I made it through three more amazing Dungeon Crawler Carl books!!!!
Why is Matt Dinniman making them larger and larger????? (I need sleep soooo badly now.)
Bonus for this series is the Storygraph BuddyRead Transcripts which I will drop during the rest of the week.
Dungeon Crawler Carl Series
Book 1: Dungeon Crawler Carl (levels 1 and 2 of the dungeon – 464 pages)
Book 2: Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (level 3 – 384 pages)
Book 3: The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook (level 4 – 544 pages)
Book 4: The Gate of the Feral Gods (level 5 – 608 pages)
Book 5: The Butcher’s Masquerade (levels6 and 7 – 720 pages)
Book 6: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (level 8 – 832 pages)
Book 7: This Inevitable Run (level 9 – 880 pages)
Book 8: A Parade of Horribles (level 10 – forthcoming in June 2026)
Amazon Cover
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE GATE OF THE FERAL GODS
New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.
You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that’s talent.
A floating fortress occupied by warrior gnomes. A castle made of sand. A derelict submarine guarded by malfunctioning machines. A haunted crypt surrounded by lethal traps.
It was supposed to be easy. One bubble. Four castles. Fifteen days. Capture each one, and the stairwell is unlocked.
Here’s the thing. It’s never easy. Carl and his team can’t go it alone. Not this time. They must rely on the help of the low-level, I-can’t-believe-these-idiots-are-still-alive crawlers trapped in the bubble with them. But can they be trusted?
Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the fifth floor of the dungeon.
MY REVIEW for THE GATE OF THE FERAL GODS
Less than 200,000 left of the 8 billion, separated into small bubbles of teams between 40 and 200 people.
I loved the interacting storyline of the bubble. That particular bubble was well-written. I bet the options were rigged for the top-ten – they were matched up to the best storylines. Over 1,000 bubbles with four different puzzles each – you know over half of them were written by interns; Borton might have even done a High-School competition of “write a storyline and see it in action” to help boost numbers as parents proudly watch a story about bubbles and blood – “my kid wrote that!” for the lesser watched participants.
The fish-folk are beginning to cut back information from the outside, but they are too late with Carl. He is working two major things now: get as many crawlers networked together as possible and prepping for future levels. The networking was just beginning on paying off when everyone got chopped up into separate bubbles – but there is also a work-together needed to solve the bubble puzzles in order to get the staircase to the next level.
I love how Mr. Dinniman continues to give us so many layers to each story. We got the one puzzle in front of us within the dungeon. The interacting puzzle within the bubble. The bigger layer of the level and the Feral Gods. The interaction with other crawlers, some allies and some enemies and some just begging for help. The PR of the show. The politics beyond the show. The other dungeon levels upcoming with other problems.
This series can be a wild ride of adventure, a mystery puzzle with dozens of moving pieces, or a political statement about exploitation. Or all three. Read at whatever structure and entertainment you want.
Now it is time for me to sleep. I should not read 500+ page books in one sitting; I can’t help by read Dungeon Crawler Carl books in one sitting. These books refuse to be put down.
Read through the local library system.
Amazon Cover
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE BUTCHER’S MASQUERADE
Attention. Attention. The gates are down. The hunters are loose.
Run, Run, Run.
A lush jungle teeming with danger. Savage dinosaurs seeking blood. A fallen princess intent on vengeance. A mysterious, end-of-floor celebration for the top crawlers, dubbed “The Butcher’s Masquerade.”
The sixth floor. The Hunting Grounds.
As the remaining crawlers battle for their lives, a new, terrible threat looms. Outside tourists are finally allowed to enter the game, and they are here and ready to hunt. Among them is Vrah, a famed and veteran hunter, intent on collecting the biggest trophy of her career.
But their prey is far from harmless, and this season they are fighting back.
MY REVIEW for THE BUTCHER’S MASQUERADE
Each book of this series gets longer, with this installment over seven-hundred-page volume broken into four parts. Between side quests (the recital (new) and the elite storyline from level three being revisited), ongoing plans, dealing with being top crawlers and the chaos that brings, a con for the crawler fandom, and, of course, the themed challenge for level six, there are a LOT of moving parts and storylines needing building, climaxing, and resolving.
