Book three of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series sees Carl, Princess Donut, Mongo and Katia enter the fourth level of the dungeon, as they continue to garner intergalactic viewers, sponsors, bounties and loot boxes.

They find themselves in the Iron Tangle, an interweaving collection of train and subway lines with stations, rest areas, and oh so many mobs looking to kill them, and the rest of the crawlers.

Without their manger, the trio must find a way to navigate the floor, survive attacks and betrayals, as well as find a stairwell down to the next level before the entire line collapses.

The story moves quickly, as our characters fight to survive, banter, and encounter other crawlers, put up with the game’s AI, and the demands of interviews and agents.

It’s a hilarious ride that continues to deliver laugh out loud moments while hinting at darker themes underneath. It’s also cool to see Carl and his team working with other groups, to ensure their survival. Something the game takes note of, and plans to stop in the next level.

They all work to raise their levels so that they can deal with the troubles coming their way, and Carl’s abilitiy to think outside the box continues to make him popular, but the broadcasters are also trying to make him look unstable. Something that they may be doing with other crawlers as well, though some of them seem very dangerous, and now have vendettas against Carl and his group.

Dinniman continues to let his characters grow as he throws more and more difficulties at them. He rockets the story along, and tying all of it into one massive tapestry of blood, gore and laughs.

This series, three books in, is absolutely outstanding. The third book was a little tougher for me to find my groove with, but once I did, I was in. I love the banter between Carl and Donut, and love how the system seems absolutely determined to break Carl.

And to break him, there are plenty of changes affected upon him, and his team. He’s determined to hold onto his humanity, no matter what they do to him, but it’s going to be tougher and tougher I have no doubt.

There’s great stuff throughout as Dinniman puts Carl and his team through their paces. There are laughs aplenty, but also some horrifying things as you realize how the company is using and exploiting the NPCs that populate the level.

This is a fantastic series of books. I can’t recommend them enough, and I am chomping at the bit to dig into the next one, The Gate of the Feral Gods!