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Carl's Doomsday Scenario
Carl and Donut descend to level 3 for more adventures. It's not quite as novel as Book 1 but still an enjoyable romp. They basically get stuck in one town and have to solve the quests of that one town. The AI continues to cheat. Carl gets to say Godammit, Donut a lot. Lots of things continue to happen in the larger milieu of the galaxy which has a direct effect on the dungeon crawlers. It's all very inventive. And since this book only got us through 1 level and there are 15 levels in the game, I think we are in for a lot more books. Book 8 releases soon.
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Just finished book 7.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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02-12-2026, 02:57 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-12-2026, 02:59 AM by Dr. Ivor Yeti.)
(02-09-2026, 11:44 AM)Greg Wrote: Dead Hand Rule by Max Gladsone
I hope this book would finish the trilogy. I hoped in vain. But it was still a good read. This book mostly focused on Tana Abernathy and her attempts to find and stop Dawn before Dawn brings about the end of the world. I liked the introduction of the Knight and his infatuation with Debbie. I still think I might have to start over and read all the Craft books from the beginning because I'm lost a lot with who is who. I need Jax's backstory especially.
That being said, this another really good book in the series especially for the last half of the book when it is all mayhem. Everybody double deals. No one can be trusted. Some of the descriptions and depictions are very baroque.
And now I'm waiting for book 4.
Book 4 should finish this series.
(01-15-2026, 02:14 PM)Greg Wrote: The Shattering Peace by Joe Scalzi
Scalzi returns to the "Old Man's War" universe with the latest book. A decade since the last book, a tenuous peace holds between the three rival factions until a joint project colony abruptly vanishes. It's up to Gretchen Trujillo to go to the spot where the colony on an asteroid disappeared and find out what happened.
It's usual fare of Heinlein light from Scalzi. All the characters speak in the Scalzi snarky way. The book did start off fine and I was enjoying back in this universe but there was nothing really new here. The characters stumble along and then with a little Deus ex Machina the problems are resolved, sort of. Still threads dangling if Scalzi wants to continue.
100% correct. I was almost bored with the sameness of the characters and the endless “snappy” (immature) dialogue.
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Black Tide by Peter Temple
More with lawyer Jack Irish down in Melbourne. I'm really liking this Jack Irish fella despite getting lost in the plot. Or plots. There were 3 plots going on with a wealth of characters that I couldn't keep straight. Plus there is a lot of Australian slang to keep me on my toes. In the main plot, Jack needs to find Des's son Gary to find all the money stole from Des, so Des doesn't lose his house. Unfortunately, Gary has disappeared, on the run from an international group of very bad people that don't mind killing people to cover their tracks. In one of the subplots, Jack is still working with his horse racing pals to make money by finding unknown horses to bet on. Unfortunately, they go up against a group that might be fixing races via threats to the jockeys. This was the story I had the hardest time keeping straight. And finally, there is all the time Jack spends building furniture as part of his side hustle. The author clearly knows his carpentry because a lot of his descriptions about joinery are spot on.
This might be the last one I read because this the last one in the series the library has.
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The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
Oh, this was a good one. I don't know where I got the recommendation but thankfully I did. Originally, I thought the author wrote these gothic sapphic stories but it was not her. Instead I got this weird fascist fairy tale time loop story that sucked me in and wouldn't let me go. There are so many different tropes mixed into this blend of the book. It's starts with a historian looking for the earliest book about the life of Una Everlasting, the foremost hero of the Empire of Dominion. The book is necessary to clear up some of the myths surrounding Una's life. The historian lives a 1000 years after Una's death in a dystopia time under a government that lives to crush their enemies. Suddenly, the historian finds himself with the real warrior Una back in her day. He gets to see first hand what her final battle was like. To quote The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend"
There is much more to the story than that and it's very compelling. I had to read this book without pause until I was done.
