science fiction – BookBunnies

Caramel reviews Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

Caramel loves role playing games and enjoys science fiction so it was natural that he would appreciate Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series. He read and reviewed the first book Dungeon Crawler Carl a while back. Today he is talking to Sprinkles about the second book in the series: Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, originally published in 2021. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, you have already told us a bit about the dungeon crawler Carl, a while back. Today we are talking about his new adventures.

Caramel: Yes, this is book two. Remember Carl is in a dungeon, which is basically a reality TV show for the galaxy. The Earth has been overrun by an alien civilization and they killed most of the living beings on the planet. The rest are living terribly difficult lives. And a few get selected or nominate themselves to be in a dungeon and the rest of the galaxy watches them as entertainment. In the first book Carl and his teammate Princess Donut got through the first two levels of the dungeon. This book is about Level Three.

S: Alright! Remind me again, how many levels are there supposed to be?

C: I think there are eighteen levels or so and nobody has ever passed the thirteenth one. But if anyone can finish the last level, they will be saved! Whatever that means for the aliens running the show. And who knows if they will even keep their promises?

S: I agree, it is not clear that one can trust these aliens. But anyways, Carl does not seem to have a choice, so he will continue on.

C: Right. Yeah, and he’s very, very good at throwing hands.

S: What does that mean?

C: Punching. Unarmed combat. Though he still has no pants!

S: Wait, what?

C: Yeah, when the world sort of ended, it was like 3 am, so he was in his underwear, and was outside because of the cat named Princess Donut, now sentient and intelligent. So he didn’t have time to go get dressed.

S: I am sensing here a tribute to readers who love Captain Underpants!

C: I don’t know that series too well, so I cannot really judge that comment.

S: Okay, forget it. So in this book, do Carl and Princess Donut make new allies?

C: Yes, and no. They sort of make one, and they make another one, but then that one dies, in a bad way. I don’t want to say more and spoil things.

Caramel is reading Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman. — Caramel is reading *Carl’s Doomsday Scenario* by Matt Dinniman.

S: So Caramel, this was a really long book. But you managed to read it all!

C: Yep. It is 371 pages! And that is three hundred and seventy one pages of absolute awesomeness! So of course I read it!

S: Well, I am glad you are enjoying it because there are a lot more books in the series and you can read them one by one.

C: Yay! That is exactly what I want to do. So the first book was about the first two levels but this one is about only one level. So if there are eighteen levels, then there would be a lot more books to go if they cover one level a book. So maybe I can expect at least fifteen more books!

S: Yes, your math is correct. And it does seem like that one level a book rule holds till book eight, which is the last one out so far. But the author claims there will only be ten books. So those last couple books will probably cover a lot of ground.

C: But they are not written yet? That is interesting. But I bet at least one of them will get written by the time I get that far. Or maybe I can challenge myself and see if I can read faster than that.

S: Hmm, we will see. You do have the third book in line, and you are waiting to get started, right?

C: Yep. So maybe we can wrap this up so I can get started already?

S: Sounds good to me! Okay, what do you want to tell our readers then?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman and is already itching to get started with Book Three! — Caramel enjoyed reading *Carl’s Doomsday Scenario* by Matt Dinniman and is already itching to get started with Book Three!

Marshmallow reviews The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Today Marshmallow is writing about The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, a climate future novel originally published in 2020.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you care about the environment and enjoy science fiction, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): The book starts in 2025 (five years after the book publication date) with a horrific heat wave in India. Frank May, an American volunteer helping support the locals in rural towns, witnesses one of the worst atrocities of the century and barely survives the fatal conditions. Afterwards, he is left permanently haunted with the memories of burning bodies in a boiling lake.

The great Indian heat wave is just the first of many natural disasters to come. To protect the world from the dangers of climate change, a new UN body is chartered to help fulfill the Paris Agreement: the newly dubbed Ministry for the Future. It serves to represent the peoples of tomorrow and all the unborn generations that will have to contend with the repercussions of climate change today and onwards.

Unfortunately, they were too late to save India from the heat wave. So India takes matters into its own hands. Spraying sulfur dioxide into the skies, India mimics the aftermath of a volcanic eruption to block the sun’s rays from reaching its people again. This helps lower temperatures by a bit but not enough. The truth is undeniable. Time is running out.

Mary Murphy is the head of the Ministry for the Future and is thus tasked with the impossible task of fixing climate change. Together with her international team of scientists, economists, lawyers, and advisors, she must develop strategies to combat and prevent the worst effects of global warming – both latent and potent. They start with the glaciers and the Arctic. Dyeing the sea water yellow, scientists speculate that the heat from the sun will be reflected back into space and decrease the rate of warming. Soon, the entire Arctic sea is a repulsive yellow; yet, it works and more time is bought for the world. Researchers struggle to get funding for a glacier-saving project and eventually figure out that they can slow the rate of disappearance by sucking out the meltwater from underneath the ice.

