Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground. The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot.
Only a few dare venture inside. But once you’re in, you can’t get out. You can’t just survive here. You gotta survive big. You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that “it” factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That’s the only way to truly survive in this game, with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.

In anticipation of the upcoming release of the 8th book in the series and our exciting book launch party Crawl Con in our Amsterdam store on May 11th, our colleagues Tiemen, Jurgen, and Martijn share their enthusiasm for Carl and Princess Donut’s adventures.

Tiemen

For a book about a man who is forced to run a dangerous (pretty much suicidal) gauntlet bare feet and only wearing a leather jacket and his boxer shorts, this book packs actually quite the emotional punch. It’s about grit and not giving up when the world has literally ended around you. Plus a talking cat with a very high charisma score (and accompanying attitude).
Basically this is The Hunger Games, meets The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Dungeon and Dragons (if the Dungeon Master is a very powerful AI with a thing for podophilia).
Now, I do agree this book fits a very particular niche, but if you like a dopamine hit of gaining loot, defeating bosses and character levelling every few chapters, this is the perfect book for you.
I have read all the parts of the series in one go…and then went back to reading them aloud to my wife, who is now also a big fan of Princess Donut (the cat with a high charisma score).

Martijn

Plain old uncomplicated fun, this series.
The Running Man meets RPG meets The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
All hail Princess Donut!

Jurgen

This is just so much fun.
After almost all my friends read it, and recommended it is a book that “I would surely love”, and that “has my name all over it,” I wanted to rebel against it. I’m happy I picked it up anyway. It is a fast-paced crazy ride that any nerd that’s even a little into RPG gaming would looove. It is packed with action, and it gets really funny at moments. It is the kind of book you hope they would turn in either a game or a movie.