The Book Everyone is Talking About
Dungeon Crawler Carl, the first book in Matt Dinniman’s series of the same name, came out in 2020, but the buzz around the book started to become inescapable around 2024. I still waited until 2025 to read it and then found myself tearing through all 4000+ pages, or, more accurately, 139 hours of audiobooks, over the next nine months. Now I’m left waiting for book number eight, A Parade of Horribles, to come out in May.
All that to say, if you’ve asked me for a book recommendation in the last few months and I know you are at all interested in science fiction, video games, anime, cats, fantasy RPGs, and/or dark humor, I probably suggested you try Dungeon Crawler Carl because this is one of the most inventive, unpredictable, sprawling, character-centered dystopian escapes I have encountered and even if you aren’t a cat person, I guarantee you are going to fall in love with Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk.
Meet Carl…and Princess Donut
Still not sure what you’re signing up for? It’s hard to explain without massive spoilers, but if you enjoy reading about competent people put in an extremely dangerous environment and mostly overcoming the deadly challenges while maintaining their essential humanity in the face of horrific injustice appealing, you’ll like these books. Everything after this sentence contains mild spoilers, but nothing you wouldn’t get from the blurb on the back of the first book.
One night, a man named Carl wakes up to find his girlfriend’s cat has jumped out of the window into a blizzard. He races outside in his boxers to catch the cat (Princess Donut), and some aliens trigger the apocalypse. Carl then has the choice of staying outside in the blizzard in a world where most people have just been murdered and all technology and buildings destroyed or to go down a set of magical stairs and enter The Dungeon, a globe spanning, fantasy themed live-action video game where the stakes are literal life and death. Carl and Donut pick the dungeon, and yes, he’s still only wearing his boxers.
How to Listen Through the Library
If you haven’t yet picked up this series, now’s a great time to do so! The audiobooks narrated by the phenomenal Jeff Hays are finally available for libraries to purchase. These have been exclusive to Amazon’s Audible platform, and I’ve been so bummed not to be able to share these with library patrons until now. Jeff Hays narration really helps to distinguish the large cast of characters and the use of limited special effects really help with the unusual setting. Of course, being Amazon exclusives means Carnegie-Stout still can’t offer downloadable eAudiobooks, but if you have a CD player, I highly recommend checking out the CD Audiobooks!
Bonus: Attend the Virtual Author Talk
For those of you who’ve already read the series, mark your calendars! Matt Dinniman is doing a virtual author talk on Thursday, June 11 at 6 p.m. You can register now to get the link for the livestream AND submit your questions for the author (or Princess Donut).