Tag: Great Characters

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star Books, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday4 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 Thursday5 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

Amazon

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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2 Sisters Murder Investigations by James Patterson and Candice Fox

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Murder Mystery, Thriller3 Comments

Publisher: Century (Trade Paperback – 18 March 2025)

Series: 2 Sisters Detective Agency – Book Two

Length: 352 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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The team of iconic crime fiction author James Patterson and one of Australia’s best thriller authors, Candice Fox, once again come together for the outstanding 2025 sequel, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations.

James Patterson and Candice Fox are both very talented authors whose work I have been really enjoying since I started reading more crime fiction.  Patterson, the iconic writer who is known for his various long-running series, has been primarily producing collaborative work with other authors in recent years, including Death of the Black Widow with J. D. Barker, The No. 1 Lawyer with Nancy Allen and The Perfect Assassin by Brian Sitts.  Fox on the other hand, has been on a real roll with her great recent standalone novels, including Devil’s Kitchen, Fire with Fire, High Wire and The Chase.  On top of those previous novels, Patterson and Fox have found time to collaborate on several great books, including the fun 2024 novel, The Murder Inn, and their outstanding previous novel, 2 Sisters Detective Agency, the latter of which, has generated a sequel I now want to talk about with 2 Sisters Murder Investigations.  Following two mismatched sisters who find themselves investigating crimes in L. A. after re-opening their father’s old detective agency, this interesting series was very fun, I was very happy to receive a copy of the second 2 Sisters Detective Agency novel earlier this year.

Plot Synopsis:

Rhonda and Barbara “Baby” Bird are half-sisters—and full partners in their Los Angeles detective agency. They agree on nothing.

Rhonda, a former attorney, takes a by-the-book approach to solving crimes, while teenage Baby relies on her street smarts.

But when they take a controversial case of a loner whose popular wife has gone missing, they’re accused of being PIs who can’t tell a client from a killer.

The Bird sisters share a late father, but not much else…except their willingness to fight.

Fight the system. Fight for the underdog. Fight for the truth. If they can stop fighting each other long enough to work together.

Patterson and Fox produce another outstanding and highly entertaining crime fiction read with 2 Sisters Murder Investigations, which quickly grabs your attention and keeps pushing you forward.  Slick, easy-to-read, and full of excitement, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations was another great thriller from two masters of the genre.

2 Sisters Murder Investigations had an excellent story behind it that sees the dysfunctional Bird sisters, older sister Rhonda and rampart teenager Baby, working together at their family detective agency after the events of the first book.  After an entertaining start that shows that the sisters still aren’t on the same page, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations thrusts them into a compelling new case when the main suspect in a current murder case requests their help to prove his innocence.  Deciding to take on the case against their better judgment, Rhonda and Baby try to help their new client, Troy Hansen, who is accused of murdering his missing wife, and whose unusual demeanour about the case has convinced the entire city he is guilty.

Patterson and Fox’s narrative for 2 Sisters Murder Investigations splits early, as Rhonda’s perspective chapters primarily focus on the Hansen case, which goes in some interesting directions.  Under pressure from both the public and the police to stop helping Troy, Rhonda tries to prove his innocence, but she is quickly stymied by a series of problems, including lethal intruders trying, her client’s unusual behaviour, and a box full of concerning evidence hidden at the crime scene.  At the same time, Baby attempts to help an older man who is being targeted as part of a sinister scheme to force him to sell his house to a corrupt company.  The resulting storylines both go in interesting directions, especially the one around Rhonda and her attempts to help Troy, as the evidence continues to point to her client being a dangerous killer.  The eventual result for this plot thread was very captivating, and there were some great twists here, including an unlikely alternate suspect who suddenly shows up.  While the reveal about the actual killer wasn’t all that surprising, the way that Patterson and Fox set it up was extremely good, and the fast-paced conclusion to that arc, as well as the surprising tragedy, allowed for some captivating and intense moments.  While I liked this main plotline, the secondary storyline with Baby attempting to take on her own case ended up being a little rushed, especially at the end, although I did enjoy seeing how Baby comes into her own and acquires an excellent canine friend.  While this weak ending to the second storyline does rob 2 Sisters Murder Investigations of some of its overall impact, I did feel that this narrative for the sequel was very strong, and all thriller fans, even those unfamiliar with the series or the authors, will have a lot of fun with it.

I really enjoyed how entertaining and exciting the authors made 2 Sisters Murder Investigations, and Patterson and Fox ensure that this was a highly compelling and fun novel to read.  Utilising the multiple short, sharp paragraphs that Patterson fans will be familiar with, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations was a very easy novel to power through as you jump from one compelling scene to the next.  These quick chapters really encourage you to keep going, as the next twists could be only pages away, and I found myself speeding through the story.  It helped that Patterson and Fox did a good job splitting the novel’s focus between the two sister protagonists, which allows for a layered narrative, especially as both characters have different focuses and priorities, resulting in a well-balanced and complex overarching story.  These separate storylines have a certain distinctness given to them, especially as the authors switched up the perspective style depending on whose chapter it is.  For example, Rhonda is shown as more of main protagonist due to her chapters being told in the first person, while Baby’s chapters are told in the third person, which helps to reflect her more junior role in the team.  While Patterson and Fox could have perhaps done a better job at the front of each chapter showing which character is the focal point of the book at that point, for the most part this split is pretty seamless, and I liked the alternating and fast-paced nature of the novel that the author’s writing style allows for.

On top of the great story and exciting writing style, I quite enjoyed how Patterson and Fox revisited the main characters of the series, sisters Rhonda and Baby Bird.  Still in conflict despite the initial successful nature of their relationship, Rhonda and Baby play off each other extremely well as dysfunctional sisters, which allows for a lot of fun interactions amongst the darker nature of the plot.  While you could argue there is a slight loss of character growth between Rhonda and Baby in 2 Sisters Murder Investigations, as they lose some of the cohesion they built up in the first novel, I think their continued bickering and disagreement worked well in the context of the story, as Baby tried to stretch her wings, while Rhonda continues to adjust to being a responsible guardian to a new sister.  Throw in some excellent supporting characters, including Rhonda’s complicated love interest, an obsessed cop investigating the murder, a lonely old man who finds purpose thanks to Baby, and one suspicious client who helped to showcase the unlikely choices those under pressure make, and this was a fun cast that turned 2 Sisters Murder Investigations into a really awesome read.

Overall, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations was a great sequel to James Patterson and Candice Fox’s 2 Sisters Detective Agency, and it was very cool to see the Bird sisters back in action again.  Featuring a fascinating and gripping narrative that you can easily speed through and still have an awesome time, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations was an outstanding novel that is worth reading, especially if you have enjoyed the previous collaborations between Patterson and Fox.

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Mort by Terry Pratchett

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Comedy/Satire, Extended Universe, Fantasy, Five-Star Books, Throwback Thursday1 Comment

Publisher: Gollancz/Penguin Audio (Audiobook – 1987)

Series: Discworld – Book Four/Death – Book One

Length: 7 hours and 18 minutes (Planer version)/7 hours and 57 minutes (Clifford version)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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My dive into the always outstanding Discworld series by the legendary Terry Pratchett continues with one of the earlier classics, Mort, a clever and highly entertaining novel that still hits hard after all these years.

Readers of this blog will be aware of my obsession for all things Discworld, which I have been a mega fan of for many years.  I have had the very great pleasure of reading all the books in the Discworld series multiple times, and I honestly love everything about them, so much so that I even named this blog after a key setting in the series.  I’ve recently been having one of my periodic re-reads of the series, which has seen me finally review some of my favourite Discworld entries, including Pyramids, Guards! Guards!, Moving Pictures, Small Gods and Men at Arms.  The next entry in the series I decided to reread was the wonderfully compelling Mort.  The fourth book in the series, this is one of the earlier Discworld novels and serves as the first book in the Death sub-series.

