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MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.5/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
They call it Faction Wars.
The ninth floor.
Nine armies, each led by rich and powerful aliens from across the galaxy. Each team has one objective: to capture and hold the castle at the very center of the battlefield. Strategy, alliances, pitched battles, and, of course, betrayal… It all makes for great fun and even greater television.
After all, none of these powerful aliens really die when they’re playing war.
Except this time. This time, winner takes all. Those who fall, stay in the ground.
As the AI continues its rapid decline, Carl and company take advantage of the chaos. For the first time ever, the crawlers are fighting back. They are now one of the nine teams. And this season, there’s a tenth army on the playing field. The NPCs, who are normally used as nothing but cannon fodder, have become fully self-aware and formed a team of their own.
For Donut and Katia, the stakes are even higher. Only one of them will be allowed to leave this level.
If they all want to survive, they’re going to need a little help from a veteran or two.
This is it.
This is what they’ve been fighting toward.
This is war.
MY REVIEW
This Inevitable Ruin is a great addition to the series by Dinniman, but if I have to be honest, it’s on the lower end of the series for me. That’s not a bad thing, because this was still fantastic, just not up to the level of others. I’d put it slightly above Gate of the Feral Gods. I think some of that is due to what I felt was over-explaining things that are happening with others. This being a first person POV makes it difficult to know what’s happening when the group is split up, so explaining to the reader ends up happening, and it just felt like an over-abundance of it.
What I did like about This Inevitable Ruin is that it’s gets away from the survival puzzle level feel, despite being a level. You really get to start seeing everything that the characters have gone through, that’s built them to this point, come to a head. Carl looks more and more like a Spartacus type of character leading his rebellion and his “you will not break me” mantra makes it even more blatant. This is a far more intense book than the previous installments. The action mixed with the comedy and even emotional moments make this such a good read.
“The Inevitable Ruin. That’s what their queen used to call this moment. The moment you realized there was no hope, nothing left to do, and all that was left was to die and reflect upon what you’ve already done while you waited. To ruminate on how you’ve helped the colony, and to beg forgiveness of God for not sacrificing enough.”
Carl and Donut continue to be my favorite protagonists, they grow more and more with each book in different ways and it just adds to their luster, I just love them so much. Katia has always been a great supporting character, she’s had one of the best character arc’s of the series and the emotional toll she goes through in This Inevitable Ruin makes her arc even better. While they had their times to shine, I do wish Prepotente and Mordecai had a bit more time than they did, especially Prepotente who really got to shine in the last book. It’s not their story, so I get it, but they add so much to the dialogue and camaraderie that it does feel like a miss that their roles diminished a bit.
Dinniman again starts off with the perfect way to do a story so far, it just makes waiting to get to the story so worthwhile, and I love that Dinniman changed it up both times so that it’s not a rehash. I loved the idea that Dinniman had with this story, it had a capture the flag type of feel to it. Reminded me of the war games Darrow and co had to go through in the Red Rising Saga by Pierce Brown. It has some major differences, but some reminders. It made for some highly explosive and dramatic fights with some really cool baddies.
If there’s one constant that never fails to let me down about this series, it’s the narration and production by Jeff Hays. Each installment is perfection and there’s just not anything more he can do that I can think of to improve. The way he’s able to show every emotion, whether it be maniacal or serene to male and female, his range in what he can do is off the charts. It was nice to have the cameos in the last entry, but this time it was back to nothing but Hays and he did his thing.
