s Castle. The vast majority of animal-related violence is things like NPC dungeon monsters.
I really enjoyed DCC and it's a pretty fun ride but honestly from what your saying I'd suggest you avoid it for a while. It's fun but it's also bloody and full of violence. It starts out with killing 99% of humanity and everybody in it is dealing with some heavy PTSD and it's hopeful and people pull together but it's still a tragedy.
It's a fairly early spoiler, but still a spoiler
The cat goes into the dungeon with him, and is initially treated as a pet. Pretty quickly, though, the cat gets an upgrade that turns her into her own character, and they become something of an iconic duo.
Also, I don't know that I'd necessarily call it sci-fi, maybe more fantasy with... well. it's complicated. In any case, I enjoyed it, and the rest of the series and highly recommend it.
It’s extremely dark. If you’re not in a good place mentally, avoid.
Family and party members kill each other, frequently. So read between the lines about the “pets” and animals, and that provides the dark context.
The cat becomes his constant companion, as far as I know through the whole series.
She becomes the actual protagonist of the book leaving Carl in his rightful spot. Cleaning litterboxes.
(jk. kinda.)
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Spoiler review: This series is "science" fiction with no emphasis on actual science. It's about as genuine science fiction as Anne Rice's vampire and Atlantis books. The books should be labeled YA. It's Twilight for video game fans, more in the recent trend of books for people who don't read books.
If you want well written science fiction pick up something from Neal Stephenson. If you want fantasy go with Brandon Sanderson.
Sorry to hurt folks feelings, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who had this series enthusiastically recommended and bought it without knowing the truth.
To give additional options, because Stephenson and Sanderson aren't everyone's cups of tea (producing insanely large tomes like Reamde, Cryptonomicon, and the Way of Kings), you may also consider the following, which are either hard scifi (requires few, if any, scientific discoveries we currently lack), speculative SciFi (requires one or two unexplained leaps of scientific advancement, but thoroughly explores the mechanics and consequences thereof), or speculative fantasy (any magic system is internally consistent, operates in particular ways, and the interactions between them are explored)
- Adrian Tchaikovsky, creator of the most - realistic alien species in literature: Children of Time Series (Spec. SciFi (but only barely), Tyrant Philosophers Series (Spec. Fantasy), and an insane number of standalone stories among the three genres listed above, such as Alien Clay, Shroud, and And Put Away Childish Things
- Dennis E. Taylor, for those with crippling reference-itis and enough of a science background to want the author to regularly presume the reader's knowledge of plate tectonics and special relativity: Bobiverse Series (Spec. SciFi, but only because of "subspace" and optoelectronics), Outland Series (Spec. SciFi, because the portal's function is never explained)
- Andy Weir, who makes every book a high-school science class (in the best way) with a plot: The Martian & Project Hail Mary (Both Hard SciFi, and I'll fight anyone who tries to claim that the astrophage makes PHM speculative), also, several short stories, including The Egg (Spec. Fantasy) and James Moriarty, Consulting Criminal (Historical Fiction/Mystery)
- David Mitchell, who is like if James Michener wrote historical fantasy: Cloud Atlas (Historical/Speculative Fiction), The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, the Bone Clocks, & Utopia Avenue (all Historical Fiction with Minor Fantasy Elements)
If you want something more in line with YA, but with hard magic systems, consider "The Will of The Many", by James Islington, or "Sufficiently Advanced Magic" by Andrew Rowe.
For something with a similar premise, see: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/72050/discount-dan Focused on a backrooms dungeon instead of a space dungeon, but seems like similar vibes.
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