I started Dungeon Crawler Carl last year and was having a really fun time. (I did get distracted which meant I am only a third through but rest assured do plan to go back. I am frankly very easily distracted. It is a curse.) Because of Carl, about a week ago, I randomly wondered what other books in the genre existed. I did what any self respecting person would do and got on reddit. From there I found the Wandering Inn mentioned multiple places by multiple users. (I tend to trust reddit, random strangers, without hesitation. Do with that what you will.)

Unfortunately, each book cost around 10 dollars when I looked it up on my kindle. And while I am not opposed to spending 10 dollars, there are 18 books. I kind of balked and regretfully said farewell to this series until a later date since that was roughly a 200 dollar commitment to read all of them. No offense to any series out there, but 200 dollars is our grocery budget for two weeks. I also lack self control and knew I would just buy the next book in the series if I liked it without hesitation times 18. My husband would've been less than enthused if I informed him we had to scrounge our pantry and eat canned green beans because I'd read away our grocery money. Then I realized the author had every single book available on her website for free. It was serendipitous. I was delighted. The universe had aligned and determined I was meant to read this series.

Fellow reader, I promptly lost all sense of reason and decorum. I started this series rather hesitantly but within two chapters was invested. I stayed up until 2am multiple nights in a row mentally cursing at myself but unable to put this book down. I regretted it bleary eyed at work the following day and would swear I would stop doing this to myself. Rinse and repeat. I read 1200 pages in a week. A week. I was entirely irrevocably consumed. In fact I still am.

This story is litRPG. For the uninitiated, litRPG is DnD adjacent in book form. You usually have a character from our world that gets pulled somehow into a different fantasy world. They can then level up and gain skills. Think of it of being like a character in a video game aware they're in a game but stuck in said game. It breaks the fourth wall since characters usually comment on the world's system and have a different perspective of it than people in the world. In DnD you might call it meta if you had info your character didn't and they act as though they know it when they definitely shouldn't. In this genre, the DnD character and you are the same so to speak. It basically makes for a fun commentary and exploration on gaming and leveling that is excellent if you're a nerd. Also sue me. I like DnD for the story component but get tired of having to make decisions or do math. This is the perfect genre for me.

Our story begins with Erin Solstice legitimately running for her life. In attempting to go to her restroom she ended up in another world. Fun, right? She faced a dragon and fortunately survived. Then she is chased by goblins. She stumbles across an abandoned inn and hunkers down in the rain. As she is there, she begins sneezing and coughing because of how dirty the space is. Her immediate concern is someone will hear and find her. So she decides to clean. Also frankly what else is she supposed to do? Any choice sounds actually insane. She uses the rain outside, finds a gross curtain inside, then scrubs until she falls sleeps on top of a table. Congrats! Erin Solstice is now an innkeeper by accident.

Our story switches mainly between Erin Solistice and Ryoka Griffin. You have reoccurring in world characters like Rags, Klb, Relc, Gazi, and Pisces. That allows flavor to the world since they all have different abilities and perspectives. But we mainly get to see how actual people like us would respond in this scenario. Side note, I would probably be dead very fast.

Erin and Ryoka react very differently to the world. Ryoka refuses to level up and play the game. Erin decides to level up when she can. Both of them are in agreement the entire concept is bizarre. One of them is a runner - think mailman of this world except hand delivery by, well, by running - and is pretty antisocial. She has a broader grasp of the world since she watches and reads. She also literally travels for work so she needs to understand more.

Erin by contrast has a really narrow specific grasp of her world right then and there. She is kind of settled into her space and working on building connections and expanding her options. Her concern isn't trying to figure out nations, maps, history, or any of that. Her concern is how is she going to not get eaten and how is she going to eat herself. Humans also are not very popular or common where she is so that's a cool little bonus Erin discovers.

This world evens out to feel cozy. It feels like an offshoot of Legends and Lattes except with levels. Rest assured it is not. It starts small but expands. There are characters who die in shocking brutal ways. There is movement of mass war and political scheming mentioned. But it is also 1200 pages. Pirateaba takes her time to explore her characters and give you a sense of scale. She builds slowly but surely the epic scope of this story. So you do get a lot of the mundane and ordinary which is quite literally my bread and butter. I love cozy mixed with huge overarching plots and plans. Please, let me watch an innkeeper build an inn and make friends while also seeing nightmares lurking far away but growing steadily closer. Absolutely I want to see a rude runner defy the world by refusing to level and still holding her own. I want to glimpse coming war and people being sketchy as well. Give me magic and tactics.

I have no complains except I wanted it to be 2000 pages. I wanted it to be longer and more involved. I wanted to immerse myself in it and do nothing else. Alas I have to work and endlessly wonder about this story while I work. Have you ever wondered if you should save all your time off and use it all so you can just binge a 27,000 page series? No? Just me? Cool. Anyway I will eventually be buying it on my kindle and also the audio version of these books because I am that unwell. It just may take me a year or so to acquire them all. In the meantime don't mind my screen time. I am reading. It doesn't count. 🤞