21st September 2026
Dungeon Crawler Carl series
by Matt Dinniman
What starts as a silly LitRPG adventure series about a man in his underwear and his talking cat turns into a politically charged, intense, emotional rollercoaster over the course of eight (so far) books.
This series has become popular for a reason and I cannot recommend it enough. I have both the physical copies and the audiobooks and this is the only series I have found that I recommend listening to the audiobooks over (or in tandem with, as there are extra bits in each that the other doesn’t have) reading the physical copies, as Jeff Hays’ voice acting skill adds so much, particularly in the earlier books, where there’s a lot more exposition of ‘this is now these kinds of games work’ for newcomers to the genre. (Also, you meet Prepotente in the third book, who is my personal favourite and who has a certain vocal habit that cannot be conveyed properly on the page.)
In the middle of the night, Carl, a normal guy who recently found out his girlfriend Bea was cheating on him, goes outside in his underwear to catch Bea’s prize cat, Princess Donut, who had just jumped out the window. All of a sudden, every single person who was inside is killed and the Earth opens up for those who want to participate in Dungeon Crawler World, an intergalactic reality show where occupants of an invaded world must battle through 18 floors of the dungeon and make it out the other side, to win back freedom for their planet. So far, no one has ever made it past the 13th floor.
After entering the dungeon barefoot and clutching a Persian cat, Carl hears announcements from the dungeon AI system, which explains the basics of how the dungeon works, gives out achievements, experience points and earned loot boxes, one of which contains an enhanced pet biscuit. After feeding Donut the biscuit, she gains the ability to talk (and an insanely high Charisma stat). Now, they must figure out how to survive together. First by playing the game, then by breaking it.
These books have made me laugh, scream and cry. The depth and nuance to the characters, from the core of Carl and Donut, to the found family group they build, to the side characters and NPCs, to the AI and beyond the dungeon, is astounding. The writing isn’t fancy, but it doesn’t need to be. The world widens more and more with each subsequent book, opening up the universe while also making the reader feel like things are closing in. Hope and despair often occur together. The decisions get more difficult and the toll harder to bear. Every option has lives hanging in the balance and there is no way to save everyone.
A masterful example of how literature can make a statement without alienating its audience, Dungeon Crawler Carl is a five-star series that encourages empathy, critical thinking and quoting ‘This is an outrage!’ at every minor real-life inconvenience.