Dungeon Crawler Carl #5
By: Matt Dinniman
“Violence breeds chaos. From chaos we were born and into chaos we will succumb.”
The Butcher’s Masquerade
*This post contains spoilers for The Butcher’s Masquerade and the Dungeon Crawler Carl Series
Overview:
Attention. Attention. The gates are down. The hunters are loose.
The Butcher’s masquerade
Run, Run, Run.
A lush jungle teeming with danger. Savage dinosaurs seeking blood. A fallen princess intent on vengeance. A mysterious, end-of-floor celebration for the top crawlers, dubbed “The Butcher’s Masquerade.” But that’s not all.
Just when Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, think they’ve seen it all as they compete to survive in the galaxy’s most popular game show, the latest dungeon level introduces a terrible new threat.
The sixth floor. The Hunting Grounds.
As the remaining crawlers battle for their lives, outside tourists are finally allowed to enter the game, and they are ready to hunt. Among them is Vrah, a famed and veteran hunter, intent on collecting the biggest trophy of her career.
But her prey is far from harmless, and this season they are fighting back.
Welcome, crawlers. Welcome to the sixth floor of the dungeon.
Another brutal floor full of the weirdest and most horrible.
More than any other book before, politics and laws from outside the crawl come inot play.
The sixth floor allows for hunters to come into the game. Hunters are not from Earth and traditionally have a big advantage over the crawlers. This cycle of the crawl, they don’t have it so easy. The AI is no longer taking orders from the outside and everyone is vulnerable. By the end of the floor ever single hunter is killed.
The outside factions continue to file lawsuits against the AI. Originally, they are successful and allow for the hunters to leave the floor, however this is overturned and it is decided that no one can file anymore lawsuits. They can no longer hide behind this method of stopping the AI from continuing the crawl on it’s own terms.
In addition, Carl is taking every advantage he can by obtaining a lawyer to advocate for him and by the end of the cook becoming a sponsor of the crawl.
What is great about this series is that the reader doesn’t know the rules. It is improbable to guess where the book is going.
What does this now meant the Carl and Donut are sponsors? He says that he wants to change the rules for the ninth floor making sponsors be vulnerable. If he were to succeed in this what does that mean? Could he end the crawl? Could something crazy happen and he take take control of the government.
From the fact that there are several more books, we know that he wouldn’t be able to end the crawl but him and Donut now have some real power.
It just shows that this crawl is not like any that have come before.
There are a couple of big moments toward the end of the book.
The first is when Eva places the Crown of Sepsis Whore on Katia making her in line of succession of the Blood Sultanate. This now means that either Katia or Donut can make it pass the ninth floor. If you are in this line of succession you must eliminate everyone else in the line in order to move forward. Meaning they are either going to have to kill each other or more likely, one of them will sacrifice themselves for the other. The obvious answer is Katia to be the sacrifice but it will be heartbreaking however it goes.
The second big thing is Prepotente breaking the seventh floor within minutes of entering it. Thus all crawlers have bypassed this floor and moved directly onto the eight floor. We will see if there are any repercussions from this. The AI didn’t seem too happy but the baton used to break the floor was given in a sponsor box.
This is going to create tension as I’m sure there is a lot of money lost where a floor was skipped. Also, is the eight floor even completely ready? The timeline just got moved up by 20 days.
Finally, we learn that Lucia Mar is multiple children trapped in one body. Children are not allowed in the dungeon and are supposed to be taken out but something else has happened. It appears that one of her dogs is controlling the crawler and none of the people in her body want to be doing the terrible things that she has done. Carl and crew now know that they need to save these children and hopefully have the oportunity soon.
Something I think wasn’t as successful was the use of crawler loved ones. I thought this would have been far more devastation that it was.
Originally, they were going to use Bea to be Queen Imogen but instead it is the twin of Florin’s girlfriend who was killed by Lucia Mar. This doesn’t really have that much of an effect on Florin. He doesn’t get held up in his emotions or do anything rash. He is actually very calm and is even the one to figure out that Lucia Mar is several children stuck in one body.
Had it been Bea, I also don’t think it would have been that big of a difference. When Carl and Donut finally find out that Beatrice is alive and has been rescued from Earth, Carl couldn’t care less. He let go of this person a long time ago. Donut does have a bit more of a reaction. She tells Bea that she is a bad person and she is done caring about her. All the while keeping relatively calm.
They all knew that loved ones would be used against them so they were all emotionally prepared and it didn’t cause any issues.
Ferdinand is also revealed to be the cat of Queen Imogen. Donut just uses this to her advantage and charms the cat. Again, not having any emotion towards using him.
I think using the crawlers loved ones could have been a bit more interesting. In the end it just didn’t really matter and they could have been anyone that the AI used in their place.
Overall,
Still really enjoyed this book. A solid entry into the series.
I will say that something that is very successful is the use of the Ring of Devine Suffering. Every time Carl puts that ring on I worry that he won’t be able to kill the person that he marks. It creates a tension that I absolutely hate but I know it will eventually come to play. It’s the one thing that Carl isn’t thinking completely through.
I know it won’t be his absolute downfall but I think it will cause him great heartbreak later in the series. I mean, how could it not?
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
