Category: Book Review

Book Review (SERIES): Dungeon Crawler Carl (books 1-3)

Erin Penn Leave a comment

My book club introduced me to a new series. I had been hearing about the Dungeon Crawler Carl series for a while; I’ve even been to a convention where Matt Dinniman was in attendance. While I have enjoyed LitRPG in the past, it isn’t that fascinating to me to watch characters level up through statistics. I prefer to read characters growing and expanding their skills and emotions through other means than the mechanisms of LitRPG. But when the group choose to read it, I was like “okay, it is popular and I should be reading stuff that is changing genres.” Little did I know what a game-changer Dungeon Crawler Carl is. The darkly humorous fantasy series has so many levels to it, a properly made baklava might be jealous.

I love this series. I hate that it doesn’t let me sleep when I pick one up from the library, because these books don’t get put down easily. And each books gets longer, making it real hard to read them in a day, let alone one sitting.

This review covers books one through three.  I am reading the hardback editions which include the Backstage of the Pineapple Cabaret. All books are being read in hardback through the library. While paper version is not required, you likely will want to flip back and forth to check things out.

Bonus, my book club recently started using the Storygraph Buddy-Read option. I will publish the comments I made while reading this series in a special blog tomorrow.

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)

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL

The apocalypse will be televised!

You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.

Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.

MY REVIEW for DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL

Oh, goodness the lack of sleep this book gives – pure evil. This is amazing on so many writing skills – the McGyvering problem creation and problem solving, the world, the characters, the humor mixed with the dark, the drama. Yes, very plot driven, but somehow the agency keeps coming into play.

Background politics of those running the game – wow, this is EXTREMELY well-done. Dropped throughout in very small piecemeal bits (not infodumps) – from the planetary to the corporations, from debt to history. The horrific mix of rushing the game (from the early start) to pay off debt, but making sure a LOT of money is generated. Most of the times I’ve seen the background information be dropped on characters in other books (background political mechanisms and it is like, both in fantasy and science fiction, especially military sci-fi), it’s all “oh, so that is how the world works” for both me the reader and for the POV character, but with Carl it is, hmm, let’s put this into the toolbox, we might need it. And then he breaks it out and uses it whenever he can. Just amazing writing – this is what I called layered-writing – and Mr. Dinniman is so far down in the layers it is pure Baklava.

I adore the McGyvering, and Mongo, and Princess Donut (long may her tiara shine). Every character has goals and hopes – which is horrendous against the countdown from 8 billion to 12 million to … every tick of Earth-humanity going towards extinction. This book is at once hilarious and horrific; funny and freaky. I hope Carl doesn’t break.

If you are into (1) dungeons and dragons; (2) science fiction or fantasy; (3) Mcgyver-like problem-solving; (4) human vs. dehumanizing; (5) storytelling; (6) reality shows; (7) talk shows; (8) cats … this book is for you.

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for CARL’S DOOMSDAY SCENARIO

“The training levels have concluded. Now the games may truly begin.”

The ratings and views are off the chart. The fans just can’t get enough. The dungeon gets more dangerous each day. But in a grinder designed to chew up and spit out crawlers by the millions, Carl and Princess Donut need to work harder than ever just to survive.

They call it the Over City. A sprawling, once-thriving metropolis devastated by a mysterious calamity. But these streets are far from abandoned. An undead circus trawls the ruins. Murdered prostitutes rain from the sky. An ancient spell is finally ready to reveal its dark purpose.

Carl still has no pants.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. For Carl and Donut, it’s anything but a game.

MY REVIEW for CARL’S DOOMSDAY SCENARIO

I am doling this series out slowly, like once a month. Not because I don’t want to eat these up like candy, but because they CONSUME me while I read them, staying up way too late and not getting other needed tasks done.

They have more layers than lasagna. I stopped counting the layers to world-building and characters at fourteen (!!!). The complex world can be enjoyed at the top-level dark-humor action-flick adventure as a quick read.

