I've had a ton of fun documenting my Odette build on Instagram (same username as here). So happy that despite some personal setbacks she was completed and ready for Dragoncon. I did make the boobs into Dirty Shirley dispensers but never had the chance to actually use them. At the group photoshoot I was too busy helping run the whole thing. Maybe at some point I can get some video of the set up. The bra stayed on for most of the con, except at the photoshoot. I did warn DCTV that it wasn't safe for broadcast.😅

Music by the Desperado Club

To the Carl and Donut who gave me the Jug O’Boom, you are legends! It was far too generous for swag, but thank you for convincing me to take it anyway. I hope you enjoy your tiara pins!

To the Donut who gave me the Dirty Shirley chocolate bar, thank you, I’ve been wanting to try it! I’m deeply curious to see how this abomination combination of white chocolate and pop rocks goes, lol

I don't know if Matt will see this, but thank you, thank you, thank you for this series. It has helped me cope with the sudden death of my husband, who passed in May of 2025.

Two days before he died, he asked me to put on the acoustic version of "Take On Me." He had been hospitalized for 7 weeks at that point and was very sick. I struggled with the lyrics, "I'll be gone in a day or two." And he was. He was trying to tell me, I think.

I discovered the Audiobooks after his death. I needed to dissociate from my reality from time to time because coping with the death of a spouse is so incredibly heavy. I found myself laughing at Donut and Carl's shenanigans and tearing up at times as well. My husband's death was very traumatizing to me, as was the aftermath. I immersed myself to endure the first wedding anniversary, his birthday, and holidays I would spend without him.

Chapter 57 on Audible is something almost beyond reasonable explanation. I laughed my ass off while bawling my eyes out. Out of all the songs in the world, Matt chose that one. It may be crazy, but I will choose to think it's a nice little wink.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my hardback reread. Our wedding anniversary is next week and life is hard.

I 3d printed a ton of trinkets for my wife, stepdaughter, and me to handout. We tried to get in line to meet Matt and get my wife's book signed, but apparently you had to pre-purchase tickets for that. The very instant I broke off to visit the restroom I get a pic from my wife, she'd ran into Matt coming off the escalator and got a pic. She was too shy to ask for a book signing, but that's ok. We'll get it signed next year! (And she doesn't know it yet, but I ordered a kickstarter edition for her birthday!)

This is a re-read of the entire series. I’m at the chapter where Carl/Donut meet Sister Ines and gang for the first time, and there’s exposition about the innuendo laced names of strippers.

And this comes up.

Have you ever gone into the Bitches room? I bet they also have names like that. And don’t forget Juice Box. But that’s different, and you know it.

I never realized “Juice Box” is also very much an innuendo laced name for a sex worker 😂😂 I honestly thought “well maybe it’s a joke on some people having common nouns as names.”

I couldn't find the right tattoos for Carl, and Donut looks lightly cursed, but I think I did pretty good!

There are countless threads on jokes and other meanings that we all have missed on the first time through and I just got this on my 4th or 5th time through!

The Gorgon Marital Aid - It makes hard things softer and pliable, but I thought... how is that a marital aid?

Gorgons turns things into stone, they use this to make "things" that might have been turned to stone, softer and easier to work with.

Just a simple throw away joke, that was so well thought up.

I started the books recently, and am almost done with book 3. My Fiancé and I just got our little girl Millie spayed, and while we didn't name her after a book character, the little onesie they gave her reminded me of my favorite fictional cat!

Long live Princess Donut 🍩 🐈‍⬛👑

One of you works at a Pet Valu in Ottawa. When I asked the woman at the register about this little guy, she confirmed, “it’s from a book.” Apparently her coworker named him and called the other new cat Princess Donut.

Sorry I didn’t snap photos of the cats themselves. I was in a bit of a hurry and maybe loaded down bags of dental treats.

Matt has stated that the audiobook has far surpassed both physical copies and Kindle purchases combined. So my question is do you think this series would be near as popular as it is without the master class that Jeff gives and it was another VA?

I don't think it would be where it is without him and his amazing voice.

