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Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Carl's Doomsday Scenario

AdventureDystopian
Pages
400
Published
2021
Language
English

Synopsis

Training is over. Now the games truly begin. Carl and Princess Donut descend to the Over City — the dungeon's third floor, a shattered metropolis haunted by an undead circus and a mystery centuries in the making. As Carl's viewer count climbs and sponsor deals turn into leverage, he and Donut have to fight harder than ever to survive the floor's quests, rival crawlers, and the horrors stalking its ruined streets, all while the game show's darker purpose starts to come into focus.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

FunnyAdventurousTense
Writing4.7Impact3.3Characters4.5Plot3.5Atmosphere4.0

Genres

Adventure Dystopian Humor Post-Apocalyptic Progression Fantasy LitRPG Fantasy Science Fiction

About the author

Matt Dinniman's avatar
Matt DinnimanFantasy · Science Fiction

Matt Dinniman is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, best known for the LitRPG series Dungeon Crawler Carl. The son of a US Army soldier, he has described himself as a military brat and moved frequently as a child; he later studied at the University of Arizona and took creative writing classes at Pima Community College in Tucson, re-enrolling in the same workshop repeatedly and crediting its group critiques as formative to his development as a writer. He published fiction through small presses for years before Dungeon Crawler Carl, including the horror novel The Grinding and the LitRPG series Dominion of Blades, while earning a living as a pet-portrait artist. After a newspaper job in Yakima, Washington, he taught himself Photoshop and sold cat and dog artwork through an Etsy store and at comic conventions, dog shows and cat shows — work he has said "didn't pay fantastic, but it paid enough." He began writing Dungeon Crawler Carl in December 2019 and serialised it free on Royal Road, where it built a large readership chapter by chapter. When the 2020 pandemic closed the shows and ended his art income, he began self-publishing the series on Amazon, with audiobooks following through Soundbooth Theater in 2021. The series follows a man named Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they navigate a televised alien dungeon-crawl. In 2024 Dinniman sold print rights to Ace, an imprint of Penguin Random House, retaining the ebook and audiobook rights, and the series became a New York Times bestseller. He also plays bass, and has lived in Gig Harbor, Washington, since 2013.

16 works6 followers

Characters

Carl AndersonProtagonist

A Coast Guard veteran and marine technician who enters the dungeon with no combat experience and becomes its most-watched crawler through stubbornness and an uncanny talent for turning near-death situations into entertainment.

Princess DonutSupporting

Carl's ex-girlfriend's prize show cat and the dungeon's most improbably dangerous party member; her class evolution in this book marks a turning point for her role in the series.

MordecaiSupporting

The pair's guide, coaching them through the second floor's dangers.

Katia GrimSupporting

A fellow crawler who first joins Carl and Donut on the third floor and becomes one of the series' most significant recurring allies, with abilities and motivations that grow more complex across the series.

All characters in Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Frequently asked questions

  • Does Carl's Doomsday Scenario end on a cliffhanger?

    The book concludes with a clear resolution to the immediate conflict, but it also sets up future adventures for Carl and Princess Donut, leaving room for continuation without an abrupt ending.

  • Can I start the series with Carl's Doomsday Scenario?

    No. This is book two in a continuous series. Start with Dungeon Crawler Carl.

  • Is Carl's Doomsday Scenario part of a larger series?

    No — this is the second installment in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. It continues directly from the first book, Dungeon Crawler Carl, following Carl and Princess Donut deeper into the dungeon.

  • What makes Carl's Doomsday Scenario unique in the LitRPG genre?

    The book stands out for its dark humor, the unexpected depth of its characters, and its willingness to subvert common LitRPG tropes, offering a more brutal and less predictable progression system.

  • What floor does this book cover?

    Primarily the dungeon's third floor, the Over City — a devastated, undead-haunted metropolis — with the book building toward the floor's climax.

  • Does Princess Donut get more powerful in this book?

    Significantly so. Donut's class evolution is one of the highlights of this installment and a turning point for her role in the series.

  • Are new major characters introduced?

    Yes. The series expands its cast considerably in book two, introducing crawlers and NPCs who recur throughout the rest of the series.

  • Is the tone consistent with book one?

    Yes — same mix of dark humor and genuine stakes, with more complex world-building and higher political intrigue as the dungeon's deeper architecture becomes visible.

  • Does the dungeon's true purpose become clearer?

    Partially. Book two begins dropping larger hints about the alien game masters and what the dungeon is actually for, though the full picture is far from clear.

  • Does Carl's celebrity status drive the plot?

    Yes. By book two, viewer count and sponsor relationships are central mechanics — Carl's fame affects what resources he can access and what the game masters are willing to do to him.

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