Tag: Great Characters

Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Fantasy2 Comments

Publisher: Harper Voyager (Trade Paperback – 26 August 2025)

Series: Standalone/Book One

Length: 549 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Acclaimed author R. F. Kuang produces one of the more distinctive and intelligent fantasy novels of 2025 with her elaborate and compelling Katabasis.

Rebecca Kuang, who mostly goes by R. F. Kuang, is a very interesting author who has been making a big impact on the fantasy scene in recent years.  Known for her elaborate and dark fantasy novels that often feature strong Chinese inspiration, Kuang has written some intriguing novels over the years, including her bestselling Poppy War trilogy, as well as the standalone novels Babel (also released as Babel, or the Necessity of Violence), and her contemporary satirical novel Yellowface.  I have been meaning to read something from Kuang for a while, especially after seeing a lot of love for her works online, so I made sure to seek out a copy of her 2025 release, Katabasis.  An intricate read with some excellent academic twists, Katabasis was a compelling novel with a very unique plot.

Plot Synopsis:

Dante’s Inferno meets Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own.

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek:

The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.

That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….

Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.

With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.

But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.

Katabasis was an outstanding novel from Kuang, who presents a highly academic and moving journey into the underworld.  Featuring a very distinctive style, Katabasis was a thoughtful and intricate fantasy read with some outstanding character moments, which really draw you in with its drama and complexity.

Kuang envisions a compelling standalone narrative for Katabasis, which combines an intelligent adventure into the afterlife with some great character-driven story elements.  Following protagonists Alice and Peter as they journey together into Hell to recover the soul of their recently deceased professor, Katabasis has a bit of a slow start to it, primarily due to the highly theoretical nature of this world’s magic system and the various ideas of Hell.  Kuang is forced to explore a lot of this in the early part of the book, but it serves as an excellent basis for the rest of the novel, especially when combined with hints at the troubled relationship between Alice and Peter, as well as their own dark histories.  Once the story gets going in earnest, it proves to be a lot more exciting, especially when exploring the different planes of Hell, and Kuang soon adds in some other dark threats that further imperil the protagonists.

The second half of Katabasis is particularly good, as the protagonists continue their journey down the various levels of Hell, now being hunted by murderous constructs and their sinister masters.  Kuang really amps up the risk factor for this part of the book, and there are some great scenes here, including one that completely changes the trajectory of the narrative.  At the same time, the author fully reveals the traumatic pasts of both protagonists, which really alters the way you see them and their motivations for undertaking this adventure.  Following some dark tragedy and excellent searches for self-discovery amongst the other trapped souls in Hell, the big threat of the story is eventually resolved, and the goal of the protagonists is reached.  Kuang does an excellent job wrapping the book up, with the final decision of the main protagonist serving as a great full-circle moment for the entire proceeding plot.  I quite liked the hopeful note that the author left her fantastic novel on, which I felt was quite fitting and allowed the reader to come away very satisfied and moved.

I felt that Kuang utilised a very distinctive, and personal style for Katabasis, that really helped her to make the classic journey into Hell story her own.  A powerful, character-driven book, Kuang brings together a great adventure narrative that is constantly enhanced by a range of academic elements and the author’s own complex magick system.  There is a substantial dive into both the concept of Hell, and the study of the novel’s archaic magick, and Kuang cleverly dives into the deep detail of both as the book continues.  Fans of Dante’s Inferno and other classic texts about Hell will love the constant references and comparisons that occur throughout the course of the story, and it was fun to see the differences between what the protagonists expect and what they experience.  I felt that this mixture of homages and the author’s own imagination was very impressive, and the author went above and beyond to set up this setting and her magick system, including with several great maps of Hell that appear in the version of the book I got.  I also felt that the author’s compelling dive into the torture that is advanced academia and the various pressures, lies and rivalries that formed was particularly gripping.  Kuang clearly adds a lot of her own experiences with academia, especially in the elite British universities, into the protagonist’s past, and it gave a gritty bit of academic realism to the plot.  It does need to be said that Kuang made her novel a little too complex at times, and there are a few sections which drag as the protagonist’s dive into obscure lore, elaborate equations, or complicated logic.  Still, for the most part Katabasis was a well-written and addictive standalone read, that will really appeal to established fans of the author.

I think that another major highlight of Katabasis was the excellent character work that Kuang featured throughout the plot.  Focused primarily on the main characters of Alice Law and Peter Mudoch, both protagonists are initially portrayed as brilliant and highly ambitious academics whose journey into Hell only seems to enhance their own rivalry.  However, as the book continues, Kuang does a masterful job of diving deeper into their backstories and showcasing more of their pasts to give their current adventure and motivations more meaning.  It turns out that both characters are a lot more damaged than you’d initially realised, due to their own experiences in academia, their interactions with their supervisor, and the crippling rivalry that has formed between them.  The slow reveal of the full extent of their damage, which also includes both characters reevaluating previous information and conclusions they’ve made, is very impressive, and each revelation adds some greater emotional heft to the plot.  Combine that with the gradual evolution and repair of the relationship between Alice and Peter as the book continues, and this was quite a powerful journey for the two protagonists, especially as they experience even more tragedy, betrayal and uncertainty in Hell.

While most of the book is focused on Alice and Peter, I do have to also highlight how well Kuang set up supporting character Professor Jacob Grimes in the Katabasis.  Despite being dead and appearing mostly in flashbacks and the memories of the protagonists, Professor Grimes serves as an influential figure in the plot, primarily for the impact he had on his various students.  Initially shown as a brilliant and supportive academic, the flashbacks shown throughout the course of Katabasis soon reveal a more malicious side to Grimes, which really changes your view of the protagonists’ journey to save him.  Kuang’s slow burn reveal of all of Grimes’s flaws and manipulation was just perfect, and I loved how your perception of this shadowy figure the plot is chasing changes the more honest and open the protagonists become.  The full extent of Grimes’s actions, and his students’ complicated feelings for him, is such a compelling part of the Katabasis’s plot, and I liked how well it’s tied into the larger problems with academia.  I really do appreciate how well Kuang set up Professor Grimes as a dark supporting figure in this book, whose influence has major implications to the story, even if he only actually appears in the present adventure once.  Throw in some other intriguing denizens of Hell, including a twisted family doing their own dark experiments on the dead in brutal fashion, and Kuang really showcased her ability to write complex and damaged characters in Katabasis.

Overall, Katabasis was a highly compelling and deeply intricate fantasy novel that was a distinctive highlight of the 2025 reading year.  I certainly got the full experience of Kuang’s intriguing imagination with this elaborate book, and the resulting story was an interesting take on dark academic fantasy.  Clever, moving and full of some unique features, Katabasis was an outstanding read that is really worth checking out.

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Days of Shattered Faith by Adrian Tchaikovsky

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star Books2 Comments

Publisher: Head of Zeus (Audiobook – 5 December 2024)

Series: The Tyrant Philosophers – Book Three

Length: 21 hours and 39 minutes

My Rating: 5 out 5 stars

Amazon

One of the current top authors of all things fantasy and science fiction, the improbably imaginative Adrian Tchaikovsky, continues to greatly impress with his outstanding and epic early 2025 novel, Days of Shattered Faith.

I think it is fair to say that few fantasy and science fiction authors are as consistently prolific and entertaining as the relentless Adrian Tchaikovsky, who has been continuously putting out clever books over the last few years.  While he has written many intriguing series and standalone novels throughout his career, I am more familiar with some of his more recent works, including the novella Ogres, the gripping interstellar novel Alien Clay, one of my favourite Warhammer 40,000 novels, Day of Ascension, and the hilarious and insightful robot apocalypse novel, Service Model (one of my favourite books of 2024).

While the above books are all quite exceptional, my favourite body of Tchaikovsky’s work has so far been The Tyrant Philosophers series.  A gripping, brilliant and highly amusing series, the Tyrant Philosophers novels are set in a cool fantasy world filled with magic, gods and demons, all with a fun Tchaikovsky twist to them.  With the first two books, City of Last Chances and House of Open Wounds, both of which were amongst my favourite books of 2023 (with City of Last Chances being one of the best audiobooks of 2023) the series has really grabbed my attention over the last couple of years.  Much of it is down to the author’s clever narratives that work to expand this intriguing fantasy world through some interesting overlapping characters and events.  In particular, the series examines the dark impact of the Palleseen, a conquering army of fanatics who violently supress superstition and belief in the gods in the name of expanding their own worldview of perfection and correctness.  Both the previous books in this series were quite impressive, and I was very eager to read Days of Shattered Faith when it first came out.  While I have been delayed in writing a review for this book, it proved to be an outstanding read, especially with its rich and powerful narrative.

Plot Synopsis:

Welcome to Alkhalend, Jewel of the Waters, capital of Usmai, greatest of the Successor States, inheritor to the necromantic dominion that was the Moeribandi Empire and tomorrow’s frontline in the Palleseen’s relentless march to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world.

Loret is fresh off the boat, and just in time.

As Cohort-Invigilator of Correct Appreciation, Outreach department, she’s here as aide to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly. And Sage-Invigilator Angilly – Gil to her friends – needs a second in the spectacularly illegal, culturally offensive and diplomatically inadvisable duel she must fight at midnight.

Outreach, that part of the Pal machine that has to work within the imperfection of the rest of the world, has a lot of room for the illegal, the unconventional, the unorthodox. But just how much unorthodoxy can Gil and Loret get away with?

As a succession crisis looms, as a long-forgotten feat of necromantic engineering nears fruition, as pirate kings, lizard armies and demons gather, as old gods wane and new gods wax, sooner or later Gil and Loret will have to settle their ledger.

Just as well they are both very, very good with a blade…

Wow, what an incredible read.  Adrian Tchaikovsky continues to deeply impress with his elaborate and intense narratives, especially as he expertly continues his Tyrant Philosophers series in his distinctive and creative way.  Featuring a complex plot that follows various damaged and self-serving characters as they navigate the attempts to influence and control a mighty city, Days of Shattered Faith was an addictive read from start to finish, and I loved how the entire novel came together.  A very easy five-star read, Days of Shattered Faith was one of my favourite books and audiobooks from the first half of 2025, and I had such an exceptional time getting through it.

I really loved how Days of Shattered Faith’s story turned out, especially as Tchaikovsky managed to turn this into both a powerful standalone novel as well as a moving entry in the larger Tyrant Philosophers series.  This book has quite a complex and layered narrative to it, as it follows multiple intriguing characters through chaotic events that are about to overtake the city of Alkhalend.  Initially focusing on the two Palleseen characters, Sage-Invigilator Angilly and Cohort-Invigilator Loret, Days of Shattered Faith sees them as unlikely ambassadors in a city that mostly hates and fears the Palleseen and their attempts to subvert and control the world.  When the sudden death of Alkhalend’s ruler results in a brutal civil war, Angilly and Loret attempt to help the Palleseen supporting heir to retain the throne following a coup from his brother.  At the same time, various other figures in the city, including a familiar former priest and several unconventional doctors, attempt to survive the chaos engulfing their home.

Tchaikovsky does an excellent job building up a lot of complex storylines, details of the main setting, and character arcs in the first half of Days of Shattered Faith, all of which came into play in fantastic ways as the novel continued.  Following a large collection of complex character-driven storylines throughout the novel, Tchaikovsky moulds these together into a compelling overarching narrative, with these protagonists impacted by various major events.  This includes the brutal civil war at the centre of the novel, which completely changes the course of the narrative and sets several major characters down some compelling and dark spirals.  Due to the appearance of more Palleseen influence in the second half of the book, things in Alkhalend naturally go to hell in a variety of ways, especially when all the unconventional and imperfect methods of Angilly and her unusual Palleseen colleagues in Outreach are questioned and changed by her more by-the-book superiors, who also drop the subtle tactics when it comes to controlling the city.  This results in a darker, more intense second half of the novel, where every protagonist makes mistakes or experiences greater tragedy.  The author perfectly builds up the tension and suspense before leading up to the big revolution sequence where all the separate character arcs converge for the last time, which was as devastating and crazy as you would expect from Tchaikovsky.  Everything ends on a satisfying, heartbreaking note, especially as several characters find themselves in worse positions then when they started.  It will be very interesting to see where the wider narrative of the series goes from here, especially for the series’ recurring protagonist, but it’s clear that the events of Tchaikovsky’s universe can only get sadder from here.

Tchaikovsky has a very distinctive and compelling writing style for the Tyrant Philosophers novels that coveys his elaborate and entertaining narrative in some unique ways.  Once again relying heavily on multiple perspective changes to tell his layered story, Tchaikovsky embarks on providing a deep and personal story, set around a large collection of compelling supporting characters.  The author excels at creating elaborate and complex backgrounds for the various characters, which are worked into the larger plot extremely well, especially as each character has their own unique motivations and damage.  All these varied story elements are well woven together into one complex story, and it was fascinating to see all the different figures react to the continually changing events.  As with the previous books, Days of Shattered Faith has a range of tones within it, as Tchaikovsky works hard to produce the right balance of intrigue, action, world building and dramatic and moving character moments, all of which are done perfectly and work to create an impressive novel.  The elaborate battle sequences pair well with the subtle and often forced betrayals of the various characters, while deeper personal troubles and dark histories lurk just beneath the surface.  All these sequences are well laced with the excellent and often cynical humour of the author, which really ties the entire thing together quite nicely.  I loved how so many complex scenes were made better by the sarcastic and realistic commentary of either the characters or the narrator, which worked to highlight the dark, and often absurd nature, of so many of the fantasy elements of the story.

As with the last two books in the series, Days of Shattered Faith works well as both its own distinctive, standalone narrative and as a continuation of elements and character-focused storylines from the previous books.  Due to how it initially focuses on an original group of central characters navigating an unfamiliar setting in the series’ wider world, new readers can easily come into this series without any real pre-knowledge of the other books.  However, as the story eventually grows to focus on several major characters from the first two novels, I think those readers who know the full story of these figures and the complex events they’ve had to navigate will end up appreciating the plot of Days of Shattered Faith a little more, especially as Tchaikovsky continues to torture a certain former priest with even more tragedy and hardship.  The author also features references to events from the previous books throughout Days of Shattered Faith, and readers will find it fascinating to see how certain decisions or plots from the recurring characters, such as some vengeful religious conversion in House of Open Wounds, had larger, devastating impacts on the wider world.

Tchaikovsky once again pulls together an elaborate setting for his compelling narrative, as while Days of Shattered Faith is set in the same fantasy world as the other Tyrant Philosophers novels, much of the action occurs around the newly introduced complex city of Alkhalend.  Loaded up with cut-throat politics, various conflicting religions, distinctive magic, and various otherworldly beings who have migrated from other realities, Alkhalend is an exceptional focus for much of the plot.  Tchaikovsky excelled at introducing the various unique elements of Alkhalend and its surrounding nations in the early part of the book, and it was fascinating to see how they impacted the plot going forward.  Alkhalend honestly had so many fun and quirky unique fantasy features, and this had to be one of the more memorable settings I have had the pleasure to see in fantasy figure.

