You might remember back in April, I talked about getting into the Dungeon Crawler Carl series of LitRPG books. Thanks to BookSirens.com, I was able to get an advanced review copy of Deep Descent Doug to check out.

 

 Initially, based on the similarities in title and cover art, I thought that this was going to be a parody of the Carl books but it is its own thing.

 The description "the unholy lovechild of Dungeon Crawler Carl and Office Space" was enough to hook me on this one. Like a resume, you're going to be expected to deliver on how you're promoting yourself, especially if you have a foul-mouthed cyber-raccoon. Doug didn't quite do that for me.

It definitely lives up to the hum-drum office environment more than the humor during the first half. Maybe a little too well as it felt like the endless eternity of waiting for the clock to go from 4:59:59 to 5:00 on a Friday. But I did enjoy the futuristic corporate setting and the weirdness going on there, even before things get really weird and the "corporate restructuring" begins!

The second half, thankfully, brought some coffee and donuts to perk things up. After Doug teams up with someone and the sentient office supplies start attacking, the story gets into its groove. Unfortunately, like an office party with alcohol, once it starts getting fun, it's just about over. 

For me, the shortness of the book (80 pages) brings quitting time just when I'm starting to enjoy it but it also makes me want to see what the next installment can bring. I'm not saying you got the job, but we'll put you on a probationary period.

 

Rating: 3/5 

 On one hand, just 91 days til Halloween! On the other hand, days of heat advisories don't have me looking forward to August.

 

  

Series

 

Dexter: Original Sin (Paramount+)

Like most prequels, my initial thought was "Do we really need this?" The surprise answer is yes! I enjoyed this a lot more than the New Blood season. Whoever did the casting here needs an award. Not only was everyone great but those playing characters from the original series absolutely nailed their future selves. Thrilled to find out there will be another season.

 

Gatchaman Progress 

Episodes watched this month: 6 Currently up to: 52

 

Movies

Summer movie watching usually means one thing: sharks! 

 

 

The Last Breath (2024, Shudder/Hulu)

The premise of a group of college kids diving a WWII wreck sounded interesting, you need some reason to get the victims in the shark's environment. From there, it's mostly an average "slasher" where they get picked off one by one. It's "real life" so there's nothing crazy with the shark but towards the end it does something I thought was silly which felt more B-movie than they wanted this to be. This was Julian Sands final film role and he was the one standout thing in the movie.

 

Rating: 4/10

 

 With all the hullabaloo (look, you don't get to use that word in every day conversation so if I have a chance, I'm using it!) around my recent mini-vacation, I completely missed my blog-iversary. 

 

 As usual, I'm taking a look at the all time top 10 popular posts. 

Not as usual, there's been some changes.

 

 I don't think anything will ever dethrone the top two but I was surprised to see the Alice in Wonderland Tarot Deck come out of nowhere to crack the top 5. Also jumping into the charts at number 9 is a post about Milton Bradley's Flipsiders games.

 

Just for fun, here's the breakdown of where visitors are visiting from. 

 

 It's weird to see Netherlands and Austria on there (no offense if you're reading this!) and they could just as likely be bots. Whether they're actual human people or not, hope they're entertained.

 

Whoever (or whatever) you are reading this, thanks for dropping in!