2026 Mid-Year Reading Wrap-Up

Of course, no talk about the start of 2026 would be complete without mention of a brand new, to me at least, genre, that of lit RPG.

Towards the end of 2025, I started seeing a brightly coloured pile of books appearing on my Instagram feed and Several readers I follow were recommending the bizarrely titled Dungeon Crawler Carl so much that I have to admit my curiosity was piqued.

I added the first book to my Christmas list, and when it didn't appear in the book-shaped present pile on the day, and I got quite a few, I ordered it immediately.

In fact, I was sitting there as my sister was preparing the gravy for Christmas dinner, ordering books on Waterstones, and I didn't only order that one.

I had to know what was so special about this book that fantasy girlies were rushing in droves to pick it up and read it.

Dungeon Crawler Carl wasn't exactly my first read of the year.

That honour goes to The Last Star-Born Seer by Venetia Constantine.

And please do go and listen to that interview.

Fantastic writer with an incredible story to tell.

But it was an enjoyable one that I quickly followed with Carl's Doomsday Scenario and the Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook.

At the time, these three were the only traditionally published books in the series available in the UK.

So I padded out the rest of January and a lot of February and some of March with other books.

and then enjoyed books four through eight over the next few months, when they finally became available, of course.

The funny thing is that while I really enjoyed all eight books in this series, I only awarded the seventh book, This Inevitable Ruin, a five-star rating.

I love Carl, Princess Dona and the other characters.

They're all honestly fantastic, especially the decapitated head who is Samantha and the ever-changing Mordecai.

The story is fun, the writing is quick, pithy, sarcastic and everything I really like about books such as Good Omens, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and several books by Tom Holt.

But that last quarter of a star isn't quite there in most of them, and I honestly don't know why.

I feel all the excitement as I'm reading the books, I follow the characters, cannot wait to see where the torturous journey through the dungeons is going to take them next, and what insanity the rather perverse AI is going to inflict on them, but that last bit is just missing.

All of that said, I am going to be sad when I leave this world for the last time with Book 10.

This week, Matt Dinnaman and Seth MacFarlane confirmed that the apocalypse will be televised as Dungeon Crawler Carl is to be made into a series for Peacock.

I am sort of anxious about it because the cast could make or break it.

Just look at the discussions on fourth wing forums regarding the possible casting choices for Zayden Riawson.

Whoever is cast there, there will be unhappy fans somewhere and they will be shouting about it.

Of course, Dungeon Crawler Carl and its follow-ups weren't Dinnaman's only releases this year, and I think that Operation Bounce House, which was released in February, experienced a more mixed reception than the popular Alien Invasion series.