Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

This is the kind of book that’s normally squarely outside my wheelhouse. It was my first introduction to the genre of “LitRPG” (literary role-playing game) and follows a character, Carl, alongside his cat-panion, through a series of increasingly adverserial dungeon crawl scenarios. To be frank, it’s a completely ludicrous book: it’s over-the-top fantastical gore mixed with catty humour. I came across it whilst browsing Hardcover (a superb Goodreads replacement1), where it topped the “most read” lists for a few months running. It was also nominated for the 2026 Arthur C. Clarke Award. However, beneath all the macabre violence is a surpisingly astute reflection on the trials and tribulations of being human amidst the harshes of conditions. It’s undeniably entertaining and a pretty pointed lampoon of “brainrot” culture and the political climate. Here, even the rules of traditional sci-fi and fantasy dissipate away in a blaze of frenetic creative energy. All in all, I can’t deny it was a…