The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl #3 Published by Penguin Group on October 22, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fiction / LitRPG (Literary Role-Playing Game), Fiction / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure
Pages: 544
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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 addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman—now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition.
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.
Includes part three of the exclusive bonus story “Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret.”
Review:
I loved this continuation of the Dungeon Crawl game show with Carl, Katia, Mongo, and Princess Donut as they try to survive and reach the next level. The story perfectly balances humor, love, real-life issues, cuteness, danger, machinations, supernatural elements, surprises, and morality. This book continues precisely where the last book left off. Carl, Donut, and Mongo are now on level 4 of the Crawl – the Tangle. They continue to be very popular with the fans, Mordecai assists them, Carl comes up with crazy dangerous plans, and Donut continues to be Donut. I loved the interplay between Carl and Princess Donut and that Carl’s character is a sweet, snarky, messy, lucky, sarcastic, kind of dumb, angry, and awkward man who regularly screws up, which makes him a very likable and relatable hero. I especially love his mantra of “You will not break me.” The story includes what you’d expect from this genre – fighting, dangerous situations, supernatural creatures, evil entities, henchmen, loyal friends, tragic backstories, mystical coincidences, snark, plot twists, and laughs.
About Matt Dinniman
Matt Dinniman is a writer and artist from Gig Harbor, Washington. He is the author of the best-selling Dungeon Crawler Carl series along with several other books about the end of the world. He doesn’t really hate Cocker Spaniels, and he plays bass in two bands.
