Matt Dinniman’s beloved LitRPG series, Dungeon Crawler Carl, has taken the reading world by storm. Having achieved New York Times bestseller status, the seven-book series follows an ex-Coast Guard veteran named Carl as he navigates the apocalypse: a dungeon filled with the remnants of humanity, run by the very aliens that brought on the end of the world. Oh, and did I mention it’s all a part of a twisted intergalactic reality TV show?
If you’ve torn through these books as quickly as most readers, you know Carl (and Princess Donut) will continue their dark adventure with the series’ eighth installment, A Parade of Horribles, releasing on May 12. But if you’re looking for something to scratch the itch in the meantime, here are five LitRPG and progression fantasy books to keep you company.
He Who Fights with Monsters
To be the hero or the villain
If you like a weak-to-strong character arc and an isekai storyline (where a character suddenly finds themselves transported to an unfamiliar fantasy world), He Who Fights with Monsters deserves a top slot on your TBR list. Jason is your typical Australian office drone who suddenly wakes up in a mysterious world filled with magic, monsters, other adventurers, and a unique power system. As Jason earns his powers, he realizes that they aren’t the expected skill set for a hero.
As his dark and sinister abilities clash directly with his desire to be a good person, Jason must learn not just to navigate his new world and stay alive, but to rise as a formidable opponent on dangerous ground. With 4.36 stars and over 42,000 ratings on Goodreads, He Who Fights with Monsters is a spectacular fantasy follow-up to the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
The Primal Hunter
Thriving in a dangerous new reality
Another isekai read, Jake (yet another regular office drone) is transported away from his classic 9-to-5 life just to find himself in a deadly tutorial. Why? Unbeknownst to the human race, the universe hit a threshold that folded Earth into a vast multiverse that plays by game-like rules — filled with power, of course.
Jake is forced to hunt, fight, and level up if he wants to survive. But as his coworkers begin to fall around him, Jake wonders if this new reality was the one he was meant to be in all along. The Primal Hunter has 4.25 stars on Goodreads with over 21,000 ratings, and it’s an approachable LitRPG with familiar class choices that make it easy to sink into — especially for DCC fans.
Discount Dan
Eerie Backrooms survival
If you’re chronically online like I am, you remember the Backrooms phenomenon that took social media by storm a few years ago. If you thought the weird animations and AI-generated videos were uncanny but strangely addictive, Discount Dan should be your next read. Dan gets dropped into a bizarre extradimensional world stitched together by discount stores, empty commercial spaces, and super-surreal danger zones. The goal is survival, obviously, but to do so will require some open-minded alliance-making and harnessing the strange magic that seems to run the place. Oh, all while he has a target on his back, too.
Written in a similar LitRPG-style to Dungeon Crawler Carl, Discount Dan has 4.19 stars and over 2,000 ratings on Goodreads. The Backrooms-style dungeon is a creepy shift away from classic fantasy or horror, but it folds in the surprising dark humor you know and love from DCC.
Jake’s Magical Market
Modern markets and cruel new gods
Another Jake, but a very different story: this Jake works in a neighborhood market beneath his apartment when the world ends. But it wasn’t nuclear war, climate change, or even infrastructure fallout that brought on the apocalypse — it was a cruel set of gods from another world. And they don’t just turn his world upside down, they rearrange the entire Earth as he knew it.
When monsters, dungeons, and magical items appear all over the world, everyone simultaneously gains access to a new magical card system. Jake might just be a shopkeeper with a bad hand, but he quickly finds himself on an adventure to exploit the new system and find his place in the new world. Jake’s Magical Market has 4.34 stars on Goodreads with over 6,700 ratings.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic
High stakes tower-test progression
Tower-test lovers, this one’s for you. Five years after Corin Cadence’s brother vanished after entering the legendary Serpent Spire, it’s time for Corin to step in after him. Filled with monsters, traps, and constantly-shifting rooms, those who survive the tower-test come back home with magical powers bestowed upon them by the spire’s goddess herself. For Corin, it’s about finding out what truly happened to his brother all those years before.
Corin must make friends, unravel mysteries, and progress through an academy-style story if he wants to survive the upper level dangers. With 4.10 stars and well over 27,000 ratings on Goodreads, Sufficiently Advanced Magic is a beloved addition to the fantasy category in LitRPG stories.
