So many books have popped off in 2025, but one of the bigger explosions has been for the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I remember the first time a customer came looking for it in my store and it was far from the last. When I heard Matt Dinniman was going to be at San Diego Comic Con with a pop up and multiple panels, I decided to give it a whirl.

I grabbed the audio of Dungeon Crawler Carl [Buy Bookshop Amazon Audible] because I didn’t think my physical copy would arrive in time and heard the narrator is fantastic. That turned out to be a correct assessment, as Jeff does a ton of voices and brings so much energy to the story.

As to the story itself, I bet you’d never guess that our main character is named Carl. 😉 Carl walks outside in his underwear with his ex-girlfriend’s cat at just the right moment. Earth is flattened and he gets the opportunity to go into a dungeon to compete in an alien reality show where you kill or be killed… or stay out and die. So, Carl does the obvious thing and goes into the dungeon and takes the cat with him.

The cat is a delightful part of this story. Once inside, Donut gets the ability to speak and declares that her name is Princess Donut. She’s the first cat to play the game and she is super sassy in the best way. It turns out to be a great thing for Carl, as the show isn’t just about surviving; it’s about surviving and entertaining the audience.

Dungeon Crawler Carl isn’t my usual vibe in the slightest. It’s LitRPG, which is a writing style (not genre, per Matt. See interview for more on this), where the character is aware of their place in a game. Think POV of a video game character. Some aspects of this style got a little annoying as the story went on, mostly because they are kinda repetitive. There’s only so many “new achievement!” and opening of loot boxes before I zone out a bit.

Overall, this was a fun and entertaining story. It’s a bit bizzare, but the creativity involved to create it is impressive. I hear they get more ridiculous, so I guess I better get moving onto book two.

94. MATT DINNIMAN: How Dungeon Crawler Carl brought LitRPG to mainstream readers – LiteraryHype Podcast

Send us a textThis week on LiteraryHype Podcast, Matt Dinniman joins me to talk all about his wildly popular LitRPG series, Dungeon Crawler Carl. The seventh book in the series is out now! We chatted all about the sudden surge in readership, going from independent to traditional, creativity, and everyone's favorite cat character: Princess Donut. FOLLOW MATTBUY THE BOOKS:BookshopDungeon Crawler CarlThis Inevitable RuinOperation Bounce HouseAmazonDungeon Crawler CarlThis Inevitable RuinOperation Bounce HouseSupport the showSupport the podcast by shopping:EtsyMy Bookshop.org listsLibroFM audiobooksTry Audible Plus Gift Audible Membership Glocusent LED Neck Reading LightTry Shameless Snacks10% Off at Once Upon a Bookclub10% off Goli VitaminsTWO FREE AUDIOBOOKS with new LibroFM Membership: Kindle Unlimited FREE FOR THREE MONTHS!Prime Television FREE TRIALJoin the fun!WebsiteInstagramTiktok…