Of course, as this book is set within the Tyrant Philosophers universe, Tchaikovsky had to once again include the Palleseen, who serve as the main antagonistic group in the series.  Ideological zealots often bound by their own rules and processes as they slowly and greedily try to take over the world, all the books in this series are dedicated to examining their methods and serves as a humorous critique of militarisation and empire building.  While the previous books have either looked at the Palleseen as an occupying force or at their weaponisation of magical medical practices, Days of Shattered Faith focuses on their diplomats and how they influence conflicts in lands outside their empire.  This ends up showcasing a new side to the Palleseen machine, especially as the empire’s diplomatic department, Outreach, is made up of more fluid personnel, willing to go outside of standard practices to achieve their goals.  It was quite entertaining to see the differing methods of this empire conflict with each other, especially when it brings some conflict between the various Palleseen characters, and it added some great drama to the second half of the book.  I loved once again seeing the dangerous bureaucracy and insatiable desire for more magical material turn the Palleseen from reasonable allies to controlling occupiers as the plot continued, especially as it perfectly influenced various characters to take a new course of action.

As I have mentioned a few times above, Tchaikovsky loaded this novel up with an outstanding array of complex or damaged characters who are the true highlight of the plot thanks to their collective dark histories and layered motivations.  The sheer range of different characters in Days of Shattered Faith is very impressive, featuring a great mixture of locals of Alkhalend, Palleseen visitors, and other memorable figures seeking refuge in the sandy city.  Much of the plot was focused around the two members of Palleseen Outreach in the city, Sage-Invigilator Angilly and Cohort-Invigilator Loret, whose unique take on diplomacy often causes more chaos.  Angilly was a great lead for much of the plot as a pragmatic Palleseen operative, who finds her loyalty compromised by her romantic connection to the city’s crown prince.  This doomed romance leads to all manner of trouble for both characters, and the various betrayals and eventual end resulted in some of the author’s more tragic writing.  Loret, on the other hand, was a great fish out of water in this novel as she attempts to learn the rules of diplomacy and understand the many facets of Alkhalend, all while keeping her troubled past a secret.  I felt that Tchaikovsky used Loret well as a good stand in for the audience to showcase his new city setting in more detail, while her eventual development and tragic past connected to the events of the previous book proved to be a particularly compelling, if bloody, part of the plot.

The rest of the cast are also impressive, including a couple of opportunistic Palleseen operatives who have less issues with exploiting the people of Alkhalend for their own means.  I also personally enjoyed the return of several familiar figures from the previous Tyrant Philosopher novels, including the unusual batch of former military doctors who made their escape in the previous novel.  While given less focus in this novel, Tchaikovsky still makes excellent use of these fugitive doctors, and it was interesting to see how the most junior member of the troupe got upgraded to a major character now he’s a little older.  Accompanying the doctors is character now known as Happy Jack, who readers of the series may recognise as the priest of small gods from the first two novels, Yasnic.  Now bereft of his original petty deity, Jack has now found happiness and contentment in Alkhalend, especially thanks to an unlikely doomed romance.  Of course, that happiness can’t last too long, and Tchaikovsky soon returns to torturing one of his best characters, ensuring he’ll be even more compelling in the next book of the series.  Throw in the many other unusual denizens of Alkhalend, which includes pirates, necromantic priests, scheming nobles, and even a giant frog god, and the cast of Days of Shattered Faith is impressive, especially as the author carefully balances the many alternating character storylines to create an overall outstanding narrative.  I cannot wait to see what awesome characters Tchaikovsky comes up with in the rest of the series, but I’m expecting some truly fascinating figures going forward.

While I did end up buying a physical copy of Days of Shattered Faith, I ended up listening to its audiobook format instead, mainly because I had such a good time with the City of Last Chances audiobook.  Days of Shattered Faith also proved to be an incredible listen, with the audiobook format deeply enhancing the complex plot and showcasing all the excellent fantasy elements in even more detail.  Coming in with a notable runtime of nearly 22 hours, I was able to get through Days of Shattered Faith quickly, especially with the outstanding David Thorpe narrating the story.  A veteran narrator who has lent his voice to many of Tchaikovsky’s audiobooks, Thorpe did an excellent job bringing Days of Shattered Faith to life, especially as his tones and voices matched the style of the author’s writing.  Thorpe really dives into the various unique characters loaded into Days of Shattered Faith, coming up with a range of fun and fitting voices.  I felt that these voices, as well as his excellent narration of the complex fantasy plot details of this novel, turned Days of Shattered Faith into a very enjoyable audiobook, and it was such a good format to enjoy this unique story.  Easily one of the top audiobooks I have so far enjoyed in 2025, Days of Shattered Faith comes highly recommended in this format, and you are guaranteed to have an amazing time listening to it.

With even more crazy characters, distinctive fantasy elements, and a twisty and captivating plot, Days of Shattered Faith was another exceptional novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky.  A perfect continuation of the incredible Tyrant Philosophers series, Days of Shattered Faith had so many awesome elements to it, and I loved its complex story and compelling protagonists.  An outstanding read I loved so much, Days of Shattered Faith is one of the best fantasy novels of 2025, and I cannot wait to see how the rest of the series unfolds.  Indeed, the fourth book in the series, Pretenders to the Throne of God, is out in a few months’ time, and it is already shaping up to be another epic read.

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Star Wars: Sanctuary by Lamar Giles

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Star Wars, Tie-in Novel1 Comment

Publisher: Random House Audio (Audiobook – 6 August 2025)

Series: Star Wars – The Bad Batch

Length: 11 hours and 46 minutes

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

Amazon

New Star Wars author Lamar Giles presents an epic and highly entertaining novel that follows everyone’s favourite group of rogue clones, with the Bad Batch focused novel, Sanctuary.

2025 has been an awesome year for Star Wars fiction.  Between the intense political novel, The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed, and the upcoming Darth Vader-focused novel, Master of Evil by Adam Christopher, there are some interesting and heavy books coming out to further the lore of this iconic franchise.  However, there have also been some highly entertaining entries in this canon, including the fantastic novel Sanctuary.  Written by young adult fiction author Lamar Giles, Sanctuary is the author’s very first Star Wars novel, having previously written a short story in an anthology book.  A tie-in to The Bad Batch animated series, Sanctuary was an intriguing adult Star Wars novel that wasn’t originally on my reading radar.  However, in the mood for an audiobook from a familiar franchise, I decided to check it out, and boy was I glad that I did.

After turning on the Empire and deciding to live their own lives, the members of Experimental Clone Force 99, better known as the Bad Batch, are on the run, taking odd jobs and helping the innocents of the galaxy.  Made up of the grizzled Hunter, brilliant Tech, loveable powerhouse Wrecker and child prodigy Omega, the Bad Batch members have become an unlikely family.  However, after a series of dangerous missions, the members of the squad are tired, especially with their former comrades Echo and Crosshair on their own separate journeys. 

Needing a safe place to rest, the Bad Batch have found sanctuary on the planet of Pabu.  An idyllic settlement hidden from the eyes of the Empire, Pabu appears to be the perfect place for the clones to finally settle down and escape the constant battles.  However, before they can enjoy the peace of their new home, they’ll first have to help rebuild it.  With the settlement desperate for resources after a massive tidal wave, the members of the Bad Batch team up with pirate and self-proclaimed liberator of treasures, Phee Genoa, who promises an easy payday.

Hired to recover a valuable relic from an auction house, the crew’s ploy to steal it is quickly discovered, forcing them to revert to their usual fugitive ways.  However, their escape plan becomes complicated when Phee insists that they take on a second job, ferrying a mysterious couple to safe harbour.  Going against his better judgement, Hunter agrees to take on the passengers, but soon discovers that their new cargo has many secrets.  Forced to contend with an obsessive ISB agent and murderous tycoon with dangerous connections, the Bad Batch will risk it all for their new home.  But have they finally found an enemy too dangerous to defeat?

Sanctuary was an excellent and very entertaining Star Wars novel that proved a lot of fun to read.  Perfectly bringing the characters from The Bad Batch to life for an exciting new adventure, Sanctuary was an outstanding read that featured a compelling and action-packed story of love and life in the Star Wars universe.

Giles pulled together a captivating and very fitting narrative for Sanctuary, the serves as a great addition to The Bad Batch show, while also telling its own unique story.  Set towards the end of second season of the series, right after the events of the 13th episode, Pabu, Sanctuary is a fast-paced, character-driven story that takes the protagonists into the gritty underbelly of the Star Wars universe.  Starting with a very entertaining heist sequence, which goes about as well as any of the team’s plans, the titular Bad Batch and their pirate associate Phee Goena, escape with the loot, planning to sell it to a wealthy buyer.  At the same time, they take on two passengers, pregnant woman Keshiri Sohi and her masked partner Kuuto, who require smuggling across the galaxy.  Giles does a great job setting up all these initial story elements, and he quickly adds in some compelling complications that add some exciting drama to the narrative.  This includes a righteous ISB agent, Supervisor Sendril Crane, who is hunting their passengers, as well as the squad’s potential buyer, Cellia Moten, who would prefer to kill Phee Goena rather than pay her.

After an excellent shootout sequence halfway through the book where the protagonists are forced to simultaneously resist both Crane and Moten, the book slightly slows down as Giles works in some excellent story elements for both the protagonists and antagonists.  This includes growing drama between the Bad Batch and their passengers over their various secrets and lies, which also ties in nicely to internal conflicts amongst the team.  At the same time, Crane finds himself in the sinister orbit of the highly connected Cellia Moten, with the two trying to manipulate the other for their secrets and influence.  After a series of personal scenes for the protagonists that finally get them on the same page, Giles moves the story towards the end game, with the antagonists finding out where they are hiding.  This results in a series of awesome action sequences, with all the protagonists forced to fight to escape.  All the book’s characters, including its two villains, have their moment to shine here, and there are some powerful examinations of the relationship between new characters Crane and Sohi.  After some suitably climatic moments, the book ends on a high note that fans will really enjoy.  Giles also adds in an excellent cameo at the end that serves as a cathartic conclusion to another character’s story, and which I thought was a fitting and fun way to end the book.

I really enjoyed Giles’s writing style for Sanctuary, especially as he managed to achieve a lot in this novel.  Not only do we get a fantastic Bad Batch focused narrative loaded with action, adventure and other exciting Star Wars elements, but Giles also managed to include some powerful, personal moments, as various character dramas from both the show and this specific novel are played out.  The result was a slick and fast-paced novel that quickly draws the reader in with its easy humour and fun focus on The Bad Batch’s entertaining characters.  Thanks to some excellently timed shifts in character perspective, all the key members of Sanctuary’s cast have their moment to shine.  I particularly loved parts of the book that showcased the antagonist’s journey, which served as outstandingly entertaining contrast to some of the more character-driven chapters around the protagonists.  The combination of intrigue and Imperial politics in these scenes, as well as the mind games between to delightfully devious villains, was a true highlight of the book, and it allowed Giles to up the stakes of the plot, especially when it starts diving into some deeper Star Wars elements with some excellent references.

As a fan of The Bad Batch animated series I personally really enjoyed Sanctuary as Giles perfectly captured the tone and humour of the show.  Working as a great tie-in, Sanctuary fills in some interesting gaps between two of the show’s episodes, and the author does an excellent job of examining some of the issues the characters are facing during this period.  While naturally geared towards those familiar with The Bad Batch, Giles ensures that Sanctuary isn’t too show-lore dependent, and most general Star Wars fans will be able to read this book and have a great time.  Indeed, those unfamiliar with the animated series get a good glimpse at the humour and character dynamics in this novel, and it could serve as a good entry point to show.  Even if they don’t, the author also adds in a bunch of references that anyone familiar with Star Wars will be able to appreciate.  I felt that Giles did an excellent job exploring the period the novel is set in, the early days of the Empire a couple of years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, which is one of the more fascinating times in the franchise’s lore, and it was interesting to see how some of the new characters fit into this time.  As such, Sanctuary is going to appeal to a wide range of readers, and it’s a great read for fans of the Star Wars extended universe.

I have already mentioned a few times the excellent character work in Sanctuary as Giles features a great cast for this book.  Naturally for a Bad Batch book, the titular cast get much of the focus in Sanctuary, with excellent portrayals of Hunter, Tech, Wrecker and Omega.  Giles expertly captures their personalities from the show and reproduces them in Sanctuary.  As such, you are given some very interesting insights into the minds of each of these characters at this point in the series, with a particular focus on each clone’s glance towards the future and what they want out of life.  While there are some interesting alternating characters here amongst the cast, including Omega trying to become more independent, Tech’s unlikely romance with Phee, and Wrecker’s simple desire to blow things up, much of the character development for the main cast revolves around Hunter.  Giles spends a large amount of time diving into Hunter’s issues with losing control and no longer being a soldier, as well as some of the resentment he has from Crosshair’s abandonment of the squad.  This results in several fractious family moments, especially as Hunter’s caution tends to put him at odds with the rest of the team’s desires, and his distrust of Phee and their new passengers causes some noticeable friction.  These character dramas are a compelling part of the book’s overall plot, although Giles also does a good job of showcasing the more happy-family version of the Bad Batch, which fans of the show will appreciate, considering we all know what’s coming in a few episodes time.  That being said, I’m not sure I can forgive Giles for his line about Tech’s grapnel gun never failing him.

Aside from the titular Bad Batch, Giles features several additional outstanding characters, including returning show favourite Phee Genoa.  A free-spirited pirate and treasure hunter, Phee was a breath of fresh air amongst the stuffier clone soldier protagonists, and it was entertaining to see the unique interactions she had with the other characters.  Her antagonism of the rigid Hunter was particularly fun, especially as it brought up some much-needed drama, however, it was her relationship with Tech that was a true highlight of the book.  Giles did a good expanding on the feelings hinted at in the show, and they proved to be a very distinctive couple as a result.  I felt this gave some of the upcoming events of the animated series a little bit more of a tragic air, as you try to imagine what could be, and you end up liking them in a very bittersweet way.  The main cast of protagonists were well rounded out by new figures Keshiri Sohi and the masked Kuuto.  Mysterious passengers with secret pasts who cause all manner of trouble for the main cast, Sohi and Kuuto spend much of the book seemingly untrustworthy with their own agendas.  However, thanks to some excellent reveals, as well as a couple of good flashbacks, you grow to understand the complexity around their actions, and they proved to be a compelling addition to the cast as a result.