They say that death comes for everybody, but on the Discworld that statement couldn’t be more true, as everyone will eventually encounter Death, the black-robed, scythe wielding skeleton who personifies the end of life.  However, not all encounters with Death are the same, as terminally unqualified teenager Mort is about to discover, as instead of taking his life, Death offers Mort a job.

Suddenly saddled with the responsibilities of being the apprentice of Death, Mort finds his life a lot more complicated.  Reaping the souls of the recently departed is one thing, but learning to walk through walls and deal with the unlikely whims of his new master is another, especially as Death seems determined to set Mort up with his adopted daughter Ysabell.  However, the big problems begin when Mort impulsively decides to change fate and save the life of a young princess destined to die.

Forced to find a way to stop the diverging threads of reality while keeping the princess alive, Mort soon discovers that being the Grim Reaper isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  Worse, with the real Death suddenly discovering the joys of life, Mort’s own humanity is starting to slip away.  Can Mort and a group of unlikely companions save reality, or will he have to face his final judgement at the hands of the universe’s most unyielding employer?

Mort was a particularly impressive Discworld novel from Pratchett, especially as it was probably the book where the author finally found his true writing groove.  Fun, thoughtful and featuring a clever and concise story, Mort was an outstanding read, and I once again powered through in very short order.  As such, Mort gets a very well-deserved five-star rating from me and is a particularly awesome Discworld novel to check out.

I loved the very impressive story that Pratchett came up with for Mort, which takes the concept of Death finding an apprentice and going to the extreme with it.  Starting at an initially slow pace that introduces the key characters of Mort and Death, you soon get invested in Mort’s tale of young man coming into his own in a very unusual field.  Things get interesting quickly when Mort decides to save the life of a young princess destined to die and soon splits reality down the middle.  This leads to a very addictive middle section, as Mort attempts to save the princess while also ensuring reality doesn’t split apart.  At the same time, Death, who finds his time freed up thanks to his assistant, begins to wonder around the world learning about humans and trying to have fun.  The resulting outlandish interactions with Death are a great counterpoint to Mort’s storyline, especially as this results in the apprentice starting to obtain his own powers, often with hilarious results.

Everything cleverly and quickly leads up to the big final third of the novel, where a less-than-human Mort and a scrappy Ysabell attempt to do a disappeared Death’s duty, while also finding a way to save the doomed princess, whose own attempts to stay in reality have been less than successful.  At the same time, fun supporting character Albert, Death’s manservant, returns to his old profession on the Disc and tries to find the original Death, who has found his own unlikely niche in the mortal world.  This final third of Mort is extremely fun, fast-paced and surprisingly impactful, especially as the author keeps raising the stakes for the protagonists, and you are very much unable to stop reading it as you try to see where all the entertaining storylines are going.  However, it’s the inevitable showdown between Death and Mort that really ties everything together perfectly.  Their intense, deeply personal and perfectly showcased duel is amazing, especially as it expertly builds off all the character growth in the novel.  Ending on a hopeful note that sets the tone for a great character going forward, you come away from Mort very happy and with an interesting new outlook on life and its always-grinning counterpart.

I really enjoyed how Mort came together, especially as this is the Discworld novel where Pratchett perfects the style and storytelling methods that make his later novels such a treat to read.  As such, Mort is an early classic in the series, so much so that it is a perfect entry point for new Discworld fans, who get to see a lot of key ideas develop here, while also being introduced to the author’s humour and clever storytelling.  Mort definitely benefited from Pratchett developing a more concise storytelling style here, keeping the narrative a little more focused than the previous novels, and this works as a well-crafted standalone read.  Pratchett also does an outstanding job combining cool fantasy elements with outrageous humour and complex characters, and the result is a very entertaining read that will appeal to a wide range of readers.  Part coming-of-age story, part examination of an extreme mid-life crisis, Mort’s narrative hits a lot of generational notes, and while some of his ideas about splitting reality and the nature of the Discworld are a little complex, Pratchett ensures that readers can completely follow his thought all the way to the fantastic conclusion.

As with all Discworld books, Pratchett imbues Mort with an amazing level of humour, and I loved how intensely funny this novel was at times.  Despite Mort essentially being a novel about mortality and destiny, this is a very light-hearted novel thanks to the entertaining characters and the unusual situations they find themselves in.  There are several different levels of humour contained within Mort, ranging from obvious jokes and over-the-top situations to well-setup references or clever name gags, as well as the subtly funny footnotes that really dive into the absurdity of this flat world that lies atop a giant turtle.  Some of the funniest parts of Mort lie in the usually hardboiled and cynical inhabitants of the Disc suddenly encountering Death in unlikely scenarios.  This becomes particularly prevalent later in the novel when Death leaves the job to Mort and wanders the world looking to understand “fun”, and the various scenes with Death fishing, going to parties, getting drunk, gambling and even searching for a job, are particularly hilarious, especially as everyone else involved in these situations is either deeply unsettled or completely terrified.  Other great jokes involve wizards coming to terms with an apparently animated statue, very long-running bar tabs, fun, if short-lived, political intrigues, unlikely deaths, and the young protagonist upsetting everyone by unwittingly walking through walls.  I laughed myself silly multiple times in Mort, even though I had heard all the jokes many times before, and you are guaranteed to have a lot of fun with this great Discworld entry.

As with all of Pratchett’s novels, Mort features an excellent array of entertaining characters, whose unique arcs add some excellent power to book’s overall narrative.  The cast of Mort was particularly compelling and well-rounded, and I think that Pratchett did a great job of introducing some excellent new figures while also making use of one of the best side-characters in the entire series.  Unsurprisingly, most of the novel’s focus settles on the titular character of Mortimer (Mort), a young teen who unexpectedly finds himself the apprentice of Death.  Shown at the start of the book to be an awkward and unusually thoughtful figure, Mort’s storyline revolves around his attempts to fit in, learn his unlikely trade, and the interesting relationships that form thanks to his new position.  Pratchett works in a very compelling coming-of-age narrative around Mort, especially as he grows into his new role and gains the confidence that comes with finding oneself, while also walking the fine line between morality and duty.  However, there is a definite dark edge to Mort’s storyline towards the end, as Mort starts to lose his humanity and becomes more like Death, and it falls to the rest of the characters to keep him human.  Pratchett did a really good job introducing and building up Mort as a complex young character, and he ended up being one of the author’s better one-shot protagonists.

While much of the book is focused on Mort, the character who constantly steals the show is Death.  The literal personification of death on the Discworld, Death appeared in the first three novels in the series, serving as an ethereal and often entertaining figure on the sidelines who occasionally haunted the author’s original protagonist.  Pratchett cleverly expands on Death in this book, showcasing him as a wise and implacable figure doing his duty in a dispassionate way.  However, his interactions with humans, especially Mort, soon start to change his personality, especially as he becomes curious about life and tires of his eternal station.  This allows him to become a particularly entertaining figure in the second half of the book, as he roams the Disc in unlikely situations, trying to learn how to have fun.  His various ponderings on mortality and human nature result in some hilarious moments, and there are so many fantastic and funny interactions that occur here.  However, it is the final third of the book where you get a real sense of Death’s character; at first, he wistfully tries to embrace life, only to leave that behind when confronted by the actions of Mort.  The anger and sadness that accompany his return to his role and his confrontation with Mort is extremely powerful, and you can’t help but feel for him as he faces an impossible choice, as well as rejection from those he loves.  An overall excellent first deep dive into the character of Death from Pratchett, and you can really see why the author wrote several more books around this character going forward.

