Order of Dungeon Crawler Carl Books

Dungeon Crawler Carl is a series of LitRPG novels by American author Matt Dinniman. Carl and Princess Donut are trapped in Dungeon Crawler World, a galaxy-wide reality game show set in a deadly fantasy RPG dungeon. Managed by the Borant Corporation, the Dungeon is controlled by a System AI, and survival depends on alliances and entertainment value. Carl and Donut team up with Meadow Lark, a group of seniors, face off against player killers Frank Q and Maggie My, and rescue Li Jun, Li Na, and Zhang. They adopt a velociraptor, Mongo, and appear on game shows like Dungeon Crawler After Hours. But survival and escape become a dangerous game of ratings.

Matt Dinniman launched his Dungeon Crawler Carl series in 2020 with the eponymous novel. Below is a list of Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl books in order of when they were first released:

Publication Order of Dungeon Crawler Carl Books

If You Like Matt Dinniman Books, You’ll Love…

• He Who Fights with Monsters
• The Primal Hunter
• Defiance of the Fall

Dungeon Crawler Carl Synopses: In Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (book 1 of the series of the same name), Carl thought his biggest problem was dealing with his ex-girlfriend’s pampered, prize-winning cat, Princess Donut. Then the alien invasion happened. Now, Earth’s structures are obliterated, humanity is enslaved, and Carl and Donut are trapped in a twisted intergalactic game show that makes survival a spectator sport for a galaxy of sadistic viewers.

Navigating a deadly, dungeon-like world filled with bizarre creatures, absurd challenges, and ever-changing traps, Carl and Donut must level up or die trying. From exploding goblins to drug-dealing llamas, nothing in this surreal, video game-inspired nightmare is as it seems.

With the fate of humanity hanging in the balance, Carl must outsmart, outfight, and out-cat his competition in a show where survival isn’t just a game—it’s the only rule.

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario is book 2 in Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Carl and Princess Donut face their most absurd and deadly challenges yet as the dungeon continues to evolve into a twisted spectacle of danger and chaos. The intergalactic audience is hooked, the ratings are soaring, and the dungeon’s traps grow deadlier with each passing day.

Welcome to the Over City—a sprawling, decayed metropolis where the remnants of a mysterious calamity have given rise to horrors both bizarre and brutal. Undead clowns stalk the streets with sinister intent, a macabre rain of murdered prostitutes foretells doom, and a long-dormant spell prepares to unleash its unimaginable purpose.

For Carl, survival has never been more demanding—or ridiculous. Armed with little more than wit, determination, and a reluctant cat companion who’s too fabulous for this nonsense, Carl must navigate the chaos. And yes, he’s still without pants.

As the stakes rise and the dungeon’s creators watch their grisly game unfold, Carl and Princess Donut must unravel the Over City’s secrets, outwit the twisted game masters, and continue clawing their way toward freedom—or die trying.

The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook by Matt Dinniman is the third book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Carl and Princess Donut descend into the labyrinthine chaos of the fourth floor, where the stakes have never been higher. The top ten crawlers dominate the leaderboard, sponsorships bring newfound attention—and danger—and the dungeon cranks up the difficulty in ways no one could have anticipated.

Welcome to the Iron Tangle: a nightmarish subway system stitched together from the remnants of the world’s underground railways and knotted into a maddening puzzle. In this twisted maze, the rules of space and logic defy comprehension. Up is down, down is up, and each train car holds new horrors, from monstrous passengers to traps designed to crush even the most seasoned crawlers. The stations? Not much safer.

But there’s a glimmer of hope. For the first time, crawlers are uniting, forging alliances to survive the dungeon’s escalating dangers. The rewards are richer, the stakes higher, and Carl may have stumbled upon a key to untangling the chaos—a cryptic, seemingly-useless book hiding secrets to survival.

As Carl and Donut navigate this treacherous floor, they must rely on wits, teamwork, and sheer grit to overcome the Tangle’s ever-shifting threats. Can they stay on track, or will the Iron Tangle derail them for good?