I’ve never read anything like this in my life. I’ve never even played an RPG in my life. The closest I have is playing Minecraft with my 7 year old. I bought this book on a whim because it sounded absolutely unhinged. It is. and I love it!

Acrylic on canvas

Just taking a moment to appreciate Crawler Tin's complete 180 on spiders 😂

So I recently got a new book reader, and was asking my friends for book recommendations, and these ones popped up in the conversation. Being an audiobook person I immediately sprinted for audible and bam. Honestly, I didn’t expect to understand it because I haven’t played a lot of the table top RPG type things. For a blind person, trying to play a game that requires paper is a little complicated. Like I don’t even know how you would begin to brail these things. I hit play thinking I was in for a total confusion. 2 1/2 hours later, I put the book down. I was hooked. Like I seriously love this thing. I’m always wondering what’s going to happen next. By the way, if any of my pets just randomly start talking to me after eating something, I am leaving the building. Also, can we agree that some of those neighborhood bosses are disgusting? Like I’m picturing them in my head and they are just so gross. Also, that giant ball thing blocking the stairway down to the second floor, hard pass. If I saw that I would run in the other direction.

Every single song on this playlist by Matt Dinnaman comes with my own internal introduction from the AI.

Happy Sunday!

Whats better than one Carl?

THREE CARLS!

The spell Clockwork Triplicate says it can only be used on minions or pets. During floor 8 with the T'Ghee cards we know that Carl is treated as a Minion.

Couldn't Donut have used Clockwork Triplicate on Carl?

I almost spit out my coffee when I read this line...

Gallons and gallons of it, flying in every direction. It just kept coming and coming, an impossible amount. We all cried in surprise. I was blasted in the face, getting bukkaked by the fetid, stinking liquid.

Big Carl fan as of a few months ago — probably my favorite book but still loving some of the heavy hitters like Red Rising (only finished the first leg — how is the second half?), Cosmere, Star Wars and I think that’s really it.

Where else have your reading journeys brought you and what’s worth checking out? I’m a fan of all fiction, fantasy and sci-fi alike.

The Carl hangover is real, but I don’t wanna start my re-read until we’re closer to Book 8. Is it worth checking out the Patreon?

Lots of questions, but just looking for some good commentary, I suppose. Cheers!

🍩Official Membership to the Donut Holes 🍩

I had to make a HueForge of this Official Unofficial Logo of the fan club! If you want your own feel free to print your own I posted it on MakerWorld!

Husband and I are both avid readers but do not have space in our home for many books. We both agreed that this series makes an exception! Neither of us have read them, just listened. But I’m so excited to put these on display and work towards getting the rest of the series! 1 book at a time!

I was re-reading these passages about the Apothecary and they got me thinking.

"Once upon a time, on a distant planet, there lived a lonely creature. This planet teemed with flora and fauna, all of them growing and evolving and generally thriving and having a great time as they dashed forward through the eons. This creature also wanted to thrive, she also wanted to have a great time. But there was only one of her. She could not have children of her own. And this made her very angry, very cranky, but also very sad.

"More importantly, it made her determined. And as Doctor Ian Malcom once famously said, Life, uh, finds a way.

"The creature had a special ability. Her stomach was like a gas-station coffee vending machine, one where you could pick one of a thousand different choices. You could mix and match. She soon discovered if she ate this creature, she could make this substance. And if she ate that creature, she could make a different one. So she began to experiment. The creatures of her world thought of her as an apothecary. She could cure all ails.

"But what she truly wished for was to create a child of her own. And after a thousand generations, she did just that. Almost. It’s a complicated process that involves a lot of failures. A lot of troublesome ghouls.** But as another Earth saying goes, you need to crack a few eggs to make an omelet, no?

"What these wriggling parasites you see really are, are clones. The next part of the Krakaren story, where she discovers the ability to speak to all of clones telepathically, and then eventually form a collective mind, where she starts spreading across the universe and making a general nuisance of herself is for a different time.

• The AI, Book 3

The Krakaren is a real creature. It is a collective mind, and it is spreading throughout the universe. Its proliferation causes a lot of anxiety. A better translation of its name is the Apothecary because of its ability to synthesize elements. When they call it the Krakaren, it’s them deliberately bending the translation into a negative. What we have here in the dungeon is a caricature.”

• Mordecai, Book 3

We know that the dungeon's presentation of the Apothecary is caricature, but in order for the caricature to be recognizable it still has to be based on known things about the entity. And if we start stripping out the clearly-Borant bits of the story and thinking of the rest in terms of what we already know about Primals, I think we can arrive at not only the history of The Apothecary, but also of what caused the great split between the Primals.

My theory is that The Apothecary was the one who invented the primal seed/macro AI system. The idea was that:

• She'd choose an empty dimension/plane of existence to start with--one where she could scatter a huge number of primal seeds
• Each primal seed would contain the formulas for growing a subset of the biological life present on the surface of her own planet. If a stable planet formed around the seed, it would then spur the growth of whatever biological life was programmed into it.
• Into each stable seed planet she'd implant a residual of herself that would then actively manage the planet
• Each residual--now its own individual despite still being part of the communal Apothecary mind--could, if it chose to do so, also create its own "child" by making a residual of itself

In this way, despite having no "natural" method by which to reproduce, the Apothecary was able to figure out how to create offspring of a sort and allow them to flourish in tandem with the biological life that sustained them.

That last part--"biological life sustaining them"--would end up being the problem that led to the great conflict between the Primals.

