Dungeon Crawler Carl Review

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Fun-filled, imaginative and gory LitRPG with Princess Donut the talking cat…oh and Carl

Got this on a whim, looking at the high rating and large number of them I took a peek inside and found I liked the easy tone, the snarky banter and the gory action. Roll on three books and four levels later and it is just as fast-paced and fun as when I started and, wonderfully, Carl does not feel OP (overpowered) which I find is an issue in many LitRPGs.

The premise is the world has been bought by an interstellar mega-corporation and in an instant all buildings and tech are wiped out using some physics-defying technology. If you were unfortunate to have been in said buildings when they slammed into the ground and disappeared from the surface of the planet then oops, you failed to make it to level one. For the survivors the choice is stark, try and survive on the surface or descend into the Dungeon world that has been newly created beneath the Earth and fight through to the end. Whoever survives gets to reclaim the earth for humanity.

I know, it’s all pretty silly and impossible but hey, this is fantasy and it is about the journey and Carl, our unlikely hero, is about to take it. In the freezing, sub-zero of a winter’s night, Carl finds himself outside in his boxers trying to coax Princess Donut his ex-girlfriend’s cat out of a tree when the apocalypse happens and damn me if he isn’t feeling the cold. His building is gone, mushed into the ground along with lamp posts, bridges and pretty much anything built by man or woman.

Okay, that’s all you get, but suffice it to say it gets even hairier and scarier for Carl and Donut who are forced to enter the Dungeon down below or freeze to death up above.

The writing is fast and punchy and oftentimes hilarious. The creativity, particularly of the many creatures, is both fresh and gross. The banter between Carl and Donut is snarky and funny and I found that aspect of the story very engaging. I just wanted to see what Carl and Donut would do, what abilities they would unlock or choose and how oh how could they get out of all the trouble they find themselves in. And it’s a lot of trouble. Cudos too to the system AI for the Prachett’esc descriptions of everything from mobs, NPC’s and loot rewards.

This is a review of the first 3 books because I just kept reading and have only just now emerged for air and because really, it is just one long story of survival broken up into floor levels. Overall, a thoroughly fun read and highly entertaining and if you’re a fan of LitRPG I highly recommend this book to you.



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