CBR17 Bingo: Rec’d (I honestly don’t know how many people have raved about this book, on CBR, other review sites on the internet, as well as in my IRL book club)
By now, most people who are even vaguely interested in this series probably know what it’s about, but I’ll try to give a brief summary.
Carl is wandering around, half-dressed in the snow, looking for his ex-girlfriend’s prize-winning Persian cat, when Earth is suddenly attacked by aliens. All the buildings collapse in an instant and are pushed underground, and anyone who was in any of those buildings is instantly dead. Only the individuals on the surface still have a meagre chance at survival. Those on the surface are given the choice of having to fend for themselves on the surface or go underground and become a player in the Dungeon Crawler World, a multi-level labyrinth game broadcasted as prime time entertainment to the galaxy (in Carl’s case, he pretty much only has the one option, since it’s freezing outside and he’s only half-dressed).
So Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, become contestants in the Dungeon Crawler Game. Princess Donut quickly learns to speak, and she and Carl, despite the extremely steep learning curve, become a good team (but not without some disagreements and conflicts along the way). They need to learn how to fight and how to best and most effectively level up, and they need to become popular enough to get corporate sponsors and online followers throughout the galaxy, if they want to stay alive, which will only get harder and harder the longer they stay in the game.
Full review here.