Skulls in the Stars

Book 35 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year – almost done!  My link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from there.

Dungeon Crawler Carl continues to captivate me. I recently finished the 6th book in the Matt Dinniman series, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (2025).

The book continues the tale of Carl and Princess Donut’s descent into the deeper levels of the dungeon, playing in an intergalactic game show for the entertainment of the masses and the profit of the ruling classes. Carl has vowed to end the cruel practice and get revenge for the people of Earth by any means possible, and circumstances have rapidly been evolving to where he might just get that chance.

After slaying all the alien hunters on level 6, a quirk of the rules applied by another crawler propels everyone to level 8. Here, in simulation designed to replicate Earth in the weeks before the aliens essentially destroyed it, the crawlers are tasked with a new deckbuilding game. They must defeat and collect six monsters that will be converted into playing cards, and combat with other crawler groups or major enemies will play out both in the cards and in real time battles. Each crawler team must fight their way to a key that allows them to leave the level before it is destroyed, but not every group will be successful in getting a key. Then, the only way to survive is to take a key from another crawler team, condemning them to death. The system is clearly set up to bring out the worst survival instincts of the crawlers and cause a bloody massacre among them. Carl, however, has vowed that the alien hosts will not break him, and he has been rapidly learning how to weaponize the game rules in his favor…

Book 33 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year!  My link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from there.

I have continued my read through of all the currently published books in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman and have recently finished the 5th book in the series, The Butcher’s Masquerade (2025)!

The book continues Carl and his sassy talking cat Princess Donut as they continue to fight their way down through levels of a deadly dungeon as part of a game show for an intergalactic alien civilization. Earth was essentially leveled by this civilization in order to make the show, and if Carl and Donut can survive to level 11, they can buy their freedom. If they can “win” the deepest level, level 18, they can win the freedom of the entire Earth… but no crawler in the history of the games has made it past level 15.

Book 31 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Dungeon Crawler Carl books are really helping me make my goal. My link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from there.

The Dungeon Crawler Carl series continues to be literary cocaine for me: incredibly addictive and nearly impossible to quit! Most recently, I finished book 4 of the series, The Gate of the Feral Gods, by Matt Dinniman (2025).

A quick recap of the series again, to be thorough: Earth has been conquered by an intergalactic alien conglomerate that has killed (or recycled) most of the population of the planet, and coerced a large number of those remaining into participating in a for profit game show/bloodsport: Dungeon Crawler World. Carl, a Coast Guard vet, and his ex-girlfriend’s cat Princess Donut (who is now sentient and powerful and feisty for reasons I will not get into) have worked their way up the ranks into being some of the top crawlers in the game, even as the number of surviving crawlers has dwindled from millions to hundreds of thousands. If they survive to level 11, they can buy out their freedom — at an unspecified cost. If they survive level 18, they can free the entire Earth, but no crawler in the history of the games has ever made it past level 15.

The games are moderated by a super-intelligent AI that runs everything like a computer roleplaying game. The crawlers have extradimensional inventory spaces, stats and skills that can grow with experience or be buffed by magic items, and classes that provide extra skills and powers. They have to “grind” for more experience by killing monsters and completing quests to gain enough power to survive the deeper levels. And they’re on the clock: they have to find a stairwell to the next level and escape before a timer runs out and collapses the floor they’re on, killing anyone remaining.