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Description
ImmobilityWhen you open your eyes things already seem to be happening without you. You don't know who you are and you don't remember where you've been. You know the world has changed, that a catastrophe has destroyed what used to exist before, but you can't remember exactly what did exist before. And you're paralyzed from the waist down apparently, but you don't remember that either. A man claiming to be your friend tells you your services are required.
When you open your eyes things already seem to be happening without you. You don't know who you are and you don't remember where you've been. You know the world has changed, that a catastrophe has destroyed what used to exist before, but you can't remember exactly what did exist before. And you're paralyzed from the waist down apparently, but you don't remember that either.
A man claiming to be your friend tells you your services are required. Something crucial has been stolen, but what he tells you about it doesn't quite add up. You've got to get it back or something bad is going to happen. And you've got to get it back fast, so they can freeze you again before your own time runs out.
Before you know it, you're being carried through a ruined landscape on the backs of two men in hazard suits who don't seem anything like you at all, heading toward something you don't understand that may well end up being the death of you.
Welcome to the life of Josef Horkai....
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 04/09/2013
ISBN: 9780765330970
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.40w x 0.80d
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4.4 ★★★★★
Based on 472 reviews
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
A Hilarious, Action-Packed Thrill Ride!
Format: Hardcover, Format: Hardcover
A Coast Guard veteran and all around good guy, Carl, lives in an apartment with his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut. On a cold, winter night, Donut slips out of a window and gets stuck up a tree. And it’s a good thing she does! Wearing nothing but a jacket, boxers, and a pair of slippers that don’t fit, Carl goes outside to try to coax her down. He’s just about retrieved the cat, and then it happens.
The whole world is changed. In the blink of an eye, every building, car, and piece of technology on the planet is flattened. Smooshed. Gone. A bodiless voice announces that anyone who doesn’t want to live off whatever is left on the planet will need to enter stairs. Carl and the cat do so, and that’s when the fun starts.
It seems the galaxy has had a long-running and massively popular television program that follows “dungeon crawls”—classic role-playing/video game scenarios where adventurers go into a medieval dungeon, explore, fight monsters, win treasure, gain experience, become more powerful, and then proceed to deeper, harder levels. Earth has been selected to serve as the setting for the current season. That’s right. The Earth has been destroyed for the sake of a galactic television game. By entering the stairwell, Carl, Donut, and a couple million other humans have become participants in this game. Instead of remaining a pet, Donut is made into a fellow “crawler,” like Carl. She can speak, and reason, and fight—all with the personality one would expect from a cat named Princess Donut
The rules to this galactically televised dungeon crawl are intricate. But essentially, Carl and Donut begin to mentally see stat screens, just like in an RPG video game: health, various skills, their strength, dexterity, intelligence, and constitution. In classic 80’s kids Dungeons & Dragons style, they have unlimited encumbrance, meaning they can carry anything they can pick up, file it away in “inventory,” and pull it up whenever needed. They‘re on level 1 of this season’s crawl, a classic dungeon with tunnels, doors, chambers, and monsters—lots of different monsters. There’s a countdown running, so they only have so many days to find a set of stairs that will lead them down to the next, harder level. And if they don’t find the stairs before the timer runs out, the level they’re on will collapse. There’s all sorts of lethal dangers awaiting the crawlers. And that’s what takes up the bulk of the book.
There are daring encounters, puzzles to sort through, and lots and lots of monsters to fight. In each encounter, the reader is given real time stats of the characters. After their initial shock, Carl and Donut slowly form an endearing partnership, one that proves quite successful in this dangerous game they‘re forced to play.
I’ll confess for the first quarter of the book, I was skeptical. It felt an awful lot like one of my kids watching someone else playing a video game (which is something I don’t really understand). But Matt Dinniman does a masterful job of weaving in enough subplots—both inside and outside the dungeon—so that both a cohesive story and genuine character development emerge from all the excitement of fighting kobolds, or rigging goblin explosives, or figuring out how to slay a “big boss” monster that vaguely resembles a cat-hoarding old lady. There’s depth to this dungeon.
And of course there’s action. It’s compelling, page-turning, fun. And funny. Dinniman has a sharp, occasionally crass, often dark sense of humor and he knows how to use it in all the right places. There’s snark, and absurdity, and physical comedy, and some snort-through-your nostrils lines. Think of a homebrew Dungeons and Dragons campaign melded with a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy vibe that‘s centered around a likable hero and a hilariously self-absorbed cat.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will definitely be pursuing the series. Highly recommended.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2025
★★★★★ 5
Wish I’d jumped in sooner
Format: Kindle
Great book, easiest read I’ve had in years. Particularly enjoyed switching between the audio and reading. One of the best audiobooks out there for sure, not quite a radio play but the characters do all get proper voice acting and they are brilliant. Book one had me hooked but book 2 really sealed the deal, grateful that there are so many more to read. The comedy, the horror, the bonkers world building, and some really great character work make one of the most insane setups for a book feel easy to buy into and believe in. I’ve been looking for a series that captures my imagination like this for a while and I think I’ve found it.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2026
★★★★★ 5
Funny, smart and nerdy
Format: Kindle
Are you now or have you ever been a member of a TTRPG group or serious video gamer? This book is for you. You'll get all the in-jokes, understand the process and enjoy the story. It's almost literally a step-by-step description of a dungeon crawl from hell, but I was never bored. Matt Dinniman's tone and how he writes Carl are smart and enjoyable.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2026
★★★★★ 4
Chaotic & absurdly funny!
Format: Paperback, Format: Paperback
Dungeon Crawler Carl was one of those books where the first thought in my head was, what on earth am I reading? And somehow that’s exactly why it works. It’s chaotic, absurdly funny, and completely outside the usual genres I gravitate toward, but it turned out to be such a fun ride.
The premise alone is wild. Earth collapses into a giant dungeon run as a galactic game show, and Carl ends up fighting through it alongside his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, who honestly steals the show for me. Like if I ever get a cat I will probably named her Princess Donut haha! The whole thing is nonstop action, monsters, traps, loot drops, and ridiculous commentary about survival being tied to entertainment value. It’s very LitRPG, very Dungeons & Dragons energy, and packed with pop culture references.
Did a hybrid read and listened to the audiobook when on the go, which is phenomenal and probably the best way to consume it. The narration makes the humor and chaos land even harder. Carl and Princess Donut as a duo are hilarious, and I can already tell this is the kind of series I’ll return to whenever I need a break from heavier reads.
It’s intense, bizarre, and honestly kind of addictive, not something I would jump back to back considering there are like 9 other books, but it is a surprisingly great palate cleanser.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2026
★★★★★ 5
hilarious, fun and fantastic writing
Format: Kindle
It’s been a little while since I laughed hysterically from a book.
The writing, top tier, the humor immaculate and the characters, compelling.
The story is a mix of satire humor and all around packed with all the things that make a book fantastic. Intrigue, mystery, actual thought. 🤣
For all my booktok girlies who are on the fence, just do it. It scratches an itch I cannot describe.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2026
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