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Future Boy by Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox gives a behind the scenes look at what it was like to film Back to the Future at the same time he filmed Family Ties. Spoiler: It was a grind but he loved it. Fox gives a brief background about how he got to the place of film both shows. He gives some good BTS stories. He talks about most of the cast with exception of Biff. From the tales in this, I can see why Crispin Glover wasn't asked back for the sequel.
It was a quick read but kind of light. He does talk about the Eric Stolz situation. The book was written quickly to tie in with the 40th anniversary of the release of the movie.
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The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman
Down to level 4 which is a giant collection of trains with various monsters on it. Carl continues to come up with ingenious ways to kill things. Donut the Cat continues to thrive. When the author gives an explanation that you really don't have to figure out what all the different train numbers mean, it gives you pause. There were a lot of trains. It was a bit confusing. But I find myself racing through the books to the end despite the absurdity.
And I bought this book and the next because the library is sending me books 5 and 6 next.
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The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman
Level 5 is upon. It's a world in a bubble. There are many bubbles with different themes but Carl is in the one with I guess a castle of sand guarded by a group of dirigibles. The sand sits atop a pyramid below it. There is also a lake of some kind. The job is to get all the castles in the bubble so the bubble opens allowing you to go and help other crawlers. As usual, I'm trying to track what is going but get lost. But, I am still racing through the book to find out what is going. The whole story is rife with imaginative monsters. The main NPCs in this one are camels who walk on two legs. But there is all sorts of strange things happening. I like that Carl is smart and has to figure things out.
But I still think the best part is the world outside the Dungeon which Carl also fights. Those are the battles I enjoy.
I just received books 5 and 6 from the library, so onward.
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The Butcher's Masquerade by Matt Dinniman
Kudos to to Mr. Dinniman for cranking these out. He should go down to Santa Fe and teach George R. R. Martin something about world building and book writing. These worlds are complex and intricate. On the Hunter's level, people outside the dungeon can buy into the game to hunt down the crawlers. Carl is having none of that. Plus everyone in the top 50 of the leaderboard gets invited to the Butcher's Masquerade at the Elf's castle, where most likely everyone will be slaughtered.
Carl continues to fight against the world outside the game as well while trying to save as many as his fellow crawlers as he can. He even manages to get himself a lawyer. At times it's plot overload as names and stratagems come at you fast and furious. A lot of times I find myself just letting it wash over me as I read for something I can hold to. And there are a lot of characters to keep track of and their motivations and why they are important to Carl and Donut.
I love some of the absurd things. The foot fetish AI. The sex doll head that wants to kill everyone's mother. Donut. And I find myself reading faster and faster as the books hurl towards the climax. Yes, I have the next book on the nightstand an the follow up is waiting for me at the library.
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There is no Antimemetics Division by Qntm
Paranoia is cool. Weirdest alien invasion story ever. Basically the aliens can erase any mention, even your own memories, they exist. The book has a bit of a rough start. It felt more like short stories than a continuous narrative. But the story became more cohesive later on. The author, Qntm, is known for his short stories so it makes sense. There is a strong sense of paranoia throughout the book. How do we fight an enemy we don't even know exists. Better yet how do you describe the mechanics of this impossibility? In a few places the description didn't quite cross the finish line but he came really close.
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The Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman
On the one hand, I feel like I'm grinding through these. I'm tired of the LitRPG format. I don't care about the boxes and the upgrades. I'm here for the story. On this level they lean on the card playing type of role playing. Each member gets cards which allow them to do certain things and I felt like I was going to sleep from the explanations. Carl and Donut are by themselves. They are on the surface of earth and all the crawlers are given sections of the earth to perform their quests. They need to get keys by defeating the bosses. The keys open the gates to the stairwells. If you don't get the key, you don't get to go down to the next level.
I was struggling along until about halfway through the book when the action kicked up a notch. Carl and Donut had to fight Ninja Seals and Zombie chickens and Gods and terrible people from Carl and Donut's past. It got very exciting. It became a page turner.
I'm taking a break for a bit before I head to book 7. Those are all that are out at the moment but book 8 is imminent. It still seems like there are a lot of books to go if we are going to get to 15 or even 25 levels.
