Meet My Hyperfixation: Brooke & Dungeon Crawler Carl (but Mostly Princess Donut)
Okay, okay, I know Matt Dinneman’s LitRPG smash hit Dungeon Crawler Carl is having a moment. I can’t pretend to have been here first, but I was here before friend of mine and the agency, Dave Franco, and that means something to me. Anyway, if you’re new here, Dungeon Crawler Carl is an 8-tome (and counting) romp that follows Carl, a dude who finds himself fighting for survival on an elaborate intergalactic television show with his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, after aliens come and flatten Earth.
The first book in the series was the January selection for my book club, and to be honest, I kind of wanted to be a hater. I didn’t realize what a juggernaut it was becoming at the time, it just felt like some dude running around in boxers with little hearts on them in a video game narrative was… maybe going to be light on substance. As it turns out, Matt Dinneman is a hell of a storyteller. His characters are complex, his worldbuilding lush and his ability to create dynamic emotions in a sandbox that features an AI with a foot fetish is kind of shocking. It’s an incredible ride and the first series I’ve been head over heels for in a very long time. How exactly did it snatch my heart and my imagination? Let’s explore, shall we?
Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk is Everything
Titular characters may get all the glory, but they rarely own the hearts of the fandom. Such is the case for Carl, a well painted character who is easy to root for, and who is almost immediately upstaged by a cat. Donut, or more accurately Grand Champion, Breed Winner Regional, National Winner Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, is a Persian show cat who gains the ability to talk — and therefore steal every scene — shortly into the series. Donut has my entire heart. My fiancee says this is certainly because her arrival in my life coincided with cats moving into my house and our boy Ponder AGGRESSIVELY choosing me as his human. I do think I appreciate the cat peculiarities more now, but also, there is no world in which I would not have become obsessed with a dramatic girly who uses Gossip Girl as a framework to understand her new life and gets totally hammered nibbling on one alcohol-soaked cherry from a Dirty Shirley. I live for every “This is an outrage.” Everything Donut does is icon behavior. And yet, Donut is also the big beating heart of this whackadoodle series, you might say the Diva we deserve and the one we need right now.
The AI is A D*ck
Like everyone in the working world, I am so, so, so, so, so tired of the AI talk. Yes, our pal Claude is creating efficiencies and that’s lovely. But let’s be real, no one likes a know-it-all. The AI that controls the world of the game Carl and Donut find themselves in is a total psycho. Dinneman writes it with an increasing level of unhinged deviousness that gives classic sci-fi meets madcap creative angst. It is delicious. Whether it is manipulating the reward system to ensure Carl never gets a pair of pants or smashing up stereotypes to create uncanny bosses or you know, blackmailing folks, the system AI is at best a twit and at worst a homicidal maniac. The studied examination of unbridled data and power handed over is apt for our times and interesting to boot.
Jeff Hayes is A Talent
Everything Matt Dinneman put on the page is delightful. What Jeff Hayes does with the audiobooks is extraordinary. Minus a notable cameo exception, Hayes tackles every voice in the series. It’s not just that each character has a distinct voice. Somehow, Hayes deepens what’s there. He imparts emotion and motivation, revealing more from the source material, much as a director adapting a classic might. Too often the audiobook sample turns a maybe into a no. Thanks to Hayes, the listening experience turns a hell yeah into a “must babble about this to everyone I know.”
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Matt Dinneman is A Treasure
Drag me for being the most millennial I can be here if you must, but let’s just name it: There is a special kind of pain in deeply cherishing a work of art and later finding out its creator is standing ten toes down in opposition to everything they put on the page. We all catch my drift, right? Anyway… I have seen countless conversations online of folks desperately trying to confirm that Matt Dinneman isn’t going to disappoint us like that. Well, here’s the tea: he encourages fan art and the sale of it, as long as it’s not AI. He loves libraries and worked relentlessly to get his books available in ebook form on platforms like Libby. Audible still has exclusive rights to the audiobooks, but Dinneman has said he wants to bring Carl in every form to everyone. The series exists in a world where the worst parts of our society are not glossed over, but rather held up for examination and found wanting. And in the real world, he’s just as thoughtful. After losing the cats that inspired Princess Donut, he spoke about the grief, and the uncertainty that he and his family would ever be ready for another cat. When that changed, and they adopted another Persian cat in the style of Donut, he posted again, about their joy, but also about the cautions he’d make about the breed, lest Donut’s popularity inspire would-be cat parents to get into more cat-itude and need than meets the eye.
Do you have a hyperfixation we can exploit for the company’s amusement? Our superstar PM Margo would be happy to put you on the draft list! Let her know! Like, right now!