There are so many intricate details and fascinating theories presented in this book that force you to reckon with the sheer scale of our climate situation. Throughout the book, Mary and Frank take action into their own hands in different ways in different places. Woven throughout the book are the narratives of other characters that weave into a larger epic. In The Ministry for the Future, you will learn just how terrified you should be of what is to come so you understand how critical it is for us to start acting now.

Marshmallow is reading The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. — Marshmallow is reading *The* *Ministry for the Future* by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Marshmallow’s Review: I think Vox Magazine’s Ezra Klein summed up this book best, “If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future… Robinson is one of the greatest living science fiction writers.” I wholeheartedly agree. While I cannot attest to the scientific soundness of his proposed methodologies, I believe he offers us a wider view of the creativity we will need in order to survive this climate catastrophe as a species and as a planet.

You start this book and are immediately shell-shocked by how terrifying things are likely to get. The first couple of chapters leave their mark and I do not think younger bunnies would be able to get through them. (Caramel was curious but the first chapter stopped him in his tracks.) As such, I think this is an excellent book, but probably only for bunnies older than 14.

In the rest of the book, you see the realistic struggle of policymakers and researchers working to fix the environmental damage humans have caused. It was very frustrating to see up close how slow action is being taken. However, it is also very disturbing that Robinson seems to believe that change will only truly come if there is rampant ecoterrorism! More realistically, he proposes that there is no silver bullet; we will need an entire spray of arsenals aimed at the plethora of problems before us.

The Ministry for the Future does a fantastic job of showing us just what situation we have gotten ourselves into and the possible ways out. That said, this is not a book that is very easy to read. There are one hundred and six chapters and the whole book is around 563 pages. This is not necessarily a problem until you realize that his writing style is something you need to adjust to. Once in the rhythm of reading it, his prose is very enjoyable and envelops your entire focus, giving your senses exactly what is necessary to paint the perfect picture in your mind. He has little excerpts of poetry-like paragraphs describing the perspective of things like sun rays, carbon, caribou, history – inanimate things or creatures we normally do not consider the emotions or thoughts of. I found this fascinating. He also writes certain chapters like they are the minutes from a meeting or inserts random experiences from unnamed characters whose stories tie into something mentioned before or after the chapter. I adjusted to his style and deeply enjoyed it but that does not mean it was easy. On the contrary, this might have been the hardest book I’ve ever read. It is long and the style can be a bit arduous at times. Not to mention, the vocabulary is advanced, to say the least, and references to obscure economic and historical terms are ever-present. Expect to reach for your phone or a nearby dictionary every few paragraphs.

I really do think The Ministry for the Future is excellent. But I would have really liked to see him write another version that is more accessible. Perhaps one day he will consider writing an easier-to-read version of the book that younger children and teens could comprehend quicker. So many wonderful and inspiring ideas and concepts and stories are told here that could help encourage the change we need. But, because of the caliber of literary prose here, it is almost completely inaccessible to anyone who isn’t a dedicated reader or already an environmentalist. I love the environment and reading, and even I almost couldn’t make it to the end. This is coming from someone who has regularly read books over 500 pages and found this to be a very enlightening book.

I think the quality and message and ideals portrayed in it make The Ministry for the Future a book that everyone should read. I just hope he makes a more accessible version so that everyone can truly absorb his ideas and embrace his message. Right now, I worry that those invaluable stories are kept hidden within the pages of this book.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 99%.

Marshmallow rates The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson 99%. — Marshmallow rates *The Ministry for the Future* by Kim Stanley Robinson 99%.

Caramel reviews The Martian by Andy Weir

Today Caramel reviews The Martian by Andy Weir, the 2011 book that was the basis of the more recent movie The Martian. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So today we are talking about The Martian by Andy Weir.

Caramel: Yes, Weir talking about The Martian.

S: That’s a good one, Caramel! Okay, so let us get to it. Would you start by telling us what the book is about?

C: Sure. It’s about a guy named Mark Watney, who goes to Mars, and gets trapped there.

S: So the Martian is a human then? It is not quite sci-fi with aliens and such?

C: No, no aliens, but yes sci-fi, we can’t get a spaceship full of people to Mars just yet. We haven’t even sent an unmanned ship there for a while, though NASA still has some rovers there. I even reviewed a book about them a while back.

S: True, you are right of course. Sci-fi does not have to have aliens, but space travel a bit beyond what we can do today also definitely counts. So this guy Watney went to Mars alone or as part of a team?

C: He was part of a NASA team, but he got impaled during a really bad sandstorm and the others had to leave before they could find him. But thankfully his accident was not deadly so he survives, and then he has to survive the planet all on his own. All the while everyone back home is sure he is dead, so they are not even looking for him or not even planning to come back to look for him…

S: That sounds pretty dismal.