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Twelve Months by Jim Butcher
When last we met wizard Harry Dresden, he was just involved in a battle to save Chicago. One of the unfortunate consequences of the battle is he lost Murphy, his work companion for many years and lately his romantic partner as well. This book has Dresden working through his grief and dealing with the problems of being a major force in the mystical politics of the town. He has to save his brother. He has to deal with problems of being engaged in a political marriage to a succubus. He has to deal with the people of Chicago not liking the fact there is a wizard in their midst.
This is a better outing than some of the recent editions. I like the stories better when they were smaller and more personal instead of every problem is world ending. Here Dresden deals with his grief. There are still the big problems but a lot of the book is just him and his fried. And I particularly like the introduction of his new Valkyrie bodyguard, Bear. She is a welcome edition.
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Pretenders to the Throne of Gods by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Jack is back. I love Jack and missed him in the last book. Although, Jack still kind of is off stage, he does play a big role. When we first met Jack in the first book of the Tyrant Philosopher series, he was the last priest and only worshiper of God. This was made worse by the fact he could see God. And God was not nice to him. As a matter of fact, Jack could see all the Gods that the Pallaseen Sway were on the way to wiping out on the way to Perfecting Society.
Jack fell out with God, joined up with a group of medics, fell in love with a demon and then lost the demon.
In this book, he is on a quest to raise his demon back from hell. He is apprenticed to a widow who is teaching him to be wicked enough to get his demon back. Meanwhile, the town where the book takes place is under siege by the Pal, who didn't take it kindly when the residents of the town kicked out the Pal. Now the town is under siege. Did I mention the town lives on the back of a god that took the form of a crab? Yes, that's going on.
Tchaikovsky brings so much detail and layers to his books. But it really seems to pay off in the Tyrant series. Everyone is desperate to get out of the situation they are in. Hope seems to be dead for everyone they just don't know it yet. But it all seems to work out in the end.
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(03-23-2026, 08:42 AM)Greg Wrote: Pretenders to the Throne of Gods by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Jack is back. I love Jack and missed him in the last book. Although, Jack still kind of is off stage, he does play a big role. When we first met Jack in the first book of the Tyrant Philosopher series, he was the last priest and only worshiper of God. This was made worse by the fact he could see God. And God was not nice to him. As a matter of fact, Jack could see all the Gods that the Pallaseen Sway were on the way to wiping out on the way to Perfecting Society.
Jack fell out with God, joined up with a group of medics, fell in love with a demon and then lost the demon.
In this book, he is on a quest to raise his demon back from hell. He is apprenticed to a widow who is teaching him to be wicked enough to get his demon back. Meanwhile, the town where the book takes place is under siege by the Pal, who didn't take it kindly when the residents of the town kicked out the Pal. Now the town is under siege. Did I mention the town lives on the back of a god that took the form of a crab? Yes, that's going on.
Tchaikovsky brings so much detail and layers to his books. But it really seems to pay off in the Tyrant series. Everyone is desperate to get out of the situation they are in. Hope seems to be dead for everyone they just don't know it yet. But it all seems to work out in the end.
Just finished this this morning around 5:00 AM. It was pretty good.
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This Inevitable Ruin by Matt Dinniman
And I am caught up with Dungeon Crawler Carl. These books are thick and involved. There are lots of machinations going on in the Dungeon and without. The gang has made it to floor 9 which everyone has been talking about for quite some time. This is the time of Faction Wars where the floor is divided into 12 sections and different groups get a section. The idea is for each group to do battle with the other groups and capture their castles. Carl and Donut are in charge of the Princess Posse and pretty much have to take on every other group. There are plenty of subplots taking place to as the NPCs get an army and the fact the other groups die in the real world if they die during faction wars.
A couple of days I was getting near the end probably a hundred pages or so and I almost just stayed up and kept reading until I was done. I did not pursue this course. But it was close. The books do get very exciting.
The next book isn't due until May and I'll be kind of glad for the break.
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