But thinking about it, even a little is worth it.

Dig in and level up.

I recommend reading this series in order. And now to sleep and then catch up with the rest of life.

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE DUNGEON ANARCHIST’S COOKBOOK

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 for THE DUNGEON ANARCHIST’S COOKBOOK

It takes a while for this book to gel; thank goodness Mr. Dinniman had two beyond-incredible books before this one so I was willing to give him the rope to either hang himself or pull me along for the ride, because what a ride this ends up being!

I adore trains, so I went into this with high hopes but the first third of the book is about setting up the puzzle to level four, getting all the pieces in play. Like learning a subway and public transportation system. The second third is getting the solution pieces on the table, like gathering the token, locations, and perfect combination of friends for the most Epic.Night.Out.Ever. The final third delivers on the setup, leaving one at their destination bruised, battered, exhausted, wondering “dude, where is my car”, and euphoric to have survived the ride.

Not as funny as the previous parts of the series, I wouldn’t recommend starting with this one, but the McGyvering and puzzle-solving might be the best yet. The characters continue to evolve, from Donut to the “throw-away” side characters, gaining maturity and horror.

This darkly funny series is some of the best worldbuilding and character creation out there.

Series of Transcripts for Dungeon Crawler Carl

  1. Book Review (SERIES): Dungeon Crawler Carl Books 1-3 (12/16/2025)
  2. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 1 (12/17/2025)
  3. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2 (12/19/2025)
  4. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 3 (12/20/2025)
  5. Book Review (SERIES): Dungeon Crawler Carl Books 4-6 (2/17/2026)
  6. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 4 (2/18/2026)
  7. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 5 (2/20/2026)
  8. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 6 (2/21/2026)

Book Review: Six Wakes

Erin Penn Leave a comment

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Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

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In this Hugo nominated science fiction thriller by Mur Lafferty, a crew of clones awakens aboard a space ship to find they’re being hunted-and any one of them could be the killer.

Maria Arena awakens in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood. She has no memory of how she died. This is new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died.

Maria’s vat is one of seven, each one holding the clone of a crew member of the starship Dormire, each clone waiting for its previous incarnation to die so it can awaken. And Maria isn’t the only one to die recently. . .

Unlock the bold new science fiction thriller that Corey Doctorow calls Mur’s “breakout book”.

MY REVIEW

In a world when cloning gives effective immortality to the clone elite, murder varies between horrific permanency for the humans on their first go round without the rights of clones (but with the privilege of reproduction) to a minor inconvenience when attending parties (because clones backup their mindmaps before attending in case of corporate assassinations). A group of clones wake up on a spaceship in the middle of a bloodbath, their previous bodies floating around stabbed, poisoned, and strangled. Only problem, the bodies are twenty-five years older than their memories.

What has happened in the last 25 years? And who killed them?

The mystery unfolds revealing a tangled web which only immortal gods can rival. Over a thousand years of combined history, revenge, loves, beliefs, paranoia, and missing years assembled in six people (some over 200 years old) in a small spaceship pressure cooker complete with a not-so-helpful-or-obedient AI over two decades led to the explosive killing fields they woke up to. Now can they find the vent before the pressure cooker kills them all again, this time for real as no extra clone bodies are available?

About mid-way through I was positive I would be rereading this book to catch all the nuisances and character traits of the mystery. Tightly written, with complicated characters, you are never sure who is the murderer(s?) until the end, discovering information alongside the victim-killers. This is not your mother’s cozy mystery, but a solid mix of science fiction and murder investigation in a closed room scenario.

