Book 2 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series picks up where the first installment left us, Carl, Princess Donut, and Mongo the raptor have just made it to level three of the Dungeon World that was once Earth. It was converted into an 18-level dungeon, where the last survivors of the planet have to work and fight their way to survive. All while being watched by the galaxy.

Able to pick new species and class on this level, they pull a bit of a fast one on their guide, Dev, and find themselves enmeshed in sidequests (and these are great!), despite his warnings.

This installment takes us through the third level of the dungeon. It allows our characters to grow, train their skills, banter and trade quips. There are also appearances on talk shows, garnering new fans and loot boxes.

Dinniman keeps the story rolling along, and anyone who has ever played an RPG will recognize the tropes and how Dinniman plays with them. Once again, the story is insanely entertaining, engaging and funny. And like its previous instalment, there are darker and more emotional undertones to the story if you look for them.

Dinniman never lets those aspects overwhelm the story, but they are there, and it definitely layers the story in a really brilliant way.

Two books in, and I am loving everything that is happening in these books, from the snarky AI, to the battles and the way the characters are growing.

The story rockets along, and I love the fact that there may be up to 18 levels for Carl and Donut! If they survive. And I love that Dinniman, despite the fast-paced nature of the story, isn’t rushing us through the levels.

The literal world-building that is going on in the story is fascinating, and it’s great to see how the viewers, the stats, and the AI all work to make sure Carl and Donut are exploited to deliver the best views.

There’s also lots of stuff being set up for later levels, if our heroes make it that far. And that means there’s going to be a lot of trouble coming to our heroes. I’ll be curious to see what happens if Dev discovers that Carl and Donut deliberately chose a class that would make him their manager.

Things are happening behind the scenes, and some people are less than thrilled about Carl and Donut’s success. They are starting to make enemies. And you know that’s going to pay off in fun and interesting ways.

I can’t wait to dig into the next book, The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, but I’ve got a couple others on my TBR pile first.