The Butcher's Masquerade

Summary

Dungeon Crawler Carl, Donut, and their friends have made it to the sixth level of the dungeon aliens created from Earth for their own fun and profit. Carl is sick of the whole pointless process, but to make a stink about it, he and Donut will have to power through as usual, making odd alliances, and killing monsters left and right.

Review

Yet again, I’ve enjoyed this episode in the saga of Matt, Donut, and the increasingly off-kilter AI that runs the dungeon. In many ways, it’s reminding me of Martin Scott’s Thraxas books. There’s not a lot that’s new in each one; they stick to a familiar formula. But they’re consistently fun and easy to read; they’re books I enjoy picking up.

In this volume, Dinniman hasn’t picked up the pace quite as much as I’d expected, though he does finally do that a bit at the end. It’s more – to use the terminology of the book – grinding progress, though that sounds a lot more pejorative than I intend. In brief, there’s a lot more leveling up and dungeon level accomplishment than there is real forward progress in the larger narrative. The book is currently listed as a 7 book series, though I’m not sure whether that’s the intended total. I do start to worry a bit that this will become a Vlad Taltos formula book, with a great beginning devolving into the same story and jokes over and over. The dungeon has (I think) 18 levels, and even a dozen books would be taking a good thing way too far. Still, so far, so entertaining, and I hold out hope that Dinniman, like his protagonist, has a plan.

Larger picture aside, we do get the usual crop of goodies here: Carl and Donut are good at heart, there’s some relationship development, there are cool items and spells, etc. We also get the usual weaker points: it’s often hard to follow what’s happening or why, and the geography is vague. The point, though, is that to date, the goodies far outweigh the weak points, and these books are just a lot of fun.

I do continue to think, though, that the old covers are a lot better than the new ones.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Wooof this one was LONG. Good, but long. A lot happened, and I'm not entirely sure exactly what happened at the end, but I'm willing to keep going. Princess Donut is still my favorite – I just love a talking cat, what can I say? I'm worried about Carl's mental health, but I mean, he IS in a giant game designed to kill him and his friends, so there's only so much one can do there. I did end up liking this one more than the previous two, thankfully! Here's hoping Book 6 is even better!

Btw – these are described as popcorn fantasy a lot, and they absolutely are most of the time. HOWEVER, there is a LOT of death in this particular book, and I just want to warn everyone before you dive in. On to the next!

DCC is just so fun that it’s like I’m barely listening to a book. Who knew literature could be so fun and distracting??

3.5 STARS

everyone seems to love this series and while I do enjoy it I think it's just good not great! Will add book 6 to the tbr and maybe pick it back up

You know a book is great when you will stare at a wall just to get some extra audiobook time in. Easily the best of the series so far. He's been building up the "6th floor" since early on in the series and he didn't fail to deliver. I really love this series. It's going to be hard to top this book though.

The quality of the audiobooks has gone up with each one. I'm generally not a huge fan of the music and sound effects in audiobooks, but they do a good job of it and don't overdo it.

Amazingly, for being the 5th book in the series and for being a heavy beast at 700 pages, a great read that I picked up every opportunity I got.

I don't understand why this series isn't on more bookshelves, digital or physical? I still have to rely on interlibrary loans to get this series; this time all the way across the country!

Awesome!

4.50/5.00

The Butcher's Masquerade is a wonderful addition to the series of Dungeon Crawler Carl. To my surprise this book had a sander-lanche style ending, which was nothing short of amazing. This book takes a slightly darker tone than the previous DCC books, finally bringing the horrifying reality of the dungeon world to its pages. Our characters are put in extremely stressful situations, making them lose hope, taking them to the point of breaking.

The book contains many heartbreaking moments, spends time developing the world beyond the dungeon. Introduces complexity with the supposed villains of this story, and somehow manages to be funnier than the books before. The lawyer character is my favorite character in this book even though he appeared only for a very short time.

Matt cinnamon set the standard for the personification of a cat. Donut manages to be ridiculous, incredibly consistent, and wonderfully hilarious at the same time. This is my most favorite DCC book so far, this series just keeps getting better and better.

Kill kill kill!

I do that sometimes. I hurt people around me

8.5/10

Awesome all the way to the end. The final battle was a bit confusing to me, and I am not sure how to feel about the first part of that epilogue. It seemed a bit rushed and too easy to me. The second part of the epilogue was unexpected and sets up the next two books nicely.

What an awesome book. The series is progressing spectacularly and it's one of my favourite series so far

Going strong even after 5th

The story keeps on improving and you get some surprises that you can't guess and you feel awe sometimes. Looking forward for the next one.

So good I bought it after I already read it!

I'm one of those that couldn't wait so I read the whole thing as it released on RR. I love this series. It is so good. If you've been along for the ride this far you know what I mean. I'm only sad there isn't more already. Can't wait for the next one!