Aside from Mort and Death, the rest of the main cast of Mort is quite concise and contains an excellent blend of distinctive and impactful characters.  This includes Death’s adopted daughter, Ysabell, a seemingly spoiled princess and lover of over-the-top romance, who is initially antagonistic to Mort.  Despite her attitude, Ysabell soon turns into quite a likeable and sympathetic character, especially when certain traumas from her unusual life become apparent.  Due to her having some of the more emotionally poignant dialogue and character moments in the book, Ysabell is an excellent part of Mort, and I liked how Pratchett paced her storyline.  The other major resident of Death’s domain featured in this story is Albert, the mysterious servant determined to hide his past from Mort and Ysabell.  Pratchett does an excellent job of setting him up as a bigger figure within the Disc’s history, and his explosive return to form after some entertaining scenes between him and a threatening Mort are a highpoint of the book.  Other major characters include Princess Keli, a young princess who finds her sudden reign made even more difficult due her convoluted existence, and young wizard Igneous Cutwell, who serves as a great foil to the more serious Mort and Keli and becomes an excellent comic relief for the book.  Throw in an array of over-the-top minor Discworld characters whose lives briefly become that much more interesting due to their interactions with either Death or Mort, and Mort has an especially fun cast that Pratchett uses to great effect within this masterful novel.

I must once again highlight the amazing audiobook formats that are my favourite ways of enjoying the Discworld series.  I honestly have so much fun with the Discworld audiobooks, mainly because the format does such an incredible job of showcasing Pratchett’s legendary humour and inventive worldbuilding, and there is frankly no better way to enjoy this cool series.  Like the rest of the series, Mort has two particularly awesome unabridged audiobook versions, both of which come highly recommended by me.  This includes the old-school version narrated by the legendary Nigel Planer, who provided his voice to over half the unabridged Discworld audiobooks.  As with all the Discworld books he narrated, Planer does a remarkable job in this early entry in the series, and I loved the impressive array of voices that he utilised in Mort.  Due to this being the first Death audiobook, Planer had a ton of fun featuring his amazing Death voice, which combines beautifully with some of the other new character tones he had to come up with for this novel.  His great voice work also helped to showcase some of Pratchett’s excellent jokes and key bits of humour, and you really get drawn into the author’s brilliant story and fantastic writing with this classic audiobook release.

Despite my love for the Planer version of Mort, which in some ways is still the definitive audiobook version of this novel, I must also really hype up the new Mort audiobook that was recently released.  Part of the recent rerecording of the Discworld audiobooks I have spruiked in previous reviews, this new version of Mort was extremely awesome, and in some ways it surpasses the old-school version.  Coming in with a runtime of just under eight hours, around half an hour longer than the Planer version, this was a brilliant listen, especially with the impressive combined voice work of Sian Clifford, Peter Serafinowicz and Bill Nighy.

Sian Clifford (of Fleabag fame) did an excellent job as the main narrator for this audiobook, reading out most of the story and the voices of the associated cast.  This results in a swift, well-voiced and deeply compelling version of Mort, and I loved how effectively Clifford brought the story to life and helped to showcase the author’s great humour.  You really get drawn into the cool narrative as Clifford reads it out, and I enjoyed her fresh take on many aspects of the audiobook.  Despite Mort being a rather male character dominated entry in the sub-series, Clifford did an excellent job portraying the cast, and there are some great voices featured here, including of some iconic figures from other sub-series (her Rincewind voice was sufficiently terrified and grovelling).  Clifford clearly has fun when it comes to some of the more outrageous members of the cast, such as Albert, while her take on Princess Keli was excessively regal, and captured both her irritation at the events unfolding around her, while also showcasing her fear and uncertainty.  I must also highlight the voice Clifford provides for the main character, Mort, as the narrator really paints a great picture of a gangly, uncertain teenage boy who starts to come into his own as he gains confidence, and more.  I particularly enjoyed the clever voice changes that Clifford did later in the book, especially when Mort started becoming more like his employer, and the corresponding changes to Death’s voice were just perfect.  This was honestly some amazing voice work from Clifford, and I look forward to listening to her narration of the other Death audiobooks, especially once Susan is brought in as the main character.

While Clifford is amazing, I felt that Peter Serafinowicz clearly stole the show in Mort, playing his character to perfection.  Voicing the recurring character of Death in all the new Discworld audiobooks whenever he appears in the plot, Serafinowicz hits listeners with a deep and final tone that perfectly portrays the Discworld’s Grim Reaper in all his bony glory.  For most of the audiobooks, this is just a fun extra inclusion, as Death only appears in a few hilarious scenes.  But for Mort, this is much more of an involved role, as Death is one of the book’s main characters, and so much of the book’s humour and complex narrative is based around Death interactions with humanity.  As such, Serafinowicz has a ton of fun voice Death through various unusual situations and emotional states, all while keeping up the foreboding Death voice.  The clever and subtle changes to this voice that Serafinowicz makes are extremely impressive, and the humour that results from hearing Death engage in these unlikely scenarios and conversations cannot be overstated.  I also must highlight one brilliant sequence where Serafinowicz hilariously hummed the classic funeral march in his Death voice in response to the text describing Death walking away humming a tune.  Details like that in Serafinowicz’s performance, as well as the increased utilisation of Death in this audiobook, really enhanced the overall impact and humour of Mort, and I loved every second I spent listening to it. 

The final actor featured in this audiobook is the legendary Bill Nighy, who also has a recurring role in all the new Discworld audiobooks.  Nighy has a very important job of narrating all the various footnotes that Pratchett includes in his text, and his gentle voice really brings out the subtle humour hidden in these footnotes.  While Nighy doesn’t get much to do in Mort due to author only featuring a few footnotes in this novel, he still makes an impact, and I’ve really enjoyed how expertly he enhances these clever inclusions.  Honestly, all three of these narrators did an outstanding job in this new version of Mort, and I deeply appreciated how well their compelling performances blended into one impactful listen. As such, Mort is best enjoyed on audiobook, and whether it be the classic Planer version, or the new one with extended cast, you will have a wonderful time listening to it.

As the above rambling pages no doubt prove, I have a lot of love for Mort which was an excellent early Discworld novel from Terry Pratchett.  Featuring some excellent storytelling and fully embracing the clever writing style and comedic charm that made the later Discworld novels so damn awesome, Mort was a brilliant read, and one that proves impossible to put down.  An outstanding novel that really shows how impressive Pratchett could be as an author; Mort comes highly recommended and is guaranteed to be enjoyed by any reader.

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The Malevolent Eight by Sebastien de Castell

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Comedy/Satire, Fantasy5 Comments

Publisher: Acardia (ebook – 27 May 2025)

Series: Malevolent series – Book Two

Length: 397 pages

Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

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The always entertaining Sebastien de Castell unleashes one of the funniest books of 2025 with the dark fantasy novel, The Malevolent Eight, a compelling and impressive sequel that I couldn’t get enough of.

Over the last couple of years, I have really become attached to the amazing Sebastien de Castell, a leading fantasy author with some outstanding stories under his belt.  Known for his impressive and varied stories, including his Greatcoats, Spellslinger and Argosi novels, de Castell has a brilliant imagination, and I love the range of complex settings and narratives he brings to life.  Some of my favourite de Castell books are from his recent The Court of Shadows fantasy murder mystery series, which serves as a sequel to his original Greatcoats books.  These include the witty and entertaining Play of Shadows (one of my favourite books of 2024) and the particularly clever Crucible of Chaos (one of my favourite audiobooks of 2024), both of which were real highlights of my reading calendar last year.  However, for this review I’m going to focus on a far more entertaining series of de Castell’s that I have had a blast with.

This series is the Malevolent collection of books, which contain dark magic, over-the-top characters and ridiculous humour.  Starting back in 2023 with The Malevolent Seven, this series followed seven morally questionable mercenary mages who come together into an unlikely team to defeat a group of dangerous wizard brothers.  However, their attempt to do the right thing spectacularly backfires on them when they are tricked into allowing the hosts of heaven and hell to simultaneously invade, turning their realm into the battleground for their final war.  I ended up having an exceptional time with The Malevolent Seven, and I really got drawn into it’s clever, if outrageous plot.  Naturally I was keen to see how the series continued, and the recently released sequel, The Malevolent Eight, has long been on my to-read list.

