Blurb: It's the most-watched game show in the galaxy!
In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth--from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds to all the trucks and cars--collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.
The buildings and all the people inside, they've all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.
Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your views and your followers. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.
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.
They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.
My review: Every construction built by humans is gone in a flash, and only those outside survived. They have the option of staying on a now uninhabitable planet or entering Dungeon Crawler World in which they'll have a chance of survival. Not much of one, but that's what makes it great TV for trillions of viewers across galaxies. Carl is an ex-marine and just broke up with his girlfriend. He enters with his ex's cat and no pants. They're thrust into a game to survive monsters and traps and other crawlers. Not only that, but all the politics and media surrounding the game as well. Carl knows they're in over their heads, but there are 18 floors to survive, and he's determined to reach the end.
This was an incredibly fun LitRPG. I laughed out loud a lot, and there's a talking cat named Princess Donut. That alone hooked me. As a gamer, I loved all the jokes and the wild spin on a dungeon crawl. There's a lot to take in at first, and it can feel overwhelming, but I'm sure it is for the crawlers too. With all the stats, items, and rules, it all basically comes down to the fact that the crawlers have to keep on killing to live. Plus there are benefits to being liked on social media. So the more entertaining you are the better. Carl is doing what he needs to survive even if he doesn't like it. Princess Donut is most certainly a cat, and even though she talks, you'll never forget she's a cat. The two of them together as a team is perfection! We meet other crawlers, monsters, and NPCs. Plus there's a whole layer of stuff happening outside of the game with the galactic factions. It's a huge universe, but if we stick with Carl and Princess Donut, just maybe we'll survive.
I've been reading a lot of LitRPG in preparation for my upcoming release. Generally, I don't like the stories because of the treatment of female characters. They're the worst of stereotypes. I was so happy that Dinniman's series is different. Donut might be very much a princess cat, but she has layers. There are smart and strong female characters throughout the book. I'm particularly interested in Odette, Hekla, and Lucia.
You can find Matt Dinniman on Facebook and Dungeon Crawler Carl here!
Update: I have read the second book in the series, and it's even better than the first! Much more characterization and deeper into the thickly layered plot.