What it is
One day, aliens turn Earth into a multi-level dungeon and broadcast the whole thing as a reality TV show for the galaxy to watch. The survivors become crawlers, forced to descend through increasingly deadly floors while the alien audience watches, bets, and occasionally intervenes. Carl is an ordinary guy, and Princess Donut is his ex-girlfriend's very fancy show cat who turns out to be extraordinarily suited to dungeon survival.
That premise sounds absurd, and it is. But Dinniman plays it completely straight while simultaneously being very funny about it. The result is unlike almost anything else I've read.
Why I can't stop reading it
Even though everything is happening in the dungeon, the story is galaxy spanding. Dinniman has done a great job of somehow keeping a massive story constantly entertaining, intelligent and sometimes heartbreaking.
It took a while to realise just how clever Carl really is. I enjoyed when I could work out what his plan to get out of the current situation was, and even more so when it surprised me so much.
And the best part of the book (which I have asked AI to replcate in more places than I care to admit) is the sassy AI. Its kind of unique in a way that it can iteract with the crawlers, but they cant interact with it. This creates some uncertainty into what the AI actually means, or what is happening, and I love the dynamic
The AI messages often have me in tears .
Reading four books in a row
I didn't plan to. I finished book one and started book two the same evening. The pacing is propulsive: each book ends at a moment that makes stopping feel unreasonable. Dinniman clearly planned the arc across the series rather than writing each installment in isolation, and it shows. The threads that seem incidental in book one are paying off by book three.
I'm mid-way through book four as I write this and have no intention of stopping. High recommendation, especially if you've bounced off LitRPG before, this one earns its genre in ways others don't.