Dungeon Crawler Carl

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of those instances where the cover really didn’t appeal to me and so I ignored this particularly trendy book for way too long. I’m usually a strict contemporary paranormal romance reader, but this book really connected with my roleplay roots in a fun way and had me hooked. Also, I did this via audiobook and the narrator is AMAZING.

So, where do we begin? Carl is cat-sitting his ex-girlfriend’s show cat, Princess Donut, when the world essentially ends. Some political and resource related issue with an alien species ends up smooshing all building into nothing, so only those folks outside at the time of the collapse end up with a choice - enter the “dungeon” to try to survive or stay above ground where most everything is gone. Since Carl is caught in his underwear and ill fitting crocks in the subzero temperature, anywhere warmer seems like a solid choice. This starts the whole series, with Carl and Princess Donut entering the player area.

From there, well, it all becomes like a video game with stats and weird races out to get you, skills to learn, gear to acquire, and they also get a guide with his own set of issues. Worried about the cat? Don’t be, because she rapidly adapts to player life with a weird dungeon spin. In order for the human race to survive they’ve all got to “kill kill kill” the enemies, or other “crawlers.” It’s funny how quick that went from sounding weird to a normal day-to-day experience. There is also the hint of Hunger Games-like sponsors at some point in the future, if they get enough view and follows. Needless to say, I’m hooked and will try to catch up in the series as quick as possible.

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