Book Review (SERIES): The Kane Chronicles

Erin Penn Leave a comment

You likely have heard about Rick Riordan and his Percy Jackson series (I even reviewed Percy Jackson and the Olympians series back in November 2024).  But what you may not know is Mr. Riordan has written several other series set in other mythologies. Today I’m going to review the core books of the Kane Chronicles (books 1-3). I have loved Egyptian mythology since watching The Secrets of Isis as a child (on television 1975-1976 plus reruns thereafter – come, on, of course I watched the first regular superhero-type show to star a female lead), so I jumped on reading this middle-grade series once I knew it existed.

The Kane Chronicles
Book 1: The Red Pyramid
Book 2: The Throne of Fire
Book 3: The Serpent’s Shadow

All books checked out and read through my local library system. These are extremely popular and are likely in your local library too.

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE RED PYRAMID

The bestselling author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians takes on ancient Egypt in the first book of a trilogy that offers a modern-day portal into a rich fantastical world of ancient myth.

Since their mother’s death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.

One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a “research experiment” at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them–Set–has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe — a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

MY REVIEW for THE RED PYRAMID

The Kane Chronicles is no Percy Jackson and the Olympiads, and that is just fine.

What is the same:
Children between the ages of 10 and 14 doing their best to survive in a world where parents (apparently – but, not really) have made bad choices.
Parent bad choices are based on tradition and history and complications of relationships – where sometimes the choices they faced were bad or worse. The parents choose the horrible ones that would at least let their children grow up.
A historical mythology is taken, obviously well-researched, and adjusted by worldbuilding to a rare tightly woven tapestry.

What is different:
Egyptian mythology (instead of Greek) with its layers of dynasties and changes over the millenniums; and Mr. Riordan integrates the fabric of multiple dynasties into a coherent whole.
Sibling dynamics instead of friendship dynamics.
More female power roles. – Not to say Annabeth isn’t a powerhouse on her own, but in the end she is the Main Character’s (Percy Jackson’s) girlfriend. Sadie, sharing the title of “The Kane Chronicles,” is even more important to the story, standing equal to her brother. Their “chaperone” isn’t a satyr (male), centaur (male), or camp head-god (male), but female (cat-goddess). Their strongest ally in the enemy camp is also female.
Parent bonds are with the Father instead of the Mother.

Overall, the pacing is slower than the breakneck speed of Percy, but I appreciated the time to breathe between attacks. (The monsters are JUST as fascinating.) The humor is dialed back a notch, but then both Carter’s and Sadie’s upbringing were more restrictive than Percy’s. Meanwhile the world-hopping wonder we previously experienced in Percy is cranked up to eleven here, with the entire globe a playground for the Egyptian magicians. I look forward to what other connections Mr. Riordan make between Egyptian architecture linking locations around the sphere we call Earth, or Geb’s rolling landscape.

Not the same, because that would be boring. But not too different either.

Bonus diversity points – (1) stronger women characters; (2) the melanin and cultural differences of the world stage play a stronger role than the more USA-centric focus of Percy.

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE THRONE OF FIRE

Ever since the gods of ancient Egypt were unleashed in the modern world, Carter Kane and his sister, Sadie, have been in trouble.

As descendants of the House of Life, the Kanes have some powers at their command, but the devious gods haven’t given them time to master their skills at Brooklyn House, a training ground for young magicians.

And now their most threatening enemy yet—the Chaos snake, Apophis—is rising. If they don’t prevent him from breaking free in a few days’ time, the world will end. In other words, it’s a typical week for the Kane family.

To have any chance of battling the forces of Chaos, the Kanes must revive the sun god, Ra. But that would be a feat more difficult than any magician has ever accomplished. First they have to search the world for the Book of Ra, then they have to learn how to chant its spells. Oh, and did we mention that no one knows where Ra is, exactly?

Narrated by two different wisecracking voices, featuring a large cast of new and unforgettable characters, and with adventures spanning the globe, this second installment of the Kane Chronicles is nothing short of a thrill ride.

MY REVIEW for THE THRONE OF FIRE

I continue to love the worldbuilding of all the places Egyptian relics have been moved or copied throughout the world. If I had the money, I would LOVE to do a trip to hit everything in the Kane Chronicles in America and around the world.

