Clara’s Verdict
I came to Dungeon Crawler Carl later than most of its devoted readership. A reader whose taste runs more naturally to literary fiction than LitRPG needs some persuading, and it was the first book in this series that did the persuading. The premise sounds, on paper, like it was designed in a blender: a man and his obnoxious cat, trapped along with the rest of Earth’s population in a globally televised dungeon-crawl run by alien entertainment conglomerates, narrated in the voice of a particularly unhinged reality television competition. That sounds absurd because it is absurd. And the absurdity is entirely the point — it is the vehicle for something considerably more interesting.
By the time Book 2 arrived — Carl’s Doomsday Scenario — I was already committed. Book 2 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, published by Audible Studios in April 2021, runs to 11 hours and 28 minutes. Narrator Jeff Hays returns. Rated 4.6 stars from 47 Audible UK listeners — a smaller sample than the series deserves in the UK market, where LitRPG still has less penetration than in the United States, but a consistent and enthusiastic quality signal from those who have found it.
About the Audiobook
The training levels of Book 1 are over. Carl and Princess Donut — his magnificently imperious, cosmetics-obsessed cat, who has unexpectedly become one of the dungeon’s most beloved media figures — have made it to the third floor, known as the Over City: a sprawling post-apocalyptic urban landscape that was once a thriving metropolis and is now home to an undead circus, murdered figures raining from the sky, and a series of escalating intergalactic political complications that Carl had absolutely not bargained for when he chose to survive the apocalypse.
Author Matt Dinniman expands the world considerably in this instalment. The dungeon is now understood not merely as a survival challenge but as a galactic entertainment spectacle, with alien audiences watching and rating the crawlers’ performance in real time — a satirical conceit that allows Dinniman to skewer reality television, social media engagement culture, and the ethics of spectatorship all at once without ever breaking the narrative momentum to wave a flag. New races, class selections, and enemy types are introduced with the creative abundance that characterises the series. Side quests proliferate. Carl still has no pants, which remains somehow funnier as the series progresses rather than less. The darkness is real — people die, and the stakes feel genuine rather than fictional — but the comedy never collapses under it, and Dinniman’s ability to make you feel both things simultaneously is the defining quality of the series.
The Narration
Jeff Hays is one of the primary reasons this series has developed the fervent cult following it has accumulated among audiobook listeners. His performance across the Dungeon Crawler Carl books is regularly cited by fans as among the finest in the LitRPG genre, and listening to Book 2 makes that reputation entirely comprehensible. Hays handles the tonal range of the material with impressive facility: the comedy lands properly because he commits to it rather than signalling it; the action sequences feel genuinely urgent; the quieter character moments between Carl and Donut land with more emotional weight than you might reasonably expect from a book about dungeon-crawling with a talking cat. His voice characterisation for Princess Donut in particular — imperious, vain, unexpectedly tender, and possessed of a social media strategy that would put most marketing professionals to shame — is a performance worth the Audible subscription on its own.
What Readers Say
UK listeners are enthusiastic but not entirely uncritical, which is a sign the reviews are worth reading. One reviewer who gave it 4.5 stars appreciated the expanded world-building and intergalactic political dimensions while noting honestly that Book 2 builds more deliberately than the relentless, slightly chaotic energy of Book 1 — a fair observation about the different demands of a sequel that has more architecture to establish before it can tear it down again. Another praised the balance between RPG mechanics and genuine storytelling, specifically noting that the overarching plot is expertly woven with the tangents of quests and relationships, making every diversion feel purposeful. A third simply wrote just buy it. One reviewer noted that pacing drags in places relative to the first book, and that some side quests feel less essential: a minority view in the overall response, but a reasonable caution for those who found Book 1’s propulsive energy its single most important quality.
Who Should Listen?
If you have already listened to Dungeon Crawler Carl, the first book in this series, this is not a question that needs answering — you are already here. If you are new to the series, do not start with Book 2: the world, the characters, and the emotional investment built across Book 1 do not transfer cleanly without the foundation. For readers of fantasy and science fiction who have been curious about LitRPG but uncertain about the genre’s reputation for mechanical recitation over character and story, the Dungeon Crawler Carl series is the best entry point available — it uses the genre’s conventions with intelligence and genuine comic craft. Listen on Audible UK
