All great book series have to end sooner or later. Some end much later than others, but in the case of Dungeon Crawler Carl, as the series continues to rise to massive heights of popularity, author Matt Dinniman is plotting what's coming in what's expected to be the final two books... which he says he's writing as one book, though it'll be released as two. Explaining that was among the things Matt Dinniman contributed to the panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July.
CinemaBlend attended the Audible: Goddamnit, Donut: A Totally Professional Panel with Matt Dinniman and Jeff Hays at SDCC, where Dinniman was asked about the title of Book 9. It does have a working title (more on that in a minute), but at the panel, he explained the multiple book situation, which makes titling it a bit more complicated.
I am not locked on the title. I’m actually not sure how I’m going to title it, because as I’ve said multiple times, I’m writing two books right now. I’m writing it personally as a single book, but it’s gonna be released separately as two books, just to be an asshole.
Dinniman went on to explain the usual structure of the first eight books in the series, in terms of each of them having a beginning, middle and end. However, since he's writing Books 9 and 10 as one book -- but releasing them separately -- it sounds like we're going to be left waiting for that "end" when Book 9 wraps up.
This one gives me the ability to not put the main, main, main series climax at the end of Book 9, and it allows me to be an asshole with you guys to have a cliffhanger at the end of Book 9.
I mean, at least we've been warned? When a book is announced to be split into parts, I usually assume that it has to do with the length -- A Court of Thorns and Roses fans are experiencing something like that with Sarah J. Maas' upcoming Books 6 and 7. The length may also be a factor with the decision to split the ninth entry into Books 9-10 (Dinniman didn't get into the length of them), however, it sounds like leaving us on the figurative edge of a cliff at the end of Book 9 is, if not the reason for the split, then perk of it... At least, based on the pleased way Dinniman spoke about tormenting us.
Whatever the reason, I blame Matt Dinniman here, but it's hard to stay mad at the man who gave us Carl and Donut (and thankfully kept them teamed up).
Where Things Pick Up In Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 9
Speaking of Book 9... Just before SDCC, Matt Dinniman did an interview with Maude Garrett at LitRPG where he talked about the final books, including confirming that the working title is The Beautiful Place. As he told Maude, he hasn't decided how he wants to officially title the final books. He did talk a bit about the world opening up quite a bit as things pick up in Book 9. If you're not caught through A Parade of Horribles, spoiler alert! 🛑 I'm about to mention stuff Dinniman said about Book 9 that you might not want to hear.
Dinniman shared some details during his 1:1 interview with Maude Garrett about where things pick up for Carl:
He’s now on the twelfth floor, it’s the Ascendency Games, and he plops right – it’s not a spoiler, because it’s the first thing that’s gonna happen in the book. He plops by himself in this field of cotton, and he’s not with everybody else, but all the stuff had just happened, and there’s some stuff that’s happened with his lawyer and stuff that we don’t see right away.
Dinniman talked about how it's almost like starting a brand new series, but one challenge he mentioned was all of the Chekhov's guns he has, which are yet to be fired. He says he has to fire every single one over the next two books, which sounds... chaotic, especially when we consider the stuff in Carl and Donut's inventory alone. It also sounds like the kind of chaos that fuels this series, so I'm sure Dinniman will find the right sequence of events to tie up all of those loose ends.
In the meantime, we have two more Dungeon Crawler Carl books to look forward to in the future. Dinniman confirmed at SDCC that there's no release date set for Book 9 yet. He's also working on a non-DCC book (he talks about that in the Maude interview and describes it as a violent cozy fantasy set at a petting zoo. Oh my screaming-Prepotente I can't wait for it), in addition to these final two books, though he assured fans, 90% of his time is going toward wrapping up the series.
As sad as it is that we're talking about the conclusion of such a fun series, we do have the Dungeon Crawler Carl TV show to look forward to, and all of the updates about the cast (including Jeff Hays voicing Donut) and production in between!
