The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

TL;DR: Another fantastic installment in the Carl series – I continue to love these.
Source: NetGalley! Thank you for the eArc! I also bought a physical and audio edition. I love these y’all.

Plot: Carl and Donut are now in the Iron Tangle, trains galore!
Characters: I adore these guys, I can’t say that enough.
Setting: This was my only issue with this book, I just got real confused by the trains and the hoping of the lines. But I still enjoyed it.
Fantasy: More great worldbuilding here, we got some very interesting hooks for the next books and plots as well!

Thoughts:

I can’t say much about the Carl books without spoiling much but I’ll give you a cleaned up version of my thoughts. Carl and Donut have made it down to the Iron Tangle. Unlike the past few levels that felt fairly traditional in dungeon/town layouts, this one is a level of just train lines that are all intersecting and weaving around. The only way to get anywhere is via trains and the only stops and rest stops are train stops. I’m not going to lie that confused me just a bit as someone who has never been on a train or subway, but if you’re familiar you’ll probably understand it easier.

I also really enjoyed the character conflicts in this. The stress between Hekla and Carl’s crew came to a head and we saw a resolution, maybe not a complete one, but the start of one with that. There wasn’t as much as far as leveling and skill-ups but I’m looking forward to seeing more of that in the new level which seems a bit more like a normal dungeon.

This series stays strong. If you like the first book and I continue to advise you to pick up the rest. They’re hilarious but also pack a bit of a punch. A fantastic series and I’ll be continuing it, no questions asked.