Series: "Dungeon Crawler Carl"

[Melanie, the neutral party]

Dungeon Crawler Carl is our September 2025 BOTM, but as anyone who has read it already will contest, the series is very bingeable. So I figured I would pre-emptively set a thread to continue the discussion of the rest of the series.

Since this thread can contain comments about any book in the series, we ask that you say the book title, chapter # in the front of your post, and use spoiler tags to keep it fun for everyone.

Now go out there and read, read, read!

[HeyT]

I've started to binge the series because I find it oddly comforting with the real world being such a dumpster fire. I've read up through The Gate of the Feral Gods and I like that we see Carl doing what everyone in real life says to do about fighting authoritarianism.

[Stewart]

I'm curently reading book 3. It's still great, but so far it's my least favorite in the series.

The action takes place on Level 4 which is a Maze level of train lines called The Iron Tangle. The problem is that, as hard as it is for the characters in the book to figure out how the maze works, it's even harder for the reader.

There is actually a map provided with the book which for some inexplicable reason appears somewhere in the middle of the book, rather than at the beginning or end which is where one usually finds maps. Having the map does help a little although its not very detailed and there still seems to be a lot missing from it.

Ive kind of stopped bothering too hard with trying to understand the layout of the level and instead just gone along with the action which is as awesome as ever.

I've heard that the books that come after this one are the best in the series so I will definitely keep going.

[Ernie]

Exactly my assessment of book 3. When I got about 1/3rd of the way through the book, I just stopped worrying about trying to picture the whole train system in my head and just rolled with the action.

[Saar The Book owl]

I've just finished book 3 a couple of hours ago and I was glad that the author mentioned before that it isn't important to understand or to memorize all the lines and their colors/names, because if it was, I didn't know if I had continued it. But it was good! You just need to dive into the action head first or (view spoiler)[in an epic scene at the end feet first (hide spoiler)] and go with it. Also (view spoiler)[this is the first book where Carl does a massive attempt to save as many crawlers as possible and where he needs real saving. (hide spoiler)]

[Economondos]

HeyT wrote: "I've started to binge the series because I find it oddly comforting with the real world being such a dumpster fire. I've read up through The Gate of the Feral Gods and I like that we see Carl doing..."

I am 80% of the way through book one and couldn't really understand why I like it so much. I think you hit the nail on the head with this comment. As a former fed watching what his friends are going through, I just need the escape.

[DivaDiane]

I’m also at 80%. I *am* really enjoying it, but I’m uncertain if I will continue the series. That depends on how much of a cliffhanger it has or how many hooks there are at the end to get me to continue. That said, I’m quite sure my kid would love these and if they read the first one they will want to read the rest, so I may as well too.

[Jen]

Agreed, this book is much-needed light fun at a time when that's all I seem to want to read. I moved during the holidays and it was incredibly stressful, this was all I wanted to read when I had the time. I'm on book 3 and I plan to keep going.

[CBRetriever]

interesting article about the phenomenon that is the Dungeon Crawler Carl series from Slate Magazine

https://slate.com/culture/2026/02/dun...

[Banshee]

I wholeheartedly agree with everything that has been said so far and with the article. It's the weirdest comfort read when the whole real world seems to burn on top of personal stressful period in my life.

The closest I've come to experiencing RPG was playing Bioshock and Mass Effect. I'm not really a gamer, because I have too little free time to split it between multiple hobbies and books will always come first. I also normally despise gore and graphical violence in the media I consume. And yet, here I am, just starting The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook, and loving every chapter in the series so far.