I have all 5 of these on Audible as well as Kindle. I find them very appealing, and with the wide cast of actors that give an incredible range of voices to their characters, I listen to them frequently.
Since I read these in Kindle format first, it was rather startling that the voices were SO very different. Now I can’t imagine them any other way.
Surviving humans have taken upgrades in various species traits, mostly based on alien creatures and fantastic adventures, with only a scant few remaining as full human. Some have been maimed in their progress through the dungeon floors, moving ever downward by stairway…if they survive.
Carl and the cat, Donut, have made their way to the 6th floor, where alien hunters are stalking them in search of their gear. It’s political, it’s survival, it’s Mad Max in litrpg form.
It’s so complex that it’s difficult to explain. Read/listen to the books in order, and you’ll get acquainted with the Dungeon Crawler contest, officiated over by aliens ranging from a brain worm in a fish bowl to beings called derisively, “mud skippers.”
Volume V shows that at least a portion of the humans that were presumed dead when the aliens conquered Earth, have actually survived in various camps on the surface, being harvested occasionally for purposes only aliens understand. One of those is Carl’s former girlfriend, who owned Donut. Animals are being kept up there, too, including various stray cats that were studied to see which one was Donut’s unrequited love, Ferdinand. Ferdinand’s actual name is Gravy Boat. Now Beatrice, the girlfriend, and Ferdinand are going to show up on a talk show interview, unbeknownst to Carl and Donut. The reactions are interesting. Donut is no longer just a cat, having been upgraded in size, intelligence, charisma, and many magical attributes. What will she think of Ferdinand now?
It all wraps up in a grand melee battle at the Butcher’s Ball.