Five years ago, author Matt Dinniman launched his science fiction / fantasy / LitRPG series Dungeon Crawler Carl when he self-published the titular first novel…and quickly caught the attention of fans of LitRPG stories. Which, in turn, caught the attention of Ace Books, who started reprinting these novels in 2024.
With the sixth book, The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride, newly available from Ace in hardcover — just weeks after reissuing the fourth [The Gate Of The Feral Gods] and fifth [The Butcher’s Masquerade] — I spoke to Dinniman via email to talk about both this series and Bedlam Bride.
Photo Credit: Toby Dinniman
For people who haven’t read any of the Dungeon Crawler Carl novels, who is Carl, what does he do, what is this series about, and when and where do these stories take place?
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a book about a 27-year-old, ex-Coast Guard, marine electrician who, along with his ex-girlfriend’s prize-winning show cat, is forced to compete on an alien reality game show called Dungeon Crawler World.
And is there a reason why Carl’s ex-girlfriend’s cat is named Princess Donut? Is it because when the cat lies down to take a nap, she curls up like a donut? Because in Riley August’s The Last Gifts Of The Universe, the cat is named Pumpkin for that very reason.
Princess Donut is a show cat, and her full name GC, BWR, NW Princess Donut The Queen Anne Chonk. Like with most catterys (catteries?) there is a theme to the names of all the cats. In her case, all of her relatives are named after sugary treats. She has a brother named Skittles, for example.
Cool. And then, for people who’ve read the previous installments, what is The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride about, and when does it take place in relation to the preceding book, The Butcher’s Masquerade?
The show they are stuck on consists of an 18-floor dungeon. The Butcher’s Masquerade is the culmination of the sixth and seventh floors.
The action of The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride picks up immediately after the end of Masquerade, and it details the action on the eighth floor. Each floor presents different challenges, and on the eighth, they find themselves in a copy of Earth’s surface in the weeks before the alien invasion. They have to find and collect monsters, who are turned into cards, and they have to battle with those cards.
Where did you get the original idea for The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride, and how, if at all, did that idea evolve as you wrote it?
The location of this floor, Cuba, was voted for via my Patreon. The card aspect was an idea I’ve had for a long time.
The Dungeon Crawler Carl novels mix science fiction and fantasy, but they’re also what’s called LitRPGs. For someone unfamiliar with the term, what is a LitRPG novel, and how do the Dungeon Crawler Carl novels employ these elements?
A LitRPGs novel is a book where some aspect of the world in which the characters exist is controlled by video game-like mechanics. For example, in Dungeon Crawler Carl, they are playing a game. The characters and the readers alike are aware of this. They all start at level 1, and when they kill things, they gain experience points and level up. When they level up, they can choose to allocate “points” to increase their strength or dexterity, etc. The characters are all aware of these world controls. They can learn spells. It’s like being stuck in a real-life video game.
You originally published the first six Dungeon Crawler Carl novels on your own, with The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride being the sixth. Was it influenced by any writers or specific stories that hadn’t been an influence, or as big an influence, on the previous books?
Not particularly, no, though the card aspect of the floor was heavily influenced by both Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh.
Now, the reason we’re doing this interview is because The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride is being reissued by Ace Books. And my understanding is that the new print edition has some extra stuff in it. What has been added to the print edition of Bedlam Bride, and why did you want to add these things to it?
The version published by Ace is almost identical in every way, with the exception of about a bajillion and one commas [while] the hardcovers have an extra side-story called “Backstage At The Pineapple Cabaret.” It is a continuous story of NPCs in the game.
The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride is not the only Dungeon Crawler Carl being reissued, though. A new version of the fifth book, 2023’s The Butcher’s Masquerade, came out a month ago; while the fourth, 2021’s The Gate Of The Feral Gods, was reissued a few weeks before that. What are those books about, and how do they connect to the ones before them?
The Gate Of The Feral Gods tells the story of the fifth floor of the dungeon, and The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook is the story of the fourth floor. All of these books start immediately from the end of the previous.
And do the new versions of The Butcher’s Masquerade and The Gate Of The Feral Gods have the same kind of extras as The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride?
Yes. Each one has a new chapter of “Backstage At The Pineapple Cabaret.”
Finally, if someone enjoys The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride, and the rest of the Dungeon Crawler Carl novels, what LitRPG novel or novella of someone else’s would you suggest they check out while waiting for the next Carl novel to come out?
I love the pirate aba’s Wandering Inn series, Shirtaloon’s He Who Fights With Monsters, Eric Ugland’s The Good Guys, and Will Wight’s Cradle series.
