BONUS STATUS REPORT: My stomach is currently considering the implications of the vegan corn dog I ate for lunch. We got it from Delhaize. Package says it is “Korean-style” but I have no idea what such words might mean in such a context. It was good but the Best By Date for Doug to eat anything like microwaveable food was something 2015. We’ll see.

I appreciate that I tend to get long-winded in every. single. post. And that this has a chilling effect. I put off writing things because I know I am going to write for days to say just a few basic things. Can I change this about myself to get back into more casual shit-posting? I don’t know.

Both of these unrelated things are just building up to having two limitations – my stomach is on stage 2 of contemplation, stage 3 is of an unknown character – as I type up a super quick (*wink*) response to the fact that I signed up for Matt Dinniman’s Patreon page so I could keep up with the Dungeon Crawler Carl books as they trickled out as well as the increasing sea of ephemera. Book 8, A Parade of Horribles, has just now – in the past day or so – wrapped up and there’s an unknown gap before “Book 9” [which is sort of like Books 9 and 10, according to the author, though how that really plays out I do not know].

CAVEAT 1: the version of the book published to the Patreon is something like a polished rough draft, with scenes and elements cut and altered before the finished book. Things get added to make later scenes make more sense. Things get cut for time. A later update will say something like, “Oh, I added a few paragraphs about this…,” and then have those paragraphs out of context. That is to say you gain something for reading them this way but you also kind of lose the final edit and polish.

CAVEAT 2: I am going to spoil nothing in plain-text, but will obfuscate a few words and sentences if I feel they might spoil things. Only click them if you don’t care about DCC, don’t care much about spoilers, or are prone to forgetting. Oh, I guess if you have already read the thing, that too. Though some elements of speculation included might irritate you if you hate that sort of thing.

THOUGHTS AT THE END OF BOOK 8 IN ITS CURRENT FORM

Goddamnit, Matt.

The last few chapters had so many things hitting at such a huge scale that I had to physically get up and walk around a couple of times. It was punching. Super good. Even the “stupidity” of the last big plot shift before the epilogues. The lore dump is huge and I would say that I had already guessed around 90% of it as explained. It’s kind of just there in the text already, with some between-the-lines reading.

One element – SZwS SZr zbHSZroweG pw1 1H3r 1HeS Hi wDSA-I4FHyA1S SZwS erber1rDS1 FAir 14ePAPADy AD A3breiroSAHD – was kind of a new one to me.

ROoSO oM 3OdW r6MMoT1f 3odv 36 3Od “356 Oj1FdM TdS69oWb 6Wd, jbjoW” MUTr163 3Oj3 63Odm5oMd Kdd1M Fdmf dn3mjWd6UM vdMro3d TdoWb o9r6m3jW3 36 j3 1djM3 6Wd SOjmjS3dm jWv sjm1’M 6Fdmj11 bm653O 36 3Odmd TdoWb 96md 3OjW 6Wd vdKoWo3o6W 6K MUmFoFj1.

I think it has been somewhat there, that fact, but also never quite laid like that, especially in that it sets up, for instance, 8 mAfZSfZQ O7tZ77Q 48P6 8QS tA7 cK [tA7 fOILfsm fQ7], 8 mAfZSfZQ O7tZ77Q 48P6 8QS NfQst [tA7 P7866e S8lQ7S tP8DL0 fQ7, Ost K’l Qft msP7 LR K Zfs6S Ose Lt sQ67mm Lt Z8m *P7866e* RfP07S], fP 9fmmLO6e 8 mAfZSfZQ O7tZ77Q ofPS708L [tA7 9ftLfQm l8mt7P] 8QS qS7tt7 [tA7 lfmt 6Ly76e tf ZLQ ufSAffS], ZAL0A Lm 9ft7QtL866e tA7 iJuz 98e fst tA8t DLI7m 48P6 tA7 fQ6e fst A7 08Q D7t.

THOUGHTS OF THE BOOK PRIOR TO THE LAST 10%

Trying to be really unspoilery, but there is a tonal shift between the first 90% or of the book and the last 10%. My math might be off, especially if the full-release of the book trims some chapters. There is a moment where the general scope changes. It all makes sense in the context of the dungeon, and is telegraphed. ANYHOW…

I suspect that for a some people the vibe difference between Book 7 and Book 8 will be jarring, in that the parts that made Book 7 rough to take are still there but the parts that made Books 1-6 beloved are kind of not.

In a lot of ways, Book 7 is the kind of book that tends to end most series. A big build up with a huge number of threads and a lot of stakes and deaths and shifts.

Book 8, until that final “10%” is much more like the earlier books with Carl and Co having to bounce off a never ending series of rules and rails and changes. Only without the more “innocent” joy that was often in those books where every impossible problem was solved with stupid (or sometimes stupidly smart) solutions. That still happens, but it feels a lot less like a person just a little too dumb to understand game design tripping over exploits and more like a person being given a bunch of extra saving throws because they are dating the DM.

It also commits the usual sin of such fiction – one shared by a lot of the type – that the series starts out as effectively a story about people working together and then they find more friends and allies and it all about a group of beautiful people weathering horrible things then it gets to BIG BOY LORE GOD mode and those friendships start taking back seat to mechanics.