After a great betrayal, the mortal realm is in peril as the heavenly Lords Celestine and the dark Lords Devilish have simultaneously invaded, determined to fight their long-anticipated final battle on this unclaimed ground.  As both sides recruit as many additional human soldiers and followers as they can to their cause, the survival of humanity seems to lie in the hands of an unlikely group of rogue magic users.  Unfortunately for everyone involved, humanity’s saviours are the damn fools who caused this calamity in the first place, the insane mages better known as The Malevolent Seven.

At the head of this misfit band is Cade Ombra, a man who has known power and betrayal from both the Celestine and the Devilish and is determined to allow humans to remain free from their dual influences.  Forced to work with the most emotionally unstable group of mages and wonderists in the mortal realm, including a destruction-loving lighting slinger, a fallen angel, a righteous devil trying to serve the Celestine, an uncertain blood mage, a roguish rat admirer and their newest member, a vampiric kangaroo, Cade begins to wage a surprisingly moral war on both the Celestine and the Devish.

However, The Malevolent Seven aren’t the only beings attempting to disrupt the plans of the two invading armies.  Another group of mages, as well as a mysterious woman from Cade’s past with unimaginable power, are also fighting for their own purposes, and looking good while doing so.  Forced to contend against angels, devils, and ambitious mages, Cade will need to outthink all his enemies, while also ensuring that his own chaotic allies don’t make everything even worse.  However, the harder he fights, the more Cade begins to realise that he may have to sacrifice everything, especially when it becomes clear that the origin of the apocalypse lies in his gilded past.

De Castell continues to deeply impress with this brilliant, if somewhat unhinged, novel, as The Malevolent Eight was an exceptional dark fantasy sequel that comes very highly recommended.  Taking all the comedic craziness from the first book and amping it up to eleven, The Malevolent Eight was a perfect follow-up to de Castell’s previous narrative that takes the reader on an exceptional adventure you just won’t be able to look away from.

After having a ton of fun with the awesome first book in the series, I honestly wasn’t too sure what to expect with The Malevolent Eight’s story.  However, not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine just how unhinged, wild and downright insane this sequel’s plot would get as de Castell pumped the narrative all the way up to 11 and beyond.  Starting with a fun and particularly bloody sequence that not only reintroduces the unruly protagonists but also showcases the dark scenario that they find themselves in for this book, the readers are quickly thrust into The Malevolent Eight’s plot, and frankly after the first series of crazy events, you find yourself pretty hooked as the self-proclaimed Malevolent Seven’s attempt to fight both the armies of heaven and hell.  However, as the story progresses, the unconventional heroes soon find that there are far more dangerous beings involved in this war, including a mysterious mage with previously unknown destiny-altering magic.

Determined to find out more about their new opponent, Cade leads The Malevolent Seven to both the Lords Celestine and Devilish to find out what they know and soon begins to understand his unfortunate role in the outbreak of the apocalypse.  After some hilarious interactions with both sets of lords, the protagonists embark on a series of missions, only to encounter betrayals, hidden secrets, the consequences of Cade’s lies, capture, revelations and a surprisingly humorous torture sequence.  This leads up to the big conclusion of the story, as the protagonists find themselves in the middle of a battle against three separate sides trying to claim their world for various purposes, all while manipulative figures work from the sidelines.  This big finale for The Malevolent Eight gets a little overcomplicate and convoluted, especially as we dive into alternate realms and different realities, but the entire thing is highly entertaining to behold.  It finishes off on an interesting conclusion, which has a nice hopeful note to it (especially in comparison to the previous book), while also hinting at some dark events to come.  This is an overall quite entertaining and wild story that really highlights de Castell’s creativity and ability to craft over-the-top narratives.

I deeply enjoyed the wonderful style that de Castell utilised in The Malevolent Eight, as the author pulls together a chaotic and hilarious dark fantasy that hits a lot of over-the-top notes at the same time.  Perfectly told from the single perspective of main character Cade Ombra, The Malevolent Eight is a balls-to-the-wall blast, loaded with insane action, excessive blood, crazy moments and fantastic humour.  De Castell keeps the pace of the story moving pretty fast throughout The Malevolent Eight, and the reader absolutely powers through the fantastic combination of carnage, intrigue, and hidden motivations.  Working well as a sequel to the previous book, The Malevolent Eight cleverly returns to the author’s fun setting, which has been drastically altered due to the rival inter-dimensional armies fighting across it.  Serving as the perfect background to such an entertaining and oddball dark fantasy narrative, de Castell makes perfect use of the changed setting and existing book history to go all out with his narrative.  While a seemingly simple and insane book on the surface, de Castell also adds in some impressive extra depth to the story, including through its complex magic system and the inclusion of several alternate realms that allow or some interesting inclusions from the author’s wider fictional reserves.  There is also a great moral greyness to the entire setting, as even the most noble of people or beings in this setting is generally pretty flawed or evil in their own way, and I frankly loved how cynical things got at times.

While this is a rather dark story, loaded with brutal combat and destructive magic, de Castell keeps the overall tone of The Malevolent Eight pretty light thanks to the excellent use of humour.  This is an insanely funny book, and while there is a certain subtly to some of the comedy contained within, for the most part de Castell utilises over-the-top scenarios (such as a swearing kangaroo), unhinged dialogue (the one swearword said kangaroo can say) and silly over-reactions for his comedy, which frankly fits the overall crazy feel of The Malevolent Eight.  The author gets a consistent amount of humour out of all the crazy antics of his characters, which stays pretty damn funny all the way through and never gets too tiring or overplayed.  Highlights of The Malevolent Eight’s humour for me included a very cleverly written demonic contract that spelled out the terms of a deal with the protagonists with some unique caveats, a particularly entertaining torture sequence where the protagonist causes more discomfort for his torturers than himself, ill-timed relationships with the book’s apparent antagonist, and so many crazy conversations between the seemingly sane point-of-view protagonist and every single person he encounters.  While I’m slightly salty about de Castell’s description of the Australian accent being “halfway between some poncy foreign nobleman and an inebriated fishmonger” (ok fine, it was pretty funny), this was quite a hilarious read, and I honestly laughed out loud multiple times in public as I read through this crazy comedic book.

One of the things I appreciated about The Malevolent Eight is the way in which de Castell made it accessible to all readers, even though who didn’t read the preceding novel.  While those who have checked out The Malevolent Seven are probably going to get the most out of this novel, especially as they can continue the hilarious character arcs from the first book, I feel that new readers can easily jump into The Malevolent Eight without any real context and still follow the story perfectly.  Indeed, I quite enjoyed how well de Castell cleverly and effectively recapped the events of the previous book, especially after a two-year gap between reading The Malevolent Seven and The Malevolent Eight.  Established de Castell fans will probably appreciate the references to the author’s other series, as a new major character in the novel is from the author’s Spellslinger universe and utilises that series’ unique magic to great effect in this novel.  While those readers who have read the Spellslinger books will no doubt find this inclusion really cool, people who are less familiar with this series can still follow The Malevolent Eight’s plot without any issue, especially as the events of the other series don’t really come into play here.  As such, I would recommend The Malevolent Eight to any fantasy readers looking for a dark comedic turn, although for the sake of completeness, try The Malevolent Seven first.

As with The Malevolent Seven, this excellent sequel features a fantastic cast of compelling damaged characters whose unique and often quite outrageous stories helped to ensure The Malevolent Eight was an impressive read.  Cleverly building on the storylines of the previous book, The Malevolent Eight features the immoral characters who make up titular Malevolent Seven attempting to be heroes in this book, often with mixed results.  This includes main protagonist and point-of-view character Cade Ombra, the leader of group and a man with quite a complex past.  Shown in the previous book to be a power hunger survivor with a conscience, The Malevolent Eight really dives into his characterisation even further as you look at his past as an arrogant holy warrior and his eventual fall from grace to work with demons.  His complex past becomes a key part of The Malevolent Eight’s plot, especially as much of the current issues lie in his past mistakes, and it was quite moving to see Cade attempt to make amends, especially as it gets him into even more trouble.  Despite this, Cade is still a massive bastard at times, and his manipulative nature and evil strategic mind are some of his greatest weapons.  Serving as the apparent straight man to a group of crazy friends, Cade sees himself as the sole voice of reason in the entire book, and it was fascinating to see his compelling perspective unwind throughout the book, especially when he faces certain realities about his friends and what he must do for redemption.

