Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman was the 190th official Sword and Laser Book Club selection.
Reading period: Apr 1, 2025 - Apr 30, 2025
How/Why was this book chosen: It won a March Madness style knockout poll.
| Round 1 | Match 1 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 150 | 65.8% | Dungeon Crawler Carl | Matt Dinnaman |
| 78 | 34.2% | Kill the Farm Boy | Delilah S. Dawson & Kevin Hearne |
| 228 | Total | ||
| Match 2 | |||
| 86 | 40% | She Who Became the Sun | Shelley Parker-Chan |
| 129 | 60% | The Adventures of Amina-al-Sirafi | Shannon Chakraborty |
| 215 | Total | ||
| Match 3 | |||
| 98 | 45.8% | Time of the Cat | Tansy Rayner Roberts |
| 116 | 54.2% | Middlegame | Seanan McGuire |
| 214 | Total | ||
| Match 4 | |||
| 130 | 65.3% | The Art of Prophecy | Wesley Chu |
| 69 | 34.7% | Twelve Kings | Bradley P. Beaulieu |
| 199 | Total | ||
| Match 5 | |||
| 122 | 61.3% | Lord of Light | Roger Zelazny |
| 77 | 38.7% | In Fury Born | David Weber |
| 199 | Total | ||
| Match 6 | |||
| 87 | 41.8% | Parable of the Talents | Octavia E. Butler |
| 121 | 58.2% | Embers of War | Gareth L. Powell |
| 208 | Total | ||
| Match 7 | |||
| 71 | 36.2% | Womb City | Tlotlo Tsamaase |
| 125 | 63.8% | The Speed of Dark | Elizabeth Moon |
| 196 | Total | ||
| Match 8 | |||
| 132 | 64.1% | Mickey 7 | Edward Ashton |
| 74 | 35.9% | How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse | K.Eason |
| 206 | Total |
| Round 2 | Match 1 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 142 | 56.1% | Dungeon Crawler Carl | Matt Dinnaman |
| 111 | 43.9% | The Adventures of Amina-al-Sirafi | Shannon Chakraborty |
| 253 | Total | ||
| Match 2 | |||
| 115 | 49.1% | Middlegame | Seanan McGuire |
| 119 | 50.9% | The Art of Prophecy | Wesley Chu |
| 234 | Total | ||
| Match 3 | |||
| 111 | 49.6% | Lord of Light | Roger Zelazny |
| 113 | 50.4% | Embers of War | Gareth L. Powell |
| 224 | Total | ||
| Match 4 | |||
| 88 | 37.9% | The Speed of Dark | Elizabeth Moon |
| 144 | 62.1% | Mickey 7 | Edward Ashton |
| 232 | Total |
| Sem Final 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 152 | 58.9% | Dungeon Crawler Carl | Matt Dinnaman |
| 106 | 41.1% | The Art of Prophecy | Wesley Chu |
| 258 | Total | ||
| Sem Final 2 | |||
| 81 | 32.4% | Embers of War | Gareth L. Powell |
| 169 | 67.6% | Mickey 7 | Edward Ashton |
| 250 | Total |
| Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 158 | 57.2% | Dungeon Crawler Carl | Matt Dinnaman |
| 118 | 42.8% | Mickey 7 | Edward Ashton |
| 276 | Total |
Sword and Laser Discussion of Dungeon Crawler Carl
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman[]
The apocalypse will be televised!
A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.
In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.
The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.
Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.
You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.
You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game—with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.
They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.