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Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

from $11.99
Hardcover:

The aliens flattened every building on Earth, turned the planet into a multi-level dungeon, and started broadcasting the survivors to the galaxy. Carl was outside in his boxer shorts chasing his ex-girlfriend’s show cat — and the two of them are now the most-watched contestants in the universe.

A New York Times bestseller and the self-published phenomenon that broke LitRPG into the mainstream. Brandon Sanderson calls it “legit awesome,” Felicia Day says she is obsessed, and The Wall Street Journal calls the series “often laugh-out-loud funny.” A television adaptation from Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door is headed to Peacock.

Carl is a Coast Guard veteran with a bad breakup and worse timing. When alien developers level every man-made structure on the planet, he is outside barefoot in his boxers, retrieving Princess Donut, his ex’s prize-winning Persian.

The survivors are funneled into a vast dungeon with levels, loot, stat sheets, and a merciless system AI. It is also a reality show, and the galaxy is watching.

Ratings are currency. The more entertaining a crawler is, the better the rewards — and the more attention they attract from things that would rather eat them.

What begins as a joke about exploding goblins and drug-dealing llamas turns, floor by floor, into something angrier and sadder about spectacle and exploitation. The comedy never stops; it just stops being only comedy.

Princess Donut — now sentient, talkative, and magnificently vain — is one of the great animal characters in modern fantasy. This is book one, and readers rarely stop at one.

The aliens flattened every building on Earth, turned the planet into a multi-level dungeon, and started broadcasting the survivors to the galaxy. Carl was outside in his boxer shorts chasing his ex-girlfriend’s show cat — and the two of them are now the most-watched contestants in the universe.

A New York Times bestseller and the self-published phenomenon that broke LitRPG into the mainstream. Brandon Sanderson calls it “legit awesome,” Felicia Day says she is obsessed, and The Wall Street Journal calls the series “often laugh-out-loud funny.” A television adaptation from Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door is headed to Peacock.

Carl is a Coast Guard veteran with a bad breakup and worse timing. When alien developers level every man-made structure on the planet, he is outside barefoot in his boxers, retrieving Princess Donut, his ex’s prize-winning Persian.

The survivors are funneled into a vast dungeon with levels, loot, stat sheets, and a merciless system AI. It is also a reality show, and the galaxy is watching.

Ratings are currency. The more entertaining a crawler is, the better the rewards — and the more attention they attract from things that would rather eat them.

What begins as a joke about exploding goblins and drug-dealing llamas turns, floor by floor, into something angrier and sadder about spectacle and exploitation. The comedy never stops; it just stops being only comedy.

Princess Donut — now sentient, talkative, and magnificently vain — is one of the great animal characters in modern fantasy. This is book one, and readers rarely stop at one.

  • Publisher: Ace

    Title: Dungeon Crawler Carl

    Author: Matt Dinniman

    On Sale Date: August 27, 2024

    ISBN 13: 9780593820247

    ISBN 10: 059382024X

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $30.00

    BISAC: Fiction / Science Fiction / Humorous (+2)

    Page Count: 464

    Dimensions: 8.25 in H | 5.5 in W

  • Matt Dinniman is a writer, artist, and bass player from Gig Harbor, Washington. He self-published the first Dungeon Crawler Carl novel in 2020, and word of mouth — helped enormously by Jeff Hays’s audiobook narration — turned it into one of the biggest independent fiction success stories of the decade, leading to a print deal with Ace and New York Times bestseller status. Universal International Studios and Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door acquired the series for television, with a series order at Peacock.

  • Readers are calling it addictive, hilarious, and unexpectedly moving.

    • Brandon Sanderson, #1 New York Times bestselling author, calls it “legit awesome.”

    • Actor and author Felicia Day says she is obsessed, and that Princess Donut is her queen.

    • USA Today calls the series “your newest obsession.”

    • Novelist Scott Lynch points to the real depth and emotion under its bawdy, gory surface.

This book is for you if

  • You want a novel that is genuinely funny on page one and genuinely devastating by the last floor.

  • You grew up on video games, D&D, or MMOs and want a story that speaks that language fluently.

  • You like Ready Player One or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but want sharper teeth.

  • You are looking for a long series to disappear into — this is book one, with plenty waiting behind it.

  • You have heard people online will not stop talking about a cat named Princess Donut and want to know why.

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