It's two in the morning, and Carl quickly puts his leather jacket on, along with his girlfriend's pink crocs sandals, just before running outside wearing only his boxers. He has no idea why her damn cat, Princess Donut, chose that moment to run out into the cold, but it's a show cat and worth more than Carl makes in a year, so he better go get it. That's when the world as we know it, comes to an end. An alien race has arrived and instantly destroyed every structure on the planet, transforming the destroyed matter into a worldwide, eighteen level dungeon full of monsters for an intergalactic game show. Everyone that was in a structure is already dead, and everyone outside now had a choice to make. Find a dungeon entrance within an hour and take their chances in the dungeon, or try to survive outside in a world with no structures remaining. It was way too cold for Carl and Donut to remain outside, especially the way Carl was dressed, which meant they had no choice at all.

This is a LitRPG story that obviously doesn't take itself too seriously. You as the reader get to experience this dungeon crawl through Carl's experiences, and you learn the rules just as he does. Each crawler starts at level 1 and is assigned stats based on their physical abilities. The dungeon features a tutorial, mob and item descriptions, and achievements that offer rewards. This is basically a giant MMO run by an AI with a sarcastic attitude (and a foot fetish) and the entire experience is televised throughout the galaxy.  Viewers get to follow their favorite crawlers, and of course, the more followers you get, the more rewards you receive. Most of the mob descriptions and achievements are humorous in nature, and it is easy for any online gamer to feel at home reading this book. New Achievement! "Fall into an obvious trap."

This first book in the series covers the first two floors of the dungeon and establishes the relationship between Carl and Donut. While there are plenty of things I would have preferred were done differently, especially the mob types, this is still one of the more entertaining LitRPG books I have ever read. From the dungeon crawl itself, to the humorous AI, and the bigger picture intergalactic politics behind the scenes, this is an apocalyptic tale like no other.

The audiobook version is well narrated by Jeff Hays and takes advantage of production effects to create the pseudo game environment, giving some flavor to when things like achievements pop up. Definitely worth a listen.