C: Yes, but this Watney guy is a very creative guy and he figures out how to grow potatoes on Mars and all kinds of other engineering trickery and eventually he manages to get the NASA folks realize he is not dead, so they try to save him.

S: That sounds like a pretty tense story.

C: Actually, it is very funny, he tells a lot of jokes.

Caramel is reading The Martian by Andy Weir. — Caramel is reading *The Martian* by Andy Weir.

S: So the story is told through Watney’s perspective? Oh then at least we know he will most likely not die in the end.

C: I believe yes, mostly. Every now and then we read the story through some folks on Earth, from NASA headquarters, and sometimes from the astronauts who were with him on Mars. And there is a lot more I can say, but to quote the amazing River Song, “Spoilers!”

S: Alright, maybe this is enough then about the plot. What can you tell us about the rest? You already said the book is actually funny.

C: Yep, though it does have some bad language. The guy is trapped on Mars after all, so he is a bit frustrated and is writing for nobody in particular because he expects he will likely die. So I didn’t mind the language really. And he is hilarious!

S: I know you also saw the movie based on the novel. Did you think the two were similar? Did you like the book and the movie both?

C: Yeah, the only really interesting difference is he doesn’t begin the movie with the same line.

S: I guess they wanted to keep the movie PG-13!

C: Yep! But in actuality there were some differences later on, but i thought that was funny.

S: I agree. It summarized his frustration very well.

C: Anyway, the movie is pretty awesome too. I enjoyed reading the book and I enjoyed watching the movie. Maybe we can put a link to the trailer here.

S: Sure, here we go:

The Martian (2015) trailer from YouTube

C: Thank you!

S: Okay, so maybe this is a good time to wrap things up.

C: Sure, why not?

S: Great! So what do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading The Martian by Andy Weir and recommends it to all bunnies who like space travel, science fiction, and extreme adventure stories. — Caramel enjoyed reading *The Martian* by Andy Weir and recommends it to all bunnies who like space travel, science fiction, and extreme adventure stories.

Caramel reviews Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

For his first post after summer break, Caramel is talking to Sprinkles abut Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman, a book originally published in 2020. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, this was a really long book, but you read it quite fast…

Caramel: Yes, I did. It was very captivating, almost like a dungeon you cannot get out of. Sorry that was a poor joke.

S: Well, it is not clear why that’s a joke, even, so maybe it would help if you told us a bit about the book first.

C: Good point. So the book is about a guy named Carl, as you can imagine, and the world has ended.

S: Wait, what do you mean?

C: Well, the book starts when Carl is in a dungeon. Then there is a flashback and we learn that the Earth was lost, due to some weird legal issue, kind of like in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, actually. And so an alien corporation took over the planet and crushed every roof on the planet and almost everyone died.

S: That’s pretty bleak. At least The Hitchhiker’s Guide was funny.

C: Well, this is quite funny too, at times. But so the planet is taken and the remaining humans are given a chance to participate in a reality TV show that is a dungeon crawl. It is kind of a role playing game where the players have D&D-like skills and traits.

S: Oh I see, that is why Carl is a dungeon crawler, right?

C: Yep. And his partner is a cat named Princess Donut.

S: Wait, a cat?

C: Yes, she is a show cat, and through one of the weirdnesses of the show they are in, she can speak.

S: That is interesting!

C: Yes, very.

Caramel is reading Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. — Caramel is reading *Dungeon Crawler Carl* by Matt Dinniman.

S: So the book is about Carl and Princess Donut going through the dungeon?

C: Not only them. The reality TV show is called Dungeon Crawler World: Earth. And apparently it is one of many this corporation has been running, in many different planets. And in the book there are many other crawlers that Carl and Princess Donut meet. In the beginning there were thirteen million who started. And then by the second chapter a couple million have been eliminated, and it goes like that.

S: That sounds cruel.

C: Yes, well, they took over the planet and they don’t seem to care about the living beings on it. More than 90% of the population just died during the takeover, and about twenty million or so humans remain. About thirteen million of these go to the dungeon for a chance to be free.

S: This is kind of like The Hunger Games and Dungeons & Dragons got together and had a terrible baby.

C: Oh yes, and also remember the Purging Trials from the Powerless books that Marshmallow reviewed. Put them all together and then mix…

S: It is a pretty bleak future.

C: Yes.

S: Was it not too depressing?

C: Not too much. After all I know it is fiction. And it is really funny sometimes. But maybe the very young bunnies should not read it. Still it is a good book.

S: And apparently there are quite a few sequels.

C: Which I will need to read…

S: Okay, we will see about that. So Caramel, maybe this is a good time to wrap up this review, what do you think?

C: Sure.

S: What do you want to tell our readers?

C: We are back! Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman and can't wait to get his paws on the second book. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Dungeon Crawler Carl* by Matt Dinniman and can’t wait to get his paws on the second book.