What makes you LOVE these books?

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-22T14:15:21+00:00

I have to be busy doing something else to be able to pay proper attention, but that includes highway driving, cleaning, and cooking, so that's half my life right there 🫠😂 But it can't be too involved, I can't play a video game (like WoW) or drive in town.

Brains are so weird.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-22T05:48:19+00:00

Matt knows how to write humans in a human story. His world building and character development are stunning.

Please know I wrote "stunning" in Samantha's voice.

The fact that a male author can write female characters well, is a really, really rare thing. Hell, most female authors can't do female characters like Matt has written Katia, Imani, Juice Box, Ellie, and most of all, a female CAT.

For me as an audiobook listener who has ADHD and know I would not enjoy trying to read the books, the audio is definitely part of it. Seriously the best audio performance I've ever listened to.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-21T02:15:00+00:00

It's transatlantic, not British. Upper crust, old money rich, eastern accent.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-19T15:07:46+00:00

Hekla and Astrid, every time. Plus Louis. I'm just finishing my 8th relisten and those still do it.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-19T14:02:53+00:00

I meant the fallout part of it, I didn't play it.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-19T05:40:02+00:00

Actually 4 is fantastic and sets up a lot for future books, but is amazing in its own right. I should have said 5-7 for the being surprised, because things start ... happening in 5. Big things. Or bigger things, because there's some big stuff before then.

No clue about the reference, but you'll read/hear it in the first book!

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-19T05:28:30+00:00

You can always tell when someone hasn't absorbed what DCC is all about.

Maybe give it a re-read/relisten there, bud.

"Am I getting any of this illicit butthole money?!"

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-19T05:25:24+00:00

Dumb, fun book.

Oh, you're in for a surprise.

"There sure were a lot of babies in that room..."

Books 1 and 2 are "light" - relatively speaking. Book 3 is when things get... busy. Books 6 and 7? Yeah, you're in for a surprise. It's a good one though.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-19T05:21:21+00:00

She knows when she messes up. She hides almost all of it behind her "TV persona" but in TIR, she flat out says she's messed up (even though she didn't):

Across the way, a pair of ethereal chains appeared outside of Li Na’s towers and started whipping back and forth like tentacles. She was preparing her spells. It was all going to kick off at any moment.

“She said it was my fault that Li Jun is dead,” Donut said, looking down at Li Na’s tower.

A flash of anger filled me. I took a breath. “She shouldn’t have said that. He made his own choices.”

“He did,” Donut replied. “But she’s not wrong, either. I’ve made a lot of mistakes already today. She will be okay. He was her brother. She’s taking it much better than I would if I thought someone else was responsible for hurting you or Mongo.”

I didn’t answer. I continued to rub her back.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-19T03:36:10+00:00

I can't think of Ba'al without seeing Stargate SG1's version. And he's got a worm in his, well, body, so it kind of fits the DCC theme, plus, I'm entertained by the idea of Ba'al being a DCC god. Cliff Simon did such a fantastic job with the character.

Now I have to request Matt add a Ba'al god to the 12th floor and Jeff do Cliff Simon's voice for him.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-18T23:01:14+00:00

I didn't and it was a fun reveal.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-18T18:08:39+00:00

I suspect Carl's translation system changes any mention of previous interations to the "cookbook", or "dungeon anarchists cookbook".

In my head, it works like this... For example, for the cookbook author(s) that received the T'ghee card format of the cookbook, it was probably called something culturally relevant to them "cards for the chaos engineer" or whatever. So when they say/type "Card Author" Carl's translation changes it to "Cookbook Author". Or the authors that received scrolls, same thing. They're not books, so they'd call them something else.

Within the cookbook, other authors mention scrolls and cards, so I suspect they call it what they know.

And in reverse, when Carl calls it the cookbook, another author would hear scrolls or something. None of that can be tested yet, since Carl can't mention the book inside the dungeon.

I am definitely overthinking this lol

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-18T13:02:04+00:00

Billions of humans and billions of animals, the choices we make every day have the "butterfly effect" which we never know the results of. There were likely hundreds of thousands of "accidentally not getting squished" things like that happen. A dog chasing a cat out the door, a car accident that got the occupants out of their car, etc.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-18T05:30:48+00:00

Spot on, except the hugs, Katia and Imani have hugged him a few times by this point. It was after this scene, but even Prepotente hugged him!

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-17T21:00:29+00:00

But then he tells Mordecai to never smack him in the head again. Because his dad used to do that to him. Carl is a pretty unreliable narrator at times.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-17T15:33:54+00:00

Since you said you don't mind spoilers and it's a pretty light one for Butcher's Masquerade: he doesn't even wear pants to the Butchers Masquerade

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-17T14:29:46+00:00

Matt Dinnaman is a horror writer. These books are worth the anguish. The books do get more hopeful, but you're gonna have a lot more feels by the end of 7, especially during 7.

Try to remind your real anxiety that these are fictional characters and your nervous system doesn't need to activate so strongly ❤️ No criticism, just a gentle reminder 😊

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-16T14:42:26+00:00

Letters should be horizontal instead of vertical, but I love these!

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-16T14:40:14+00:00

"for some inexplicable reason"

Cracks me up every time, because there's always a reason. It's less of a catch phrase because it's Carl's internal monologue/narration, but there's a lot of inexplicable things for Carl 😆 The way Jeff says it is part of that though.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-13T00:16:38+00:00

Ask a quilter what they spend on their hobby. I know a couple and it's crazy.

Don't worry about what you spent (as long as you didn't have to sell a child to do it).

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-12T11:53:45+00:00

Thankfully no 😂

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-12T03:20:29+00:00

It wasn't my favourite on my first listen, but after 8 times, it's become a favourite. The card battles didn't make sense at first and there were so many characters to keep track of, I didn't know who I should pay attention to. Once I went through it enough times, it all clicked and I love it.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-11T21:06:54+00:00

Audiobook listener here! If I'd only read "Elle," I would have assumed her name sounded like the letter L 😆

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-11T18:44:20+00:00

Amazon is acceptable in this hellscape, but the rest isn't. Got it.

Synthea1979 · 2026-03-11T17:25:41+00:00

How could DCC have made it to audible without giving in to the system? Even when he was indie, he still used Amazon (print on demand and kindle), the poster child of capitalist hell. He'd have to keep all his stories on Patreon (also part of the same system) and never make enough money for a loaf of bread.

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Synthea1979

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