The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
Ratings245
Average rating4.3
+1 for Anarchists' Cookbook, -2 for the horrible plot device where everything is a weird noodle loop. Simply confusing and not very interesting.
I enjoyed this one, but not as much as I enjoyed the first two. The premise behind the floor they're on in this book was way, way too complicated. Even after it was explained (a few times!) I still am not quite sure what happened at the end, there. Like what did Carl and Katia figure out? WHAT WAS GOING ON? Still fun, but this one was confusing a great deal of time. Moving on to the next.
This Dungeon Crawler book was a bit more of a slog than the first two. It felt clunky and convoluted in a way that the first two weren't. However, I am still enjoying the series. The first two were fantastic, and I'm confident the next three will keep me entertained.
My advice is to just power through and try not to think about all the minutiae while reading.
4 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
Carl, Donut, and Mongo, now saddled with the shy Katia, are trapped in a level that's a commuter's worst nightmare, with dozens of underground and train lines traveling between nearly indistinguishable stations. And naturally all filled with monsters.
Review
I've taken to reading at least one unrelated book between series entries, but this time a) I found my chosen intervening book very slow going, and b) I was eager to get back to Carl and his adventures; it was just a lot more fun to read.
At this point, I do think the central conceit is starting to show its age a bit. We all know how these things are broadly going to go, and Carl and crew have received so many special items that Dinniman has to go out of his way to invent reasons not to use them. The seams are beginning to show.
It's not helped by a level so complex that Dinniman starts the book with an author's note saying “you won't understand it, but don't worry”. I haven't cared too much about how the levels actually work in the past, but this one did seem a special level of ‘lacking a toehold'. Carl and crew get up to their usual shenanigans of killing monsters, etc., but the fun is starting to pall.
We do see the introduction of a new characters, some interesting player developments, and more development of the NPCs, which is welcome. I think I've got a pretty good grasp on where the series is headed, and it looks good and Dinniman has done a nice, reasonably subtle job of setup.
I do think the series is going to need to do something a little different in the coming books to ensure it doesn't fall into an ever more predictable rut, but so far, so good.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
None of my library systems seem to know about this series, I had to resort to interlibrary loan which means a hardcopy. This sucker was over 400 pages big!
Normally it's a month or so to finish a hardcopy book of this size but this was SOOO good it took me 6 days. And I didn't receive the 2nd book in the series before this one but that wasn't really an issue. Yes, there probably were references to things that went on in the 2nd book but considering the complexity of this floor and the warning made by the author up front, I was already level set to just 'go with it'.
Let's see how easy it is to get the 2nd and 4th now.
4 stars
Didn't love the train setting this go round but it doesn't take away from the humor and heart of the series. Will be continuing Carl and donuts journey soon
4.00/5.00 They will not break me, I will break them.
The third installment of Dungeon Crawler Carl is a an action packed adventure and remain funny and grows into a mature fantasy. The worldbuilding takes a significant step forward, something completely unexpected and deligtfully entertaining.
While the plot is better than the first two books, this book suffers from some relative obscurity in the plot. The authors has done his best in describing the crazy world of this game as much as it can be done on paper, without extensive maps and visual aids. But I was largely unable to follow the mechanics of this floor of the dungeon. The main plot and the significant parts of this world floor are clear, but there is some amount of “trust that the character knows the world” aspect that I did not enjoy very much. I liked being a back-seat game player in this series but that aspect is not feasible in this book.
There are several good character moments and the book is non-stop action and fun. For this reason alone, this series continues to delight, even after looking past the plot armour and mary-sue aspects of carl's character.
One major plot hole that bothers me is this: Everyone, including Carl beleives that Carl is not very intelligent. But Carl figures out everything this book. He never makes any major mistakes. He is never confused. Yes, Cotyia is the "brains" that figures out how the floor works, but we still see Carl plan everything and solve all problems. hmm....
This floor: 3/10. Everything else: 9/10
The first third was good and not too complicated as the characters didn't even know what was going on. At some point, however, they knew everything about the layout, and the entire book spiralled into chaos. I have read hundreds of pages while repeatedly thinking the same as the characters themselves: “Please God, just let me move on to the next floor.”
Like a lot of the other reviews of this one, I felt that it was severely in need of some strict editing. I really respect the fact that Dinniman plotted out such an intricate puzzlebox floor with every foreground and background piece's placements and movements meticulously tracked and detailed, and I can appreciate and understand the desire to include all that background work in the narrative proper. But for me? I really wish most of it was left on the cutting room floor. It felt way too procedural, lots of repetitive overwhelming details that ended up making a big chunk of this a slog to get through.
The actual story beats though? Holy shit. So goddamn good. The climax at the midpoint had me fucking PUMPED. I feel like the stakes were pretty low for most of this one, but when they ramp up, they fucking RAMP UP.
I absolutely love Katia (her spotlight moment is the series highlight so far), Donut is still the fucking best, and I can't wait to see more of creepy screaming sociopath goatman.
I gotta squeeze some other books in before I read the next one because at this rate I'm gonna be caught up way too soon.