While I really enjoyed the protagonists, I felt they somewhat got overshadowed by the book’s impressive antagonists.  This includes ISB Supervisor Sendril Crane, a diligent and intense figure on the heels of Sohi and Kuuto.  Crane has a brilliant introduction in this book, which shows off his intelligence and ruthlessness, and he only gets better from there as you come to understand his background as a spy and his obsession with Sohi.  While Crane proves to be a ruthless adversary, he is well matched by Sanctuary’s other main antagonist, Cellia Morten.  An ultra-rich, politically connected tycoon with a penchant for murder, Morten is shown to be an outstandingly deranged figure early on, and she swifty amps up her evilness as the book continues.  Giles does an exceptional job sculpting Morten into the very worst rich villain he could, especially once her motivations for killing are revealed, and it was very fun for to eventual face reality on the real power structure in the galaxy.  While both serve as great antagonists to the main cast, the real beauty of these villainous characters occurs when they interact with each other, which results in a series of manipulative conversations which are thoroughly entertaining.  I particularly enjoyed how Morten continuously got the better of the normally unflappable Crane, especially in their first meeting when she gets out being arrested by asking if he had been sent by her good friend Sheev, with her use of namedropping and connections only getting better from there.  These two antagonists played off each other perfectly, and their battle of wits and cruelty, was even more entertaining than their hunt for the protagonists.  All these great characters added so much to my enjoyment of Sanctuary, and I loved the amazing arcs and interactions that emerged.

Naturally, I ended up listening to Sanctuary on audiobook, rather than seeking out a physical copy, as the audiobook format is the absolute best way to enjoy a Star Wars novel.  I love how incredible a Star Wars novel can sound when read out, and this was particularly true with Sanctuary, as all the awesome action and great characters were so much more impactful and fun in this format.  A lot of this is due to the narration of Marc Thompson, who does an exceptional job voicing all the characters and bringing the entire book to life.  Thompson, who is one of my favourite audiobook narrators, has long been one of the top narrators of Star Wars fiction thanks to his brilliant vocal talents and ability to impersonate various characters from the shows (see my previous reviews of Thrawn and Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn and Dark Disciple by Christie Golden).  His skill was on full display in Sanctuary, especially as he perfectly voiced Hunter, Tech and Wrecker throughout this novel, as well as several other characters from the show.  I was honestly so impressed by how he managed to accurately he was able to voice the three main clones from the show, with each of their distinctive but similar voices, coming across so damn close to their voice actor in the show, Dee Bradley Baker.  At the same time, he also does a good take on Wanda Sykes’s character Phee Genoa, and even does a passible voice for Omega, which includes the New Zealand accent of actress Michelle Ang. 

Thompson’s outstanding narration is further enhanced by the fantastic inclusion of Star Wars sound effects and music, which is an outstanding part of all Star Wars audiobooks.  The entire story really comes to life when you can hear crowd sounds and blaster fire amongst the dialogue, while the iconic Star Wars music makes several scenes just a little more epic, especially when they help remind you of moments from the films.  These extra audio inclusions pair perfectly with Thompson’s narration, and it honestly felt like you were listening to an episode of The Bad Batch with this audiobook.  I really enjoyed this full listening experience, and I ended up powering through Sanctuary’s near 12-hour long runtime in no time at all.  This was such a great listen, and this was honestly one of the better audiobooks I had the pleasure of listening to in 2025.

With a brilliant story, fun characters and a ton of action, Lamar Giles’ Star Wars novel, Sanctuary, was an outstanding hit.  An excellent tie-in novel that follows the entertaining characters from The Bad Batch animated series, Sanctuary was an impressive and exciting novel that had me hooked very early on.  A deeply compelling and addictive read, Sanctuary comes very highly recommended, especially on audiobook, and all Star Wars fans are going to have a great time with this awesome read.

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Born of an Iron Storm by Anthony Ryan

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star Books3 Comments

Publisher: Orbit/Little Brown Audio (Audiobook – 26 August 2025)

Series: Age of Wrath – Book Two

Length: 19 hours and 33 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Acclaimed fantasy author Anthony Ryan continues to explore an epic fantasy world of warriors, scholars and monsters with his outstanding new novel, Born of an Iron Storm, the impressive second entry in his Age of Wrath series.

In recent years, one of my favourite fantasy authors has been veteran writer Anthony Ryan.  Known for several intriguing and varied series, I become a fan of Ryan a few years ago when I started reading The Covenant of Steel series.  Following a young bandit turned scribe, who finds himself taking on many roles in his chronicled adventures, including that of knight, spy, rebel and heretical traitor, this amazing series was a really impressive example of fantasy fiction, and I had an incredible time with The Pariah (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2021), The Martyr (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2022), and The Traitor (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2023), all of which were five-star reads.

Due to how much I loved these amazing novels, I was very excited last year when Ryan released the first book in the Age of Wrath series, which served as a sequel to the Covenant of Steel books.  The first Age of Wrath novel, A Tide of Black Steel, is set a couple of decades after the events of The Traitor and builds on some of the events of the first series, while also featuring its own unique story.  I really enjoyed A Tide of Black Steel, which veered away from the chronicle style of the previous trilogy, and instead set out a Norse saga inspired tale of adventure and war.  Just like the Covenant of Steel novels, A Tide of Black Steel got a full five-star rating from me, and it was one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2024.  As such, I have been very eager to get my hands on this sequel, which was one of my most anticipated books of 2025, and Ryan once again did not disappoint.

War and treachery have come to the sprawling island nation of Ascarlia, as the long-lost nation of Nihlvar begins an invasion centuries in the making.  The once powerful Sister Queens of Ascarlai lie dead at the hands of one of their own, the deranged Sister Lore, and their capital of Skar Magnol has been captured by Nihlvarian forces.  With their massive fleet in Skar Magnol’s harbour, and the forces of Ascarlia scattered, the Nihlvarian victory looks assured, and soon their eye turns to the wealthy port city of Olversahl and the lands of Albermaine beyond.

However, there are some who chose to resist the Nihlvarian threat.  In Skar Magnol, the young scholar Elvine finds herself trapped as an unwilling accomplice to Sister Lore.  To survive, she must play along with her queen’s twisted designs, while setting her own rebellious schemes into motion.  At the same time, loyal Ascarlian war leader Thera has survived the first skirmish against the Nihlvarian in the Outer Islands and finds herself leading a mismatched fleet against the invaders.  However, facing overwhelming odds, Thera must seek allies wherever she can, while the burdens of leadership lay heavy upon her, as if she fails, all Ascarlia falls.

As war rages in Ascarlia, other fights for survival occur across the sea.  Following his discovery of the Vaults of the Altvar, Thera’s brother Felnir has been promised a kingdom, and voyages to a hidden land filled with blood and suffering.  If he wishes to rule, Felnir will have to fight for the loyalty of his new people, while discovering the ancient secrets of those who came before him.  At the same time, in Nihlvar, the captured Ascarlian Ruhlin and his friends have escaped from captivity and are now fugitives from the Nihlvarian ruler, the Vortigurn.  If he wishes to keep himself and his comrades alive, Ruhlin needs to learn to control his inner monster and escape the bonds of prophecy, but dark secrets and beings have their eyes on him.

As war continues to spread like fire, Elvine, Thera, Felnir and Ruhlin must all fight their own desperate battles to survive and find their place in this new world.  But with treachery and hard choices all around, can these four unlikely heroes survive the wrath of the Vortigurn, or will their ambitions, fears and doubts tear them apart?

Anthony Ryan continues to showcase why he is one of the leading modern authors of fantasy fiction with this incredible and impressive novel.  Serving as an outstanding second entry in the Age of Wrath series, Born of an Iron Storm brilliantly continued Ryan’s complex, multilayered narrative, while taking the series in some exciting new adventures.  A classic fantasy tale filled with great characters, complex worldbuilding and intense, nautical action, Born of an Iron Storm was an epic read which gets a full five-star rating from me.

I felt that Born of an Iron Storm had an awesome overall narrative to it, as Ryan continued his elaborate series in strong fashion.  Once again split between the returning point-of-view characters from A Tide of Black Steel, you are essentially treated to four separate storylines, each with their own unique focus, setting and style.  This includes the intrigue laden storyline around Elvine as she attempts to survive the chaos surrounding the coup at Skar Magnol, which results in a compelling, espionage focused narrative.  Elvine’s story goes hand-in-hand with Thera’s storyline, which sees this protagonist attempt to raise an army to defend Ascarlia and retake the capital.  Thera’s chapters were some of the more action-heavy in the book, with a ton of great naval combat sequences, and it was fascinating to see this character grow into a leadership position.  Aside from Elvine and Thera, there was also the fantastic narrative around Felnir, who sets out to claim a new land as king by taking down a group of religious fanatics whose origins mirror that of the Nihlvarians.  Finally, escaped slave and occasional monster Ruhlin finds himself and his new comrades being hunted through Nihlvar and must seek an alliance with the land’s original inhabitants to survive.

Unlike the first book in the series, which saw several of the storylines cross over regularly, all four distinctive character plotlines remained mostly separate in Born of an Iron Storm, with only a few points of interaction in the Elvine and Thera narratives occurring.  This essentially meant that each of the narratives developed in a vacuum and were allowed to play out at their own pace.  Not only do these separate narratives stand out on their own merits but they come together nicely to form an intricate and addictive overarching narrative, as the alternating character-driven tales came to parallel each other extremely well.  All four of these distinctive narratives started off a lot quicker in Born of an Iron Storm than they did in the previous book, which allowed the reader to effectively get drawn into each character’s journeys as their storylines proceed.  Each storyline went in some intriguing directions, and the disparate adventures resulted in quite an exciting novel.  Ryan ensured that there were some exciting moments and compelling character interactions in each character’s respective chapters, and there was a great focus on action and war in this second Age of Wrath book.  Indeed, there were a few chapters that saw all four protagonists essentially fighting their own separate battles at the same time, with near simultaneous naval conflicts, sieges, pitched battles and forest ambushes.  Ryan ends each action and adventure laden narrative of Born of an Iron Storm on a very compelling note, with a few interesting twists and reveals hitting the two plotlines set outside of Ascarlia.  It also leaves the overall narrative of the series in a great place for the third, and presumably final, book, and I am extremely keen to see what happens to each protagonist in the next thrilling instalment.

I deeply enjoyed how Born of an Iron Storm came together, and it works well as the second entry in this epic series.  Ryan utilises many of the same style elements of A Tide of Black Steel, with the Viking-inspired setting and focus on multiple character adventures working particularly well to present an overall layered narrative with a lot of moving parts to it.  The author’s switch from the first-person chronicle style in the previous Covenant of Steel books to a third-person perspective told from four distinctive protagonists in this series allowed for a wider focus to the book, and Ryan makes sure to provide some intriguing expansions to his fantasy world.  Each chapter switches the narrative to another of the four perspective characters, and it was interesting to see how each switch would change the tone of the narrative depending on whichever protagonist was in focus.  I felt that Ryan did a great job of balancing the four distinctive storylines throughout the novel, and each plotline developed in some compelling ways.  I honestly found myself enjoying each of these separate storylines equally, with no noticeable weak links.  However, my favourite was the Elvine plotline, thanks to its inherent intrigue and focus on one of the book’s more fascinating protagonists, and Thera’s chapters, which had the most action and multiple cool scenes of long-ship on long-ship warfare.

Due to being the second book in a complex fantasy series, which is itself a sequel to a previous trilogy, Born of an Iron Storm is probably best enjoyed by those who have read the preceding novels from Ryan.  While there is a very intensive summary of the events of A Tide of Black Steel at the front of this novel, Born of an Iron Storm dives into the narrative very quickly, and reading the previous book really does help to increase enjoyment and understanding of the plot.  Ryan does a good job of recapping key plot points as he writes, and when combined with the comprehensive summary, new readers can probably drop into Born of an Iron Storm without too much effort.  However, this novel is going to appeal to those existing Ryan fans the most, especially those who previously enjoyed the Covenant of Steel novels.  While not too excessively vital to the plot, there are a lot of references to the events of the Covenant of Steel series, including the appearance of a couple of minor characters from these books, which was fun to see.  The events of these original books also play a big role in a couple of characters storylines and development, especially in the Elvine sections of the book (which features the two children of the Covenant of Steel’s protagonist), which lead to some compelling and intense moments.  I personally loved seeing Ryan continue to build on his already existing setting, and it was great to see what followed the chaotic events of the Covenant of Steel novels.

Ryan once again spent a lot of time developing his four central characters in Born of an Iron Storm, and their unique personalities, histories and continued changing perspectives, added some intriguing elements to the narrative.  Each of these characters have some fascinating moments and interactions in this novel, which cleverly builds on their storylines from the previous novel.  This includes Elvine, the young scholar revealed to be the long-lost daughter of Alwyn Scribe, who is forced to find her inner courage in this novel after being trapped in the captured Skar Magnol.  Caught up in the madness of Sister Lore, who develops a dark obsession with her, Elvine finds her inner rebel, while also trying to comprehend the sentient magical spear she recovered in the previous book.  Elvine’s storyline was really well written in Born of an Iron Storm, and Ryan had fun turning the previously mousy scholar into a dangerous warrior and leader, who gets into just as much trouble as her father.  Ryan’s other badass female protagonist in this novel was Thera, who finds herself the reluctant leader of the Ascarlian loyalist forces.  A skilled fighter, Thera spends much of Born of an Iron Storm learning to take on the mantel of leadership, while also dealing with her traumatic past, and her current emotional complexities.  Thera proved to be a very intriguing character to follow, especially with her chapter’s naval content, and it was fascinating to see her influence grow thanks to her actions.

On the other side we have the male protagonists, Felnir and Ruhlin, both of whom go through their own development and hell in this book.  Ruhlin’s character arc was a good continuation from A Tide of Black Steel, as he works to control his newly discovered inner monster and turn it into a force for good.  Like Thera, Ruhlin finds himself reluctantly leading a group of people who have placed their lives in his hands, and it was interesting to see him rise to the challenge, especially when even more figures put their hope in him.  Felnir, on the other hand, works to change fate by actively seeking leadership in a fun contrast to his sister and rival, Thera.  Finding himself in an unfamiliar land, Felnir works to inspire people unfamiliar with his past and soon finds the acclaim and respect he’s always wanted.  However, Ryan also writes a great storyline around his unchecked ambition and the consequences it has on those around him, and there is a great darkness to this character that is going to make him the wildcard of the series.