The rest of the cast of The Malevolent Eight is pretty crazy in comparison to Cade (at least from his perspective), and it was so much fun to see these outrageous personalities interact with each other.  My favourite supporting character is still the rude and crude Corrigan Blight, a thunder mage who serves as Cade’s unwieldly second.  Despite his outward appearance as an idiot controlled by his element (I mean, he is), Corrigan is a surprisingly deep figure and his ability to act as Cade’s conscious really highlights their great friendship.  The rest of the returning members of The Malevolent Seven, which includes a rat mage, a fallen angel, a holy demon and an uncertain blood mage, are slightly less well featured in this book, although de Castell does dive into their uncharacteristic attempts to be heroes, and their always fun interactions as a group allowed for some amazing moments.  I also must mention the newest member of team, Temper, a giant, swearing, vampiric kangaroo who has joined the team since the events of the first book.  Temper was quite a surprising figure to behold, and de Castell cleverly keeps the kangaroo’s origins somewhat hidden from the reader for much of the plot, allowing you to really enjoy his random presence without thinking too much about it.  This main cast was so much fun, and de Castell tops it off with a new magic user from Cade’s dark past with surprising connections to the Spellslinger universe, Cade’s former demonic benefactor whose intrigue, and paella, is to die for, and a variety of high demon lords and celestial beings whose motivations are never black and white.  These characters, and more, ensure that The Malevolent Eight is an exceptional read from start to finish, and I deeply enjoyed seeing these crazy characters in action.

Sebastien de Castell was in rare form with his impressive new dark fantasy novel, The Malevolent Eight.  A bold sequel that takes all the best elements from the first book and amps them up to a hilarious new height, The Malevolent Eight was an extremely entertaining read, with some brilliant comedic charm that worked well with the damaged characters and very dark fantasy elements.  Outrageous and excessive in all the best ways, The Malevolent Eight was such a great read and I couldn’t get enough of de Castell’s latest ultra-fun offering.  Make sure to also keep an eye out for de Castell’s other 2025 novel, Our Lady of Blades, later this year, which I strongly feel is going to be even more amazing.

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Midnight Black by Mark Greaney

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Five-Star Books, Thriller4 Comments

Publisher: Sphere/Audible (Audiobook – 18 February 2025)

Series: Gray Man – Book 14

Length: 15 hours and 51 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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The always outstanding Mark Greaney provides another addictive and heart-pounding addition to his iconic Gray Man series with the incredible 2025 spy thriller, Midnight Black.

Ever since I started getting fully into the thriller genre, one of the main authors I check out each year is Mark Greaney, a veteran master of thriller fiction who has produced some incredible reads.  Some of his more entertaining books include his Josh Duffy series (Armored and Sentinel), as well as the fun military thriller Red Metal (cowritten with Hunter Ripley Rawlings IV).  However, his best-known body of work is the long-running Gray Man series, which was adapted into a Netflix movie of the same name.

The Gray Man series is an outstanding collection of spy thriller novels that follows elite assassin and black ops operative Court Gentry, better known by the titular moniker of the Gray Man, as he faces off against an array of deadly enemies while occasionally working for the CIA.  I have become a pretty major fan of the Gray Man series thanks to the author’s complex stories, gritty action sequences and damaged characters, and I have had a blast with books like The Gray Man, Mission Critical, One Minute Out (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2020), Relentless (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2021), Sierra Six (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2022), Burner (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2023) and The Chaos Agent (one of my favourite books of 2024).  Due to how epic all these previous Gray Man entries have been, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the next entry in the series, Midnight Black.  Providing an intense follow-up to a fantastic cliffhanger from the last book, Midnight Black was one of my most anticipated releases of 2025, and it really did not disappoint.

In the icy wilds of Mordovia, lies the brutal woman’s penal colony IK-2 Yavas.  A harsh work camp for the many political enemies of the current Russian regime, IK-2 Yavas is hell on earth for any women who have defied the state.  However, despite the prison holding many prominent criminals and politicians, their most valuable prisoner is former spy Zoya Zakharova.

Once a prominent Russian foreign intelligence agent, Zoya was forced to flee her position and eventually found herself working covertly for the CIA as a deniable asset.  However, after being captured by the Chinese and traded to the Russians, Zoya’s future is bleak as she is slowly worked to death.  Worse, a ruthless FSB operative is using Zoya as bait for the person most important left in her life, her lover Court Gentry, the Gray Man.  But, unknown to Zoya, the Gray Man is far closer than she realises.

Having spent months prowling the Eastern European countries, Gentry seeks a way to steal across the Russian border and save the woman he loves, no matter the cost.  Embarking on a risky entry plan with only minimal help from his old CIA contacts, Gentry is determined to find Zoya and kill anybody who gets in his way.  But with the entire Russian state security apparatus turned against him, can Gentry once again do the impossible and save Zoya, or will this be the final mission for the legendary Gray Man?

Mark Greaney continues to impress with his epic Gray Man series, as the 14th brilliant entry in the series, Midnight Black, was absolute fire.  Providing an intense and deeply addictive spy thriller narrative, Midnight Black hooked me from the very beginning and refused to let go until the final explosive confrontation.  Slick, emotionally charged and very clever, Midnight Black gets an easy five-star rating from me, and I had such an amazing time listening to it.

This proved to be an outstanding book to get through, as Midnight Black featured a compelling and cinematic narrative that had me hooked the entire way through.  Expertly following on from the emotional cliffhanger from the end of the previous book in the series, The Chaos Agent, Midnight Black starts several months later and sees a desperate Court Gentry doing anything he can to try to enter Russia, only to encounter setbacks he has to take care of in his usual destructive manner.  This works as an excellent introduction to Midnight Black’s plot, especially as it helps you appreciate the emotional stakes of the book, and you quickly become invested in the protagonist’s quest.  Greaney quickly expands the plot through several additional character perspectives, including recuring characters Zack Hightower and Zoya Zakharova, who have their own missions/problems, an intriguing new Russian rebel protagonist, and the perspective of some sinister Russian operatives, including the FSB agent pulling all the strings around Zoya’s imprisonment.  This serves as a great base for the rest of the story, and the author soon starts to feature some of the more complex and action-packed sequences in Midnight Black.

Starting with a well-layered extended shootout sequence in Europe, the second half of Midnight Black hits hard and keeps the reader deeply engaged.  Greaney continues to set out quite an impressive story, as Gentry enters Russia and proceeds to cause all manner of havoc, while his allies in Europe and the US throw together an audacious plan that really amps up the narrative.  Greaney keeps the plot constantly moving, taking the protagonists from one dangerous situation to the next, with compelling character moments and well-featured exposition that keeps everything going forward.  The author also throws in a ton of high-octane and memorable sequences, including a fun extended chase in Moscow involving a stolen train, which was so entertaining to behold.  Everything leads up to the big finale in the last third of the story, where the protagonist makes his play to free Zoya in very cinematic fashion.  There is a lot of intense anticipation involved in the leadup to this final part of Midnight Black, and it proves to be particularly captivating and exciting.  The conflict, high stakes and constant worry you have for the characters ensures you won’t be able to put this part of the book down, and I was so keen to see how everything came together.  Greaney wraps things up perfectly, and I liked the hopeful conclusion to Midnight Black, especially after some of the dark preceding books, and you come away satisfied, as well as excited to see where the series goes next.

