Ready Player One meets The Hunger Games plus a whole lot more. This book was quick, entertaining, and hilarious. I already started book two and can't wait to see what Matt Dinniman comes up with next.

This book is so fun! I really did not expect to love it was much as I did. I‘ve been struggling reading with my eyeballs instead of audiobooks, but I think it was just the books I tried to read. I FLEW through this one. Like as in read in 3 very busy days.
This follows Carl and the cat Princess Donut as the earth gets taken over by aliens/destroyed/everyone killed. They end up in a contest that is structured like a video game, with rewards, stats, achievements etc. but in real life. They end up as the most unlikely duo trying to survive.
The vibe is scifi/videogames with a side of silly and fun - I recommend to all. This book is just too good to not read.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy!

This one was just SO much fun. It’s highly readable, insanely silly and just keeps you coming back for more of Carl and Princess Donut’s adventures. It’s rare that I come across a book that I can recommend to both my husband and my nephew, but this one takes the cake.

Carl is rescuing his ex-girlfriend’s cat from a tree in the middle of a freezing night when the world ends and he’s forced to enter the Dungeon or die. Now he’s stuck, barefoot and in his boxers, with Donut the cat, trying to survive and descend each level of the Dungeon in an action RPG. And Princess Donut is the charismatic and intelligent leader of their party. His title is bodyguard.

But it turns out Carl is amazingly talented at this game. He can work the game, build elaborate explosive contraptions and read the room for clues as to what’s coming next. All while Donut excels at wooing followers (and maybe patrons in upcoming installments?).

Fast-paced, intelligent and humorous, this story has something for everyone. I’ll definitely be continuing with the series.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the opportunity to get a start on Matt Dinniman’s bizarrely funny Dungeon Crawler series!

This entire series is a MUST0READ. It will change your life. In a good way. I only meant to skim it but was having so much fun, I actually bought the audiobook version too.

Inventive and entertaining, funny and original. One of my brothers mentioned 'LitRPG' to me and I wasn't quite sure what to think but this book answered all my questions and left me wanting to read more.

When the Transformation occurred, Carl stood outside in the freezing cold wearing boxers, a leather jacket, and his ex-girlfriend’s too-small pink crocs trying to get his ex’s cat, Donut, out of a tree. Everyone who had been indoors died instantly. Now Carl and Donut have to navigate the underground World Dungeon in order to survive…

This sci-fi tale was hilarious! Stuck in a video game style competition broadcasted to other planets, Carl embarked on an action-packed adventure full of danger and humor. Carl found interesting ways to retain his empathy and humanity and fight back against the cruel dungeon system. His relationship with Donut was great. Some of the battles had horror vibes but nothing was too graphic to turn me off.

The only drawback is that this book is definitely a series starter and doesn’t have a solid story arc and climax of its own. Book one had great world-building, introduced lots of characters, contained multiple battles, and set up some broader mysteries—but it just ends before they start the next floor of the dungeon. Since it was a very entertaining story, I’m excited to continue the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing the backlist for new readers.

DNF @17 %

“Nor am I wearing a cloak that makes me look like I won a participation trophy at the special needs comic con”

I’m not the target audience for that type of low brow humor

4.5 stars rounded up.

What a bizarre, creative, funny first book in a series! I cannot wait to start the next book. In fact, I immediately bought the remaining 6 books in the series.

I don’t even know with Content Warnings… Suffice to say: it’s dystopian, and some very dark stuff happens (past and present). The humor is often irreverent, but our characters Carl and Princess Donut have so much heart despite it all. They are complex, flawed, and intriguing characters.

Thanks to a work friend for highly recommending it & to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for having the first 3 books recently listed as Read Now recently on NetGalley.

Recommendation for a similar vibe:
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Red Shirts by John Scalzi

I get why people love these books. They’re just not for me. I love RPGs, but the whole time I was reading this I just felt like I’d rather be playing a game than reading about one. It did have some really interesting subversions of the whole idea of grinding through a dungeon by killing a bunch of mobs, and obviously Princess Donut is a character I’ll remember forever, but this just didn’t grab me the way I expected.

Still very well-written and clever, though.

FYI, language, violence, innuendos. Death, torture and destruction. This was hysterical! The funniest thing I’ve read in awhile. Need more foot fetish!

Lately I keep hearing about the Dungeon Crawler series and how it’s a must-read. Needing an escape from the real-life dystopia that is 2025, I was looking for something fun and comforting to take my mind off things and Dungeon Crawler Carl was a perfect fit. Now, when you hear the premise, you might wonder how this could possibly be comforting. But the lovable characters up against the odds, dark humor, and hopefulness balance out the darker themes and elements.

An alien invasion collapses all the manmade structures on Earth, and everyone inside them. Luckily for our protagonist Carl, he was outside chasing after his ex-girlfriend’s show-winning cat, Princess Donut, when this happened. Unluckily it’s the middle of winter and he was out in a leather jacket, boxers and a pair of pink Crocs at the time. Taking refuge in a mysterious staircase that appears with a timer to when it will close, they find themselves trapped in a twisted intergalactic game show, that exploits the survivors, who must now survive while keeping their captors entertained. Think Dungeons & Dragons and RPG video games meets the Hunger Games, but with meth-addicted llamas.