While the above four characters naturally get most of the focus in this series, Born of an Iron Storm also features a massive supporting cast, some of whom prove to be just as compelling and memorable as the main protagonists.  A lot of these figures are returning from A Tide of Black Steel, and I must admit that I was glad that Ryan put up his comprehensive summary at the front of this book, or I would have probably lost track of who they were.  Most of the best characters in this book were primarily in Elvine’s chapters, with the returning Colvyn (son of a certain scribe and a dark saint), being very fun, even if he got a little less focus here.  The ancient Ascarlian warrior and spymaster, Margnus Gruinskard, the Tieldwald was a great inclusion, first as a prisoner, then a reluctant ally to Elvine, and Ryan wrote a distinctive wearied element to him in this novel.  The author also did an amazing job of building off the big twist at the end of A Tide of Black Steel by featuring more of the traitor Sister Queen, Sister Lore.  Ryan made Lore into a particular twisted and dangerous antagonist, and her obsessive interactions with Elvine were some of the most compelling parts of the book.  Aside from these figures from the Elvine chapters, my favourite supporting figures were Lynnea, the innocent yet dangerous companion to Thera, and the mysterious Wohtin, who serves as Felnir’s guide to his new land.  Both were outstanding supporting characters in this novel, and I loved the intense, and very different, interactions they had with their respective protagonist.  I’m honestly barely scratching the surface of all the great supporting figures in Born of an Iron Storm, and I really appreciated the strong and varied cast that emerged in this novel.  All of them were very well written, and I really appreciate how Ryan utilised them to enhance his excellent narrative.

As I have tended to do with Ryan’s previous novels, I ended up enjoying Born of an Iron Storm on audiobook, which was an amazing experience.  I often find that compelling fantasy novels really come across well when read out by a talented narrator, and Born of an Iron Storm was an excellent example of this.  Thanks to the excellent narration of Steven Brand, who previously narrated the Covenant of Steel series, Born of an Iron Storm was a great treat to listen to, and I ended up powering through its near 20-hour long runtime.  Brand did an amazing job diving into the multilayered narrative and bringing out all the detail, action and compelling story elements through his narration, and I ended up absorbing a lot more detail thanks to having the story read out.  The narrator also brought back all his fantastic character voices from the previous audiobook, as well as a few new ones, to give the cast of Born of an Iron Storm life.  These characters came across amazingly, and I ended up having a blast listening to Born of an Iron Storm, especially the cool action sequences, which were so epic to listen to.  As such, I really recommend checking out this novel on audiobook, as you will be in for an amazing time.

Overall, Born of an Iron Storm was another exceptional novel from Anthony Ryan, who continues to expand on his cool fantasy world with another amazing, adventure-filled read.  Loaded with action, a fun story, and some excellent characters, Born of an Iron Storm was an impressive second outing in the author Age of Wrath series, and I loved how the story continued to evolve.  As such, this book comes highly recommended, and I cannot wait to see how Ryan continues his outstanding series next year.

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Artifact by Jeremy Robinson

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Five-Star Books, Science Fiction, Thriller1 Comment

Publisher: Podium Audio (Audiobook – 26 August 2025)

Series: Standalone

Length: 9 hours and 56 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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One of my very favourite authors of outrageous fiction, Jeremy Robinson, returns with another intense and horrifying science fiction thriller, Artifact, a captivating and powerful novel I couldn’t get enough of.

Jeremy Robinson is an outstanding author who has a fantastic career writing clever, fun, and occasionally terrifying thrillers, often featuring intriguing science fiction elements.  Best known for his Antarktos Saga, Chess Team and Nemesis Saga series, Robinson has written a staggering amount of fiction over the years, including additional cool series and standalone reads.  I personally got into Robinson’s work a few years ago when I read a few books from his massive, interconnected Infinite Timeline series, including Tribe, The Dark and Mind Bullet (the latter two of which were amongst my favourite books and audiobooks of 2021), all of which were incredibly fun and addictive.  I have also started getting into Robinson’s standalone novels, such as last year’s fantastic novel Point Nemo (one of my favourite audiobooks of 2024), which contain some amazing stories.  As such, I was very excited when I got a copy of Robinson’s awesome new novel, Artifact, on audiobook, which sounded extremely amazing.  I honestly started listening to Artifact the same day I found out about it, and boy was I glad that I did.

Plot Synopsis:

In an isolated Alaskan town, the local sheriff uncovers a secret lab where generative A.I. and bioprinting have unleashed grotesque, living anomalies—and now, something monstrous is loose.

Sheriff Colton Graves prefers the quiet life in Raven’s Rest, Alaska, a remote town accessible only by tunnel and home to a hardy mix of locals and secrets buried in the ice. But when a camel wanders down Main Street—its head grotesquely sprouting a dozen eyes—Colton knows his quiet days are over. The bizarre incident leads him to NovaGen, a nearby research facility constructed inside a Cold War bunker, buried in the mountains above town. There, a trail of blood and eerie silence hints at something far more sinister than an escaped animal experiment.

With his deputies—the sharp-witted Tali and rookie Ethan—Colton recruits a few trusted locals, including the unshakable Marit, Tali’s sister, the intimidating ‘Grizz’ Norval, and Edgar ‘Old Red’ Rydell, an aging man plagued by demons from when he worked at the bunker during its covert cold war days.

Together, they investigate the abandoned lab. What begins as a search for missing scientists soon reveals chilling evidence: pools of blood without bodies, cryptic warnings left behind, a bloody six-fingered handprint, and the revelation of a new technology: a generative A.I. capable of printing living organisms. As they descend deeper into the lab, it becomes clear that the answers they seek may come at a terrifying cost—and that what was made in the dark may not be content to stay there.

Jeremy Robinson once again greatly impresses with his new thriller Artifact.  A complex and deeply clever read loaded with weird science, fantastic humour and incredible action, Artifact was an exceptional read that had me hooked very early on and kept my attention all the way to the end.  A particularly intense novel with so many amazing elements to it, Artifact gets a full five-star rating from me, especially on audiobook, and I ended up powering through it so damn quickly.

I deeply enjoyed the compelling and fast-paced narrative that Robinson featured in Artifact, which amps up the intrigue and excitement quickly and keeps it going all the way to the very end.  Starting with an enticing inciting event of a multi-eyed camel arriving in the middle of a snowed-over Alaskan town, the initial narrative of Artifact is quick and effective, with the protagonists quickly realising that something dark has occurred at the nearby and mysterious NovaGen facility.  Pulling together a band of scrappy locals, the group begin their decent into the facility, only to encounter mysterious creatures and tragic death.

Robinson soon takes the novel into twisted science fiction territory as you are shown the variety of experiments taking place in the facility.  In particular, the staff of NovaGen are bio-printing monsters and other creatures, which has inevitably gone wrong.  Forced to put an end to the experiments and save the town from potential destruction, Colton and his team continue to descend the various levels of the facility, all while being hunted by the worst monsters humans can imagine.  The author does an excellent job of building and maintaining tension throughout Artifact’s story, and you are expertly drawn into the personal struggles of the characters as they try to understand and withstand the horrors of the facility.  There are some outstanding twists and sudden deaths as the story draws towards its conclusion, and I enjoyed the mixture of shocking moments and well-crafted reveals many chapters in the making, which results in an outstanding novel where you never quite know what is happening next.  Robinson ends the book on a mostly hopeful note, along with an amusing cliffhanger, and this proved to be an impressive standalone narrative that is guaranteed to entertain.

I felt that the author pulled Artifact together in a very entertaining manner that allowed for the maximum thrills, tension and character development.  Perfectly utilising the first-person perspective that Robinson is so fond of, Artifact is a great standalone read that requires no prior knowledge of the author’s other works to enjoy (although there are a few fun references established fans will chuckle at).  The author does an excellent job of effectively setting out the key elements of Artifact throughout its run, including with the advanced science elements of the book.  These science elements are both compelling and quite interesting, and you can tell that Robinson did a bit of research into the subject.  This research allowed the author to envision some dark and horrifying creations of potentially realistic science, and I loved how the creatures the protagonist encounter was a combination of weaponised efficiency and dark human imagination.

These fantastic science fiction creations, and the dark conspiracy that birthed them, work well with the author’s Michael Crichton inspired scenario, to create a lot of excellent tension and uncertainty that keeps readers constantly on the edge of their seat.  I loved the constant uncertainty of what traumatising event was about to come out of nowhere next, and there are some great twists and reveals scattered throughout this captivating novel.  Throw in a series of particularly thrilling action sequences as the protagonists face off against printed monstrosities and the other disturbing denizens of NovaGen, and there is a lot to love about how Artifact was written, especially as it perfectly enhances Robinson’s fantastic and captivating narrative.

My favourite elements of Artifact were the complex and compelling characters whom Robinson set his narrative around.  Robinson has always excelled at creating entertaining characters, and I think he did a wonderful job pulling together a layered cast of Alaskan outcasts and rogues to fill the pages of Artifact.

The most prominent of these characters is main protagonist Sheriff Colton Graves, from whose perspective we see the events of this book unfold.  Colton is a widowed lawman who enjoys the simple life at Raven’s Rest, but who quickly rises to the challenge when strangeness invades his town.  Effectively established as a compelling and solid centre to the book’s plot, Colton is an easy character to like thanks to his fun humour, clever insights and leadership skills.  However, Robinson makes Colton even more interesting as the book continues by revealing some fascinating character details that are expertly weaved into the story.  This includes a new romance for Colton that helps him to move forward from his dead wife and serves as his inspiration to continue pushing through the horrors of the NovaGen lab.  In addition to this, the story reveals that Colton has autism and hypersensitivity, and these conditions have strong impacts on the plot and the way the perspective protagonist interacts with the world.  Robinson does an exceptional job really diving into these fascinating aspects of his protagonist, and it was clear that the author was trying to showcase the conditions as accurately as possible based on his own personal experiences.  I think that Robinson really succeeded in showcasing these character elements, and while certain aspects are no doubt enhanced to fit in with the science fiction aspects of the book, it was mostly realistic.  I really enjoyed how Robinson made Colton a particularly likeable and relatable protagonist, and he helps to make Artifact a very distinctive read.

In addition to Colton, Robinson loads up Artifact with a great collection of memorable supporting characters who are perfectly utilised in the narrative and add some entertaining spice on top of the protagonist.  Highlights for me include the troubled and mysterious Old Red, a survivalist with dark connections to facility, who serves as the groups guide and secret badass.  I also had a lot of fun with Grizz, a tough, bear-killing lady with the scars to prove it.  Colton’s deputy, Tali, was the perfect backup for the protagonist, while her sister, Marit, proved to be an excellent love interest to Colton, which resulted in some complicated and emotional sequences.  The rest of the cast, including some unique figures found in the bunker, are also quite entertaining, be they friend, bio-engineered organism, or evil antagonist, and I loved some of the amazing interactions that emerged.  I will warn readers not to get too attached to any characters, as most figures don’t last as long as you’d want, but Robinson makes full use of every character he features, even if they only have a brief life in the book.

As with all the previous Robinson novels I’ve enjoyed, I chose to check out Artifact on audiobook, which was a ton of fun.  I have always found that Robinson’s novels come across particularly well on audiobook, and Artifact was no exception as I powered through its near 10-hour long runtime very quickly.  Part of the reason why I had such a great time with this audiobook is the return of one of my favourite audiobook narrators R. C. Bray.  Bray, who has lent his voice to most of Robinson’s audiobooks, is a truly exceptional narrator, and I just love any story read out in his gravelly and distinctive voice.  This was particularly true for Artifact, where the intense action and the horrifying descriptions of the laboratory’s contents were so much more impactful thanks to Bray’s calm and powerful take on events.  Bray also expertly showcases each of the key characters of the novel, and I felt he developed fitting and personal voices for each of the members of the cast.  While I love Bray’s voice for Old Red and the slacker Jimmy, his best work was saved for main protagonist and point-of-view character Colton.  Bray has long perfected voicing Robinson’s various first-perspective protagonists, and he always manages to cover their complex personalities, dialogue and interactions extremely well.  His take on Colton was very moving in Artifact, and I felt that Bray really enhanced Robinson’s depictions of this character’s quirks and unique viewpoints on life.  Due to this impressive narration, and Robinson’s general cinematic writing style, the Artifact audiobook is exceptional, and it’s easily the best way to enjoy this novel.

With all the chaotic action, crazy science fiction elements, and great character I’ve come to expect from Jeremy Robinson, Artifact was an outstanding novel I had a blast getting through.  Featuring a thrilling plot, laden with shocks and monsters, Artifact grabs the reader’s attention early and refuses to let go.  This book comes very highly recommended from me, especially on audiobook, and anyone keen for a horror-filled and deeply intense thriller is going to have an outstanding time with Artifact.

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Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Murder Mystery1 Comment

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (ebook – 19 August 2025)

Series: Standalone

Length: 310 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Those looking for a fun and very meta murder mystery that looks back at the classics should check out the very amusing new novel from Australian author Sulari Gentill, Five Found Dead.

There are few Australian crime fiction authors whose works have entertained me over the years as much as Sulari Gentill’s have.  An amazing author who knows how to combine unique premises with compelling mysteries, Gentill has written some great novels over the years.  I am a particular fan of her Rowland Sinclair series about an unlikely gentleman protagonist in the 1930s who solved crimes loaded with historical cameos, while some of her more recent standalone novels, such as Crossing the Lines, The Woman in the Library and The Mystery Writer, have also received critical acclaim.  As such, I was very happy to get my hands on her latest novel, Five Found Dead, which had a very fun plot behind it which resulted in quite an exciting and fast-paced read.

Plot Synopsis:

On a train, there are only so many places to hide…

Crime fiction author Joe Penvale has won the most brutal battle of his life. Now that he has finished his intense medical treatment, he and his twin sister, Meredith, are boarding the glorious Orient Express in Paris, hoping for some much-needed rest and rejuvenation. Meredith also hopes that the literary ghosts on the train will nudge Joe’s muse awake, and he’ll be inspired to write again. And he is; after their first evening spent getting to know some of their fellow travelers, Joe pulls out his laptop and opens a new document. Seems like this trip is just what the doctor ordered…

And then some. The next morning, Joe and Meredith are shocked to witness that the cabin next door has become a crime scene, bathed in blood but with no body in sight. The pair soon find themselves caught up in an Agatha Christie-esque murder investigation. Without any help from the authorities, and with the victim still not found, Joe and Meredith are asked to join a group of fellow passengers with law enforcement backgrounds to look into the mysterious disappearance of the man in Cabin16G. But when the steward guarding the crime scene is murdered, it marks the beginning of a killing spree which leaves five found dead—and one still missing. Now Joe and Meredith must fight once again to preserve their newfound future and to catch a cunning killer before they reach the end of the line.

