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MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.5/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Welcome to the Gun Show!
The top ten list is populated. The sponsorship program is open. The difficulty is ramping up. The first three floors were nothing compared to what Carl and Donut now face.
The Iron Tangle. An impossibly-complicated subway system built out of the world’s subterranean railway systems, all combined and then tied together into a knot. Up is down. Down is up. Close is far. The cars are filled with monsters, the railway stations are less than safe, and the exit is always just a few stops away.
But there is hope. For the first time, the crawlers are all working together. The loot is better than ever. And the secret to unraveling it all may be hidden in the pages of a seemingly-useless book. Welcome, crawlers. Welcome to the fourth floor of the dungeon.
MY REVIEW
If I’m being fully honest, I really enjoyed this book, but this is my least favorite of the series so far. There were times where it felt a tad bloated, I didn’t lose interest, but I did catch myself having to go back and re-listen from not paying attention. I didn’t have that issue in books 1-3. I still think the series is incredible and I’m loving every minute of Carl and Donut’s wacky adventure despite that minor tidbit.
Carl and Donut continue to be a force to be reckoned with. A tag-team that could stand toe-to-toe with the likes of The Road Warriors. Carl has come a long way from book 1, he’s grown from this survive and blow shit up to being a true leader that he, Donut and the rest of the crew need. Several new faces with some over-the-top personalities are introduced, but the two main ones are Juice Box and Samantha. While Donut continues to be a scene thief and it’s hard not to notice her existence or a lack thereof when Carl is alone. Samantha may top her slightly in this book. I also thought it was so cool that there was a “mantula” type of character, it wasn’t a nod for me, but when your handle is Wolfmantula, you notice those things.
The new level brought some massive changes to how the game and crawlers played. Carl, Donut and the crew had some massive teamwork in the previous book with many, many people. In Gate of the Feral Gods, that slightly changed as they had to be grouped with some low levels, and it helped Carl’s leadership shine. It was a different kind of isolation, they had to learn to depend on others, and nobody needed it more than Carl who has constantly felt a self-imposed, weight of the world on his shoulders.
“When you’re in the Carl and Donut party, you ride on the Carl and Donut rollercoaster, and once it gets going, there’s no getting off. I need to do this.”
Like The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, the hilarity continues to be taken down a notch. However there is one scene near the end that was very Monty Python and the Holy Grail/Willow-esque. The “fight” between Samantha and a demon took me back to my childhood with playground insults and I couldn’t stop laughing. With that said, I don’t mind that Dinniman has taken it down a notch, or in this case, kept it the same as the previous book. His growth as an author shows with how deep this world is becoming. The stakes are bigger than ever before and we are starting to see glimpses of the real bad guys as Carl takes on the system like he’s Neo.
And without further ado, Jeff Hays put on another phenomenal performance. I’ve said it three times and I’ll say it many more after this, “his narration takes what Dinniman makes great and puts it into the stratosphere of supremacy. It’s hard to compliment any further without sounding like a loon.” I’m proud of that, because it’s one-hundred percent truth. I’m amazed by all the different types of voices he can do without sounding like another one from male to female, god and demons. Just incredible work, the Dinniman/Hays pairing is perfection.