Mr. Dinniman continues to mesmerize with the fast-moving shuttle of the woven plotline. You will be mad and sad, laugh and cry and all the emotions in between with this fifth installment of Dungeon Crawler Carl.
I would like to compare this entire series to the short-story puns Isaac Asimov used to write – those things that were a little confusing at the beginning but you trusted that he would pull it all together to a very satisfying pun. Mr. Dinniman pulls everything together for some of the most epic final battles I’ve ever read while giving pathos and jokes in equal measure.
I would like to give a shout-out to everyone who loves Samantha, because I don’t like her that much but I know a lot of people do and situational jokes like her are one of the reason a lot of people are buying the Carl books. And those purchases encourages the author to keep writing them. So thank you.
Buy. Buy. Buy. (So he will write. write. write. and then we can read, read, read.)
(Book checked out through the local library.)
Amazon Cover
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE EYE OF THE BEDLAM BRIDE
A pantheon of forgotten gods. An old grudge between a talk show host, an heiress, and the man they shattered along the way. A rapidly deteriorating AI system. An inconvenient tiara upon the head of a friend.
It is bedlam on the eighth floor.
As management reels from the unexpected conclusion of the seventh level, the surviving crawlers stumble onto the eighth and find themselves scattered. It’s a map based on Earth’s final days before the collapse, where ethereal, intangible ghosts of humanity go about their lives, oblivious of the impending doom. Living amongst these ghosts are monsters based in Earth lore. “Legendary” creatures tied to the geographical location they inhabit.
Each team of crawlers is given a task: find and capture six of these beasts. The captured monsters will be turned into cards. Cards that can be summoned into battle again and again. The stronger, the deadlier, the better.
At the end of the floor, the bad guys will also have decks, and they will have some of the most powerful cards available. So it’s crucial to assemble the toughest squad possible.
But, like always, there is a catch. There’s always a catch.
As Carl and Donut know all too well, just because someone is captured, it doesn’t mean they have been tamed.
Her name is Shi Maria. She’s easily the most powerful monster in their area. If they want to survive, they must capture her. But she is no ordinary beast. She’s intelligent. She was once married to a god, a god who is now missing. Her special attack is known to drive one insane. They call her the Bedlam Bride.
“Beware, beware. Beware the Eye of the Bedlam Bride”
MY REVIEW for THE EYE OF THE BEDLAM BRIDE
The ride continues. The best world-building and character building and complicated plot building and mac-gyvering I have ever seen.
Not my favorite book of the series, and it shows in the “long” read-time (over two weeks). When I collapsed at night, I could sometimes go a couple-few days without returning. The reason is the mechanics for this level is not my favorite.
Each level of the dungeon has a different challenge and storyline. For the 8th level, the mechanics is a card game. I bet my friend who did professional poker playing loved it, same with the Pokemon and the Magic: The Gathering players. I’ve played enough card games to understand the mechanics, but ducked out of getting addicted. Like the Iron Tangle level, the setup is slow. The emotions stops and challenges along the way all are important, but not a wild ride (except that the whole series is a Wild Ride) until the very end.
And with a 800 page book, the “wild end” is over 100 pages, but DO NOT SKIP to the end. You need everything inbetween.
The themes of this book are addiction, trauma (always), and the power of togetherness. Addiction makes you pull away, togetherness helps you survive. A book this crazy should not be tackling themes this deep, but here we are, Carl, and Mongo approves.
Read through the local library system.
Series of Transcripts for Dungeon Crawler Carl
- Book Review (SERIES): Dungeon Crawler Carl Books 1-3 (12/16/2025)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 1 (12/17/2025)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2 (12/19/2025)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 3 (12/20/2025)
- Book Review (SERIES): Dungeon Crawler Carl Books 4-6 (2/17/2026)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 4 (2/18/2026)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 5 (2/20/2026)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 6 (2/21/2026)