Spoiler Alert: This story contains major spoilers for “A Parade of Horribles,” the eighth book in Matt Dinniman’s “Dungeon Crawler Carl” series.
The RPG novel series “Dungeon Crawler Carl” ended its eighth installment, “Parade of Horrors,” with several bombshells that shake up the journey of Carl, Princess Donut, Mongo, Ren, and their expanded party.
But among the many revelations to Karl readers (Dungeon AI is not artificial intelligence; it’s the collective intelligence of a seemingly extinct primal race; the Ninth Scolopendra attack is a retelling of history, not a myth; and Samantha is absolutely more important to this whole thing than Karl ever suspected), the most outlandish surprise was the one writer Matt Dinniman hadn’t planned for when he started writing the final pages of Karl. 8th book.
Not only does Carl fight and “defeat” the dungeon’s ultimate boss, the towering and terrifying Scolopendra, but he and Donut inadvertently turn the archvillain into an attractive companion for Carl. And it looks like they’ll be stuck with her as the party tries to get from the 12th floor they’re currently on to the 18th floor before time runs out in this season’s “Dungeon Crawler World.”
“The way I write, when I get into a scene, especially a big scene, I don’t know how it’s going to go. I have no idea,” Dinniman told Variety. “I have no idea. The book ends with Carl summoning the final boss of the dungeon, which is a surprise in itself. I never expected to do something like that. I knew Carl had the ability to summon two creatures on the floor, but when I first gave him that ability, I didn’t know what to choose. When I was writing it, I didn’t know what he was going to do. I wanted to have him summon the final boss of the dungeon, but I didn’t want it to be like every other story, where there are explosions and battles and you don’t even remember what happened, you just remember that he defeated the bad guy, and I don’t want that.
“So when Prepotente had this problem with Pet Biscuit, I ended up adding that scene much earlier. In fact, I wrote it around the same time and then added it to the beginning of the book. So Patreon readers can see that scene until near the end. I didn’t see it — if that makes sense. So I planted the seed of the existing pet biscuit and then added a scene where Scolopendra gets the wrong pet biscuit (from a donut during a battle) and transforms into a sexy Scolopendra. ”
Will the official character name be decided in the future? Is that what we call her?
“We think so,” Dinniman said before the book was released. “I was actually waiting to see if people would start doing that, because I’ve already written Volume 9 and I’m calling her Sexy Scolopendra. I don’t know if it’s going to stay this way.
With Scolopendra no longer an enemy but a new member of the crew, will the final two books in the Dungeon Crawler Karl series be about a race to the end rather than a finale to a big battle? (A race in which Karl is determined in his heart to ensure that others survive, even if he is left behind.)
“That’s right,” Dinniman said. “It’s a race to never end.”
Read the rest of Variety’s interview with Dinniman about “A Parade of Horribles,” including the latest on the live-action “Dungeon Crawler Carl” TV series.
In this book, how did you decide how much time to spend on the 10th floor and how much time to spend on the 11th floor?
I knew I had to make this book a little shorter than the last one because it was a little too long. I mean, I think I promised people I wouldn’t end the book in the middle of the floor. So I wanted most of it to be on the 10th floor. Because I thought it didn’t matter what happened on the 11th floor. And I didn’t know what it was going to be, but I had an idea that it was going to be shortened. It’s fast like the 7th floor, but different. Things go by very, very quickly because I’m probably going to be doing quite a bit in the last two books. I would like to see all 18 floors, but basically there are only two books available from the 12th to the 18th floor.
Let’s talk about going to all 18 floors. Because if Scolopendra is currently on the 11th floor, I’m starting to have a bit of a headache figuring out what the 18th floor is. Because the 18th floor was previously Club Scolopendra in Scolopendra.
It’s a large empty room now. But there’s a door.
It was a shame that Mordecai appeared less in this book.
We’ll look more closely at Mordecai in the next book. absolutely.
The book concludes with many revelations, including the fact that the Scolopendra myth is not a myth at all and that the initial attack was real. What is currently happening in the dungeon is based on real events. And the next part of the attack is called “This Inescapable Doom,” which happens to be the title of Volume 7. What does this mean?
Now I’m backtracking. So all the titles are intentional.
So, will the attack somehow lead us to the “doomsday device” (the title of volume 2)?
Let’s take a look.
You’ve been teasing for a while that Dungeon Crawler Carl’s AI is different from your average artificial intelligence, and now it’s confirmed. Just to be clear: is AI the collective consciousness of a seemingly extinct primordial race?
AI stands for collective intelligence, not artificial intelligence.
So since Carl has been primal since the beginning of the dungeon, is it inherently tied to Carl and his consciousness?
Let’s take a look. you don’t need to know. I know the story, but I don’t know what to do with it yet. Because there’s a lot going on in his head and there are different ways this could end.
The “river” that Karl refers to flows through my head, and it feels like it grows more intense the longer the dungeon goes on. Is there more to this, or are fans reading too much into all these references?
It’s a little bit of both. I know what a river is.
Samantha leaves the group at the end of the book, but we don’t know why or what her larger purpose is here. Is that planned yet?
Samantha is a great example of knowing exactly who she is but not knowing how it will pay off.
There are two books left in the series. You just said the order of the titles is reversed, what does that mean for your plans for the final two titles?
i don’t know yet. We have a pretty good idea what the title of Book 10 will be, but we don’t know what it’s going to be about. That’s what I have to fear. This is something that is actively moving around in my brain at this very moment. So let’s think of something. It’s okay.
Not “Karl” Your new book “Operation Bounce House” is available as audibook on Spotify. In fact, during a panel discussion at BookCon, a fan asked if your books were available on various platforms, including libraries. How did the partnership with Spotify come about?
In particular, we sold Operation Bounce House to Penguin Random House. And when we sold it to them, we sold them the whole kit and caboodle. They acquired the rights to the e-book, physical book, and audio. And PRH audio isn’t exclusive to Audible, what they’re doing is spreading the word. It’s in the library system, it’s on Spotify, it’s on Audible. That’s why “Operation Bounce House” is so spacious. That’s the term we use, wide. It’s great that it’s available on all audio platforms.
As of earlier this month, the “Carl” e-book is now available in libraries via the Libby app. Do you think there is a possibility for audiobooks to be made available to libraries and other platforms?
We signed an exclusive deal with Audible pretty early on in our career, and it will stay with Audible for as long as that deal is in place. However, as I mentioned on the (BookCon) panel, in the early days I listed my e-books on Kindle Unlimited. Because I still own the rights to the e-book. Because that’s what most smart RPG authors do, and I promised my readers that it would stay on Kindle Unlimited. And Kindle Unlimited gives you access to e-books exclusive to Kindle Unlimited. But recently, due to pressure from fans, they allowed the library system to list this book because they consider it a non-competitor. And the moment that happened, I allowed them to be in the library system. Now you can borrow the “Carl” ebook from the library system, and I’m hoping to talk to Audible to do the same with audiobooks. In fact, I think it can happen if there’s enough pressure. So it would be nice if fans could put pressure on Audible and allow the library to do it. That would be great.
It has been announced that a live-action “Dungeon Crawler Carl” television series has been established at Peacock. What made it the perfect location for this film, and what inspired you to move forward with live-action during development?
So live-action has always been a hot topic. Because we wanted to try live action. Seth MacFarlane’s company, Fuzzy Door, already produces a show called “Ted” on Peacock. And they had a great relationship and were very happy to get there. And what else is going on, I personally don’t see much of it. To be honest, nothing has changed since we last spoke. The news had already happened, it just hadn’t been announced yet.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