I am always greatly impressed with how Greaney sets out his outstanding novels, and Midnight Black is a particularly strong example of this.  A fast-paced book with several interesting layers to it, Midnight Black drags you in with its powerful narrative and keeps you there with the well-set-out action, complex characters, and gritty realism.  Thanks to the blend of character arcs and alternating storylines, there is a lot going on in Midnight Black, and you are given a great mixture of ultra-exciting sequences of action and spy craft, intense personal moments of despair and hope, as well as a cool dive into real-world issues, such as the current war in Ukraine, that enhance the overall plot.  I particularly enjoyed the gritty realism loaded in the story, especially when it comes to looking at the current politics of Russia, and there was a particular dire tone to much of the plot that was well mirrored by several protagonist’s circumstances.

One of the writing techniques I always enjoy with the Gray Man novels is the author’s excellent use of alternating character perspectives, as the reader gets to see the narrative through a variety of different viewpoints.  While primary characters like Gentry, Hightower and Zakharova naturally get most of the focus, you also see events through the eyes of more minor protagonists, such as Gentry’s former CIA handler in the US, or a Russian rebel fighter launching attacks in Moscow, as well as from several of the book’s antagonists.  This provides a much more expansive narrative for readers, especially as you soon understand the compelling motivations of all the significant characters, as well as their often conflict plans and schemes.  I particularly enjoyed how well some of Midnight Black’s many action sequences become even more impressive when you get to see events through the eyes of all the participants in the event.  Seeing all the alternate sides of conflicts really helps to make the fight sequences stand out, and it is captivating to see the various moves and countermoves of all the characters involved.  I felt this worked particularly well in some of the book’s big firefights, such as one sequence out in the woods where Gentry and Hightower’s camp gets raided by a squad of hitters, and you really get drawn into the books brutal action thanks to this.

While Midnight Black can probably be read as a standalone novel, especially as Greaney does a good job recapping key events, I feel that this latest Gray Man novel is probably best enjoyed by those who have read the previous books in the series, especially the preceding entry, The Chaos Agent.  This is mainly because Greaney is following up on a major cliffhanger from the previous book, and a lot of the emotional weight of the plot is based around the protagonist trying to right this wrong and save the woman he loves.  Being invested in the relationship between Gentry and Zakharova, as well as appreciating the protagonist’s other character relationships, really helps to amp up the stakes of Midnight Black, and I know I was personally hooked on seeing how events played out.  While having this background does enhance the experience, I do think that new readers can easily come into the series here and still have an amazing time, especially once they get caught up in the intense plot.

I also need to once again compliment the compelling characters found within Midnight Black, as Greaney really went out of his way to create some intense character moments in this latest Gray Man novel.  A lot of this revolves around the protagonist, Court Gentry, who finds himself in emotional turmoil following the Russians imprisoning the woman he loves.  Unsure about her fate and desperate to enter Russia to rescue her, Gentry is a ghost of his former self, recklessly engaging in deadly actions without his former skill and tradecraft.  This uncharacteristic lack of planning from the main protagonist and the way he lets his emotions overwhelm him adds a compelling edge to the story, especially as it results in more carnage and close calls.

The rest of the cast are also well featured in Midnight Black, especially as Greaney brings back several old favourites in dire circumstances.  For example, Court’s love interest, Zoya Zakharova, ends up having a particularly powerful arc in Midnight Black, as she is imprisoned in a Russian work camp.  Slowly losing hope due to her surroundings, her imminent execution, and her worry for Court, Zoya’s scenes are often hard to read and really help to hammer home the dark stakes of the book.  Greaney also brings back fun recurring character Zack Hightower, who serves as a lighter point of view protagonist compared to Court and Zoya.  A veteran operator with a lot of history with the other protagonists, Zack was a great foil for Court’s moodier persona in Midnight Black, and I loved seeing them work together in this way.  Other characters of note include Court’s former CIA handler, Matthew Hanley, who works to provide outside help despite his own downward career trajectory, and Major Colonel Eriks Baronov, an FSB operative trying to use Zoya as bait for the Gray Man.  I really enjoyed how Hanley and Baronov provided interesting alternating tactical insights into the events of Midnight Black, which gave the novel a great global conflict feel at times.  All these characters and more helped to turn Midnight Black into something special, and I really enjoyed how complex and exciting the various character-driven storylines turned out to be.

As has become my habit with the Gray Man series in recent years, I ended up listening to Midnight Black on audiobook rather than reading a physical copy.  I find that the audiobook version of the Gray Man books, narrated by the always reliable Jay Snyder, are an excellent way to absorb Greaney’s fantastic stories, especially as the various action sequences and compelling showcases of spycraft are highlighted particularly well in this format.  For Midnight Black, I listened to this audiobook while on a holiday with a lot of flying/driving time, which not only kept me from getting bored on the bus/plane but which ensured that I absolutely powered through its near 16-hour run time.  It helped that many of the best sequences in the book, such as the epic firefight at the halfway point and the big chase through Moscow, were particularly impactful in this format, and Snyder did an excellent job voicing all the characters.  I particularly appreciated all the eastern European and Russian accents that Snyder attributed to the various characters, and he also did a good job capturing key parts of the protagonist’s personalities, especially Gentry’s weariness and desperation that were a key part of this book.  Due to this brilliant voice work, as well as my general love for the format, I would strongly recommend Midnight Black on audiobook, and I can guarantee it makes for great entertainment on long road trips.

Overall, Midnight Black was another outstanding and captivating new entry in the always impressive Gray Man series.  Author Mark Greaney did an amazing job continuing one of the very best spy thriller series out there, and I deeply enjoyed Midnight Black’s particularly intense and personal story.  Featuring some fantastic action, complex character arcs and some compelling insights into major contemporary events, Midnight Black was extremely addictive, and I cannot wait to see how Greaney continues the series in the future.

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We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Comedy/Satire, Five-Star Books, Murder Mystery, Thriller1 Comment

Publisher: Penguin Audio (Audiobook – 17 September 2024)

Series: Standalone/Book One

Length: 10 hours and 33 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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One of my favourite authors of crime fiction, hilarious British television personality Richard Osman, continues his run of exceptional books with the 2024 novel, We Solve Murders.

Few authors have made as big an impact on the crime fiction world in recent years than Richard Osman.  Debuting in 2020 with his incredible novel, The Thursday Murder Club, Osman deeply impressed with his first book that cleverly blended a great mystery with likeable characters and a brilliant sense of humour.  A fun novel about four retirees who solve murders from the activity room of their retirement village, The Thursday Murder Club was quite exceptional, and it ended up being one of my favourite books, debuts and audiobooks of 2020.  Osman has done an outstanding job of continuing this series, with the next three books The Man Who Died Twice (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2021), The Bullet That Missed (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2022) and The Last Devil to Die (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2023), all being incredible.  After the powerful conclusion to The Last Devil to Die, Osman decided to take a break from the Thursday Murder Club books and instead dove into a cool standalone read, We Solve Murders.  A fun thriller with some entertaining twists to it, We Solve Murders was an interesting new read from Osman, that I had an exceptional time with last year.  Unfortunately, I’ve been a bit slack at getting a review out for this awesome book, but I’m trying to make an effort to get through it now before we hit the halfway mark of 2025.

Plot Synopsis:

A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve…

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job…

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?

This was another exceptional book from Osman who really showcased his impressive ability to tell an engaging story with unique protagonist in this brilliant novel.  Sharp, captivating and relentlessly entertaining, We Solve Murders had me hooked the entire way through, and there were times I couldn’t stop listening to it.  A very easy five-star book for me, We Solve Murders was one of my top books and audiobooks of 2024 for a very good reason.

