• Dungeon Crawler Carl

  • A LitRPG/Gamelit Adventure
  • By: Matt Dinniman
  • Narrated by: Jeff Hays
  • Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (16,513 ratings)

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Dungeon Crawler Carl  By  cover art

Dungeon Crawler Carl

By: Matt Dinniman
Narrated by: Jeff Hays
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Publisher's summary

The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth - from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds - collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.

The buildings and all the people inside have 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 followers, your views. Your clout. 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.

©2020 Matt Dinniman (P)2021 Matt Dinniman

Featured Article: Level up with 25+ awesome litRPGs


LitRPG means Literary Role Playing Game. Simply put, it’s the book version of watching someone play a video game, usually one that’s set up like an MMO (massively multiplayer online) RPG. It’s a blend of sci-fi and fantasy, depending on how it comes to be that our main character ends up living inside a virtual reality. the point of LitRPG is not how we get there, but that we get to be in this virtual reality period, living life as a badass video-game character. Beat the grind and submerse yourself in these addictive LitRPGs.

What listeners say about Dungeon Crawler Carl

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A refreshing take on apocalyptical LITRPG

So...this book. Man, I just love it. Somehow, the author managed to avoid almost every LITRPG hero trope that exists and made that a good thing. Except the snarky system messages, but, let's be real, that's one of the genre's more fun tropes.

* SOUND BOOTH THEATER KNOCKS THIS OUT OF THE PARK! JEFF HAYES IS THE MAN! No distracting music or sound affects that aren't pertinent to the story. Proper voices for the system notifications and other messages. Just...nailed this 100%
* MC is not dumb
* MC is not a womanizer
* MC is not gifted with some super, ultra rare ability that breaks the game or makes him a snowflake
* MC does solve everything (or anything) with magic (...I love magic...I'm keeping my fingers crossed this might change)
* MC is practically McGyver (like the real McGyver not the Dr. Who sonic screw driver McGyver)
* MC has good dialogue with other characters and his companion whom happens to be a talking cat (happens in first 35 minutes...not really a spoiler)
* MC (and all of humanity) is definitely the underdog

Now, the LITRPG aspects.

* A$$hole corporate, inter-galactic politics and greed cause the apocalyptic event
* While the story progresses well with Carl's progress in levels and skills, there are bigger, deeper story arcs being threaded so this isn't just an apocalypse for no reason.
* The system seems to be absolutely massive as far as ability & class options go.

Definitely 5 stars all the way.

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184 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wow. That was just great.

Okay, so this doesn't normally happen... I completely lost track of where I was in the book. It felt like I was only a few hours in and before I knew it the book was over. The pacing was just so great that I managed to listen to the whole book in a single day! One trillion likes.

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46 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

No crappy sound effects or music!

After one to many decent stories ruined by Soundbooth Studios I decided not to purchase any audio books from them unless the book was highly rated. This book met that requirement and I was pleasantly surprised that it was a clean performance by Mr. Hays!

Boy was I excited! I really enjoy Mr. Hays performances and the idea that there would be an entire series of just him without accompanying sound effects and crappy music... the the end of the book came and they threatened us with their shīt noise pollution.

If they follow through with the shift in production and the next book has all the garbage extras, I will not buy it.

Please don’t ruin this series as well. Or if you can’t help yourself, at least have the decency to release a clean version with just the voice acting.

Soundbooth Studios is the worst thing to happen to audiobooks.

As to the book. It’s pretty good. Won’t age well, but Mr. Dinniman is up to date on his memes.

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45 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Yes Yes Yes!

Been looking forward to a new audio book from Matt Dinniman and low and behold not only do we get Dungeon Crawler Carl, but we get Jeff Hays as narrator!!!
Seriously if you're a fan of either Jeff or Matt .. GET. THIS. BOOK!
Shoot, even if you haven't had the pleasure of knowing about either of these guys before.. GET. THIS. BOOK!
Equal parts hilarity/bonkers characters/epic fight scenes/loveable characters (yes, even you Donut). I am absolutely looking forward to book 2. Bring it on! (seriously, don't stop, we want moar!)
Awesome book Matt! Fan since grinder, keep up the great work!
Epic narration as always Jeff! (Seriously, watch him narrate sometime, his seamless transition between voices is unbelievable)

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33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Buy this if you want to listen to item stats for 8 straight hours

The book describes a game that might be interesting…
The book focuses too much on just describing the items and mechanics of the said game.

I did not make it trough the first hour of the book before returning it.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, but Jeff's worst narration performance

I like this book, and I am usually a fan of Jeff hays.
Unfortunately, It sounds like he is doing a really bad immitation of Patrick Warburton. It's very off putting, a real disappointment.... I don't understand why no one told them how bad it is.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The funniest performance and writing ever

This is easily one of the FUNNIEST BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ. The formula of relatable MC and halarious animal sidekick once again proves to be a winning one, and despite what could be an incredibly bleak story of the end of life as we know it, we get a wonderful performance that had me laughing from the first chapter to the end.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best!

Dinniman is probably the best gamelit guy out there. This book was a ton of fun. I eagerly await the next in the series!

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

I hate this series

i just finished the third book, and here's my review of the whole series. This applies to the first book as well as the latter ones. I don't understand how everyone loves this series so much. The main character, Carl, is a horrible, annoying ass, who has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He's selfish when he should be compassionate, he's selfless when he should be worrying about himself.

The man is a punching bag in every sense is the word. His allies dismiss him altogether and lead him around by the nose. His enemies have the upper hand at all times and the only thing that allows him to survive or win battles is plot armor. He has no plans, strategies or long team goals. He says he hates drama in the first chapter of the book, then he proceeds to foment it at every turn. He doesn't change a single bit in the entire first 3 books, and I don't expect him to.

I truly, TRULY hate the main character. He's the worst part about the book.

Donut is super annoying at first, but she does progress a little (unlike Carl). The author likes to point out (through Carl) how much she's changed, but its way overstated. The way he writes her hasn't changed at all. The only real progress she has made is occasionally making slightly less selfish decisions. Other than that it's the same jokes over and over.

That's another thing. This is supposed to be a funny book, but I don't think I've laughed out loud even one time the entire time reading it. maybe my humor just isn't compatible with the authors or maybe I'm just jaded, but I don't find the book funny.

I just am not into the characters getting shit on repeatedly with no major victories. There's is little difference from one floor to the next, with only minor victories, and the author even takes those away from you by depriving the characters of their loot and XP every opportunity he has. I get no satisfaction from this book.

So if you've read my review to this point, you're undoubtedly thinking, why the F$%& has this guy read three full books if he hates this series so much? I honestly don't know. Maybe it's because despite, hating the characters and the plot, the world is still fairly original and inventive. Maybe it's Jeff Hays stellar voice acting, maybe it's because despite it's shortcomings, this series is still better than most other GameLit novels. I don't know.

I've considered dropping this infuriating series several times, but there's something about it that has me wanting to find out what happens. YMMV if you don't mind all the things I've hated. That is all.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Good Story Idea, Poor Execution

Another stellar performance by Jeff. Unfortunately, while the story itself started strong, and quickly grabbed my attention, the plethora of inconsistencies and retcons mere chapters apart steadily pushed me away until I no longer wished to finish the story. The author has a strong creative streak and unique ideas, but absolutely no attention to small details. I overlooked the first 3 or 4, but eventually you have to chalk it up to lazy writing/bad proofreading. Hopefully these problems go away as the author grows, but I feel Ive reached the end of my commitment to this series before it even really began.

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