Review: The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl #3

Publication date: March 19th, 2021

Pages: 532

Spice: N/A

Synopsis:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Welcome to the Iron Tangle! Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, have to team up with other contestants not just to survive, but to solve a deadly puzzle in this third, mind-twisting novel in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

Earth has been transformed into the set of the galaxy's most watched game show: Dungeon Crawler World, a nightmarish, multilevel, video game-like dungeon filled with traps, monsters, and mind-bending puzzles. Carl and Donut have survived so far, but this fourth level is unlike anything they could imagine. The Iron Tangle: an impossibly complicated subway system tied together into a knot of trains of all kinds, from classic steam engines to sleek modern cars. Up is down. Down is up. Close is far. The cars are filled with monsters, the railway stations aren't always what they seem, and the exit is perpetually just a few stops away.

The top ten list is populated, and Carl and Donut have made it. But that popularity comes with a price. They each now have a bounty on their head. They must work with other crawlers to solve the puzzle of the floor, but how can they do that when they don't know who to trust? 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.

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Story:

It is amazing how Matt Dinniman comes up with these new floors of the dungeon. This one seems a combination of trains and complicated subway tracks throughout an underground world. There was a lot of confusion trying to picture all the different lines they were finding themselves on that the author even had to make a note in the beginning to not bother trying to follow along in that manner, you'll never have the same vision as him. But that shouldn't affect anyone's enjoyment. It didn't. I tried to keep up but then let go and it was freeing. I stopped trying to figure out what track they were going down and how the system was laid out and simply enjoyed the story for what it was: another demonstration of the fantastical way Dinniman's mind works and how he creates new and curious settings to challenge his characters.

Character(s):

• Carl - I love watching how Carl's slogan starts to change as he starts to realize that just surviving the dungeon is not all that he needs to be doing. He needs to fight against the system in place. They will not break him, he will break them. Fuck you! I love Carl's entire energy and between him and Donut, they are the ones who keep me coming back for more in every single installment of this series.

• Donut - I will never not love Donut. She is the comic relief that the series needs. Carl is stoic and strong, Katie and demure and quiet, and Donut is the life of the party who keeps things from being too serious at all times. There are moments through this book that I would be practically sobbing between the pages and then Donut would make a random comment and I would be falling over myself laughing through the tears. I would hate to see how this series faired if she was ever no longer a part of the main character's story. Don't get any ideas, Dinniman!

• Katia - This is the first time that I have gotten to see Katia is a more frontrunning light. She is clearly starting to come into her own and starting to learn who she is without someone guiding her every move. Carl and Donut give her the room to grow and learn who she is while also having her back through it all. She couldn't have been paired up with a better duo for the dungeon. She was shy and weak when she first joined the team but she started to show a backbone throughout this book. I actually grew to respect her a bit more than I did originally.

Writing:

Can anyone really call the author's writing anything but superb at this point? The obsession with the world he is creating has got me in a chokehold. I want to know more. I want to see the system fall. I want Carl to crush it under his foot so the System AI has nothing but fond memories of their own demise. The creatures he creates that are tied in with reality of our own world is amazing. I don't think I can say anything negatively about how Dinniman writes and will fight anyone who can.

Overall:

Another amazing installment in the DCC world. I do wish the subway/train systems were a little easier to follow because I don't want to feel like I miss even the smallest tidbit of information. But that is so minute that it is barely worth mentioning. I look forward to reading the next book and seeing what the next floor holds.