# Dungeon Crawler Carl

Dungeon Crawler Carl is a science fiction and fantasy LitRPG book series written by American author Matt Dinniman. It was initially self published by Dinniman on Royal Road, until the first six books were acquired by Ace Books in 2024. The series follows Carl, a Coast Guard veteran, and Princess Donut, his ex-girlfriend's cat, as they are forced to participate in a deadly, intergalactic game show where Earth has been transformed into a massive dungeon crawl.

## Premise

The series begins with the sudden arrival of alien entities known as the Borant Corporation, who restructure Earth into a multi-level dungeon for their amusement. Humans and various Earth creatures are forced to become "contestants" in a live-streamed, gladiatorial game show. Carl, having just been cheated on by his girlfriend and left with her cat, finds himself thrust into a deadly competition with uncountable viewers across the galaxy watching their every move.
The dungeon levels are filled with traps, puzzles and monstrous creatures, all designed to test the contestants' strength, cunning, and teamwork. As Carl progresses through the dungeon, he gains experience, levels up, and acquires new skills and equipment, typical of LitRPG stories. The series is known for its dark humor, over-the-top violence, and the unlikely but endearing partnership between Carl and Princess Donut.

## Books in the series

As of 2024, seven novels in the series have been published, most of them self-published before the series was picked up by Ace Books.
* Dungeon Crawler Carl (2020)
* Carl's Doomsday Scenario (2021)
* The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (2021)
* The Gate of the Feral Gods (2021)
* The Butcher's Masquerade (2022)
* The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (2023)
* This Inevitable Ruin (2024)

## Audiobooks

The audiobook version of the novels are produced by Jeff Hays's company Soundbooth Theater, with Hays as the main narrator. Some guest appearances are Travis Baldree and Patrick Warburton in book six.
In addition to the main audiobook version, the series has a separate production called an "Audio Immersion Tunnel", with a full-cast, original sound effects and music. According to the author, these will not be replacing the existing audiobooks and are a separate product.

## Reception

In a review of the first book for Locus, Gabino Iglesias criticized some jokes, and found the book repetitive, but wrote that "the important thing here is that the novel never becomes boring" and that the "shortcomings are easy to overlook".
In August 2024 it was announced that Fuzzy Door Productions would be producing a TV adaptation of the series with Chris Yost.
As of December 2024, the first four books published by Ace had sold almost 55,000 copies.

## Television Adaptation

In August 2024, it was announced that Universal International Studios, in collaboration with Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door Productions, acquired the rights to adapt Dungeon Crawler Carl into a television series. Christopher Yost, known for his work on Thor: Ragnarok and The Mandalorian, is set to write the series adaptation. Author Matt Dinniman expressed excitement about the adaptation, while Erica Huggins, President of Fuzzy Door, described the project as aligning with the company’s vision for genre-bending storytelling.