Dungeon Crawler Carl

The world ends to become a reality show for aliens and some guy named Carl gets stuck in the middle of it all with boxer shorts, pink crocs, and his ex’s cat, Princess Donut. What’s not to love? I laughed through half of it (unusual for me), and waited on the edge of my seat for the rest of it.

For me…well, there’s a cat. I do love cats. And she’s sassy, salty, and snobbish. Carl is clueless, clumsy, and cantankerous. It’s a beautiful combination. Jeff does an incredible job of becoming each character, yet keeping every single one unique.… show more.

Progression fantasy is a young genre, and currently divides into a handful of different categories, the largest of which are LitRPGs and Cultivation fiction.

Dungeon Crawler Carl is almost universally praised as the best of the former.

I love it because it takes an impossible situation—Earth being transformed into a dungeon-delving murder reality show for the rest of the universe—and somehow injects equal mixes of humor and pathos.

I love that the main characters, the titular Carl and his cat, Donut, are the perfect emotional counterparts to the subgenre’s traditionally crunchy numbers… levels, skills, spells, and increasingly overpowered items all… show more.

When I was first introduced to the world of GameLit and Progression I was struggling to get into it. Most of it felt dry, samey, and worst of all they liked to throw up walls of stats at every possible opportunity. Preferably at the worst possible time to do so.

Dungeon Crawler Carl did none of that. 

The setting wasn’t your cookie-cutter fantasy world. It was a dark world where contestants are thrown into a messed-up game to fight for their lives. One filled with comedy so good it was easy to miss just how bad things really were for… show more.

Dungeon Crawler Carl is probably the most popular story within the genre… for good reason. The story follows a man forced to descend a dungeon while fighting for his life against monsters that are both nightmarish and laugh-out-loud funny. Through it all, with his lovable cat Princess donut, the whole death game is being transmitted to trillions across the universe. Matt Dinniman is a genius at creating scenarios that would be horrific in anyone else’s hands but have you laughing every few sentences. A definite must-read for any reader, not just those who enjoy litrpg.

See, I told you I wasn’t only going to recommend British duos!

This is where I tip my hand as a long-time gamer. Dungeon Crawler Carl is in the GameLit genre, which means it blends gaming elements into the story. Sometimes this is done in a very stat-heavy way (which is fine if that’s your jam!) but in DCC, the stats are on the lighter side. It leans into the gaming aspects when Earth gets thrown into utter chaos, followed shortly by being thrown into an actual dungeon, which is also a game show. Matt creates a cast of genuinely… show more.