The Gate of the Feral Gods

I don't know if I've ever been sucked into a book series like this since Harry Potter.

Quick review bc I have something I need to go do, BUTTTT – I liked this one better than the third, but not as much as the first or second. Hoping with the open world in the next book that I like that one even more. The bubble concept was interesting, but I missed seeing the crawlers we were used to. Carl has gotten even more determined, on top of being scarily willing to do crazy stuff. Princess Donut is still my favorite, but I do wish that her and Carl had more time to chat about literally anything other than the dungeon. They need some more down time - which I know isn't exciting to readers or whatever, but still.

I ENJOYED THIS, and will be reading the next one soon!

Still so good but having read all of these books in short order, I am getting slightly bored. Maybe I should stop binging??

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Carl, Donut, et al have reached level five, where dungeon crawlers have been split into hundreds of ‘bubbles', each with four different quadrants. And of course, there are quests all over. This time, many of them involved gods, feral and otherwise.

Review
The seams began to show in the previous book, and here the stretch to keep things fun is even more evident. There are so many groups and characters and quests to keep track of that it's all something of a muddle. Dinniman does a great job of keeping the characters engaging, but not so well on clarity of his overcomplicated plots. That said, this was a lot more fun and quicker to read than the much shorter book I read just before it.

As noted previously, part of what's appealing is that Carl is smart and practical, and makes all the right choices. Unlikely as it may be, he probably falls in what some call the ‘noblebright' category, because he's compassionate and make the ‘right' moral choices. In a world that's awful and violent (I mean his), it keeps the tone lighter in that he's clearly a good person many of us can identify with.

Dinniman's juggling a lot of balls in this series, and I find it hard to keep track of most of them. I can't say they drop, exactly, but they do vanish from sight for long enough that you just have to take on faith that they're in the right place the next time you see them. The physical environment in particular can be hard to keep track on. It's not a crisis, but it would be more fun if I could consistently picture what in the hell was happening.

As with book three in the series, the loot boxes, etc. are beginning to wear thin. There are only so many amazing tools you can find. Dinniman clearly recognizes this, and is introducing some new dynamics. He also leans more heavily in this volume into the arc of the series overall – Carl's long-range plans for the sadists (or maybe just capitalists) that run the dungeon. That's a very good thing, as the story is beginning to really need more than just level-based scenery. However, to achieve Dinniman's goals, Carl's intentional hiding of information from the reader has become much more evident.

There's an odd little epilogue to the book that is interesting, perhaps important, info to have, but doesn't feel it fits well in the book. That's preceding the official ‘backstage' extra, which is more obviously stuck on and not (so far) essential to the plot.

All in all, still fun, but starting to wear. Happily, the next level/book should bring the capitalist dungeon investor factions more directly into focus, allowing Dinniman to bring out that side of the story more. He's also clearly slimming down the immediate cast, though I didn't see that as a major need.

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

This was easily the best one yet. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book.

The humor, the twists, just omg.

Seriously, I was planning on taking a break between finishing this one and starting book 5, but the epilogue!!! I know nothing will come from it immediately, but wow... the implications. I know when I catch up I'm going to fall into a horrible book hangover.

A 4.5 for sure, would have been a 4 but the ending was insane. Still loving this series.

After a slow 3rd book in the series, this 4th installment feels like a return to form and a breath of fresh air. I still feel like there was too much minutiae, and everything moved much too quickly to take it all in. Although, I really enjoyed the pacing and overall tone of this one. You can tell that things are really only just now getting started, and Carl, Donut, and the other crawlers are in for much, much worse. Overall, I really enjoyed this one and will reread the series at some point to pick up on other things I might have missed.

Wow, for being book number four, the books are still well written and enjoyable to read! Beginning to look for book number five.

4.00/5.00

The Gate of the Feral Gods is an excellent addition to the Dungeon Crawler Carl Series. While this dungeon floor on this book is not as interesting as the previous book, the characters have grown more familiar, and there more depth to these crawlers than ever before. Donut is an excellent character, a variety we almost never see in fantasy/science fiction. The absurdity of this series allows such characters to exist and allows them to grow in interesting ways.

Boy, did I enjoy the AI comments in this book. I think the Carl-AI interaction is the favorite part of this series for me. keep it coming!

This is an action packed excellent read with some surprising twists in the overall story line. I am totally invested in Carl, who seems to be evolving into a General Carl type character. However, I see a lot of Mary Sue vibes around this character. While one of Carl's character traits is a relative lack of intelligence, he seems to be the smartest person in the Dungeon. I am glad that he started losing his shit in this book, which is a more authentic reaction to his character trait.

The audiobook is excellent as usual. Don't miss out what are probably the best audiobooks ever made!

Oh, Gods

These books have legit the most bombastic climaxes of anything I've ever read. It's wild. Doubt anything will top book 3's but this one got pretty close.

Kind of hard for me to follow at the beginning since I'm trying to space my reading of these out a bit to not catch up too quickly and my memory is a box of farts, but I got there eventually.

Really curious what the long term plan for this series is. It's definitely not gonna go the full 18 or more books I feel like it's kinda implying it will right? I feel like something's got to give before that. Especially since there shouldn't be more than a handful of other crawlers by like #10 right? Hopefully it all gets blown up way before that, I can't hold that much story in my head for long enough to make it much further than that. Also because I think I like the one-offs like K:BS slightly better.

9/10

Back on track after the chaos of the previous books. Fun twists and turns that you never see coming.