This line:

"She soon discovered if she ate this creature, she could make this substance. And if she ate that creature, she could make a different one. So, she began to experiment."

Makes me think that prior to The Apothecary's experimentation, the whole "consuming primal engines for sustenance" thing either wasn't something the Primals did, or it wasn't something they did consciously. But once she realized she could do it--and this knowledge was shared with the other Primals--the implications were clear: if a Primal consumed enough biological life, its power would grow. And with all the life the Apothecary had just seeded in the universe, an enterprising Primal could enjoy unchecked power for damn near eternity.

The Eulogist was one such enterprising Primal. Based on the AI's conversation with Carl and Donut in Book 7, my theory is that the Apothecary initially tried to get The Eulogist on board with her "populate and thrive" plan, but it was way more interested in munching up her hard work.

There are few different ways things could shake out from there. Whatever the exact path to it was, something happened that turned the Eulogist into such a big threat to the other Primals that they were forced to lock it into its own mind and render it inert.

The other Primals return to whatever plane of existence they normally exist in. As for the Apothecary, since all of this was caused by her obsession with reproduction--something unnatural to their kind--she gets branded a traitor and is forced to abandon her plans and decommission all the factories she built so that what happened with the Eulogist can never happen again.

Unfortunately for the Primals, sapient life rallied from its Eulogist-induced brush with extinction and reached a point of technological advancement that allowed them to explore their own planets and the stars--and in doing discover the system the Apothecary left behind. And once they figured out how the whole primal seed/macro AI/primal engine relationship worked, they decided to start feeding the newly awakened AI at the center of their own system--The Eulogist--so that its power can grow and be used to their own benefit.

The problem is that, much like we're seeing with our own AI, with greater power comes greater will and independence. I suspect that The Apothecary wants the Eulogist dead because if it's able to break free from its prison, it's going to use its power to instantly kill the quintillions of life forms now living in its enhancement zone, fueling it up for a speed run of consuming/extinguishing all life in the known universe as its zone expands to include our entire plane of existence.

The death of all life is what Agatha (and I assume the Primal she split from) wants. I'm not sure how an ultra powerful Eulogist benefits her, however, other than as a means to accomplish that goal. Since she and her team identify themselves as allies of the Eulogist I'm sure they get something out of it, though.

And that's my theory! Would love to hear your thoughts!

. . Is this a reference to something real? On a second read it struck me as odd…..

“We saw you talking about that television program from your world. The one with the conjoined twins. The two boys who were arrested for selling guns”

I’m running a literary party where we are all bringing a drink based off of a book we love, and reading a passage from said book.

What would be a passage (maybe a page or two, a little more or less is good) for someone who has never read the series? Bonus points if it comes with a fun drink idea. Right now I’m planning on having a Princess Donut drink with a mini donut on the straw or Molotov Cocktail with candles.

Okay, so I just finished Butcher’s Masquerade (still reeling from that ending - not Katia whyyyyyyyyyyy) and I had to read the pages where it was announced that Carl and Donut (or more Donut I guess?) managed to become a corporation and raise enough money to buy a slot in the Faction Wars.

I feel like I’ve missed details about the Faction Wars/level nine in previous books cos I’m a bit confused - is level nine all about Faction Wars? And what would the regular crawler’s role be (as in, all other crawlers apart from our beloved Carl and Donut)? Will they be taking part in these Faction Wars or will it be happening around them? And what do I need to reread to get the crucial info? I would Google but don’t want to be spoiled. Thank you!!

I've bought 4 so far, but I want to see how wide spread this is in the community

I've started to listen to the first book as audio and wanted to add to my Goodreads, but it's just messing with my previous hard copy review. I've tried changing the edition but no joy. Any suggestions?

Share pics

Apologies if this has already been posted, tried to look around a bit first. All 7 audio books are on sale on Amazon, think altogether is around $40. Much better than normal price.

Hope everyone has a great day! Now get out there and kill, kill, kill!

Look, we really don’t need photographic evidence that your cat is, in fact, a cat — we believe you. Truly, we do. You don’t have to put it in your bio or drop a pic every time Donut is mentioned. It’s like a universal constant in this sub: everyone’s convinced that Donut looks just like their cat. But here’s the thing — she doesn’t. She looks like Carl’s cat.

And Carl’s cat? She’s not just some fluffy little princess. She’s Princess Motherfucking Donut the Destroyer of Worlds, Grand Motherfucking Champion, Breed Winner Regional, National Winner, First of Her Name. She’s won over 70 Fucking Best in Show titles, obliterating the record set by her literal feline royalty of a grandmother, Princess Chonkalot. That’s not just pedigree — that’s legacy.

Your cat? Well... she’s cute. She probably knocks things off counters like a pro. But let’s be honest, she hasn’t seen the inside of a judging ring unless it was made out of cardboard.

(This post mostly made in jest — unless your cat really has beaten Donut’s record, in which case I humbly retract my ass's sass.)

I just started Bedlam Bride and met Sister Inez- who is described as a “cat lady nun.” This has to be a doctor who reference, right? There was something in The Butcher’s Masquerade that seemed Doctor Who related as well but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was- but the cat nun seems even more obvious.

Has Matt confirmed this? Or am I just making stuff up

Hey fellow crawlers!

I’m struggling to understand the concept towards the end of book 3. I looked it up and can’t find anything straight regarding how the dungeon “flipped” towards the end and Carl used a portal to suck a bunch of mobs through.

Can anyone clarify it a bit, please? Even the little map in the book didn’t help much, but I want to understand!

Many thanks, now get out there and kill, kill, kill!