Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinnimen is the first book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl Lit-RPG series. When aliens destroy Earth the few survivors are allowed to enter a Dungeon and Dragons style dungeon where if you can make it to the end of all eighteen levels you get to decide what happens to Earth.

We follow Carl who enters the dungeon with his ex-girlfriend’s cat Princess Donut and they are trying to make it out alive and maybe save Earth but this is anything but a game. The events of the dungeon are also broadcast across the universe as a reality show that what the reader sees how that works is almost a weird cross between the Hungers and a reality show live Survivor.

I loved this book and Donut is my favorite character so far and I love how in many ways after she starts talking she is more the main character then Carl is but she needs Carl and loves him. This is my first Lit-RPG book and I’m interested in seeing what other books in the genre do differently. So far Lit-RPG does remind me of isakai anime without as many tropes. While these are different genres and have different tropes I do feel like I you like some isakai anime you will like Dungeon Crawler Carl and vice versa.

I plan to keep reading the series and I will say that I feel like I’m now part of a cult.