The Dungeon Crawler Carl franchise is having an incredible moment in the sun right now. The eighth book in the series, A Parade of Horribles, has just launched and immediately took the number one spot on the New York Times best sellers list. On top of that, the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook has been one of the best sellers on Audible for weeks and there is a new TV series on the way that’s being spearheaded by Seth MacFarlane.

It isn’t hard to see why, either. Matt Dinnimin has an incredible talent for combining raucous comedy with action-packed story telling and surprisingly poignant messaging. This has created a legion of loyal members of the Princess Posse who might be looking for their next read once they get caught up with the series. With that in mind, here are a few that you might want to consider.

Operation: Bounce House

If you’re a fan of Matt Dinnimin’s writing style and you’re starving for more of his prose than there’s plenty more of his work available outside the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. He has a fantasy-horror trilogy called The Shivered Sky, another LitRPG series called Dominion of Blades, and several stand alone novels. His most recent work outside of the DCC universe is a stand alone science fiction novel titled Operation Bounce House.

This might be the best choice for Carl fans to read next, as he wrote this one at the same time as A Parade of Horribles and it features much of the same dark comedic DNA. The story centers on a young man named Oliver Lewis who needs to defend his home against an invasion of vicious robots. This invasion has been gamified by corporations, with the robots being designed and piloted by players back on Earth. It has the same irreverent bones as DCC with new characters in an all new story.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

If you’re voyaging into the wider world of comedic science fiction then you might want to take a step back to one of the all time classics. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is probably the most noteworthy work ever to be written in the genre. The humor is more dry than Dungeon Crawler Carl, but you might find a sense of fraternity between them. The absolute absurdity of galactic bureaucracy and the feeling of a completely normal guy trapped in a cosmic circus might feel shockingly familiar.

The story kicks off with Arthur Dent, a regular guy who discovers that Earth is about to be casually demolished by an alien race in order to make way for a new interstellar bypass. What follows is a wild journey through a vibrant and chaotic universe.

While it doesn’t feature the same heavy action beats as Carl’s journey, Adams’ legendary wit and brilliant cosmic satire laid the groundwork for modern comedic science fiction. It’s a beautifully funny read from beginning to end. There are also five books in the main series, so it can keep you occupied for quite a while.

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries)

Those looking for a more modern and action-focused example of comedic sci-fi might be interested in checking out The Murdorbor Diaries series by Martha Wells. At its core, Dungeon Crawler Carl relies heavily on Carl’s internal monologue. He’s a deeply exhausted protagonist who happens to be incredibly good at violence, but he’s entirely fed up with everyone else’s nonsense and just wants a moment of peace. If that specific vibe is what keeps you turning pages, you’re going to love Murderbot.

The story focuses on a lethal security android that has managed to hack its own governor module, releasing itself from human control. Instead of going on a murderous rampage like its creators would expect, it actually just wants to be left alone so it can watch thousands of hours of soap operas. Unfortunately, its human clients are incredibly clumsy and constantly putting themselves in danger, forcing Murderbot to reluctantly save them over and over again. Most of these books are quite short, but Martha Wells packs a surprising amount of sci-fi action and corporate intrigue into such short novellas, and the narrator’s cynical, deeply relatable voice is easily the best part of the book. The first volume is titled All Systems Red, and there are currently eight books in the series.

Project Hail Mary

One of the most thrilling aspects of watching Carl navigate the dungeon is his frantic, creative problem-solving. Whether he’s building a fortress out of gym equipment, inventing his Jug’o Boom, or just throwing together new explosives to defeat the latest boss, Carl is a master of weaponizing his own ingenuity. Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary delivers that exact same kind of high-stakes engineering-focused problem solving.
The story follows a lone astronaut who wakes up with amnesia on a spaceship, only to slowly realize that he is humanity’s last hope to stop an extinction-level threat. In order to survive and solve the mystery, he has to rely on his own quick thinking and resourcefulness under extreme pressure. It is a relentless, optimistic survival story that keeps a fantastic pace, and it also happens to boast one of the most charming buddy character dynamics you’ll ever encounter.

Red Rising

While Red Rising admittedly has a much darker and more serious tone, there are some similarities that fans might appreciate. It doesn’t lean into comedy nearly as much as Dinniman’s work, or the other books on this list, but it merits a spot here because it too is primarily centered on an underdog violently tearing down a corrupt establishment from the inside.
The story follows Darrow, a low-caste miner who undergoes a brutal physical transformation in order to infiltrate the high-tech, genetically engineered ruling class of a color-coded empire. To succeed, he has to survive the Institute—a deadly meat-grinder of a game designed by the elites as a means of teaching Gold children how to survive and conquer, honing the strong and weeding out the weak. Darrow’s journey mirrors Carl’s trajectory in a number of ways. He is a regular guy who refuses to bow to the people pulling the strings, and he decides to completely break a rigged game through sheer tactical brilliance. It is an action-packed, high-stakes ride that will easily appeal to those who enjoyed the more intense sides of of DCC.
Another thing that they have in common is scale. Many people call the first Red Rising novel ‘Hunger Games in space’, but the series expands dramatically from there, escalating from small scale conflicts to intergalactic battles with chaotic energy that might feel familiar.

Thanks for reading

Hopefully, one of these books will help keep the post-dungeon blues at bay while we all collectively wait for the Princess Posse to ride again. If you enjoyed these recommendations, make sure to follow the blog! I regularly post new reading lists and updates about my own upcoming science fiction projects.

If you’re looking to branch out into some more introspective speculative fiction, please consider checking out my short story collection, Echoes of the Arcane. It’s a dark and somber, but occasionally humorous collection of science fiction and fantasy, packed with the kind of genre-bending stories that keep you turning pages late into the night.

Until next time, keep crawling, and happy reading!