If you put Dungeons and Dragons and “Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy” into one book series, you would get “Dungeon Crawler Carl.”
This series is jam packed with adventure and plot lines you honestly will never see coming. You will fall in love with characters, laugh at the bizarre circumstances they find themselves in, question the sanity of others and cry more than you would think.
So, grab a drink, some tissues and brace yourself for one hell of a ride.
When Earth falls prey to galactic forces, the buildings and all the people inside have been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters and loot. Some helpful and some morally questionable.
The humans that survived the collapse must decide if they wish to play the sadistic game show, that is not only hosted by the invading aliens but televised to the rest of the galaxy, in order to survive or take their chances staying on Earth’s surface.
Once inside the dungeon there is no leaving. It all comes down to a man, his ex-girlfriend’s cat and their band of misfits to break the game and save what is left of not just Earth but the universe.
Matt Dinniman has done an outstanding job with character descriptions and development as well as world building. As complicated as D&D seems, Dinniman writes what a real-life game would be flawlessly.
And that is coming from someone who has never actually played a game of D&D only watched in pure confusion.
Each book in the series is essentially an entire dungeon floor. Each floor has a time limit with a quest and the goal of finding a staircase to the next level before the time runs out. If they run out of time the game is over; the game of life that is.
The dungeon is not about your strength or dexterity. It’s about your followers, your views. Your clout. It’s about building an audience and killing with style.
In the words of the glorious AI: “You can’t just survive here. You gotta survive big.“
Every book goes down another floor with the exception of books one and five; they both contain two floors.
Book one is the introduction into the world and the first two floors. Dinniman goes into detail regarding everything on the floor including the monsters, what the contestants can expect and back stories from the main players. It seems like a lot to keep up with, but it is extremely worth it in the end.
No two floors are the same. They may have similar quests for the first couple of floors, but each mob type is different and the outcome is never what you expect it to be. There is a bubble world with complicated ecosystems, an Iron tangle full of train rail and subway excursions, and a city in a city in a volcano.
This series is the most topsy-turvy series I have ever read.
Book 7 will have you on the edge of your seat till the final chapter. It is by far the best of all the books.
As we enter the ninth floor for what is known as Faction Wars, the floor with the most stakes at play, we go through all sorts of emotions and pray that our favorite characters like Carl, Donut, Katia, Elle and Imani survive to see the next hour.
Nine armies, each led by rich and powerful aliens from across the galaxy, join in the war. Can you guess which team will capture and hold the castle at the very center of the battlefield?
For the first time in dungeon history, the winner takes all and those who fall, do not get back up.
If that isn’t enough for you to say “I beg your finest pardon, sir?” then hang on because there are also terror clown monsters, corrupted everyday objects; like a blender fiend, unhinged animal hybrids that will make you question why you are saying “a hybrid buffalo slug is cute.”
Not to mention the disgusting biological abominations like the Tummy Acher that is a monster that seems to attack through digestive distress or is possibly created from it, no one really knows.
And when all else fails there is always the glorious unhinged foot crazed AI that is running this insane show to bring you excitement or make you pull your hair out. A little of both if I am being honest.
P.S. if you are not listening to the audiobook, you are missing out on more than half of the experience and I highly recommend you turning back and starting the series over.
Jeff Hays doesn’t just voice one or two characters. He voices the majority of the characters in this series. There are only five incidents in which Hays does not voice a specific character.
However, you can’t tell that it is just one narrator. Hays is very good at changing his voice at any given moment and making it seem completely natural. It brings more life to the story and leaves you wanting more.
Two of my favorite guest narrators have been Patrick Warburton and Travis Baldree. Their added wit and sense of humor was like a cherry on top of an ice cream sundae.
I wholeheartedly believe you will miss the heart of the story if you do not listen to the audiobooks and that is coming from someone who used to say listening to audiobooks isn’t the same thing as reading.
This series is a five out of five stars for me. The attention to detail in the way he describes characters, loot items and worlds we haven’t even seen yet is outstanding. The plot is a masterpiece in and of itself. I am rating it three chili peppers, while there are no explicit sex scenes in any of the books and no real romance. There are sexual characters and scenes that may not be appropriate for certain age groups.
Characters will be scheming behind the scenes, and their plans won’t be revealed until the last absolute minute. It makes those annoying tropes and obvious plot lines less predictable and more enjoyable.
The writing is done in such a way that you feel a part of the world and patiently waiting for the next floor is going to instill patience you never knew existed.
On Dinniman’s Patreon he announced the title of the next instalment. “A Parade of Horribles.” It is slated for release on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. Keep in mind that release date is very tentative.
And as the glorious character Cascadia would say, get ready to get back into the dungeon world and kill, kill, kill!
★★★★★
🌶️🌶️🌶️ / 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
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