I must admit that before reading We Solve Murders, I wasn’t too certain that Osman was going to have the same success he’d had with the Thursday Murder Club books, especially as he was moving onto new ground and characters.  However, I really shouldn’t have been worried, as Osman crafted together an incredible, captivating and highly personal story that was so damn fun.  Focusing on the interesting father/daughter-in-law combination of Steve and Amy Wheeler, the story starts quickly with Amy getting framed for the death of several clients from her private security company.  With killers after her and unable to trust anyone at her company, Amy has no choice but to go on the run and attempt to solve the case herself, accompanied by her eccentric client, famed author Rosie D’Antonio.  Needing help and faced with a series of strange clues, a massive conspiracy and the ire of a legendary money launderer, Amy seeks the unlikely help of her semi-retired investigator father-in-law, Steve Wheeler, dragging him out of his comfortable life in small-town England and taking him on an international tour of murder and criminality.

The resulting narrative is a highly entertaining series of events, as the protagonists flit around various locations, attempting to uncover the truth behind the killings, while also trying to avoid a dangerous hitman hunting them.  At the same time, an array of excellent supporting characters nip around the edge of the investigation themselves, as they attempt to figure out how Amy is involved and who the master criminal of the case is.  I loved the various outrageous and fun moments that follow on from this, as the protagonists get into all manner of trouble, with Steve and Rosie D’Antonio becoming unlikely heroes at times.  Osman loads up an array of excellent twists throughout the novel, and you are constantly left guessing at who the overall villain of the book, as well as their mole in Amy’s agency, is, and how they are plotting against the protagonists.  It all leads up to a fantastic final sequence in Dubia, where the protagonists come face to face with the villain in a brilliant end to the mystery.  I felt that this entire story wrapped up pretty perfectly, with all the relevant threads Osman introduced coming together into a clever conclusion.  I also really liked the surprising reveal about who the villain of the story is, and it works extremely well in the context of the hidden clues and hints that Osman had expertly featured throughout the rest of the book.  An overall outstanding story that I honestly could not get enough of.

While the story focus of We Solve Murders is different from his previous novels, Osman still deploys the outstanding writing style that made the Thursday Murder Club novels such a hit.  Working well as a standalone novel outside of his main series (although there was a good minor cameo), Osman once again quickly sets up a complex story with many intriguing characters and lets them loose with an amazing blend of mystery, humour and character development.  Adapting to the international thriller genre extremely well and featuring an extended range of cool settings, Osman’s plot in We Solve Murders is very fast paced, while also taking the time to ensure readers are having fun and getting absorbed in both the clever main mystery and the unique story threads surrounding the characters.  I loved all the very subtle and clever setup that Osman features in the early parts of the book, especially as there are some impressive clues to the identity of the various bad guys, and I really need to go back now I know the solution to see these clues in a new light.

While the compelling mystery, surprising twists and dive into international criminality was a great base to We Solve Murders, the element that tied it all together was Osman’s comedic charm.  Featuring the fantastic British-centric humour that Osman is so well known for, We Solve Murders was constantly entertaining, and there are so many fun jokes and references loaded into every page.  While much of this humour is quite restrained and subtle, which allows for a general light-hearted tone amongst the discussions of murder and crime, there are also some more direct comedic moments brought about by outrageous characters, unlikely interactions and the constant subverting of expectations.  Some of my favourite jokes include a high-stakes pub quiz night, the surprising motivations of a hitman, and the main villain’s constant use of ChatGPT to re-write his communications in the style of an English gentleman.  All this ensures that the reader is constantly laughing, allowing them to stay hooked to this captivating and well-written story.

Another major highlight of We Solve Murders was the extremely likeable and compelling characters through whose eyes we see the story unfold.  Osman excels at writing fun and memorable characters, and the ones in We Solve Murders are particularly entertaining.  The two main anchor characters of this book are the fantastic duo of retired investigator Steve Wheeler and his globetrotting elite bodyguard daughter-in-law Amy Wheeler.  A fun and very likeable combination thanks to their close relationship, Steve and Amy start the books as complete opposites, with Steve a unadventurous figure whose only desire is to remain in his small town, while Amy is constantly thrust into action while also managing to keep a successful long-distance relationship with her husband.  I loved how Osman wrote both characters, and it was fascinating to see their alternative takes on how to live life.  Some of the best parts of We Solve Murders’ plot involves Amy trying to pull Steve out his shell by taking him on her adventure, and readers get to see some genuinely nice character development around Steve as a result.  There is also a good focus on Amy learning to rely on those closest to her for help, especially when she finds herself in trouble.

While Amy and Steve are the heart of the book, there are a range of other outrageous and entertaining characters loaded throughout We Solve Murders, each of whom add to the impact and enjoyability of the novel in various ways.  These include multiple residents of Steve’s village, who joyfully aid him in his investigation, a local talent agent with an unusual connection to an international crime ring, the feuding owners of two rival private security companies whose mistrust for each other leads to a lot of intrigue, a diva actor oblivious to the crazy events going on around him, various international criminals who find themselves outmatched by the unlikely team of protagonists, a relentless hitman with his own motivations, and the big bad of the story, who casts a big shadow while staying hidden.  Out of all these characters, my favourite was easily glorious author Rosie D’Antonio, who tags along with the Wheelers on their adventure and becomes a valuable part of their team.  Over-the-top, internationally beloved, and constantly providing juicy titbits about her many adventures, Rosie D’Antonio effortlessly steals every scene she is in with her big personality and unpredictable actions.  I don’t think any character made me laugh as much as Rosie did, and I guarantee We Solve Murders would not have been as good without her.  I really appreciate how well the author utilises all these great characters, splitting the story perfectly between them, and you will come away from this novel completely in love with Osman’s memorable protagonists and their brilliant personalities.

I have mentioned multiple times how much I have enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club novels on audiobook, so I naturally had to check out We Solve Murders in this format as well.  Unsurprisingly, the We Solve Murders audiobook was just as awesome as I had hoped, as the format perfectly showcased Osman’s complex storytelling and outrageous characters.  Part of the reason why the We Solve Murders audiobook worked so well was that they once again got an extremely talented English actress to narrate the book, this case Nicola Walker, who blew it out of the park.  Walker, who is well known for her roles in various UK crime shows, did a remarkable job of narrating Osman’s story, perfectly capturing the crazy thriller tone as well as the author’s fantastic subtle humour, and ensuring that the reader is constantly engaged with the plot of the book.  I really enjoyed how well Walker inhabited all the figures Osman imagined for this brilliant read, no matter how outrageous they were, and she made sure to cleverly showcase their unique personalities and intriguing outlooks on life.  This great voice acting really enhanced the overall epic experience I had with the We Solve Murders audiobook, and this is easily the best way to enjoy this exceptional read.  I honestly cannot recommend this audiobook enough and you will just power through its 10-and-a-half-hour-long runtime.

Richard Osman continues to dominate the crime fiction scene with the outstanding standalone novel, We Solve Murders.  Combining a complex mystery with likeable characters and subtle British humour, We Solve Murders was a fun new direction for Osman, who had his own brilliant take on an international thriller.  A clever and highly entertaining novel, We Solve Murders once again showed off how good Osman is as a writer, and you will be unable to put this book down.  I cannot wait to get my next hit of Osman, and with both a The Thursday Murder Club film adaptation and the fifth Thursday Murder Club novel, The Impossible Fortune, coming out later this year, fans of the author are in for a real treat.

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Open Season by Jonathan Kellerman

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Murder Mystery2 Comments

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio (6 February 2025)

Series: Alex Delaware – Book 40

Length: 9 hours and 10 minutes

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Still going strong after 40 Alex Delaware crime fiction novels, the always dependable Jonathan Kellerman presents another clever and captivating read with Open Season, an intense novel that proves very hard to put down.