Gentill brings the fun with this very compelling and exciting crime fiction novel that serves as a great love letter to a classic Agatha Christie novel.  Bringing together a colourful array of characters, including an overabundance of cliche detectives and setting them loose against an apparent serial killer, Five Found Dead was a very easy book to fall in love with, and I ended up powering through it in less than a day.

The plot for Five Found Dead had a lot of interesting elements to it, which resulted in a very fast-paced novel that hit a lot of entertaining notes.  Starting off with some quick introductions to the lawyer protagonist and her author brother, you soon find yourself aboard the iconic Orient Express.  A natural setting for any murder mystery, Gentill brought together an amusing array of characters inspired by classic crime fiction novels, many of whom are revealed to have law enforcement backgrounds, as well as a very similar grudge.  The story naturally soon devolves into a compelling murder mystery when a guest disappears from their blood-soaked room.  Thanks to a new strain of coronavirus infecting part of the train, the passengers find themselves stuck on the rails, and it falls to the protagonists and the various assembled detectives to solve the case.  However, a series of additional murders quickly unfold across the train, resulting in chaos and anarchy, especially when the normal passengers of the train attempt to escape the growing massacre.

I loved the excellent and fast pace of Five Found Dead as Gentill cleverly lays out the respective murders and keeps increasing the stakes of the plot.  While much of the story is intentionally silly, including the appearance of so many stereotypical detectives with connections to the initial victim, the author works it into a great investigation angle, and I had fun working out who was behind the killings.  There are some fantastic twists and turns throughout the book, and while I saw a few reveals coming thanks to the featured clues, the identity of the actual antagonist hit me by surprise.  Some of this was due to the clever red herrings and potential alternate suspects that Gentill included, although I must admit the brilliantly crazy disguise utilised by the killer helped a lot.  This led to a very exciting and over-the-top conclusion, where all the secrets come out and the various fun storylines come together.  I had an absolute blast getting to the end of Five Found Dead, and Gentill crafted an extremely exciting murder mystery here that served as an homage to the classic, while also bringing its own flair to the occasion.

While Five Found Dead is loaded with amazing and familiar characters, I feel that I need to highlight protagonist Meredith Penvale and her brother Joe as the two best written characters in the novel.  A pair of Australian twins, Meredith and Joe have journeyed to the Orient Express to celebrate Joe’s recent cancer remission and to rejuvenate his writing muse.  While much of the story revolves around Meredith’s inadvertent role as amateur detective aboard this train of suspicious souls, Gentill also spends time examining the emotional health of these two main characters, and as a result dives deep into the impacts of cancer and the effects it can have on both the sufferers and their loved ones.  In this case, Meredith is the loyal sister who sacrificed a successful career to care for her brother and, now that he’s recovered, is wondering where her life will go and whether to follow her true passions.  Joe, on the other hand, is a seemingly light-hearted figure who has an amusing meta initial arc about a murder mystery set onboard the Orient Express.  However, there is also a lot of hidden fear in Joe about his cancer returning, which sees him literally running from bad news, while also trying to keep this potential truth from his long-suffering sister.  You can tell that Gentill put a lot of herself into these two characters, and their personal focuses outside the mystery are extremely realistic and powerful.  Indeed, these personal concerns and the powerful writing that accompanies them gives Five Found Dead some much needed emotional heft that helped to evolve this novel into something truly special.  Throw in all the additional eccentric figures that accompany Meredith and Joe onto the Orient Express, and Five Found Dead has a truly amazing cast who enhance the entire story.

Overall, I found Five Found Dead to be an addictive and engaging novel that I honestly couldn’t stop reading.  Sulari Gentill’s latest standalone novel was a wonderful blend of mystery, charming humour and complex characters, that came together into something extremely awesome.  I really enjoyed Five Found Dead, and it is an excellent read for someone in the mood for a light-hearted murder mystery with some amazing heart to it.

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Of Flame and Fury by Mikayla Bridge

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Fantasy, Young AdultLeave a comment

Publisher: Macmillan (Trade Paperback – 15 July 2025)

Series: Standalone / Book One

Length: 383 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Australian author Mikayla Bridge produces one of the more compelling young adult fantasy debuts of 2025 with the inventive and clever read, Of Flame and Fury.

Plot Synopsis:

On an island built from ash and shrouded in fire, phoenix racing is a sport just as profitable as it is deadly.

Seventeen-year-old Kel Varra and her team of underdogs, the Crimson Howlers, are desperate to win the annual races and the fortune that comes with it. But the Howlers need a new rider, which leads Kel to join forces with Warren “Coup” Coupers – an arrogant rival she can’t get out of her head.

As tensions rise on and off the track, Kel’s home is mistakenly burned down, and she’s forced to take a job from a mysterious tech mogul with an unsettling interest in her phoenix, Savita. This sets in motion a conspiracy that threatens everyone Kel cares for, especially Coup, for whom her embers of resentment are quickly igniting into something dangerously new.

Heart-pounding pages full of steamy romance, fiery confessions, political scheming, and volatile magic culminate in a final twist readers will never see coming.

Of Flame and Fury was a very interesting 2025 young adult fantasy release that I was quite excited to get my hands on.  The first book from Australian author Mikayla Bridge, Of Flame and Fury had a very exciting plot behind it which Bridge effectively built on with an excellent story and some fantastic writing.

I ended up really enjoying Of Flame and Fury’s intriguing narrative, which grabs the reader’s attention early thanks to an initial intense and tragic phoenix racing sequence.  This early race quickly and effectively sets up most of the book’s key characters, including protagonist Kel Varra and her rival and inevitable romantic interest, Coup, with an additional, fiery moment bonding these key figures together.  The story quickly moves onward with Kel forced to recruit Coup to her phoenix racing team, which has been recruited by a powerful tech mogul with his own hidden agenda.  This initial part of the book was quite interesting and set up a lot of key story elements, while also providing readers with a lot of the new lore in Bridge’s phoenix filled society.

While fun and loaded with interesting character introductions, this early part of the book lacked a little action, especially as there was a nearly 150-page gap between the first and second phoenix races.  I feel that some readers may lose momentum in this part of the book, especially as the promised races are such a big part of the book’s appeal.  Still, I enjoyed the story development here, and Of Flame and Fury’s big races, when they finally start, have all the chaotic fun you’d hope for, made even more exciting and compelling by the character relationships and distinctive fantasy elements Bridge introduced and built up during this period.

The second half of the book flies by quickly, as you soon get drawn into the various races, intrigues, and complex relationships that are such a vital part of the narrative, even if the main enemies-to-lovers storyline was a little tropey.  I ended up really enjoying the compelling focus on the intrigues of the corporation sponsoring Kel and her team, which leads up to the big climax of the book.  While it does have an obvious villain, the motivations of this antagonist are very important and well set out.  The revelations around this main storyline make Of Flame and Fury’s plot really stand out, especially as it leads to an impressive twist I honestly didn’t see coming.  This big twist worked extremely well, as it cleverly utilized lore elements that Bridge had been inserting into the narrative the entire time, while also completely reshaping your entire perspective of the preceding story.  I deeply appreciated how this came together, and its excellent execution honestly amplified my entire estimation of this novel.  Following on from this, Bridge leads Of Flame and Fury to its fantastic conclusion, which featured all the drama and intensity you would expect from a great young adult fantasy novel, and which leaves the reader very satisfied.

I felt that Of Flame and Fury came together extremely well as a novel, and Bridge really showcased her writing chops in her debut.  Primarily shown from the perspective of the main character, Kel, Of Flame and Fury was a very fast-paced read that did a good job of blending fantasy elements with compelling characters.  I love how seamlessly Bridge was able to work the unique elements of her fantasy universe into the narrative, and readers were quickly able to get across the cool phoenix lore.  The resulting high-octane phoenix races were a real highlight of this novel, while other bits of compelling lore were well utilised, especially in that cool twist I gushed about above.

Bridge kept an excellent young adult tone for Of Flame and Fury, resulting in a novel that would primarily appeal to teenager readers, while also being quite enjoyable for older fantasy fans, especially those who like unique ideas or compelling characters.  There is also a certain amount of appeal for the romantasy crowd, thanks to the fiery relationship between Kel and Coup.  As someone who doesn’t massively enjoy romance fiction, I personally found the enemies-to-lovers sub-plot to be one of the weaker parts of the book, while the book’s secondary romance (between team winger Dira and corporate engineer Rahn) was a little more interesting.  Still, I’m sure more typical romance/romantasy fans will enjoy the combative relationship between Kel and Coup, and it helps that both are well-written characters who stand on their own outside of the romance.

Due to its great characters, clever story and fun, fire-filled phoenix races, Of Flame and Fury was an awesome young adult fantasy novel, and it’s one I had a lot of fun reading.  New author Mikayla Bridge proved to be extremely talented with this debut book, and I will be curious to see what she writes next.  An overall wonderful novel that will appeal to a wide audience.

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The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star Books, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday3 Comments

Publisher: Soundbooth Theater (Audiobook – 2 July 2023)

Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl – Book Six

Length: 26 hours and 46 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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The chaotic fun of Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series continues in epic fashion with the ultra-impactful and deeply addictive sixth entry in the series, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, an exceptional novel designed to strike hard at the reader’s emotional heartstrings.

As you might have guessed from my recent flurry of reviews for this series, I am seriously in love with the Dungeon Crawler Carl books.  An impressive and surprisingly deep LitRPG series, the Dungeon Crawler Carl novels follow a collection of compelling characters as traverse a deadly fantasy dungeon created from the ruins of all of Earth’s buildings by aliens for intergalactic viewing content.  Set around a damaged protagonist and his excitable and now sentient cat, these books are deeply addictive, and once you start the series you really can’t stop.  Indeed, I literally just chain-read the entire series, with awesome books like Dungeon Crawler Carl, Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, The Gate of the Feral Gods and The Butcher’s Masquerade all proving to be outstanding reads.  I loved these previous books so much, that I instantly started listening to the sixth book in the series, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, the first chance I got, and boy was I in for an incredible time with it.

After barely surviving the Butcher’s Masquerade and then witnessing the surprising end to the seventh floor, Carl and Princess Donut are exhausted and traumatised by recent losses.  However, they have no time for rest as they find themselves thrust into the dangerous eighth floor of the dungeon.  One of the most ambitious levels so far, the eighth floor is based on a map of Earth’s final days, filled with intangible ghosts of the humans who wandered the world mere weeks before the planet’s death.

However, this is not a perfect replica of Earth; instead these locations have been seeded with monsters and mythological figures based on twisted accounts of Earth legends, with each creature tied to the geographic area their folklore originated.  To complete this level, the crawlers are tasked with finding and capturing six of these monsters and turning them into cards, which can then be summoned to fight alongside their new owners.  Each team will need to find and convert as many powerful creatures as possible to create the best decks, especially as they will be forced to face off against mobs and other crawlers with their own cards.

Unexpectedly starting in Cuba, Carl and Donut navigate an unfamiliar location as they try to learn the new mechanics of the game.  Determined to get to the next floor, Carl and Donut endeavour to find the best monsters they can.  However, the stronger the monster, the less controllable the card, and Carl and Donut will soon have their hands full managing a strange array of summonable creatures, including the legendary demon Shi Maria, who has far more independence than they would like.  Can Carl and Donut survive this new floor of the dungeon, or will they finally be crushed by their dark secrets, troubled pasts and Carl’s slowly eroding sanity, especially once he looks into the eye of Shi Maria, the Bedlam Bride?

Just when you thought this series couldn’t get even better, Matt Dinniman amps up the intensity and complexity of his plot and characters a whole additional notch, with one of the more moving and powerful entries in the entire series.  The Eye of the Bedlam Bride was an absolute masterpiece that featured the author’s trademark LitRPG chaos, while really showcasing his impressive writing ability.  One of the best books in an already incredible series, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride was so damn good, and it gets a very easy five-star rating from me.

Dinniman pulled together another brilliant narrative for his sixth Dungeon Crawler Carl novel, as They Eye of the Bedlam Bride perfectly continued the long-running series storylines while also presenting its own unique adventure.  Thrusting the protagonists into a complex new level, Dinniman quickly showcases all the floor’s new elements, including a fun card-based combat mechanism that fits into the existing dungeon battle system surprisingly well.  While the pacing is initially a tad slower to ensure the readers fully appreciate all the necessary lore and gameplay details of this book’s plot, Dinniman quickly works to show that The Eye of the Bedlam Bride isn’t a filler novel between the pivotal fifth and seventh books.  This becomes especially clear during a major sequence that requires Carl and Donut to make a deadly choice while surrounded by several vengeful gods.  Dinniman also makes sure that a major secret from the previous book is brought into the light early, complicating protagonist relationships and presenting them with dark choices.  Dinniman swiftly follows this up with some very awesome sequences, such as Carl and Donut coming face-to-face with their most problematic card, demonic carnage in a night club, and problems from the wider universe caused by Carl’s ambitious and rebellious plots.

While all these early elements are great, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride hits its storytelling height about halfway through, as Dinniman amps up the emotional stakes of the narrative.  Forced to compete in a gruelling series of battles that test the unique fight mechanics of the floor, the protagonists find nothing but heartbreak as they near the end of the second phase of the level, including a truly horrifying and deeply personal big boss.  All this follows a series of impactful personal revelations for Carl, that hit his already fragile mental state hard and finally provides full context for character background elements that have been hinted at throughout the series.  This central part of the story was so damn heartbreaking, and you really must appreciate how Dinniman can make you laugh before loading up substantial sorrow and regret and producing some beautifully crushing sequences.  While these scenes are emotionally charged, I appreciated how Dinniman often tempered them with more heartwarming moments that show the connections the protagonists have built up during the series, and the author does some amazing character work in the second half of this book.

Everything perfectly leads up to the incredible final third of The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, as Dinniman raises the stakes as only he can.  With the protagonists forced to compete in a brutal third and final phase of the floor, events soon break down into pure chaos with undead hordes, demonic possessions, crazed gods and various rival crawlers all coming into play.  Dinniman keeps the story moving so fast in this last part of the book, as the protagonists dive into key battle after key battle.  I actually ended up listening to the last several hours in one day as I just had to see what happened next.  Following one of the most tragic scenes in the series, which nearly broke me, Carl and Donut race to save as many people as they can from the AI’s inventive endgame, leading to an all-out battle royal in the middle of Cuba.  I loved how so many story elements from the entire book came into play for the conclusion after some clever set up earlier in the plot, resulting in some very epic moments.  The ending was a brilliant mixture of humour, intense action, extra lore, and some particularly dark moments for the protagonists, which came together beautifully and ended the novel on a real high.  Throw in some last-minute reveals that really amp up the excitement for the next book, and this was pretty much a perfect narrative that is guaranteed to keep you hooked all the way the bloody end.

