Dungeon Crawler Carl Book Review: A Man, His Cat, and the End of the World Walk Into a Dungeon

Rating: ★★★★★

"Dungeon Crawler Carl" Book Review:

Here is the pitch: aliens show up, flatten every building on Earth, and kill everyone who was outside. The survivors get dropped into a massive underground dungeon — a multi-floor death game broadcast live to the entire galaxy for entertainment. Carl, our guy, was outside in a bathrobe walking his ex-girlfriend's cat when the world ended. The cat, Princess Donut, gains the ability to talk. She immediately becomes the most famous celebrity in the known universe and demands to be addressed by her full title at all times.

That is the book. That is really the book.

Matt Dinniman has written something that should not work. A LitRPG comedy about a guy in a bathrobe and a diva cat fighting their way through a game-show apocalypse sounds like a Reddit post, not a novel. But Dungeon Crawler Carl is legitimately one of the most entertaining things I have consumed in any format in years. The humor is relentless. Not cute, not winking — genuinely, aggressively funny in a way that had me laughing out loud on the train like a person who should not be trusted in public.

The game mechanics are surprisingly well thought out. Dinniman builds a dungeon system with real rules, real consequences, and enough strategic depth that you find yourself thinking about builds and loot drops like you are playing it yourself. But the mechanics never slow the story down. They are the story. Every floor is a new nightmare, every encounter has stakes, and Carl's approach to problem-solving — which mostly involves rage, profanity, and improvisation — never gets old.

And then there is Princess Donut. She is a cat who has been given intelligence, a class system, and an audience of billions. She handles this exactly the way a cat would. She is vain, fearless, demanding, and occasionally capable of genuine tenderness that catches you off guard. The dynamic between Carl and Donut is the engine of the whole book. He is trying to survive. She is trying to go viral. Somehow they need each other.

I have to talk about Jeff Hays. His audiobook narration is not narration. It is a full production — multiple voices, sound effects, music cues, comedic timing that rivals any voice actor working today. Hays does not read this book. He performs it. I genuinely believe Dungeon Crawler Carl would not have become the phenomenon it is without him. If you are going to experience this, do it on audio. It is not even close.

This is book one. There are more. They get bigger, wilder, and the stakes get real in ways the first book only hints at. But this is where you start, and honestly, if the premise made you smile even a little, you are already going to love it.

Five stars. The most fun I have had with a book in a long time.

If You Liked Dungeon Crawler Carl, Try:

• - He Who Fights with Monsters by Shirtaloon (Travis Deverell) — LitRPG with a protagonist who uses sarcasm as a weapon and a world that's deeper than it first appears, though tonally lighter than DCC.

• - The Land by Aleron Kong — One of the original LitRPG series that helped define the genre, with extensive world-building and game mechanics.

• - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir — Not LitRPG at all, but shares that same magic trick of being hilarious and heartbreaking simultaneously while one person tries to survive impossible odds.

From Luke Stoffel's Bookshelf

If this book review resonated with you, check out my memoir How to Win a Million Dollars — a story about chasing impossible dreams, finding yourself in unexpected places, and learning what really matters along the way. howtowinamilliondollars.com

How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter by Luke Stoffel