Augur

Here. We. Go.

You need to read “Dungeon Crawler Carl.”

On the surface, it is “Hunger Games” meets “Hitchhiker’s Guide” (and they both play “World of Warcraft.”) After conquering Earth via bureaucratic loophole, aliens force the few surviving humans to navigate a lethal dungeon while the galaxy watches, bets, and laughs.

But these books (there are currently seven) aren’t really about gory monster battles and gruesomely hilarious traps.

They’re about regular people confronting a world built to crush their spirits and to make them turn on one another.

They’re about how a down-on-his-luck former Coast Guard named Carl and his talking Persian cat, Princess Donut, refuse to give up on each other, and refuse to tolerate a world where the strong prey upon the weak.

They are goofy and ridiculous, occasionally filthy, and they will absolutely double you over with laughter and then break you with an ugly-crying jag. As often as not, though, the tears aren’t from sadness, but from the sheer unexpected impact of hope.

They were just what we needed in 2025, and it is possible we’ve already started reading them again.

It’s also possible that we asked the original cover artist, Luciano Fleitas, to envision the four of us as Dungeon Crawlers. We couldn’t be more delighted with the result.

Matt Dinniman, if you see this, thank you.