A Parade of Horribles - Midnight Nexus Codex

240mm width, 156 mm tall, 400 pages

English language

Published 2026 by Penguin Books Ltd.

ISBN:: 978-0-241-83688-0
Finna ID:: outi.2435101

As chaos and mass panic spread outside the dungeon in the wake of Faction Wars, Carl and Donut find themselves on the tenth floor, where they’re forced to compete in a surprisingly normal set of tasks. Well, normal for the dungeon.

Races. Get from point A to point B, and don’t come in last. After each race, they pick an upgrade for their vehicle and the track gets more challenging. It all seems a little too normal, a little too simple.

Ignore those strange glitches that are occurring with increasing frequency. Don’t listen to those whispers about what’s happening on the mysterious eleventh floor, something the system AI calls A Parade of Horribles. Nobody, not even the showrunners, knows what that means. Just that the AI has ominously dubbed it “a coming-out party for the ages.”

Everything is fine, Crawler. I repeat, everything is fine.

Carl …

As chaos and mass panic spread outside the dungeon in the wake of Faction Wars, Carl and Donut find themselves on the tenth floor, where they’re forced to compete in a surprisingly normal set of tasks. Well, normal for the dungeon.

Races. Get from point A to point B, and don’t come in last. After each race, they pick an upgrade for their vehicle and the track gets more challenging. It all seems a little too normal, a little too simple.

Ignore those strange glitches that are occurring with increasing frequency. Don’t listen to those whispers about what’s happening on the mysterious eleventh floor, something the system AI calls A Parade of Horribles. Nobody, not even the showrunners, knows what that means. Just that the AI has ominously dubbed it “a coming-out party for the ages.”

Everything is fine, Crawler. I repeat, everything is fine.

Carl hates that it’s business as usual. The rules of this floor have taken away his agency. That just will not do.

So Carl is planning a party of his own. It’s a plan so dangerous, so insane, he can’t even consult his friends lest the AI put a stop to it. Because if it goes wrong, it’s not just the end of Carl and Donut. No. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been.

1 edition

matthewmincher@bookwyrm.social reviewed A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl Series, #8)

What a ride

4 stars

I'll start by saying that this was great. Listening to the audiobook it is clear that Dinniman is writing these books for Hayes to perform and while it sometimes veers painfully close to fan service I think he generally walks the line well, and it was a blast to listen to.

I don't want to spoil anything but the plot we covered was not what I had expected or would have predicted. I'm worried (in a good way I think) about the rest of the series.

The usual cast of characters excel, as always Samantha is my absolute favourite and she has some great scenes here. I think my only criticism was possibly that it was a lot - very fast paced and I hope we go deeper on so much of it.

I don't want to have to wait for the next one. I'm tempted to …

I'll start by saying that this was great. Listening to the audiobook it is clear that Dinniman is writing these books for Hayes to perform and while it sometimes veers painfully close to fan service I think he generally walks the line well, and it was a blast to listen to.

I don't want to spoil anything but the plot we covered was not what I had expected or would have predicted. I'm worried (in a good way I think) about the rest of the series.

The usual cast of characters excel, as always Samantha is my absolute favourite and she has some great scenes here. I think my only criticism was possibly that it was a lot - very fast paced and I hope we go deeper on so much of it.

I don't want to have to wait for the next one. I'm tempted to do a relisten of the whole series in a few months instead.