Welcome Crawler – My Thoughts on the Dungeon Crawler Carl Series

If I’m being honest, I tried to avoid reading Dungeon Crawler Carl as long as I possibly could. Not for any particular reason. I mean, the description made the book sound perfectly absurd and offbeat, but for some reason I wanted to avoid it. Maybe because, slowly but surely, it seemed like everyone was reading it? I know that’s a strange reason to avoid something, but we’ve all done it at least once, if we’re being honest. Eventually, though, the oversaturation became too much. I mean, you couldn’t go to a store without seeing the books all over the place, and my reading habit, as well as my curiosity, got the better of me. My insatiable thirst for reading had put me on a direct collision course with the Dungeon. Besides, how many hit series are on Kindle Unlimited? It was a low-cost investment to satisfy my curiosity.

Surprisingly, when I was young, I wasn’t into Dungeons and Dragons. I know, I know. I was into the art of it and read the monster manuals because, let’s face it, I love monsters, but I never really got into the actual playing of the game. I was invited to one game by a couple of friends, and it was a pretty fun time, even though it took approximately six hours. I think that was my holdup with the whole thing. As fun as it could be, it was an incredible time suck, and even at that young age, my time was at a premium. I said all that to explain that I get the basic premise of “dungeon” type games, so I figured I knew how Dungeon Crawler Carl would go. And then, the Earth ended…

That’s not a spoiler, by the way. It happens almost immediately at the start of the book. Human civilization is wiped out, pretty much instantly. Anyone inside a building on the entire face of the Earth is wiped out when buildings suddenly squish down into the ground. As luck would have it, Carl, a Coast Guard vet, is outside trying to get his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, out of a tree. He is also barefoot and wearing only a t-shirt and boxers. Don’t expect that to change. The survivors of Earth are forced to enter the World Dungeon, an eighteen-level dungeon crawl that borrows ideas from tabletop role-playing and video games, all mixed with very strange interpretations of Earth Culture. This competition is then broadcast throughout the Universe as the ultimate reality show. Throughout this insane premise, the crawlers, as they are called, are treated like reality stars and have to interact with sponsors and build a fanbase.

If you’ve read the above and think these books sound far out, I haven’t even scratched the surface of how absolutely insane they are. They are very layered, with ever-escalating stakes and political intrigue, as they slowly, over the course of the books, pull back the curtain on the behind-the-scenes of the World Dungeon. The danger grows exponentially from level to level, and the cast of characters grows to an insane degree. I can only imagine the character charts that author Matt Dinniman has in his office to keep track of them all.

So, I finally gave in and decided to read the first book on Kindle Unlimited, figuring I would do what I have with other popular series on KU, such as Murderbot. I would stick my toe in, check out the first book, then quickly move on to the next thing. Easy peasy, right? Instead, Dungeon Crawler Carl and its sequels, including the new release A Parade of Horribles, ended up dominating my 2026 Reading List, like a rampaging troop of hatchet-wielding Sluggalos.

Frankly, there is a lot to like about these books. For the most part, they move very fast and rarely drag. The experience varies from book to book, and I like some more than others. But as the series goes on and the stakes, as well as the political intrigue involving the groups running the dungeon, increase, the series becomes quite addictive. I finished This Inevitable Ruin about a week before the latest release, A Parade of Horribles, and by the time the workday was over, I was on my way to my recliner to jump into the latest adventure. Honestly, these books are unlike any I’ve ever read, combining elements from role-playing games into the adventure and allowing the characters to have in-game chat with each other, like you would if you were playing an online video game. That was a very clever concept. It allows for a lot of layering and many things going on at once, which inevitably sucks you into the story even more.

I’ve also grown really attached to some of the characters. Carl seems like a good guy doing his best to make it work against all odds. They are all racing through the destruction, with no time to process that civilization and most everyone they know are gone forever. The trauma, when it’s allowed to surface, is intense, as is Carl’s desire for vengeance against everyone who caused it. I think Carl, being an absolute chaos goblin who tries his best to strike back not just at the dungeon enemies but also at the people behind the dungeon, who are powerful intergalactic syndicates, might be my absolute favorite part. Oh, and Preponte, who is the absolute best boy.

If I have any qualms with this series, it’s that the cast becomes so huge by A Parade of Horribles that I had a hard time remembering who everyone was, other than the main few. That’s a problem for me because I like to visualize books in my head as I read. So that became an issue as the last book continued. It’s a minor complaint, though. I mean, if I’ve read all eight books this year, then the series is obviously enjoyable. Although it is rather gruesome at times, and, needless to say, there is a metric fuck ton of violence. That doesn’t bother me, but I’ve had friends with gentler dispositions who didn’t care for it, so I thought I would mention it.

In my opinion, these are a really fun, almost indescribable series of books. As an author, I think Matt Dinniman should be proud of what he has accomplished here. When you try something completely different from what people are used to, it can blow up in your face. However, in Dinniman’s case, he has instead created an empire that has sold over ten million books so far, a very successful audiobook series that has apparently outsold the books, a web comic, a graphic novel, a game, a toy series, and an upcoming TV adaptation by Peacock. Not bad for a guy who got his start drawing cat illustrations at cat shows.

– Ryan