Dungeon Crawler Carl, In Order: Every Book in Matt Dinniman's LitRPG Phenomenon
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If you've been anywhere near book social media lately, you've heard the name: Dungeon Crawler Carl. Matt Dinniman's genre-bending LitRPG series takes a deceptively simple premise — aliens turn Earth into the set of a sadistic intergalactic game show, and a Coast Guard vet named Carl (plus his ex-girlfriend's prize-winning show cat, Princess Donut) has to survive a video-game-style dungeon one brutal floor at a time — and turns it into one of the most addictive, funny, and surprisingly emotional reading experiences in modern science fantasy. Every book has been a New York Times bestseller.
Here's the complete series in reading order (which is simply publication order — the story runs chronologically), plus a note on what's on our shelves.
The Series in Order
1. Dungeon Crawler Carl
The one that started it all. The apocalypse will be televised. Carl and Donut descend into the dungeon and learn the first rule of the show: survival is optional, but keeping the viewers entertained is not. Exploding goblins, magical potions, and deadly drug-dealing llamas included.
2. Carl's Doomsday Scenario
The training levels are over. Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut face Quests, an undead circus stalking a ruined “Over City,” and a dark ancient spell — while Carl tries, mostly in vain, to find some pants.
3. The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
Welcome to the Iron Tangle: an impossibly knotted subway system where up is down and the exit is always just a few stops away. Now on the top-ten list, Carl and Donut each carry a bounty on their head, and the key to escape may be hidden in a seemingly useless book.
4. The Gate of the Feral Gods
One bubble. Four castles. Fifteen days. It was supposed to be easy — it never is. Carl's team has to rely on the low-level crawlers trapped in the bubble with them, and trust is in short supply.
5. The Butcher's Masquerade
The Hunting Grounds. Outside tourists are finally allowed into the game as hunters, led by the famed veteran Vrah, who's after the biggest trophy of her career. But this season, the prey fights back.
6. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
Bedlam on the eighth floor. The crawlers must capture six monsters to build a deck — including the most terrifying of them all, Shi Maria, the Bedlam Bride, whose special attack drives victims insane. Capturing her is one thing. Taming her is another.
7. This Inevitable Ruin
Faction Wars. Nine armies enter the ninth floor; for the first time the crawlers field their own — an army of newly self-aware NPCs. And the stakes are permanent: anyone who dies on this battlefield stays dead. This is what they've been fighting toward. This is war.
8. A Parade of Horribles
An instant #1 New York Times bestseller. On the tenth floor, the tasks turn eerily normal — races, point A to point B, don't come in last. It's too normal. And nobody, not even the showrunners, knows what waits on the mysterious eleventh floor the AI has ominously dubbed “A Parade of Horribles.”
Also from Matt Dinniman: Operation Bounce House
Finished the dungeon and craving more? Dinniman's newest is a standalone novel — not part of the Carl saga, but cut from the same darkly funny, video-games-turned-deadly cloth. In Operation Bounce House, a man must fight for his entire planet against impossible odds when gamers back on Earth attempt to remotely annihilate it. Apex charges Earth players to pilot “mechs” on the colony world of New Sonora with one goal: kill everyone in their path. It's Ender's Game meets The Last Starfighter meets Independence Day, and it's the perfect palate-cleanser between Carl's floors. Available in hardcover and paperback.
A Note on Formats
Every Dungeon Crawler Carl novel debuts as an ebook/audiobook first, then arrives in print. All eight mainline books are available as hardcover editions (books 1–6 also have paperbacks; 7 and 8 are hardcover for now).
Coming November 17, 2026: a gorgeous Deluxe Collector's Edition of Book 1, featuring an all-new cover and artwork by acclaimed artist Victo Ngai, decorated endpapers, an illustrated hardcover case with a solvable maze, stenciled edges, a 4-color ribbon marker, and a Q&A with Matt Dinniman conducted by Princess Donut herself. One for the superfans — keep an eye out.
What's on the Eason Books Shelf
We stock the full mainline series in hardcover. Every one of the eight core books is available right now:
| # | Title | Hardcover |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dungeon Crawler Carl | ✅ |
| 2 | Carl's Doomsday Scenario | ✅ |
| 3 | The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook | ✅ |
| 4 | The Gate of the Feral Gods | ✅ |
| 5 | The Butcher's Masquerade | ✅ |
| 6 | The Eye of the Bedlam Bride | ✅ |
| 7 | This Inevitable Ruin | ✅ |
| 8 | A Parade of Horribles | ✅ |
Plus the standalone Operation Bounce House in hardcover and paperback.
Complete the set — every hardcover in the series is here. Whether you're starting Carl and Donut's run from Floor One or hunting the volume that finishes your shelf, you can grab them all in one place.
(Paperback editions of several titles are also available if that's your preference.)
Ready to descend? Start with Book 1 and don't say the dungeon didn't warn you. Survival is optional.
This post was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by the Eason Books team.