Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl #1)
- Author: Matt Dinniman
- Page count: 464
- Started on: 2026/06/09
- Finished on: 2026/06/18
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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I first spotted Dungeon Crawler Carl (DCC) in bookstores in the early 2020s, and started seeing more and more of it over the years, while also getting recommendations for it from friends. The DCC LitRPG series consists of 8 books so far, and will likely finish at around 10 books. Peacock also recently ordered a TV adaptation of the series, to be produced by Seth MacFarlane’s studio.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is set in the present day or near future, in a universe where Earth is being harvested by aliens and the surviving humans are put into an intergalactically televised dungeon crawl. As you can guess from the title, the protagonist is named Carl and together with his ex-girlfriend’s cat (Princess Donut) he tries to survive the crawl, while exposing the cruelty of its system.
As is common in the genre, Dungeon Crawler Carl mixes nail-biting fight scenes with exploration of its broader universe and social commentary on both our real world and DCC’s imagined universe. It’s a fun, punch-packing page-turner, and while it didn’t fully live up to the hype for me, I will gladly continue reading the series.
Comparison with Awaken Online: I’ve been reading (and reviewing) the Awaken Online (AO) LitRPG book series since 2023, and it’s hard not to compare it with Dungeon Crawler Carl (DCC). The AO canon consists of 15 books by now and I’ve devoured all of them, so this comparison may be a bit preliminary - take it for what it is! :-)
Book 1 of DCC felt a bit more lightweight to me than the first book of AO (Catharsis) did. DCC puts its protagonist on a rollercoaster that he somewhat more passively rides while providing passing commentary, while in AO book 1 the protagonist right away makes (and struggles with) some really philosophical choices, like choosing to play the VR-based game in AO as an evil character, and what that says about both the person and our perception of good versus evil.
The later books of AO dive more and more into such philosophical topics, which I love. If DCC stays on its MAD Magazine-like course, I’ll gladly keep reading it, but if it also dives a bit deeper, I might rate it higher as the series progresses.
