Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

Gah, how is the second book in this series even better than the astonishing first?

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario is, granted, not a perfect book. There’s still a lot of information dumping — an almost inevitable part of the LitRPG genre — and some bits that verge on deus ex machina. It’s also unforgiving of people who haven’t come immediately from the first book, as I spent a lot of time going “who?!” in the first few pages alone. Granted, this might be a problem solely with the edition I read: later ones might have a Previously, On Dungeon Crawler Carl section? But goddamnit, Donut, this is still one of the best novels of post-apocalyptic speculative fiction I’ve ever read. It was so gripping, I finished it in less than 24 hours, laughing out loud and crying several times throughout.

Carl, Donut and Mongo have now descended to Level 3 of the televised dungeon that flattened Earth for the entertainment of billions of alien viewers. On this level, the player characters can switch their races and specialize in a class. Donut, ofc, has no interest in being anything but her perfect cat self. Mindful of the advice they received from a former player turned popular talk show host, the duo make other canny choices to help them survive further levels of the game.

The game itself introduces our intrepid players to NPC cities and quests. While they’ve been separated from the group they were helping out at the end of Book One, they find themselves with new allies and obligations as they try to survive Level 3. The game is brutal but Carl is determined to hold on to his humanity, never forgetting how innocents are being killed, sometimes repeatedly, for the sole purpose of making money for the corporation in charge.

While that epiphany was one of the biggest emotional milestones of the first book, CDS focuses a little more on the bond between Carl and Donut. I literally gasped when Carl made the huge faux pas of telling Donut that a pet wasn’t a child. Given their own relationship, I know that that unthinking statement — made in reference to Mongo as Donut’s pet — will totally come back to bite Carl in the butt in future books, which I’m trying to ration out to myself at the rate of one a month. I just hope I do a better job of remembering names when I pick up Book 3!

One last note: as a Malaysian reader I was totally thrown off by the use of the word “krasue” instead of the more familiar-to-me langsuir or penanggalan. It’s so interesting to read of other niche versions of the niche monsters I already know! Kudos to Matt Dinniman for exploring beyond even the exotic territory I’m already familiar with for his story.

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman was first published January 6 2021 by Dandy House and is available from all good booksellers, including