The characters are super lovable especially Princess Donut, who absolutely steals the show both in the game and in the readers hearts. The novel has a really good mixed of humor, action, and emotionally gut punching moments. And while it can get quite dark at times, there is hopefulness that runs through it to balance things out. There are quite a few books in this series so I’m excited to see where it goes and what characters we will meet along the way. I want to see Carl and Princess Donut bring down the cruel system they are trapped in!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy. This review was written voluntarily.

Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to read this book!

WOW, OH WOW! I haven’t had this much fun reading a book in what feels like forever. This was just laugh after laugh after laugh. I absolutely loved it—from Donut the Cat to every single character, and of course, Carl has completely stolen my heart.

This was only my second LitRPG novel, and it exceeded all of my expectations. I loved the game mechanics—the stats, the AI, the NPCs, the skill-building, and everything in between. But my favorite part? The character progression. Watching Carl grow and change from the first page to the last was incredibly satisfying, and I can’t wait to continue the series!

Thank you again, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read this—I had an absolute blast!

This was fun book. I love the adventure, I the feel of the book & of course Princess Donut is my favorite. I love that Matt shows the different sides of humanity. And that he tries the keep Carls humanity but definitely puts him in situations where other decisions could be made but those are decisions that shouldn’t.
I will give warning to certain readers that the swearing level is pretty high but doesn’t feel excessive & there are some sexual innuendos. This book is not appropriate for youth.

DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL by Matt Dinniman is an unserious story about a normal guy named Carl and his cat, Princess Donut, who get sucked into a video game-like world undergoing a "Hunger Games" type reality show. There are plenty of f-bombs and crude humor, making it more adult than the Hunger Games, but the kill-or-be-killed for the entertainment of the stupid, apathetic masses vibe is the same. But the isekai and litrpg elements add something new.

This is not something I would normally read, but I can see why this series is so addictive. I like the main character Carl well enough, but I stayed in it for the talking cat, Princess Donut. This was a fun read and if I had any complaints at all I’m not a fan of the cussing, but as for the story it was nice to read something so different.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Characters: 5
Setting: 4
Plot: 5
Themes: 5
Enjoyment: 5

Earth is destroyed and transformed into a massive, dungeon-like game show for an alien audience! Let chaos ensue!

Characters: 5/5
These characters were fantastic! They were well fleshed out and had their strengths as well as weaknesses. They were cliché-like, but I didn’t feel like it took away from them as characters or the story as a whole. Everyone had different quirks and habits and personalities added to the cliché.

Setting: 4/5
As with the characters, it wasn’t anything new and fantastical, but very well thought out and the descriptions of areas and monsters were fire. I had no issues imagining them all in my mind while reading. Each of the aliens/people/monsters/etc were so unique in my head and sounded as though a lot of thought had gone through creating them. The dungeon crawler style setting definitely isn’t new, but while reading, I never once though, oh this is just like dungeons and dragons or any of the movies or shows that use DnD as inspiration.

Plot: 5/5
Not very original, but boy did I have a blast reading this book. I felt as if even though it wasn’t original, it was very well drawn out. Felt like Matt had spent a lot of time with nuances, etc. I like how each book as a rising, peak, falling, ending but as a series there is also continuity.

Themes: 5/5
There were several themes in this series. Many of the same ones, but each book brings about a bit of a smaller theme as well. You’ve got identity, justice, human nature, etc. But it didn’t feel overwhelming to read, it felt organic and natural as the story went.

Enjoyment: 5/5
This book blew me out of the water. This is the second series I read this year that is probably one of the favorites of the year so far. I love the characters you’re supposed to love and I love to hate the characters you’re supposed to hate. Matt managed not to make it humans vs. aliens, there are good humans, bad humans and good aliens and bad aliens. The story is fun, a little lewd (but I find that kind of humor hilarious), heart wrenching, exciting, and so many things.

This is the most bizarre premise. In a post-apocalyptic twist, earth as we know it is no more, and the surviving humans are forced to participate in an 18 level dungeon to win earth back, though I'm not sure how much will be left of it even if they succeed. Carl, the main character, happens to enter the dungeon by accident, and also while not even wearing pants or shoes. Also the whole thing is orchestrated by aliens, and Carl has a talking animal companion.

I enjoyed the plot of this. Being a huge RPG fan, this book is chock full of old video game easter eggs, and the achievements and gift boxes are hilarious. I'm less of a fan of Princess, since I'm not especially into talking cats, and while this book is a lot of fun, I found myself having a hard time really caring about the characters. This book is quite heavy on plot but I found myself not feeling too attached to anyone in particular, and I don't really care whether the main characters survive or not. I do enjoy the NPC backstories the most, and learning what is at stake for more than just the humans in the novel.

Interesting, fun fantasy. Easy to read, with a mix of fantasy with modern places/issues/people. Parts are completely absurd, those were my favorite parts. I love Donut, she's exactly as I imagine a show cat would be. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series going forward. 4.5⭐

4.5 stars
I flew through this book. I had a great time reading it and princess donut is the best. She’s sassy and fun. I need her confidence. Carl is relatable in his uncertainty. The RPG setting is very new to me but so fun. The scenes are chaotic and entertaining and I can’t wait to read more.

*Thank you so much Ace for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.