Right off the top: everyone wants on the Dungeon Crawler Carl bandwagon. This is absolutely not like that.
Level One God 2
Level One God #2
By Zachary Scott
Aethon Books
February 2026
Book two is more of the same. Brynn and his red-headed girlfriend (or not-girlfriend) keep trying to get stronger.
So why not DCC? There’s no clear overarching plan, and no sense the author is committed to finishing the way Matt Dinniman is. The stakes are nowhere near as high. Everything works out perfectly for Brynn, while Carl makes his own luck. And you get none of DCC’s witty banter, sarcasm, ridiculous puns or wild situations. The comedy is never laugh-out-loud and never sharp. It’s all very easy.
If it weren’t for the cuss words, this would read like a kid or teen LitRPG. But there are random cuss words, and they feel out of place.
The side characters and summons are all tied to the giant bugs from book one, so except for a rock and his weapons, every summon he has is a bug. It’s gross and kind of pointless, and they don’t even talk.
It’s not even Discount Dan, which is basically discount DCC with all the fun and weirdness plus a bit of cartooniness. If you want the most DCC-like read, go read Discount Dan.
By the end, Brynn finally breaks into Iron. That’s two books for one tier, and it’s the easiest of the many tiers he needs to get back to godhood. It’s incredibly slow and kind of forgettable.
I’m still reading the next book, but with extremely low expectations.
