If you like LitRPG, or just a hilarious adventure with a surprising bit of depth, you should absolutely read Dungeon Crawler Carl. In every single one of my LitRPG Facebook groups, this book dominates recommendation discussions, and now that I’ve experienced it, I can say it deserves every single one of those recommendations. And Carl learns that his some of his actions in this dungeon might be influencing intergalactic politics whether he wants them to or not. Not all of the aliens helping to run the dungeon are there because they want to be.

But there’s also a fair amount of moral complexity to it, and an underlying question of how many terrible deeds a person can commit before they cease to be human (even if those deeds are necessary for survival).Īnd as the story goes on, you realize that there’s far more to the novel’s world than it first seems. Sure, there’s plenty of crazy dungeon-crawling antics. Dungeon Crawler Carl is a LitRPG story by 'Doctor Hepa' (Matt Dinniman), originally published serially on Royal Road and then later as a series of books via Amazon. What kept me listening, though, was how unexpectedly complex this book became. For that matter, the voice that narrator Matt Hays assigns to Carl’s inner monologue reminds me vaguely of Patrick Warburton – best known to me as Kronk from T he Emperor’s New Groove – and that alone was reason enough for me to start the book. With the accent of a pampered 19th Century British aristocrat. I knew this book was going to be a new favorite the moment I learned that Carl has a cat companion named Princess Donut. While it’s primarily an action-adventure novel, there’s a healthy dose of absurd comedy in it, too, and that balance of serious struggle and wacky humor is what makes it soar. Why? So the aliens about to claim its resources can watch, reality show style, as the last humans scramble for survival. Dungeon Crawler Carl is a LitRPG series-starter in which, in the blink of an eye, most of Earth’s population is obliterated and the planet is converted into a massive dungeon.

Dungeon crawler carl series order