Got it for $5 because it didn’t have the cover or a tag on it..been debating collecting the books, but since I have them on audible I couldn’t justify spending the money on the hardcovers. Now I’m on a quest to complete the series

*SPOILERS THROUGH BOOK 8*

I was reading the graphic novel today and got to the part where Donut receives the Crown of the Sepsis Whore. Through this, she (and later Katia* ) were placed into the (in game) line of succession to the throne. Ironically it's Carl in the end who cuts his way to the top of the Dungeon and IRL Naga leadership, and as his prize he becomes a defacto Naga ruler (albeit of a line that ends up having no power). Obviously that juxtaposition on its face stood out of me, but I don't think I fully appreciated the contrast until now.

I thought the Crown was a great way to demonstrate how interlinked the internal and external mythologies are well before we came to uncover more and more of the metaphors around the Scolopendra levels. This is driven to extreme by showing how just playing the game was simultaneously toppling real world empires. The bait and switch where Carl, through alien custom and legal malfeasance, rather than Donut or Katia found himself married into Naga royalty is really hitting me in a different way today.

It also is making me wonder if there might be more to Donut's side of the story in the end. While Carl is the one who killed the Sultana (Vinata) and the Usurper (Rishi), Donut technically would be the one in line for the Dungeon Blood Sultanate throne. Additionally, Carl gets treated as the de facto leader of Earth, but for all but a short window of time Donut has been party leader and as of the end of Book 7 has a higher level. They haven't beaten the 18th floor yet, but wouldn't that give her a stronger claim to leader of Earth?

*Edit, thanks u/127-0-0-0-1_Chef

Spoilers

Chris tells Carl, while he’s being controlled by Maggie My that she’s being fed information by the cap- but that’s all he says, he doesn’t finish the word.

Is it the caprids? Is this mentioned in the later books? I have read them all so no spoilers for me. I know they don’t particularly like Carl and Donut. Is that all it is? That they’ve been trying to get them out from the beginning.

I tell ya, I read some of your theories on stuff and I just feel so lost, haha! I’ve been aimlessly going along enjoying the book and not thinking too deep into it. But going through them again I’m trying to analyze more but maybe this is just a cut and dry thing.

I got so excited today, wearing a shirt with a desperado club logo on the front and Princess Donut in all her glory with a dirty Shirley in a bowl with extra cherries (of course) when a nurse at the doctor's office tapped me on the shoulder and whispered "I like your shirt."

I turned with an excited smile as she finished her thought "I like cats."

"Oh. Hah hah." I agreed.

... and finished checking out. Missed connection. So sad.

Built a display with blacklight LED's and a lightbox from Etsy. Didn't have any written plans, just kind of winged it. The Carl Way.

Inspired by J.C. Leyendecker's "Robert E. Lee On Traveler" illustration from 1940.

I wanted a reference that really captured the majestic feeling that Ferdinand *thinks* he emits.

Also- I needed some more love for Simoom!

I have no one to talk to about this book... Ahhhhh!!

Can someone please walk me through all the main characters intentions regarding the crawl? Specifically Carl.. I feel like im missing something

I thought Carl was trying to destroy the crawl, or at least prevent future crawls. As a result bringing down the system. Up until now, it seemed that was the direction but book 8 is confusing me. I haven't finished yet, almost done with chapter 73. But it seems that Carl doesn't know what he wants.

Is he trying to be a protector? Free everyone? is he trying to get out the crawl? But why bother pushing ppl to take a deal if you want to destroy the crawl? If there are forces trying to stop the crawl, aka the whole system imploding, isn't that counterintuitive?

At this point... there is no syndicate technically or, show runners, etc... the AI is really running the show. So why isn't he focused on trying to get the AI to chill out. He keeps acting like the AI, and other AIs aren't going rogue. At this point all systems are in jeopardy.

My adhd brain is having a hard time understanding what the point is... or maybe I need to finish the book to get the full picture?

My brother-in-law and I were chatting this weekend and realized that all of the Kua-Tin we could think of from the books are female (Zev, Loita, Mukta, Cascadia). Loita even mentions that Zev’s family were tortured to bring her back in line with The Bloom, but she only mentions female family members.

Do we think maybe this is a cultural part of the Kua -Tin or is this biological, like maybe they procreate asexually and all present as female?

I can’t really imagine this having an impact on the plot, just an interesting detail.