Dinniman course corrects around the half-way point, and does a good job of it, but by then you have several of the “lessons” learned from previous books just gone and some extra characters just deeply underutilized. Book 7 set up a lot of interesting things for Books 8+ but character growth comes really close to stuttering until its hard forced to take a step back from the edge.

Dungeon Crawler Carl is the kind of series that turns baby (goblin) killing atrocities into a kind of wry joke that you laugh out but kind of hate laughing at. The 7th book had to set some of that aside, and make you actually really hate baby (goblin) killing, but the 8th book makes a misstep in leaving it set aside too long, I think. It needed to step forward or step back and it just of stepped in place for a good bit of it.

Very few non-Carl – maybe not even Donut – characters really get a chance to act to their fullest. There are exceptions, for sure, and some absolutely lovely moments but its the rails of the earlier books hitting the seriousness of the 7th.

I still really, really enjoyed it, but I missed the sense of a group of friends sitting around a table playing a roleplaying together that other books had managed to hit. Despite the atrocities they were living through or maybe because of them. This is largely just friends having to suffer.

aK7 C XLLmDSqXQD RnbD nF QdD QnKX9 RdqFQ qR QdD RQq9QD7 9n2D RQnmh VDQODDK gXm9 XK7 vXQqX XK7 dnO dD dXR 9nRQ nKD nF dqR qbLnmQXKQ SDKQDmR Qn dqR SdXnR.

THE RE-LISTEN AND THREE PIECES OF ABSOLUTELY BASELESS SPECULATION

Not much to say here, but have been – much more slowly – going back through the audiobooks and just enjoying them in bursts of half-an-hour-to-an-hour a day. I’ll either have to increase the time or speed up the read-speed when I get to the later, chonkier books. The idea is just to continue to enjoy them but also listen out for a bunch of details that got buried under the weight of so many damned characters and threads.

While doing it, I started sorting through my wild speculation mental folder, and I have come up with a few ideas [though one I already wrote above, I will put it down here]:

  • [Not really spoiling any book, but I’ll still obfuscate it, but about something that happens early on, very early on] K3 bOU3 kW8dQ O8G tOvz qyNvWwOwzR OcOu3. kW8dQ zOQ3v fORf fb3 QbWdCbQ fb3 b3OvG m3vGq8O8G gOzzq8C b3v. tOvz cOf cOuq8C dN 4vWy O 8qCbQyOv3. ib3f3 QcW Qbq8Cf z3OG QW Qb3y w3q8C Owz3 QW 38Q3v Qb3 Gd8C3W8. 1’U3 cW8G3v3G 4Wv O yq8dQ3 q4 Qbqf cOf z3OGq8C dN QW fWy3 uq8G W4 NzWQ NWq8Q, 3fN3gqOzzR fq8g3 zOQ3v C3Q 8WQ3f OwWdQ fWy3Qbq8C 4dguR w3q8C dN cqQb m3vGq8O8G O8G Qb3 4WWG fQd44, 3Qg.
  • [Book 7] vs3KIQC lZL LhQ s0 zss6 j, ybw4L zsY CKgC CZL QsLCh’l 0LLF KhglZwhO 3ZLh CZL lsb4ZLC AKIF QLCPwlL 8LwhO K8FL ls ILKQ Cs5LshL 8g lsb4Z. c KF5sCl lK6L lZwC KC K 6whQ s0 “c 0LLF rslZwhO” 3Zw4Z ZKC FsIL wh lZL OK5L/hsNLFC. vZKl lZLIL wCh’l l3s PFKgLIC – lZL abFsOwCl NC 7PslZL4KIg – 8bl K4lbKFFg lZILL KhQ AKIF ILPILCLhlC lZKl bCL s0 vZL rslZwhO wh OK5L KC K 5LlKPZsI hsl LNLh lZL 7c bhQLIClKhQC gLl.
  • [Book 8] I1b wSpb q 91sEl uCSP9 s9, 91b wSpb q’w 5pb99y WPpb 91u9 9HS CbsEVW CbsEV 8SwCsEbJ 9SVb91bp sW VSsEV 9S Cb 91b esEuz uEWHbp. q HuW 91sElsEV 91b Xq uEJ…dupz? dupz uEJ 2SEP9? FSPsW uEJ QuwuE91u? q JSE’9 lESH. dupz + 91b Xq uEJ 91bE 1b 9ps5W 91b 2SSwWJuy? 3SW9 Se wy uEWHbpW ebbz rbpy 8zs81b.

In the context of that last one, bfT3 OfdSY bfTF5 fk3 k o6Ybbe 3Y6TY3 ZfōFYF HkF5k sT1Y kFl Pk6S’3 k3gYF3TdF 3YYH3 kSHd3b 58k6kFbYYl….18b OY’SS 3YY..

Anyhow, enough of all that. I’m off to play some Dragon Quest VII and grind job tiers.

Also, Stage 3 has been fine. Stage 4, we’ll see, but I think the hot dog passes the “won’t make Doug want to die” test.