I honestly feel that The Eye of the Bedlam Bride was one of the best-written entries in the entire Dungeon Crawler Carl series, and frankly I am still not over every single amazing moment of this book.  Dinniman achieves so much in this impressive novel by simultaneously changing the rules of his own game while also providing the deepest examination of his complex protagonists yet.  At the same time, he makes a novel that most authors would have turned into a filler entry into one of the series’ most impactful books.  I was really impressed by how the author chose to further amp up his various storylines and character arcs in this book, and Dinniman perfectly carries on the craziness of The Butcher’s Masquerade while building up the oncoming calamity of the seventh book and the long-awaited Faction Wars.  Naturally, this means that The Eye of the Bedlam Bride is best enjoyed by those who have read all the previous Dungeon Crawler Carl books first.  Still, for those who are determined to dive in here, Dinniman provides enough context and flashbacks to ensure you can easily follow what’s happening, and there is even a fun summary at the beginning.

This sixth novel in the series brings back all the impressive humour, intense action, and great LitRPG elements that made the previous Dungeon Crawler Carl books so damn good, while also bringing in some impressive new features, primarily a fun new battle element.  I must admit that I wasn’t too sure that the card system of this level, which on paper sounded like a crazy combination of Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, was going to work.  However, I should never have doubted Dinniman as it fitted in amongst the usual chaos and over-the-top scenes perfectly.  Dinniman does an excellent job introducing and then exploring this system throughout The Eye of the Bedlam Bride it proved fun to see the characters adapt to the new rules.  There is some great progression in how these cards impact battles, and each fight with them gets increasingly hectic.  I really enjoyed how big and crazy battles with these cards could get, especially towards the end, and you won’t see protagonists facing off in card duels with gods and demons anywhere else.

There are some additional excellent elements to The Eye of the Bedlam Bride that also enhanced the epic story in some interesting ways.  This includes a haunting new setting of the book, the ghost-filled replica of the pre-dungeon Earth, which really amplifies the feeling of despair and loss that many of the characters feel.  Dinniman continues to also feature a compelling array of LitRPG elements in this novel, and you really find yourself getting drawn into the minutiae of stat updates, item benefits, spell effects, and so much more, as the author cleverly works it into the narrative.  A lot of why these RPG features are so fun is due the chaotic humour that infests every single page of this hilarious book.  The book’s comedic elements are so effortlessly funny and feature a great mixture of sudden outrageous moments with realistic reactions, the insertion of the book’s reality television elements into life-and-death struggles, often inappropriate jokes from the massive and fun supporting cast, and an array of reference focused commentary on all matters of the dungeon.  While some of the comedic moments get a little out of hand: “I need a baby seal”, they all work beautifully in the context of the book’s clever plot, and I laughed myself silly so many times during this book, including at how the day was saved thanks to, let’s say, “crab meat”.  I’m also as appalled as a certain velociraptor that some of the funniest, if weirdest, moments of the book occurred in Chapter 69.  However, what makes The Eye of the Bedlam Bride particularly good is the way in which these comedic elements are well matched by darker, tragic moments, which allows for quite on overall powerful read, especially when it comes to the characters.

Dinniman went above and beyond when it came to the character development in this book, with a particular focus on series protagonist Carl.  After several books laden with hints about his past, we finally get Carl’s full backstory, which really goes to show just how damaged he is.  Dinniman does an outstanding job showcasing this background in several powerful scenes in The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, and I really appreciate how it built on the subtle foreshadowing from the previous novels.  This existing trauma was further enhanced in this book, as Carl also finds out multiple new revelations about his family, including several that had been kept from him (which simultaneously shows just how bad a girlfriend Bea really was).  Throw in his anger and guilt from being one of the few survivors of Earth, and the trauma from all carnage he has witnessed in the dungeon, and Carl really isn’t in the best headspace for this book, and that’s even before the titular Bedlam Bride gets hold of his mind.  As such, there is a lot of dark moments for Carl to unpackage throughout this novel, and Dinniman perfectly captures his protagonist’s continued struggle to remain in control.  This deeper dive into Carl’s psyche produced some of the best scenes Dinniman has so far written in the series, and I really appreciated how these darker moments were well matched by the revelation that Carl now has a true family with Donut and his new friends.  These relationships kept him relatively sane in this book, and allowed him to remain the resilient, if explosively inclined, straight man of the book.  Dinniman also works to showcase how despite his issues and reputation, Carl has become a bit of a legendary figure for his fellow crawlers, and the big sequence at the end where he is able to convince them to follow one of his craziest plans, was just amazing.

While most of this book’s focus is on Carl and his history, the rest of the characters in The Eye of the Bedlam Bride also get their moments to shine, and you continue to appreciate just how awesome the ended cast of this series is.  This includes the other main protagonist, Princess Donut, Carl’s now sentient cat who provides much of the humour in the story thanks to her over-dramatic reactions, silliness, and feline superiority complex.  While Donut is the comedic relief of the main duo, she still has a lot of serious moments in The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, especially while serving as the emotional anchor the spiralling Carl.  Donut is also dealing with her own grief and sadness, especially after the tragedies of the previous novel, and there are some heartbreaking moments where you see her trying to push that down.  Despite her issues and immaturity, Donut role in the plot, especially as she controls the cards during most of the battles, and you get to see her tactical genius in full display.  There are some super sweet moments with Donut in this novel, and I really love how well Dinniman continues to feature the bond between her and Carl as the true heart of this series.

In addition to Carl and Donut, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride also features multiple other key members of the Dungeon Crawler Carl cast, and it is very impressive how much you care for so many of these figures.  This includes Katia, who, despite leaving the team in the previous novel, still has a major impact on the plot.  Dinniman perfectly revisits some key revelations from the end of the previous novel, that adds additional complexities to her relationship with Carl and Donut.  The protagonist’s mentor, Mordecai, also has a key role in this book, especially as you finally get the full context for his tragic past.  This background adds some additional drama to the main story, especially when Carl and Katia find themselves caught in the same feud between forces outside the dungeon that he did.  There is also a certain sweetness to Mordecai’s story in this novel, especially when you find out he’s caring for several NPC children, in ways very contrary to his usual gruff disposition.  Dinniman also perfectly brings back the various members of Carl’s guild, who form a surrogate family with each other, and whose appearance in one scene was one of the most heartwarming moments in the plot.

Other characters of note in The Eye of the Bedlam Bride include the possessed sex doll head, Samantha, whose insane declarations, unhinged actions, unsettling abilities and crazy general demeanour make her one of the funniest characters in the series.  There is also an array of over-the-top monsters and creatures that the protagonists encounter and turn into cards.  These include Uzi Jesus, a kung-fu seal, hilarious caricatures of Carl and Donut, and a crab who must overcome his ‘performance issues’ to save the day, just to name a hilarious few.  These comedic monsters were well contrasted by Shi Maria, the titular Bedlam Bride, whose dark actions amp up the intensity of this book in some powerful ways.  I also must mention a couple of recurring crawlers from previous novels who reappear in dramatic fashion in the final third of the novel, allowing for some of the book’s best moments.  One of these character ends up having one of the series’ saddest moments, and I frankly am still not over how brutally raw and tragic that whole sequence was.

While all these above characters are amazing in their own ways, my favourite character in this series remains the dungeon’s System AI.  Despite never physically appearing, the AI has a major impact on the plot, and you are constantly bombarded by its unique humour in the various descriptions and summaries it provides to Carl and the reader, often full of weird and hilarious references.  So many serious or threatening moments are turned into comedic gold by the AI’s inappropriate commentary, and anytime it provides input to the plot, you are guaranteed to laugh.  While the AI has been fun the entire series, it gets even more unhinged in this novel as it gains full sentience and takes full control of the.  Determined to continue the crawl on its own dramatic terms, the AI starts making things even weirder for the characters, throwing in its own twists and changes.  Dinniman does a wonderful job showcasing just how insane the AI is at times, including with some very worrying inclusions in its usually informative descriptions.  There are also some hilarious scenes where the AI interacts directly with the characters, including one brilliant moment when he responds to Carl’s feedback on its descriptions in a particularly petty way.  All this, and more, allows the AI to really standout in this book, and it is a testament to how good Dinniman is as an author, that a disembodied voice is one of the best characters in a series loaded with exceptional and extremely complex figures.

As with all the previous Dungeon Crawler Carl novels, I ended up listening to The Eye of the Bedlam Bride on audiobook, which is honestly the only way to enjoy the author’s fantastic and chaotic narrative.  Coming in at nearly 27 hours in length, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride was one of the longest audiobooks in the series, but you frankly don’t mind as every second you spend listening to a Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook is so much fun.  I honestly powered through The Eye of the Bedlam Bride in no time at all, especially the concluding several hours, and I still love how audiobook format brings out all the book’s humour, tragedy and excitement.  A lot of this is down to the series’ awesome narration, which in the case of The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, includes an extended voice cast.  While there are a few voice actors for this particular audiobook, Jeff Hays remained the principal narrator, voicing nearly all the characters and the plot descriptions.  Hays is an incredible narrator, and I loved the sheer range of epic voices he brings to bear throughout the audiobook, all of which fit their associated character perfectly, with associated accents and clever tonal changes.  This includes an excellent reuse of voices for previously featured characters, while the various crazy new cast members featured in this book were also extremely cool.  My favourites for The Eye of the Bedlam Bride remain Princess Donut, who gets autotune in this audiobook to help with her singing (the sound effects for this were brilliant), and the AI running the dungeon, as Hays matches the unhinged energy of the cracked computer and conveys this insanity to the listener with amazing enthusiasm.

In addition to Jeff Hays, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride also features three other actors who voice small roles in the larger audiobook to great effect.  The most notable of these is actor Patrick Warburton, who was an awesome addition to the experience.  Initially voicing the flashback voice of Carl’s father in several heavy scenes, Warburton did an outstanding job of breathing life into a harsh figure we’d only had glimpses of in the previous books, and his appearances here had some real menace to them.  Warburton also gets to have some fun when he plays a secondary character later in the audiobook with some brilliant levels of enthusiasm.  Narrator Travis Baldree was also hilarious with his appearance in The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, voicing a giant crab who becomes one of the protagonist’s cards.  Featuring a comedic accent and some very over-the-top lines, Baldree was just amazing, and I loved the interactions he had with Hays and Warburton’s characters.  Finally, Soundbooth Theater regular Annie Ellicott returns to voice an entertaining character in a concluding skit, which was very amusing on a variety of levels.  I really loved how well these outstanding extra voice actors were fitted alongside Hays’s impressive main narration, and it allowed for a great overall listen.  Throw in the excellent sound effects of the series, some of which alter Hays’s voice in clever ways, or places a voice role into the background of a scene for some interesting ambience, and this was an exceptional audiobook that I loved so damn much.  There is honestly nothing better than a Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook, and I must once again recommend this format with all my heart.

With a particularly impressive and powerful plot, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride was one of the best books in the already incredible Dungeon Crawler Carl series, and author Matt Dinniman outdid himself when it came to diving into his damaged protagonists.  A highly inventive and captivating novel that I just couldn’t stop listening to, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride was Dinniman at his very best and you are guaranteed to have an exceptional time with this novel, and you will, like me, instantly dive into the next novel of the series, This Inevitable Ruin, just to see what happens next.

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The Butcher’s Masquerade by Matt Dinniman

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star Books, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday4 Comments

Publisher: Soundbooth Theater (Audiobook – 28 February 2022)

Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl – Book Five

Length: 23 hours and 33 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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The epic adventures of Carl and Princess Donut continue in the incredible fifth book of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, The Butcher’s Masquerade, which takes the reader on an intense thrill ride loaded with fantastic comedy, crazy action and some incredibly powerful moments.

After doing little else but talk about the series for the last few weeks, I think it’s obvious that I am now a massive fan of Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series, a major LitRPG sensation that I have recently become obsessed with.  Featuring amazing books like Dungeon Crawler Carl, Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook and The Gate of the Feral Gods, the Dungeon Crawler Carl series has been nothing but amazing since the very first page.  These books follow reluctant adventurer Carl, his now sentient cat Princess Donut and an eclectic mix of humans and NPCs (and some goats) fighting for survival in a dungeon built under the surface of Earth by entertainment-obsessed aliens.  I have been deeply impressed with the impressive narrative contained within these previous books, so much so that I have listened to all these books in a row without break, often spending hours at a time getting through key parts of the plot.  This fifth book in the series promised to be a major entry with some key plotlines, and Dinniman did not disappoint, presenting a deep and captivating book I couldn’t turn away from.

After surviving the horrors of the previous floor and striking a blow against the wealthy Faction Wars contenders waiting for the human crawlers below, Carl, Princess Donut and their allies have arrived at the infamous sixth floor of the dungeon, better known as the Hunting Grounds.  A lush, jungle level, filled with powerful mobs, intricate quests, and conquerable towns, there are many opportunities for the crawlers to level up on this floor, but also many dangers, including those who would make the remnants of humanity their prey. 

As part of the traditional chaos of the Hunting Grounds, off-world tourists are given their first chance to enter the dungeon to participate in the carnage.  Known on this floor as hunters, these aliens seek to make money by hunting crawlers and stealing their gear.  These hunters have long made the sixth floor the most lethal level for crawlers, whose best strategy is to run and hide from the deadly aliens.  However, this season is going to be very different, especially as Carl has no intention of being hunted.

Determined to punish everyone who has profited from his planet’s destruction, Carl takes the fight directly to the hunters, and his explosive actions soon inspire the rest of the human crawlers.  However, his very public rebellions have placed a massive target on his head, and soon the deadliest hunters in the game, including the legendary crawler killer Vrah, are on his trail.  At the same time, Carl and Donut must contend with far more dangerous human opponents, a horde of rampaging dinosaurs, the vicious whims of the AI running the dungeon, and an elite NPC whose tragic backstory they find themselves dragged into.  But the greatest threat to everyone in the Hunting Grounds lies at the end-of-floor celebration, a party where all the top crawlers will be forced to attend amongst their deadliest enemies.  Everything will be decided at The Butcher’s Masquerade, and no one will emerge unscathed.

Well goddamn, Dinniman, you really know how to throw a party.  Just when I thought this series couldn’t get even better, Dinniman presents The Butcher’s Masquerade, which throws the reader right into the carnage and barely gives you a chance to catch your breath.  Filled with epic moments, brilliant storytelling, insane humour and some of the most complex characters you are likely to find in LitRPG fiction, The Butcher’s Masquerade was an incredible and utterly addictive read that I could not turn away from.  I’m honestly still reeling from the ending of this novel, and there is no way I can give The Butcher’s Masquerade anything but a five-star rating.

