Dungeon Crawler Carl
By Matt Dinniman
I found this book because of an ad on Facebook for the immersion audio tunnel… which is I guess an immersive reading experience with flair. Meaning, they read the entirety of the book with a lot of style. Anyway, I had some credits on Audible, so I thought, why not, it looks weird, and if you have not figured out by now, I love me a weird story. This book did not disappoint! The narration is so well done by Jeff Hayes. Apparently he is a voice actor, which I guess helps. Anyway, a lot of people commented he sounds like Patrick Warburton, but I like Patrick Warburton, so it does not bother me. This was right before Christmas Eve 2025. By the end of the first week of January, I had all 7 books. I am now currently in book 5, and it is midway through January. I AM OBSESSED!
Okay, so the story itself. The series is litRPG. I did not know that was a thing. But imagine if the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a video game with elements of Dungeons and Dragons, Borderlands, and a bit of the Hunger Games, and you have Dungeon Crawler Carl. The world has “ended,” but those left are given an opportunity to compete in the world dungeon. There, of course, is violence, some gore, and a lot of cursing. But I have not laughed this hard at a book in a very long time. Carl did not go into this dungeon alone, no, no. He is accompanied by his very recent ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, Donut for short. Donut gains the ability to speak, and she is exactly what you’d expect from a Persian show cat.
With an AI with a serious foot fetish, a manager who can’t hold his liquor, and a menagerie of other crazy characters., Carl is determined to not let the Syndicate break him. “You will not break me.” It is fun, weird, and it never goes as planned.
What I love about these books, besides the humor and amazing character development, is everything beneath the surface of the story. The human spirit is put to the test, and Carl does everything he can to save as many people as he is able, feeling the pain as he watches the number of crawlers plummet. There are parallels to what is happening in our own world. Though the book is funny, and you can feel the game aspect of the novel, there is an us-versus-them. Which is kind of how life feels right now. Take a breath, enjoy the escapism, but don’t forget who the enemy is. “You will not break me.”
