Dungeon Crawler Carl (AUDIOBOOK) Matt Dinniman, Narrated by: Jeff Hays – 25.02.26
Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 2 (AUDIOBOOK) – Matt Dinniman, Narrated by: Jeff Hays – 02.03.26
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 3 (AUDIOBOOK) – Matt Dinniman, Narrated by: Jeff Hays – 10.03.26
The Gate of the Feral Gods, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 4 (AUDIOBOOK) – Matt Dinniman, Narrated by: Jeff Hays – 20.03.26
The Butcher’s Masquerade: (AUDIOBOOK) Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 5 – Matt Dinniman, Jeff Hays, et al. – 20.04.25
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride: (AUDIOBOOK) Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 6 – Matt Dinniman, Jeff Hays, et al. – 25.05.26
Wow! I’m over a hundred hours into these audiobooks in the LitRPG genre (currently listening to book 7). My son, Christy recommended them, and since I loved his previous recommendation of the Robin Hobb Farseer books so much, I took a punt. I wasn’t sure what to expect, because other audiobooks in similar genre’s that I’ve tried (Off to be a Wizard for example) have been too annoyingly juvenile with puerile and/or slapstick humour and not much else.
Well, as evidenced by the fact I’m still listening, I actually am really enjoying this series. There is humour, and yes, sometimes it is puerile and/or slapstick, but there is so much more to Matt Dinniman’s world – who knew that the relationship between a ex-coast guard and his ex-girlfriends magically enhanced talking cat could be so rich and full of pathos?
The premise of the series is that Earth has been taken over by an intergalactic agency and turned into the latest setting of a deadly game show. Without warning, every building in the world was instantly flattened, killing everyone inside. Anyone left alive (because they were outside at the time) is given moments to decide whether to stay outside and try and survive the post apocalypse or to enter ‘The Dungeon’ – an underground labyrinth full of monsters and boss fights and guilds and so on (basically a ‘real life’ rpg).
Carl and Princess Doughnut (the cat) enter the dungeon.
The world building is immense and the complexity of the rules and magics/weapons etc ramps up as you go along (as it would in a rpg game) and while it can be fun, I do sometimes get bored with all the strategy and fighting. However, I do love the ‘quiet bits’ – the talking and building relationships – the learning people’s backstories and motivations and the heart wrenching emotion that this brings up – real life and death situations that bring out either the best or the worst in people
I have audiobooks that I pre-ordered so I would get them on release date still waiting in my tbr pile because I’m so invested in this series that I’m just keeping going with it. If you like this kind of thing (and even if you don’t) I absolutely recommend listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Sarah Wray Writer 