This is a fun world-spanning adventure. The tension is diffused often, keeping the “scary” down to middle-grade levels (in fact, it could be much higher without a problem) – for example the “ticking” clock keeps fast forwarding, stopping, and going backward. A thriller ticking clock should be clear and as you go through a book, tightening from days to hours to seconds. This book begs this mechanism from the first moment of the countdown to the end of the world, but never really delivers on it.

Other than that, great character, great adventures, great battles, creative magic use, worldbuilding galore. Perfect in every way (aside from the thriller not being allowed its timebomb tension).

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE SERPENT’S SHADOW

He’s b-a-a-ack! Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sadie Kane can’t seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down.

Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all.

Unfortunately, the magicians of the House of Life are on the brink of civil war, the gods are divided, and the young initiates of Brooklyn House stand almost alone against the forces of chaos.

The Kanes’ only hope is an ancient spell that might turn the serpent’s own shadow into a weapon, but the magic has been lost for a millennia. To find the answer they need, the Kanes must rely on the murderous ghost of a powerful magician who might be able to lead them to the serpent’s shadow . . . or might lead them to their deaths in the depths of the underworld.

Nothing less than the mortal world is at stake when the Kane family fulfills its destiny in this thrilling conclusion to the Kane Chronicles.

MY REVIEW for THE SERPENT’S SHADOW

The exciting conclusion of the Kane Chronicles delivers in The Serpent’s Shadow. Complicated teenage love, stealing the shadow of chaos, and the sun being swallowed all add layers to the exploits of our favorite Egyptian magicians. This is what middle-grade books should be like. Real children problem-solving to the edge of reality and beyond.

While not as fun as the Percy Jackson storyline, the Kane Chronicles have their own hieroglyphic charm. Times two, because of the sister-brother team.

(Also enjoy the Easter Eggs as House Aphrodite participate in the school dance.)

Book Review: Strange Fruit

Erin Penn Leave a comment

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Strange Fruit, Volume I: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History by Joel Christian Gill

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Strange Fruit Volume I is a collection of stories from early African American history that represent the oddity of success in the face of great adversity. Each of the nine illustrated chapters chronicles an uncelebrated African American hero or event. From the adventures of lawman Bass Reeves, to Henry “Box” Brown’s daring escape from slavery.

 

MY REVIEW

Strange Fruit was a poem written by Abel Meeropol and sung by Billie Holiday. One of the cultural memories of Black American History which white America lacks but needs to become aware of.

Ever read a comic book with a bibliography? Strange Fruits is a graphic novel by Joel Christian Gill about nine tales of black folks (researched and pulled from obscurity). Some of them are traditional hero winning the day, but others like Theophilus Thomas, chess master, ends with questions or heartbreak.

White America cuts tales short so winning leaves a high, a success, an accomplishment – no need to seek further justice as the winning was won. Black tales witness the temporary achievements, but leave no doubt that the system hasn’t been completely fixed. The war isn’t over, and may never be over. Battles need to be fought every generation.

Mr. Gill starts with “Henry ‘Box’ Brown” – an upbeat traditional tale, followed by a glimpse of people overcoming with “Harry ‘Bucky’ Lew” and Richard Potter’s Greatest Illusion. The tales then twist and turn, like your gut when faced with the triumph and question of “Theophilus Thompson” and the complete destructive heartbreak of “The Shame” and “The Noyes Academy.” The creator of the graphic novels returns to the triumphs and questions with Marshall Taylor and Spottswood Rice. And finally Bass Reeves, another hero traditional tale, but ends with giving a hint of appropriation. – It’s not enough to outlaw reading and writing, and destroying communities and education systems, Jim Crow and his ilk need to take the few stories saved and make them their own. It’s time to claim the tales back.

A great series of stories shaped together into a single, satisfying narrative.