A speculative fiction advent calendar of quotes: Dec. 18, 2025

Matt Dinniman’s hilarious novel Dungeon Crawler Carl (2020) is the first in a series of novels starring Carl and Donut as they navigate a world catastrophe (emphasis on the “cat”) requiring them to survive multiple levels of a fiendishly designed gamer dungeon. Their peril is being streamed to an alien audience of billions. The alien version of Twitch, I guess. This is LitRPG at its funniest, especially considering how ill-equipped Carl is for combat. On the book cover, you see him in his boxers with the pink hearts, being chased down by a goblin about to flatten him. As for Donut. . .she’s a survivor.