Carl and Princess Dounut take on the dungeon

I have read every day since the beginning of the year, so I have been going through a lot of books. The downside to finishing a book is having to pick out a new one to read. If your last book was awesome, how will you follow it up? What kind of mood are you in, and will the book hold your interest? One thing I love is finding a series to get into. It makes picking your next book easier, because odds are, if you enjoy one, you will enjoy the others. Right now, I am three books into the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman and absolutely loving it.

An alien corporation comes to Earth and flattens every building on the planet, killing the majority of the population. Everyone who survived was outside at the time and made their way to The World Dungeon, the setting of a universal show called Dungeon Crawler World. Two of these survivors are Carl, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran, and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Dount.

While I was recovering in Rochester, I kept seeing this book series pop up on my social media. Everyone seemed to be talking about it, and after seeing it mentioned repeatedly, I decided to give it a chance. I borrowed the first book, "Dungeon Crawler Carl", from the library (never pass up a chance to support your local library) and was blown away by it. It is a genre called LitRPG (literary role-playing game): it takes the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons and applies them to a work of literature. I do not play D&D; I don't think my ADHD brain could keep up with all the rules and workings of the game, but I have huge respect for those who do. I have watched a few seasons of Dimension 20, one of the most popular RPG live plays, and enjoyed them a lot, so I’d like to think I have a rudimentary understanding of D&D. In the books, Carl and Dounut get items as they fight their way through the different levels of the dungeon that help them level up and boost their stats. When they get to the third floor, they have to pick a class: in D&D, these include Wizard, Fighter, and Ranger, each with special skills and uses in a campaign.

These books are great. They are hilarious and exciting, and the world-building is incredible. Carl is outside in his boxers, trying to get Donut out of a tree when all the buildings are flattened, so he enters the first floor of the dungeon in a compromised state: it becomes a running joke that he can’t find pants in the dungeon. After they get to the first floor, Dounut gains the power of speech. This is where a lot of the humor comes from. Donut is very dedicated to Carl’s ex, Bea, and Carl is not (Bea cheated on him), and Donut does not take Carl's badmouthing of her kindly. The two have a contentious relationship, especially in the first book, but have to work together if they want to survive the dungeon. I finished Book Two: "Carl's Doomsday Scenario" on Friday, and the Carl/Dounut relationship continues to develop and get deeper. They have added more members to their party, including a pet velociraptor that Donut picked and named Mongo.

You do not need to be a D&D fan or know that much about role-playing games in general to enjoy these books. It really comes down to the characters. Besides Carl and Donut, there is Mordecai, a former Crawler who serves as the game guide for Carl and Donut. He is essentially an indentured servant. He will be released from his contract if Carl and Downut reach the fourth floor. He uses his knowledge of the game, its items, and rules, as well as his understanding of the politics surrounding it, to help them. When Dounut picks her class, he ends up becoming her manager, much to his dismay. He spends a large chunk of the second book drunk and lamenting his situation. His one job is to keep them alive as long as possible, but he gets very annoyed when they improvise. On the third floor, crawlers can take up quests. After barely surviving on, he tells Carl not to accept another one and just work on leveling up before they have to go to the fourth floor. Carl ignores him, and he and Donut get caught up in a complex quest involving the leader of their settlement.

Dinniman, along with writing great characters, writes some great action sequences. Even knowing that there are eight books and odds are that neither Carl nor Dornut is going to die, these sequences are thrilling and suspenseful. How are they going to beat this boss? What ramifications will this have in the larger game? There is not always a straightforward solution, and Carl doesn't tend to approach these battles from a typical "hack and slash" approach. It makes many of their encounters with enemies compelling to read.

I borrowed the first two books from the library, but I ended up buying the hardcovers of the other six books in the series. I did this for three reasons. One is that the cover art for these books is cool, and the series would look great on my shelf. The second is that, with the series' popularity, there was a long wait between books: I waited about a month and a half between the first and second books.  As much as I love my library and want to support it, I also want to mainline this series directly into my veins as fast as possible. The third and main reason is that I will 100 percent reread these books. It is such a fun, interesting, and creative series that I don't think I can read it just once. I cannot wait to dive into the third book and hope to get through most, if not all, of them this summer (The later books in the series do get long, so it might take a while). If you are looking for a new fun series, you can't go wrong with these incredible books.