In 2025, I spent the better half of the year reading through the series “Dungeon Crawler Carl” by Matt Dinniman. Previously only available as a digital self-publication, all seven books were republished as hardbacks and began appearing on book store recommended read and staff favorite shelves. It was popular enough that I had to start making reserve orders at my local bookstore to ensure I had a copy.
The series follows Carl and his cat Grand Champion Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, a show cat who gains the ability to speak and shoot lasers out her eyes. Both find themselves under the thumb of a neurotic AI obsessed with Carl’s feet in a fantasy themed competitive survival reality show put on by aliens who have come to claim the resources of Earth. These books are somehow the odd combination of “The Hunger Games,” “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and “Dungeons and Dragons.”
As the title of the series suggests, Carl and Donut are participating in a dungeon crawl, which is a type of quest an adventurer may face in “Dungeons and Dragons;” it typically involves several back-to-back battles with creatures, with graduating difficulty with an ultimate goal of a treasure of some kind. For Carl and Donut this means fighting their way to stairwells that allow them down to the next floor of the dungeon, working towards the final unreachable floor 18.
The floors is where much of the fun comes from, with each book, for the most part, covering one floor in the dungeon, each one totally unique in its designs and challenges. One of my favorite designs is floor four, which appears in, “The Anarchist Cookbook.” On this floor Carl and Donut find themselves in the “Iron Tangle,” a confusing subway and train system filled with monsters traveling up and down the line. While all of the books in this series are high paced and anxiety inducing this one surpasses the others as Carl faces training a fairly green and nervous adventurer Katia, while also dealing with next level threats like gods, exploding zombies and monsters the size of skyscrapers.
But it’s not all monsters and boss fights. It’s also loot boxes. For the other loot goblins out there who love to smash every crate and search every cranny in video games these books will definitively scratch the same itch. Over the course of each book, Carl and Donut earn various achievements for beating things in creative ways or for failing so epically the AI thinks it’s funny. The loot boxes are tiered, with the prizes just getting better and better as Carl and Donut level up. Everytime they go to open their boxes I find myself flying through the pages, excited to see what they get and whether or not they’ve received one of the elusive and coveted “Celestial Box.”
Dinniman’s writing is witty and sarcastic, much of which he imbues into his narrator and main character Carl. He also has a clear grasp of cat behaviors and how they would translate into a cat who gains the ability to speak. Donut’s attitude and general aloofness is something any cat owner would recognize. Dinniman often has me cracking up at the interaction between Donut and Carl, and the general chaos the two get themselves in. Donut and Carl are the heart of the series, their shared struggle with the violence, danger, and loss makes the books more than just a fun thriller. I mourn with them, wish them safety and share in their victories.
The series overall was a great way to spend my 2025, and I am excited for the new release, “A Parade of Horribles” later this spring. The first book recently received a paperback release and is available at 3rd Street Books, along with the hardcovers of the rest of the series which I highly recommend despite the increased price. Well Crawlers get out there and Read. Read. Read.