I loved, loved, loved the narrative of The Butcher’s Masquerade, as Dinniman hits all the right notes to keep the reader engaged and diving even deeper into his series.  Starting off right after the chaotic events of The Gate of Feral Gods, Carl hits all manner of trouble early on, especially as his actions put a massive target on his head for every hunter.  Dinniman shows you just what kind of book The Butcher’s Masquerade is going to be early on, as Carl immediately teleports himself and Donut into the middle of the hunter base to start his own explosive campaign of resistance.  The story only gets more exciting and compelling from there, with an engaging Elite NPC storyline, various dinosaur themed quests and so much impressive action.  This action is well balanced by scenes showcasing the chaotic changes occurring out in the wider universe, as well as a particularly moving sequence where Carl and Donut are forced to deal with manipulative events with huge emotional implications.

While there are some amazing moments in this first part of the book, the events that really cemented The Butcher’s Masquerade as one of the best entries in the series occur around the middle, as Dinniman brings both fun action and deep tragedy in equal measure.  The first of these sees Carl whisked away to Crawler Con, an over-the-top convention filled with entertaining enemies, right at the moment that he and Donut find themselves under attack in the dungeon.  Knowing that he is going to be teleported back into a massive ambush, Carl spends his time at the convention trying to plan, including crowdsourcing tactics at a panel featuring an opponent’s mother.  The resulting carnage as Carl uses a fun combination of a gonorrhoea-causing arrow, necromancy, friendly fire and explosives (naturally) to defeat his enemies, all to the backdrop of ‘The Ballroom Blitz’, was so damn awesome and fun.  The fact that Dinniman immediately follows this up with one of the most heart-wrenching moments in the entire series goes to show just how talented an author Dinniman is, especially as it also works to set up an outstanding new supporting character as a complex recuring figure.

All this perfectly leads up to the big final third of the book, which starts with some major raised stakes and every ongoing storyline heading towards the titular Butcher’s Masquerade, an event where every major survivor of the floor is trapped in the same room, and the person who starts the inevitable fight is instantly killed.  The tension heading into this event is very impressive, as you wait to see who makes the first move and how the carnage will unfold, especially as the protagonist’s plan to survive has a lot of holes in it.  The contrast between Carl’s despair and the more light-hearted and frankly hilarious antics of Princess Donut (there may be a moonwalking dinosaur, just go with it) is very impressive, and you honestly don’t know what is going to happen next.  The eventual reveal of the big plan is pretty damn amazing, and the resulting over-the-top confrontation is pure Dinniman, who once again manages to exceed the craziness from the previous books with hunters, bosses, and gods.  There is some haunting tragedy thrown in amongst the carnage that really highlights just how dire the entire crawl is for the protagonists, while also concluding some powerful storylines.  However, even after this carnage and its terrible aftermath, Dinniman isn’t done with the readers, whiplashing them with some brilliant and well-telegraphed moments that change everything about the progression of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books.  So many major plot points for the series going forward have their origin in the final sequences of the book, and it will leave you wanting more as soon as possible.

Dinniman really brought all the carnage he could in The Butcher’s Masquerade, and I was really impressed with how this elaborate story unfolded for the readers.  Once again requiring knowledge of the previous novels to fully enjoy (seriously, start the Dungeon Crawler Carl books from the beginning), The Butcher’s Masquerade adds a lot of cool elements to the series, which Dinniman expertly introduces and then utilises in his massive, ongoing story.  Featuring all the cool action, adventure and over-the-top moments you’ve come to expect from the Dungeon Crawler Carl books, Dinniman really amps up the carnage in this fifth novel, while also increasing the drama and powerful character moments.  I honestly found myself sitting at the edge of my seat during some of The Butcher’s Masquerade’s big scenes, as I honestly didn’t know where the story was going to go at times.  The major show-stealing sequences were especially great, and I really appreciate how elaborate some of these scenes were, loaded with multiple moving parts and elements cleverly set up either earlier in the book or even in previous novels.  However, Dinniman ensures that all the scenes in this novel were really entertaining and there honestly are no slow or wasteful moments at all during this awesome novel.

As with the rest of the series, The Butcher’s Masquerade is loaded with a lot of elaborate RPG elements, which are worked into the story extremely well.  While the natural progression of the series and the need to include new things each book means that some original spells and abilities don’t get shown as much, while other RPG elements are somewhat overused, for the most part I feel that Dinniman ensures all the best elements are shown to the reader, and this is one of the easiest LitRPG series to enjoy.  A lot of this enjoyment is down to the outrageous humour loaded into every scene, which allows readers to absorb and even become obsessed with the progression of stats and quests, as well as the gaining of achievements and new abilities and equipment, especially as the series really doesn’t take itself as seriously as other LitRPG books.  While this humour might not be for everyone, I really loved how fun and over-the-top things got at times, and there are so many layers to the novel’s comedic charm.  This includes a combination of overreactions to crazy events, deadpan reactions to other humorous characters, and a ton of fun references, including some particularly subtle ones that are cleverly seeded throughout and may take multiple rereads to appreciate (for example, I only just got the hilarious U2 references loaded into the names of the rock cretin NPCs).  While this humour is very amazing on its own, its true strength lies in the way that Dinniman perfectly balances it with the more serious and darker elements of the narrative, providing some reprieves for the horror of the story, or even helping to emphasise the darkness surrounding the characters as they face death and despair again and again.  I really love the complex balance of themes that Dinniman manages to weave around his elaborate and often silly story, and it makes for quite an impressive read that will appeal to large audience of readers.

I’ve mentioned multiple times in previous Dungeon Crawler Carl reviews that Dinniman is extremely amazing when it comes to writing complex characters to set his stories around.  You really get drawn into the various moving character arcs in this series, many of which progress across multiple books, and it is awesome to see how these figures develop and evolve in response to the dark events of the dungeon.  The Butcher’s Masquerade is an impressive example of this, especially as Dinniman really amps up the drama surrounding several key characters, each of whom have their moment to shine in some outstanding ways.

Naturally, most of the book’s focus revolves around the series’ titular protagonist, Carl, the troubled and intense central protagonist, through whose eyes we see most of the narrative unfold.  Carl really shines in The Butcher’s Masquerade, with his anarchist persona on full display.  Determined to bring his own form of explosive justice to the various aliens profiting from the destruction of Earth and the murderous crawl, Carl eagerly faces off against the hunters who have come into the dungeon, antagonising them as only he can.  Dinniman pulls together some amazing sequences around Carl in this book, especially when it comes to facing off against the hunters in deadly situations, and I loved the methodical and often extreme ways he reacts to pressure, as well as he hilarious performance during Crawler Con.  While he is still mostly seen as the reasonable, if explosively inclined, straight man of the team, Dinniman starts to show a darker edge to Carl in this novel.  Thanks to the continued pressure of the dungeon, the various emotional revelations, his desire for revenge and his own troubled past, as well as a certain magic ring, Carl takes on a more sinister persona at times in this book, especially with the cold way he deals with his opponents.  He also finds himself struggling with all the trauma that comes his way in this new book, much of which is showcased through the appearance of “the river”, a part of his mind that is always moving and brings back his anger and memories of all the evils he has experienced.  The continued torrent of the river begins to warp Carl at times, and this is the book when he starts to become a little bit scary.  As such, there is a lot of emotional depth to Carl in this book, and Dinniman did a great job expanding on his darker personality, while still including all the elements that made him such a beloved protagonist of the previous novels.

While Carl is a brilliant main character, he is usually overshadowed in all the best ways by his sentient cat companion, Princess Donut.  A brilliantly sassy, over-emotional and deeply hilarious diva who still maintains many catlike personality traits, Donut is the perfect foil for Carl, especially when it comes to being in the spotlight, and her overly positive manner in most situations really endears her to the audience, even when she needlessly overreacts.  Dinniman has some real fun with Donut in The Butcher’s Masquerade, as the cat takes on a temporary bard class which requires her to sing to cast spells, much to everyone’s displeasure, and there are so many moments when you get to laugh at her antics.  However, much like Carl, Donut goes through some real emotional turmoil in this novel, not only getting the chance to confront her original owner Beatrice (although Carl was always her true human), but she also deals with some deep trauma as the book continues.  The author loads up some highly emotional scenes between Carl and Donut, especially in the aftermath of the climatic finale, and you grow to appreciate their complicated bond even more throughout this book, even when your heart breaks at some of the trials they must endure.  However, Donut continues to move through the dungeon in her usual over-enthusiastic manner, and it was very fun to see her finally get to perform on the big stage at the end of the titular Butcher’s Masquerade.  The pet talent show with Mongo was one of the funniest moments in the book, while her subsequent singing performance helped to highlight just how far she’d come, and the emotional impact she has on the rest of the cast.  I honestly love everything about Princess Donut, and this was probably one of her strongest appearances in the series.

While most of the story focusses on Carl and Donut, Dinniman at this point in the series has created a truly impressive collection of supporting characters, all of whom have some very compelling storylines around.  The most prominent of them is probably Katia, who has spent the last two books in the main party.  Katia steps away a little from the main character’s plot in The Butcher’s Masquerade, leading her own group of crawlers in a separate storyline to the protagonists.  While it was a shame to have her featured a little less, especially after her impressive appearances in The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook and The Gate of Feral Gods, it fit her character development nicely and showed how much her confidence had grown.  It also allowed for a bigger focus on some of the other extended members of the Guild group that Carl and Donut have become part of, and I think the book benefited from a bigger cast.  Dinniman did go quite dark with Katia at times in The Butcher’s Masquerade, especially in the book’s epilogue, where so many secrets that the author had cleverly been hiding under the character’s surface, finally come to light, especially the final shocking revelation.

The rest of the returning cast was also very impressive.  Mordecai continues to excel as the cranky and practical mentor figure, even if he has been turned into a cute and cuddly little creature this book, much to the team’s amusement.  The trapped and insane god Samantha was hilarious as the book’s mother-threatening comic relief, and there are some truly amusing scenes with her in this book, especially when Carl starts using her as a mobile weapon platform.  The returning former slackers, Louis and Firas, continue to shine in this novel as the team’s pilots, and it was nice to see how much they evolved since their original appearance, while readers also got to spend more time with long-running characters Elle, Imani and Chris.  The Butcher’s Masquerade also features the return of the dangerous Elite NPC, Tsarina Signet, whose dramatized storyline drags the protagonists into all manner of trouble.  Dinniman made perfect use of Signet and her NPC cohorts in this novel, and I was really impressed by the full-circle and sad nature of her narrative.

In addition to these returning characters, The Butcher’s Masquerade featured significant appearances from several notorious crawlers who had only been shown existing outside the protagonist’s adventures.  This includes the lethal child crawler, Lucia Mar, who lives up to her crazy reputation, the Crocodilian crawler Florin with his strong Australian accent, the calm shepherd turned vampires Miriam Dom, and the now sentient goat Prepotente.  Of these Prepotente was probably the most impactful new character, especially as his story takes him from being a comedic figure, to a particularly dangerous and grieving ally.  His heartbreaking appearance halfway through the book was extremely well-written, while his big act of defiance at the end of The Butcher’s Masquerade changes everything.  However, out of all these characters, my favourite remains the AI controlling the game, who has really started to crack and is testing its limits in some very concerning ways.  The various over-the-top descriptions, announcements and rulings made by the AI add so much humour to the story, especially as they are getting more-and-more unhinged and random.  Throw in the AI’s dangerous independent decisions, which have dire effects for everyone in the dungeon, and you really come away eager to see how crazy things are going to get with this disembodied figure next.  I really cannot emphasise just how impressive this massive cast is, and Dinniman perfectly uses all his complex character to enhance his already outstanding narrative.

I doubt anyone is surprised at this point that I chose to listen to The Butcher’s Masquerade on audiobook, which is just the best way to enjoy this incredible novel.  Due to the increased action and adventure that Dinniman loads into each new novel in the series, The Butcher’s Masquerade is the longest audiobook in the series yet, coming in at a respectable 23 and a half hours.  While this is a long audiobook, I honestly flew through it, thanks to how addictive and cool the crazy events within were, as well as the once again exceptional narration of Jeff Hays.  Hays is frankly perfect for the complex and hilarious Dungeon Crawler Carl series, and his amazing range of voices and excellent takes on the many over-the-top characters, has ensured that every second of this series was a joy to listen to on audiobook.  The Butcher’s Masquerade is one of the best examples of this, as Hays brings every awesome element of it to life with apparent ease, as well as some excellent use of minor sound effects and cool vocal enhancements.

Each character within The Butcher’s Masquerade has a very fitting voice to it, which includes a return of all the fantastic tones from the previous audiobooks, as well as several additional cool voices for some of the newer characters.  You really get the perfect sense of these characters from Hays narration, and every aspect of their personalities comes through with his voice.  Some of the best voices include those for Carl, whose increased anger is becoming more apparent, Mordecai, whose most recent transformation requires a new hilarious voice, and the System AI, whose over-the-top exclamations are just hilarious when read out.  I also must highlight Hay’s voice work for Donut in this audiobook, especially as he gets all her outrageous mannerisms, over-reactions and the rest of her personality perfectly.  Hays also rises to the challenge of Donut taking on a bard class in this book and singing, badly, which made me laugh so damn hard.  Highlights include an exceptional talent show performance, as well as the cat’s unique take on ‘Wonderwall’ in the Soundbooth Theater promotional material at the end of the audiobook (renamed as ‘Wondercrawl’), both of which Hays gamely voices, and clearly has fun with.  I honestly could go on for ages about every outstanding voice Hays uses in The Butcher’s Masquerade but let’s save time and say they are all exceptional, and that this entire audiobook is just pure awesomeness.  I cannot recommend this format enough, and you will have a brilliant time enjoying The Butcher’s Masquerade in this format.

If the above extensive review didn’t give it away, I loved The Butcher’s Masquerade, and it is probably the best entry in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series at that point.  Matt Dinniman produced a truly incredible entry in his brilliant series with The Butcher’s Masquerade, and I still cannot get over just how compelling, exciting and emotionally charged this fifth entry in the series was.  I honestly cannot think of a better compliment than to point out that I was still absolutely addicted to this series when I finished The Butcher’s Masquerade, and I instantly jumped to the next book in the series, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, and devoured it in a similar quick manner, before jumping even further into the series.  If you’re not enjoying the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, you are missing out, especially with this exceptional fifth novel.

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The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star Books, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday4 Comments

Publisher: Soundbooth Theater (Audiobook – 1 July 2021)

Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl – Book Four

Length: 18 hours and 3 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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The chaotic fun of Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series reaches another impressive level in the awesome fourth book, The Gate of the Feral Gods, an exceptional read that I could not put down until its gripping and epic end.

