The Gate of the Feral Gods

I have no idea how this book can be so good - it shouldn't work. But... the author added more than just a dungeon crawler game into this, he added humanity, morality, hard decisions. The author makes it very clear this world is seriously effed up, while still staying true to the video game/dungeons and dragons type tropes.

We have toys, fan clubs, betrayal, parasitic worms, accidental deaths (maybe) of liason officers... we even have Carl saving NPC characters - all in the name of screwing the system.

I would highly suggest not reading these immediately one after another - they tend to blend together, but not in a bad way.

Just wow. There is so much jam packed into this installment. Crazy plans, Carl blows things up, Donut gets merch, Katya really comes into her own, summoned feral gods, old enemies coming back, new alliances... I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting things. My favorite part is how Carl's striking back at the game creators and more insights into the bigger picture. Plus that epilogue! Holy hell, next floor is going to be horrible in the best way possible. I both can't wait to start the next book and am also not wanting to rush through the series too fast and be caught up. These characters and this world have really grown on me.

Everybody's on the fifth floor now, "The Bubbles." The remaining crawlers have been divided into groups of about 150 per bubble, with each bubble containing four zones, or quadrants, into which the 150ish crawlers are further divided. Some effort has been made to divvy up crawlers in such a way that all the powerful ones aren't grouped in the same bubble. Crawlers in one quadrant can't enter another quadrant until they've taken the castle located in their quadrant. Also, a bubble won't pop, and its stairs to the sixth floor won't be accessible, until all four castles in the bubble have been taken.

Carl, Donut, and Katia quickly discover that they're likely the most competent and certainly the highest level crawlers in their quadrant, show more "Air." They're in a relatively small desert location and will somehow have to work with the few other crawlers around them (some of whom are drunk and determined to stay that way) to capture their quadrant's castle, which is held up by balloons way, way high up in the air. If they're lucky, the crawlers in the other three quadrants in their bubble will figure out how to take their own castles. If they're not, Carl, Donut, and Katia will have more work ahead of them after the Air quadrant. They only have 15 days to pop their bubble and get to their stairwells.

This series continues to be lots of fun. In this volume in particular, the story expands beyond "what's the gimmick on this level?" and allows readers more glimpses of the machinations outside the World Dungeon.

The teamwork elements I enjoyed in the previous volume were back with a vengeance, just with a lot more limitations added. While it was fun to see Carl figure out how to integrate other crawlers' abilities into his plans, and I hated that there were so many interesting sounding developments happening in bubbles and quadrants Carl and Donut weren't in, I also appreciated the forced hiatus Carl and Donut went through partway into this level. It made Carl a little less "special," seeing that other crawlers around him could grow and come up with successful plans without him around.

As aggravating as Quan Ch was, it occurred to me that he and Carl were kind of two sides of the same coin. Quan Ch caused absolute havoc in the previous level, killing who knows how many other crawlers, his entire focus on his own survival. Carl caused similar havoc in this level (potentially worse, what with the "extinction level" event), but once he realized it, he focused on saving as many other crawlers as he could. Still, I could imagine there were crawlers out there absolutely pissed at the way his actions interfered with their own efforts.

My biggest complaint about this volume would probably be about the sex jokes. They were present in the previous volumes, but they annoyed me a little more this time around for some reason. The hamsters in particular were...a lot. Granted, that was the bonus "Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret" stuff, but still. The whole sex doll storyline also made my skin crawl.

Anyway, moving into the next volume, there are a lot of new moving pieces, and I'm both looking forward to it and dreading some of it. And I can't talk about any of it here because, ugh, it's all spoilers.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

5.0 ⭐️
I won’t repeat the same review from the last book but let’s just say all the strengths carry over here, not in a repetitive way, but through natural, meaningful character growth. In this absurd, hilarious world, the characters continue to develop in ways that feel real, and I kept giggling and laughing all the way through.

The same issue from the last book appears again sometimes I just didn’t know where the main protagonist was. That confusion made me drop the previous rating to 4.75. This time, though, while the issue still exists, other elements improved so much that I couldn’t bring myself to give it less than a 5.

Matt is incredibly creative, and I love that about him. He expands his world at just the right moments show more to keep you hooked. Every time I thought I’d had enough or felt satisfied, he opened a new door one that made sense, not just to stretch the story, but to build on it.

Great book. I loved it. show less

Look, I find it soothing to read about Carl powering up and fighting back against the whole structure of the dungeon, even though he’s not actually escaping and may be contributing to the bread & circuses setup of the world.

Monster sharks, floating castles, biplane bombing gnomes, the largest turkey ever, and a lost puppy are just a tastes of things to come in "The Gate of the Feral Gods" by Matt Dinniman,
In the fourth book sees all the crawlers try to figure out the messed up subway system that they have landed in. Carl, Princess Donut, Mongo, and Katia find themselves stuck in a bubble, literally. The story this time has them and all crawlers placed in different environmental bubbles. Stuck in them with only hundreds of other characters the three have to rely on the qualities of only a small group to help the clear the level quadrant. Yes, the bubbles have been broken up into quadrants and no one can leave theirs or enter others until theirs has been show more defeated. So there is more puzzle solving, ass-kicking, friend making and game destroying plots. Heck, there is even a life-like/sized, all to real sex-doll that plays a prominent role in the story.
As always, there are new creatures, NPCs, abilities, attributes and crawlers that we meet and deal with, more interesting side stories and I would say this is a much more adventurous storyline than the previous book, but that is just me.
Dinniman has done such a masterful and imaginative job with this series thus far that I could just copy and paste the praise from each on the next, but it is all true and applicable; great writing, great story, great characters, great emotions, all leading to a great book!
As always, I'm soo looking forward to book five, I give "The Gate of the Feral Gods" a 4 out of 5 and would still recommend it to anyone and continue to do so. show less

You know, it makes a big difference when an author has a long running series already planned out. If it catches on, and they get the opportunity to keep writing more books, too often authors seem like they fall into a formula just for sake of cranking out more books in the same world/series. Especially in something like urban fantasy or regular fantasy. Instead, Dinniman's DCC books are obviously following a plan and that keeps these intersting and fun.
The fourth book and 5th dungeon floor see in an increase in the wider intergalactic machinations interacting with Carl and Donut's dungeon adventures. Within the dungeon things continue to be the goofiest, wildest, overpowered rpg campaign.
I'll keep powering through these and probably be show more caught up to the new one in a week or so. show less