Fans of Matt Dinniman's popular LitRPG series, Dungeon Crawler Carl, have a persistent debate raging within the community: at what speed should the audiobooks be consumed? The series, which follows a man named Carl and his talking cat, Princess Donut, navigating a post-apocalyptic reality competition run by aliens, has gained significant traction partly due to its best-selling audiobooks performed by Jeff Hays. However, many listeners choose to play these audiobooks at speeds significantly faster than the original recording.
Discussions about preferred listening speeds are prevalent on platforms like Reddit, Facebook, and TikTok, with some fans boasting about listening at double speed or even faster, while others question the practice. Dinniman himself addressed this topic in a recent interview.
“I personally feel anything above 1.5 is psycho,” Dinniman stated, acknowledging that some fans react strongly to his opinions. He personally listens to most audiobooks between 1.0 and 1.25 times the normal speed, occasionally pushing to 1.25. For him, speeds above 1.3 can detract from the performance.
“Jeff Hays’ delivery is really good, and there's nothing wrong with listening to them at 1.2, but I see people doing it at 2.3 and it's like chipmunks on bath salts,” Dinniman remarked. While he concedes that listeners are still absorbing the story, he believes they risk missing the nuances of Hays' performance at extremely accelerated speeds.
Dinniman also touched on other aspects of the Dungeon Crawler Carl universe. A graphic novel spin-off focusing on the character Florin, titled Crocodile, is in development. He confirmed that he is currently working on the final book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, which will be split into two installments. Regarding the upcoming live-action TV series adaptation, Dinniman noted that the team involved are fans themselves and are protective of the source material, though changes are expected to occur during the adaptation process. Details on the visual effects approach remain undecided.
Reflecting on the LitRPG genre, Dinniman noted its growth since around 2015, with his own work gaining wider recognition in 2017. He highlighted that many other authors and works were foundational to the genre before his success, including He Who Fights with Monsters, Noobtown, The Wandering Inn, and Apocalypse Parenting. Dinniman anticipates the genre will continue to expand beyond fantasy themes, potentially incorporating more romance and dating-sim elements, drawing inspiration from Asian webcomic cultures.
While Dinniman identifies primarily as a horror writer, he finds the interplay between horror and humor comes naturally, often leading to the memorable banter seen in his work. He also mentioned he is working on a non-LitRPG project, described as a "super violent cozy fantasy."