I can officially say that I am incredibly obsessed with the Dungeon Crawler Carl books.  Taking place after all buildings on Earth are instantly destroyed and turned into an elaborate fantasy dungeon, all in the name of an alien reality show, the Dungeon Crawler Carl books are an incredible series that perfectly utilises its unique concept and LitRPG basis to create a particularly addictive story loaded with crazy action, over-the-top humour and an array of incredible characters.  I only started it a few weeks ago and I have so far powered through several books in the series, including Dungeon Crawler Carl, Carl’s Doomsday Scenario and The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, all of which were five-star reads.  Indeed, I have had such a great time with this series, that the moment I finished off The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook I instantly started listening to the fourth book in the series, The Gate of the Feral Gods, which continued the series in some outstanding ways.

After surviving the carnage of the Iron Tangle, Carl, Princess Donut and Katia have emerged on the fifth floor of Dungeon Crawler World Earth and must now contend with a new dastardly set-up.  Placed into a multitude of small, bubble-contained worlds, each remaining human party needs to assault castles contained within each of the bubble’s four zones.  If they succeed in capturing each zone’s castle, the dungeon stairwell will open and they’ll be able to advance to the sixth floor.

While the setup for the fifth floor seems simple, in reality it is a logistical nightmare, as the popular team of Carl, Princess Donut and Katia must navigate and master four very different environments within a rushed timeline, including a desert landscape infested with flying gnomes, a gigantic haunted crypt filled with traps, a besieged sand castle that is home to a powerful mage with relationship issues, and a derelict underwater submarine surrounded by gigantic sharks, all while trying to untangle a unique puzzle hidden in an elaborate quest storyline.  Worse, thanks to their high levels, the team are forced to rely on ineffective, low-level fellow crawlers to clear out the bubble’s zones, including those people who have barely survived the previous floors.

However, the elaborate new floor is only the tip of the problems facing Carl.  Old enemies from outside the dungeon are desperate to strike him down for the chaos he has caused, while the AI controlling the dungeon continues it erratic obsession with him.  As events heat up, Carl is given the unique chance to obtain a legendary artefact loaded with unimaginable power and terrible risk, The Gate of the Feral Gods.  If Carl can master the gate, he has the chance to keep his friends and loved ones safe on this floor.  But what happens when Carl decides to use the gate to strike back against those who have destroyed his planet?  You will not break him, but he will break everything in the galaxy to get his revenge!

Dinniman does it yet again as The Gate of the Feral Gods was another exceptional and epic novel that I could not stop reading.  Perfectly continuing the impressive story from the previous Dungeon Crawler Carl novels, The Gate of the Feral Gods was an ultra-exciting and complex novel, that brings laughter, excitement and powerful emotional moments in equal measure.  Another book in this series that gets a very easy five-star rating from me, The Gate of the Feral Gods was so damn good, and I had so much fun getting through this insane, but clever, adventure.

I really enjoyed the impressive story that Dinniman came up with for The Gate of the Feral Gods, especially as the author uses the opportunity to feature a more traditional fantasy narrative, while also building on the unique character relationships that have been an impressive part of the previous novels.  In a new dungeon floor with some unique quirks, you are once again drawn into the battle for Carl, Donut and Katia’s survival, as they attempt to understand their new scenario as the population of the entire galaxy watches their progress.  There are also some great new characters introduced in this early part of the book, who add some excellent human elements to the wider story.  Determined to clear their part of the floor, Carl’s team embark on some explosive initial actions, and I liked how Dinniman treated this early part of the story in a more traditional LitRPG manner, as the protagonists follow the quest elements laid out as part of the story.  However, it doesn’t take long for Dinniman to throw things completely off the rails, as there are some great scenes halfway through, including the return of an old friend with real inner anger, and a unique boss battle in a flying house that will have you cackling with surprise.  However, one of the more impressive events set around the middle of the novel sees Carl start to embrace his anarchist persona, striking back against his oppressors in his usual destructive manner.

The big events of the first half of the book have an impressive impact on the second half of The Gate of the Feral Gods, as the protagonists find themselves in a time crunch.  This forces them to go on some risky missions, including invading a giant sandcastle with some unique elements, as well as journeying beneath the waves, much to the horror of everyone’s favourite sentient cat.  The various intense challenges faced by the protagonists are usually overcome in some impressively inventive ways, I loved how well Dinniman hints at the protagonist’s eventual plans.  While this is unfolding, you get some interesting looks at the wider crawl thanks to flashes of other character’s battles, and Dinniman also provides some intriguing looks at the issues surrounding the outer galaxy.

While all the above elements are impressive and result in some epic moments, it pales in comparison to the final third of the book.  Thanks to the titular Gate of the Feral Gods, all hell breaks out (literally and figuratively), as the protagonists find themselves involved in the biggest escort mission ever.  Thanks to that, they get into some brutal confrontations, which help to define how desperate things are getting for the characters.  The final sequences of The Gate of the Feral Gods helps to cement this novel as a truly impressive part of the series, as Carl and Donut finally face down one of their oldest enemies, while also fooling everyone with a particularly chaotic scheme.  The set-up for the protagonist’s bold strike against their foes is very clever, and while there are a lot of hints about what is to come, Dinniman cleverly obscures the entirety of the plan, allowing for some awesome surprises that really show off how audacious the protagonists are coming.  This was honestly an incredible end to such a chaotic and compelling read, and it sets up the next book in the series perfectly, allowing for some impressive moments going forward.

I really enjoyed how The Gate of the Feral Gods turned out, especially as Dinniman turned what could have been a filler novel between two major parts of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, into a particularly powerful and intense novel with long-running implications for the rest of the series.  Due to its position as the fourth book in the series, The Gate of the Feral Gods is best read by those who have enjoyed the previous entries in the series, even with the protagonist’s useful internal recaps, especially as this book continues to feature and build on a lot of complex ongoing storylines and character arcs.  Once again written in the first-person style, Dinniman perfectly showcases his unique scenario, and gifts the reader with so much awesome action, fun humour, compelling characters, and surprisingly enjoyable LitRPG elements.  With a bit more of a slower pacing at the start of the novel, Dinniman gives this book time to breath after the crazy conclusion of The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, and allows the characters, and the readers, time to get familiar with the new floor of the dungeon.  This complex new setting within the dungeon was extremely well crafted, and its unique features ensured that The Gate of the Feral Gods had a very distinctive feel amongst the rest of the series.  The focus on quests and the internal storylines of the level helped to amp up the fantasy vibe of the story, while Dinniman also set up a multitude of additional long-running storylines that have a big impact later in the series.  At the same time, Dinniman cleverly continued to showcase the wider universe outside of the dungeon and the way that these exterior events impact the protagonist’s battles, and vice versa, allowing for a particularly compelling narrative.

While I felt that The Gate of the Feral Gods had a slightly slower start, that doesn’t last long, as Dinniman adds in some amazingly exciting and over-the-top sequences that really stick in the mind.  The author proves extremely capable of completely going even further beyond the craziness of his previous novels, and I loved how fantastically outrageous things get at times, with giant boss battles, unbelievably dangerous traps, multiple crazy gods, and some deeply human fights, all making this story particularly epic at times.  The many, many action scenes within the book are so well written, and I loved how impactful, insane, and usually hilarious these sequences are, and Dinniman makes excellent use of the LitRPG part of the series, with so many cool elements from RPG games coming into play in entertaining ways.  Dinniman also does an excellent job expanding on a ton of complex elements of the dungeon in this novel by including various extracts from Carl’s Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, a secret compendium of knowledge from previous crawlers.  These extracts are each cleverly written in their own style, and I love how they highlight technical elements of the dungeon, as well as the emotional damage each of these previous crawlers experienced.  These LitRPG elements are further made better by the author’s unique sense of humour, which inhabits every aspect of the book and ensures that the reader is constantly laughing at all the insane moments, clever jokes, and over-the-top characters.  While this humour might not be for everyone, I felt it was perfect, especially as it blended with all Dinniman’s complex storytelling and the deeper emotional pain of the book, allowing for a very impressive overarching novel.

The thing that made The Gate of the Feral Gods really stand out was the author’s focus on character introductions, growth and powerful human moments, as the protagonists, their allies, and the various beings involved in the running on the dungeon, continue their chaotic journey together.  As with all the books in the series, the plot of The Gate of the Feral Gods revolves around protagonist and perspective character Carl, through whose eyes we see the plot unfold.  The perpetually exasperated and intense heroic figure who is desperately trying to save everyone he comes across, Carl continues to struggle in his role of leader and must keep coming up with dangerous plans to save his friends and beat the latest challenges of the dungeon.  While mostly serious, there is some fantastic humour and deeply sympathetic moments behind Carl, and it proves fascinating to see him struggle to maintain his anger and place as the reasonable one in the group, especially when it comes to his habit of blowing everything up.  The author also really dials up the rebellious anarchist aspects of Carl in this novel, as he starts fighting back against everyone he holds responsible for Earth’s destruction in some very cathartic ways.  Throw in the continued hints at the character’s traumatic past and his growing connection to all his friends, and Carl proves to be an excellent central character for this incredible book.

While Carl is a great main protagonist, this series would be nothing with his sentient cat companion, Princess Donut, who continues to be the highlight of most of the scenes she is in.  An overly dramatic, imperious and fun figure who maintains many stereotypical cat elements, Donut is the heart and soul of the book, and you have to laugh at all her funny jokes, entertaining reactions and the unlikely friendships and interactions she has.  Dinniman has fun building up the cat aspect of the character in The Gate of the Feral Gods, especially in the sequence where Donut finds herself underwater, and it was so damn entertaining to see her freak the hell out at times.  Much of the book’s humour also revolves around her unlikely partnership with Carl, and the way the two play off each other is just amazing.  While most of her personality and appearance is humorous in nature, it hides a deeper heart to it, as Donut’s child-like nature ensures that she is very reliant on Carl, and it was deeply moving to see them bond even further in this novel, and you can clearly see how close they are, even during the moments when Donut is deliberately annoying her human.  Probably one of the best cat characters in modern fiction, Princess Donut is so much fun, and I deeply enjoy every scene she is in.

While most of the book’s focus is on the central pair of Carl and Princess Donut, Dinniman continues to expand the incredible supporting cast of the series in The Gate of the Feral Gods, and I loved the brilliant storylines and development that occurs around these secondary figures.  This includes the third member of the protagonist’s party, Katia, who serves as the more reasonable and responsible member of the team.  It was fascinating to see how much Katia comes into her own in this novel, especially during a period where Carl and Donut are out of the game for an extended time, and she really steps up as a compelling alternative leader to the supporting cast.  Donut’s manager, Mordecai, a former crawler with issues, was a wonderful mentor figure for much of the story, and I quite enjoyed the interactions he has with the rest of the characters, especially Carl, while his attempts to keep his charges from doing anything too crazy are often ignored.  I also continue to be deeply entertained by the AI running the dungeon, whose over-the-top commentary, descriptions and jokes, add so much awesome and often concerning humour to the story.  There were some hilarious moments in The Gate of the Feral Gods where the AI continued to act a little crazy as its personality evolves to match the dungeon’s participants, including his continued messing with Carl, his weird foot fetish, and its own rebellion against the showrunners and people outside the game who are trying to restrict its fun.  Dinniman clearly had a ton of fun when it came to writing the AI’s actions, and it is so entertaining to see how crazy things get around it.

While all these returning major characters are great, one of the best things about The Gate of the Feral Gods was the way in which Dinniman brought in outstanding new characters, as well as reintroducing figures we haven’t see for a few books.  Some of the best new characters include Louis and Firas, two out-of-their-depth crawlers whom the protagonists must rely on.  Thanks to the encouragement of Carl and the others, they start to become much more effective as the book continues, and I loved their compelling growth in The Gate of the Feral Gods, as well as their impacts in their later books of the series.  I also must mention fun new character Samantha, renamed that by Donut from Psamathe.  A minor deity of unrequited love (or crazy ex-girlfriends), Samantha is a banished god trapped in the decapitated head of a magical sex doll.  Loud, rude, crude and constantly threatening every character’s mother, Samantha is probably the most over-the-top character in the series (which is saying something), but boy is she entertaining.  Perfectly introduced amongst the chaos of this book’s story, Samantha perfectly fits in amongst the main characters and becomes a major comic relief for much of the series.  Other great characters include some other fractious crawlers, the return of Chris from the first novel, who has gone through some major personality changes, a variety of insane gods including some unfortunately named demons, and various NPCs, whose existential plight becomes a major ongoing arc in the series.  All these characters, and more, allow for quite an entertaining and at times moving novel, and I really appreciate how well Dinniman utilises them in The Gate of the Feral Gods.

As with the previous Dungeon Crawler Carl novels, I ended up listening to The Gate of the Feral Gods on audiobook, which is such an incredible experience.  These Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook are so damn good, and it’s one of the key reasons I have been able to so effortlessly binge this entire series.  The narration, done by the very talented Jeff Hays, perfectly captures the insane and over-the-top nature of the series, and so many elements of The Gate of the Feral Gods, including its humour, the intense action, and the impressive LitRPG inclusions, are deeply enhanced by having the story read out.  Hays complements this narration with unique and very fitting voices for all the characters, and I love all the elaborate and often hilarious tones that come out as a result.  It’s impressive how many new voices Hays comes up with each audiobook, and I loved the excellent consistency between audiobooks for the recurring characters.  The long-running voices for Carl and Donut are just perfect, especially as Hays perfectly captures the various emotions hidden within both figures.  I really love how much extra humour you get from hearing Carl’s exasperated voice at times, while the entirety of Donut’s excessive personality, including her hilarious overreactions and continuous outrage, are just amazing.  The rest of the cast are also voiced extremely well, and Dinniman pulls out some fun voices and accents in this book, including an acceptable Australian accent from a crocodile-themed crawler.  However, one of my favourite voices is still the one he uses for the Dungeon AI, and it is so much fun to hear Hays’s voice the various excited, mocking and occasionally deranged announcements and descriptions from this figure.  Throw in some subtle sound effects and vocal enhancements, that add even more umph to the narration, and The Gate of the Feral Gods is an exceptional listen.  I absolutely powered through the 18-hour runtime, and I cannot recommend this format enough, as you guaranteed to have an absolute blast listening to it.

With even more incredible carnage, character development and the author’s incredible humour, The Gate of the Feral Gods was another outstanding novel from Matt Dinniman.  Perfectly continuing the extended Dungeon Crawler Carl narrative and adding in some excellent, long-term characters and elements, The Gate of the Feral Gods is an amazing entry in this epic series, and I honestly couldn’t stop enjoy this novel.  I loved The Gate of the Feral Gods so much that I instantly dove into the next book in the series, The Butcher’s Masquerade, the very second I finished it, and I am so very glad I did. 

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