It’s interesting to see how the villains in popular culture shift over time, reflecting the fears and worries of the general public throughout history. Fears of the atomic bomb brought about a wave of giant, radioactive monsters. The Cold War led to a long period of spy thrillers filled with dangerous Russian agents. Technological advances brought now-dated suspense stories featuring overblown threats by hackers and even somewhat ridiculous AI enemies well before that could be considered a genuine concern. All of these may still pop-up in books, movies, and games, but aside from artificial intelligence, they have largely fallen to the wayside and we are instead seeing a rise in stories in which the enemy seems to be runaway capitalism.
That is certainly true of Dungeon Crawler Carl author Matt Dinniman’s latest, a standalone story that follows the colonists of a distant farming planet as it nears the date at which it will be allowed to regain direct travel back and forth with Earth. Oliver and his sister Lulu are running their family farm with the help of some repurposed colonization drones, led by an old AI named Roger, the last of its kind on their planet, and possibly in the universe. When we first meet Oliver, he is nursing a hangover and a deep sense of shame over having had an argument with his girlfriend Rosita the night before which may have cost him the relationship. He will quickly come to wish that was the worst of his concerns however, when he and Roger go on a scouting mission to locate a missing “honeybee” drone named Priscilla and encounter a hostile mech from Earth, apparently being remote controlled by a child.
After defeating the mech, the pair race back to the farm, where Oliver, Roger, Lulu, Rosita, and their friends quickly begin to piece together that the Apex Corporation on Earth is launching an attack on their planet under the false pretense that it has become a hotbed for terrorist activity, and they are charging VR gamers back on Earth big bucks for the privilege to remote pilot the various mechs that will be carrying out the campaign. It turns out that Roger and the drones it controls have surprisingly robust defense capabilities hidden within them, and so the robot immediately begins implementing them, but large-scale attacks are beginning to play out around the woefully unprepared planet. As neighbors and other refugees begin to pour into their camp, Oliver, Lulu, and Roger start to formulate plans to fight back. But they are heavily outgunned and will need a miracle if they have any hope of defeating the invaders from Earth, who either don’t know or don’t care exactly what they are doing to the citizens of a heretofore peaceful planet.
It’s a pretty grim story at times, as Dinniman is not afraid to put the horrors of war on full display. As with the Dungeon Crawler Carl books though, a streak of dark and sometimes juvenile humor runs throughout, preventing the material from becoming overly bleak. His fairly straightforward writing style keeps the plot moving along at a good clip while still providing enough detail to help the reader visualize the proceedings. At times, he gets bogged down listing off the varieties of mechs and drones that populate the novel, but the detail mostly proves useful in following the action, of which there is plenty.
It doesn’t take long for things to get moving, and once they do it’s a visceral thrill ride that will have readers furiously flipping pages. It isn’t just the constantly escalating threat that pulls one in, but also the easily relatable and lovable characters. They may not all be the most developed you’ll read this year, but they still ring true to life and their reactions to the horrors occurring around them feel authentic.
Using his fantastically thrilling set-up to offer scathing critiques of capitalism-run-amok and streaming culture, Dinniman joins the long line of science fiction authors who have successfully used the genre to comment on their current reality. The core plot may not be the most original, but he offers it up with enough of his signature writing style to make it thoroughly his own. The conclusion is satisfying and complete, though a decent amount of space is left for potential sequels or prequels. If they can pull off the same mix of thrills, humanity, comedy, and commentary as this book, count me in. ★★★★½
★★★★★ = Excellent | ★★★★ = Very Good | ★★★ = Good | ★★ = Fair | ★ = Poor
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