This 8-part masterpiece is destined to become your next sci-fi obsession

Remember when young adult sagas like Twilight and The Hunger Games took the world by storm? Those book series were inescapable pop-culture cornerstones for quite a long time, burning even brighter once their movie adaptations landed in theaters and dominated the box office. There hasn't really been a series of books with that kind of popularity since then, but author Matt Dinniman seems to have met the moment and actually crafted a genre-bending story that has captured the attention of millions.

Dungeon Crawler Carl has been steadily gaining momentum since the first book was released back in 2020, but its popularity has reached an all-time high over the last year or so. In addition to being mainstays on Audible and Kindle Unlimited, each book has recently hit the mass market and hardbacks have been available at every major book retailer. The epic LitRPG adventure has sold over 10 million copies across the eight books that have been released so far, and is now on the cusp of branching into the world of comics, television, and gaming.

The story of Carl and Princess Donut is on the cusp of taking over just about every avenue of pop culture, especially when Seth MacFarlane's highly anticipated TV adaptation makes its debut on Peacock. Perhaps the most exciting part of this popularity explosion, though, is that Dungeon Crawler Carl is every bit as good as the hype suggests.

What Is 'Dungeon Crawler Carl'?

If you aren't already familiar, Dungeon Crawler Carl is a LitRPG about a galactic reality show that sends a planet's inhabitants through a deadly, 18-level dungeon and watches on as they hopelessly try to survive. At the start of the first book, Earth is chosen as the subject of the next season, and a man named Carl enters the dungeon with his ex-girlfriend's prize-winning cat, Princess Donut.

It's hard to describe what happens next, because this book series touches on so many different genres and themes, but it's largely about the remaining people of Earth coming together and not just fighting to survive the dungeon, but to take out the forces behind the crawl in the first place. Donut gains the ability to talk and a human-level intelligence (though remains a cat), they are thrown into dungeon floors themed after endless subway mazes and Pokemon card-style battle games, and the entire saga is topped with a heaping helping of laugh-out-loud humor.

There hasn't really been anything else like Dungeon Crawler Carl, especially when you're talking about the level of popularity it has reached. The eighth book in the series, A Parade of Horribles, just launched earlier this year to amazing sales, a tabletop RPG based on the books shattered crowdfunding records, and DCC merch has started showing up at retail giants like Target and Walmart. To hit this level of popularity without any kind of TV show or movie is rare, but Dungeon Crawler Carl isn't slowing down any time soon.

More 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' on the Way

As far as the books are concerned, Dungeon Crawler Carl is actually close to the end of its run. Dinniman has already confirmed that the next chapter of DCC will be its last, but that final story is being split into two books. So, while it's technically going to be two parts of the same book, there will be two more releases before Dungeon Crawler Carl ends. Dinniman is already writing that final book now, but it'll likely be at least next year before the first part arrives, giving any new fans plenty of time to jump aboard the bandwagon and read through the rest of the series (at least once, if not more).

While the books are almost finished, the TV show is just ramping up, and that has the potential to become one of the biggest hits around. It should have no problem taking over as the biggest show in Peacock's history right after it launches. And unlike a show like Game of Thrones, which was also based on a bestselling book series, Dungeon Crawler Carl will have the added benefit of an ending to the story. From the beginning, the creative team will have the end in sight, so there won't be any sort of massive narrative fumble in the show's final seasons.

Once the show arrives, expect the interest in the books to spike yet again, creating a cycle that only helps the Dungeon Crawler Carl star burn brighter and brighter.