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Draft:Dungeon Crawler Carl

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Dungeon Crawler Carl series
  • Book 1: Dungeon Crawler Carl (2020)
  • Book 2: Carl's Doomsday Scenario (2021)
  • Book 3: The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (2021)
  • Book 4: The Gate of the Feral Gods (2021)
  • Book 5: The Butcher's Masquerade (2022)
  • Book 6: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (2023)
  • Book 7: This Inevitable Ruin (2024)

AuthorMatt Dinniman
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreLitRPG, Horror
PublisherPenguin
Published2024
Media type
No. of books7

Dungeon Crawler Carl is still being published series of seven novels written by author Matt Dinniman. The novels chronicle the journey of Carl and his cat, a sentient wisecracking sidekick named Princess Donut, as they navigate an intergalactic alien game show whose current season is titled Dungeon Crawler World.

The series sold more than a million copies as a self-published e-book and popular audiobook.[1] In September 2024, Ace Books, a division of Penguin Random House, purchased the series and has begin distribution of the series in bookstores. [2] It's audiobook, read by voice actor Jeff Hays of Soundbooth Theater, helped to propel the series to initial popularity. Hays' performance, voicing dozens of characters and injecting personality to the characters is credited to advancing its reach among a more universal audience. [3]

As of August 2024, TV adaption rights to the story were purchased by Universal International Studios. [1]

The books are part of niche LitRPG genre, which combine science fiction with role-playing game (RPG) characteristics. The series uses the theme of a dungeon crawl, where protagonists progress through levels, fight monsters, earn experience points, equip armor, and learn spells.

Plot

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The series centers around Carl and his ex-girlfriend's Persian show cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk. The pair reluctantly enter into an intergalactic alien game show following an apocalyptic event on earth that collapsed all human-made structures in an instant, killing the majority of the population on earth in the process. At the time, Carl has chased after his escaped cat, he found himself trapped outdoors in a snow storm wearing only his boxers, a leather jacket and his girlfriend's shoes. He descended through a portal that magically appeared in order to seek warmth, inadvertently registering him and his cat into an 18-level game show called Dungeon Crawler World. He learns that approximately 20 million other surviving humans around the world also entered the dungeon, and are being forced to compete at a chance to earn their freedom and reclaim their world.

In the initial stage of the contest, Carl receives a loot box prize, which contains a magical pet biscuit that transforms his cat, Princess Donut, into a talking, sentient being possessing all of her previous memories throughout her life as a cat. Together, the pair join forces to battle monsters, earn experience, and garner support from patrons watching the show, who can send loot box prizes to help them survive. The pair appear regularly appear on alien talk shows, and partner with other contestants known as crawlers to survive the dungeon.

Carl and Donut are mentored by a game guide named Mordecai, a former crawler from a previous season. Carl and Donut face dangers not only from monsters in the dungeon, but other homicidal humans who kill others to survive, fans of the show and the galactic politics controlling the show. Throughout the arc of the series, Carl and Donut become the top crawlers in the dungeon earning high ratings and lucrative advertising sponsorships. Eventually, they begin to build broad support from other fellow humans, and working together they begin to work together, rather than against each other to fight back against the alien federation who destroyed their work and started this season's Dungeon Crawler World.

TV Adaption

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In August 2024, TV adaption rights to the story were purchased by Universal International Studios with Seth MacFarlane's company Fuzzy Door set to adapt the story to television.[1] Writer Chris Yost, best know as a writer for Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok, was tapped to write the adaption.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Whittock, Jesse (21 Aug 2024). "Universal International Studios Buys Matt Dinniman's 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' With Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door & Chris Yost Attached". Deadline.
  2. ^ Dinniman, Matt (2024-09-16). "Ace Books picks up books 4-6 in Dungeon Crawler Carl series for publication. Books will release 1st half of 2025" (Press release). Reddit. Archived from the original on 2024-09-30. Retrieved 2024-10-16.
  3. ^ Elizabeth Tabler (2024-09-06). "An Interview with Matt Dinniman". Grimdark Magazine. Archived from the original on 2024-09-13.