Sometimes, a book appears in your life at just the right time, and it becomes something extra special. That’s exactly what happened to me with the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
I started reading the books last year, in the midst of a stressful and discouraging period in my life. I was also stuck in a major reading slump, and I just wasn’t feeling like myself.
A dear friend had fallen in love with the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, and she recommended the books to me as well. Her primary pitch was that this was a very geeky series starring a cat named Princess Donut. Needless to say, I was sold.
Now I, too, have fallen head over heels for the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, and I devoured all the books. I am now not-so-patiently waiting for the next installment, which is scheduled to release in May 2026.
So, what exactly makes this series so compelling? It’s about an average guy (whose name is, you guessed it, Carl) who survives the apocalypse by accident. He decides, perhaps against his better judgment, to enter “The Dungeon,” which is basically a giant video game created from the ruins of Earth by aliens. However, the stakes in this game are much higher than your average video game or television game show – if you die in the Dungeon, you die in real life too.
Carl is accompanied by his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, who gains the ability to speak and becomes Carl’s bossy and sassy companion during their quest to survive the brutal dungeon.
This is a wonderfully weird story with over-the-top side characters I can’t even begin to describe (plus, I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun of letting you discover these characters for yourself if you decide to read the series). These books are hilarious, entertaining, and absolutely bonkers.
Yet in a strange way, they are also heartfelt and moving, and sometimes I’m caught off guard by how deeply these books make me feel. The Dungeon tries to strip away Carl’s humanity and his compassion for his fellow Dungeon crawlers, but he refuses to let the system break him. Carl and Donut’s friendship is also quite touching, as they help each other heal from their past trauma.
When my friend and I heard that the author of the series, Matt Dinniman, would be coming to a city near us, we absolutely had to get tickets. Even cooler was the fact that the audiobook narrator, Jeff Hays, lived nearby and also joined the book talk.
The venue was absolutely packed for the event, and one of my favorite parts of the evening was seeing Dinniman’s face light up as he looked around the crowded room. We got to hear Hays narrate a brief passage from the upcoming Carl book, and Dinniman also talked about his new novel, Operation Bounce House.
At the end of the event, we got to meet Dinniman and Hays, and get some of our books signed. My autographed copy now occupies a special place in my geek memorabilia room, watched over by my plush Princess Donut.
If you’re looking for your next geek obsession, I highly recommend giving Dungeon Crawler Carl a try.
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