We’re thrilled to reveal the cover of Matt Dinniman’s latest novel in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, This Inevitable Ruin. We also got the chance to chat to him a bit about LitRPGs, and how video games and TTRPGS inspire his popular sci-fi series. Fans of Dungeon Crawler Carl will be thrilled to learn that the hardcover case will be foil stamped with a quote from the book itself.
In This Inevitable Ruin, Carl and the ever-fabulous cat Princess Donut find themselves, finally, on the dreaded ninth floor of the dungeon they've been forced to traverse as unwiling contestants on an intergalactic gameshow. It’s here that nine armies, each led by powerful aliens from across the galaxy, duke it out for supremacy. But Carl, Princess Donut, and Katia are here to shake things up. NPCs are self aware, crawlers have built an army of their own, and anyone who dies during the fight stays dead. And no matter who wins the war, only one of Carl’s companions will make it out alive with him.
Check out the full cover, designed and illustrated by Will Staehle, below, and read on for our chat with the author!
Matt Dinniman interview
RACHAEL CONRAD for Winter Is Coming: A “dungeon crawler” is defined as a type of video game where players explore dungeon-like environments or procedurally generated levels, which means that the layout of the dungeon changes each time a person plays the game. Can you speak to your personal experience playing dungeon crawlers? Do you have any favorites and is there one (or multiple) that helped to inspire Dungeon Crawler Carl?
MATT DINNIMAN: I started with the video game OG. Rogue. My brother had it on his computer, and I played it over and over, living in fear of the T (The Troll.) From there, I’ve played dungeon crawlers constantly, from Zork to Bard’s Tale to modern classics. Recently I’ve been playing the Oblivion remaster.
WiC: At what point in your relationship with dungeon crawlers did you start to think that maybe the format would work extremely well for a book or book series? And have you ever heard of Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde?
MD: I’ve been a writer my entire life. Since I was a little kid, I’ve had ideas. This particular setting and idea has been with me for a long time, but I ended up combining two ideas (Death game + dungeon crawl) to make Dungeon Crawler Carl work.
I am familiar with Heir Apparent, though I haven’t read it. An even earlier example might be Dream Park by Niven and Barnes. The term “LitRPG” didn’t become a thing until around 2013 or so, and I didn’t become aware of it until around 2016. I’d come across a book called Way of the Shaman, which was a translated (from Russian) novel by a guy named Vasily Mahanenko. It's a true litrpg, but even then, I didn’t know the term. It wasn’t until I was more than halfway through writing my own (a novel called Dominion of Blades) did I finally learn the term and learn that—even then—there was a wide community of readers who couldn’t get enough of it.
WiC: Did you take any inspiration from pre-existing characters (literary or otherwise) when it comes to Carl?
MD: Not so much for Carl. Princess Donut, however, is based off of one of many cats I’ve met over the years at cat shows.
WiC: In my reading experience, when a cat makes an appearance in a novel — no matter what the genre is — there’s a very specific cat that has inspired it. Can you speak to the inspiration, if there is any, behind Donut?
MD: Ha! So, I started to answer this in the previous question. To answer more specifically. I was at a CFA cat show in Cleveland one year. I had a booth selling my cat-themed art, which is what I did for a living before I could write full time. There was a little, tortie Persian cat in a cage staring at me all weekend long. She appeared as if she hated me and wanted to rip my throat out. It was love at first sight.
WiC: In a recent interview you called the Dungeon Crawler Carl series “LitRPG”. Can you break this idea down a bit for the uninitiated?
MD: LitRPG stands for Literary Role Playing Game. It’s a type of a book where gaming conventions (Such as stat sheets, leveling up, etc.) are a part of the narrative. For example, you have a story about a Level 1 warrior. This character is aware he’s level one, and as the story progresses, he levels up and is aware he’s leveled up. They are not Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style stories.
WiC: As a fan and player of D&D, I’m curious - what classes do you think Carl, Princess Donut, and Katia would be?
MD: This is a tough one. Carl is an agent of chaos. A straight Fighter is my first instinct, but he’s more of a rogue with an artificer subclass.
Donut is a classic Bard.
Katia is a little tougher. She’s also a brawler, but she can shapeshift at will. Maybe a Druid with a souped-up Wild Shape ability with a Barbarian multiclass.
WiC: If you had to be stuck in a dungeon crawler or an RPG, which one would it be? Would you want to have a sidekick like Donut with you?
MD: I certainly wouldn’t pick Dungeon Crawler Carl. I’d go with something easy, like Stardew Valley. And I’d love a sidekick. Though I’d probably pick a Labrador, not a cat.
WiC: Were you able to provide any input into what the final cover would look like? Were you expecting it to have such a pulp-y feel to it?
MD: I have been fortunate that Ace has included me in every step of the way of cover art. For the first one, I wanted a typography-centric feeling because we had such name recognition, and I think Will Stahle (the cover artist) along with the Ace team pulled it off magnificently.
WiC: Can you tease readers about what’s coming next for Carl?
MD: “It’ll always end in an explosion” – Princess Donut.
A huge thank you to Matt Dinniman for taking the time to talk Dungeon Crawler Carl with us, and Ace for sharing this beautiful cover artwork! Learn more about Dinniman's books over at his website.
This Inevitable Ruin releases in bookshops and online on September 23, 2025. Ace has already re-released hardcover editions of the preceding six books in the series, so it's a good time to get caught up if you haven't already taken the leap into Dungeon Crawler Carl.
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