Jonathan Kellerman is an excellent veteran author, whose massive body of work has been impressing crime fiction readers for decades.  While he has a couple of big series, Kellerman is best known for his long-running Alex Delaware series, which follows titular protagonist Alex Delaware, a child psychologist, and his best friend, LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis as they investigate unusual or deranged murders around Los Angeles.  This is a really great series, and ever since I came across it, I’ve made a major effort to read each new entry, especially as they also provide some great mysteries and complex police investigation narratives.  Books like (The Wedding Guest, The Museum of Desire, Serpentine, City of the Dead, Unnatural History and The Ghost Orchid), have all been extremely amazing, and I eagerly await my new Alex Delaware hit at the start of each year.  The latest entry in the series, Open Season, is the 40th Alex Delaware novel, with Kellerman still going strong this far into the series.

Los Angeles is filled with all manner of dreamers and aspiring stars, but when one of them meets a tragic end, it falls to psychologist Alex Delaware and veteran homicide detective Milo Sturgis to find them justice.  Called in to investigate the dumping of an aspiring actress’s drugged body near a hospital emergency room, Alex and Milo soon set their sights on a known abuser as a likely culprit.  However, their hunt is prematurely ended when their suspect is found murdered, shot by a sniper.

Forced to switch to a new investigation, the two friends and their team are surprised to discover that the execution of the sexual predator is connected to two other unsolved homicides, with both additional victims shot from a distance using the same rifle.  Determined to figure out how the cases are linked, the team uncover a web of seemingly unconnected innocent victims, each of whom appeared to have been killed for very different reasons.

With additional bodies starting to pile up around the city, Alex and Milo find themselves in a race to solve the case before more victims can be cut down.  But are they facing a dangerous spree killer with no rhyme or reason to their actions, or a darker figure with their own complex rationales for murder?  To solve the case and stop the shooter, these two friends will need to use all their combined skills to decipher their strange motivation before even more people wind up dead.

Jonathan Kellerman continues to deeply impress with this new addictive and captivating crime fiction novel that I couldn’t get another off.  Featuring another brilliant and unique case, Open Season was an exceptional 40th entry in the Alex Delaware series that takes the reader down some dark and twisty paths.  This was a truly excellent read that I powered through in a very short amount of time.

Open Season was a particularly strong murder mystery from Kellerman, and I loved the compelling, multi-layered narrative that emerged.  Once again bringing together his two loveable main characters, Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis, the two initially begin the book by investigating the murder of a young aspiring actress, drugged and dumped near a hospital.  Starting off with the typical look at the victim and anyone who knew her, the detectives are quick to narrow in on a suspect, only for the story to take an interesting turn when their potential killer ends up dead.  From there the story becomes a lot more complex, as the protagonists and a larger team begin to investigate the shooting of the first suspect, as well as several connected crimes.  This allows for a larger story with a ton of distinctive potential witnesses and suspects, and the protagonists investigate in several different directions, adding a lot of different pieces to the puzzle. 

Thanks to a series of varied clues, compelling research and additional discovered killings, the protagonists eventual narrow down on a potential suspect with interesting connections to each of the victims.  Without giving too much away, I felt that the overall solution for Open Season’s investigation was very clever, and it nicely tied into each of the victims/cases that make up the larger mystery.  The motivations for the killer were very unique and memorable, so it proved quite fascinating to see how the protagonists identified the antagonist and led to a great conclusion to the overall story.  I particularly enjoyed the final confrontation that the protagonists had with the killer towards the end of the book, and it wrapped the story up perfectly.  An overall excellent murder mystery narrative that will have you hooked all the way to the end.

I deeply enjoy Kellerman’s style for the Alex Delaware books and he really knows how to pull together a fascinating and intense police investigation narrative.  The author prefers a slow and methodical style of investigation as the protagonists pull together various clues and connections and work them into their various theories, which always adds a great touch of realism to proceedings.  There is a particular reliance on diving into the personal histories of the victims and suspects that Kellerman enjoys, which works to drag the reader further into the plot as they become even more invested in the investigations.  I felt that Kellerman’s typical style worked particularly well in Open Season, and I loved the complex investigation that emerged.  The multiple separate murders and the large array of connected people associated with each case allowed for a particularly elaborate story, and Kellerman carefully allowed his protagonists to explore these different elements allowing for compelling drive to the big conclusion around who was responsible.  I felt that Kellerman did an excellent job layering the more important clues around the case throughout the entire story, and it was very interesting to see what discussions or personal details came into play later.  I really got invested in Open Season’s complex case as a result, and this proved to be a particularly clever and well written mystery that deeply enhanced Kellerman’s already excellent story.

In addition to the very well-written story, Kellerman features some interesting characters and interactions in Open Season that help to create a unique feel that fans of the Alex Delaware series will be very familiar with.  Much of this lies with the two main characters, Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis, who have an established and comfortable way of speaking with each other.  These two characters, both of whom are quirky in their own ways, are an excellent centre for the story, and I love how well the play off each other.  While their dialogue can be a little unique and occasionally flippant, Kellerman has spent a lot of time developing their patter, and you grow to appreciate the way these two characters work together.  In addition to their usual discussions, Open Season also had some more personal interactions between the two, especially when Alex is forced to keep some information from the team to protect the confidence of a medical professional.  I also liked how this was one of the Alex Delaware novels where the protagonist got to use his expertise as a psychologist to try to get to the root of the various suspects potential motivations.  This psychological work comes into play nicely, especially once they identify who the killer is, and it helped to give Open Season more of a distinctive edge away from other crime fiction reads.

While most of Open Season’s focus is on Alex and Milo, Kellerman also introduces an array of interesting supporting characters, each of whom are connected to the case in some specific way.  I really enjoyed the unique collection of characters that emerged, and there are some interesting storylines and connections that emerge thanks to the protagonists constant digging into the past.  The characters that get the most attention are some of the victims of the case, whose lives are explored in detail by the detectives.  Despite not interacting with the protagonists or readers while alive, you get to know all the victims thanks to interviews with their friends and families.  These many detailed interviews not only provide key information about who the victims are and potential motivations for their murders, but they also provide compelling and emotional testimony from those that loved them, which ensures that the reader becomes very invested in finding out who killed them.  You also meet a compelling group of people connected to the victims, who serve as witnesses, sources of information or suspects (sometimes all at once) in the case.  Due to the nature of Open Season’s story, you meet quite a few supporting characters, often for only a scene or two.  Kellerman makes these appearances count, though, and I liked some of the unique interactions that occurred, even if some of these characters were a little weird or had an unrealistic way of communicating.  The eventually revealed killer was particularly outrageous when eventually revealed, which I personally thought was very entertaining, although I could see some readers finding him to be too over-the-top.  Still, all these characters added something to the plot, and I enjoyed the effective way in which Kellerman introduced and utilised them throughout the book.

While I usually try to get physical copies of the Alex Delaware novels, for Open Season I ended up listening to the audiobook version, which I felt was an excellent way to enjoy this amazing book.  I personally find that the audiobook format does wonders for helping readers appreciate detailed and multilayered crime fiction narratives and Open Season was a great example of this, as I soon got drawn into every level of the author’s compelling mystery.  Part of the reason this worked so well was narrator John Rubinstein, who has lent his voice to a large chunk of the Alex Delaware series.  Rubinstein has a fun voice that lends itself to the occasionally zanier style of the Alex Delaware books and really brings the author’s complex narratives to life.  I especially enjoy how Rubinstein perfectly captures the characters featured in Open Season, including the main protagonists, Alex and Milo.  A great example of this is the very distinctive voice that Rubinstein utilises for Milo, which really captures the man’s complex and entertaining nature, and frankly I don’t know any other way how this character could be voiced.  The narrator also successfully captures the distinctive patter that the two main protagonists have between each other, and the way conversation flows between them in the audiobook is a ton of fun.  The various other characters featured with Open Season are also well represented, and I loved the colourful array of voices and accents that Rubinstein utilises for the supporting cast and various witnesses that protagonists encounter.  While a few of these voices are a little over-the-top, I personally liked them, and I felt it fit the long-running and distinctive series tone extremely well.  This exceptional narration allowed me to absolutely power through Open Season’s roughly nine-hour long run time, and I had such a blast picking up every single clue or compelling character interaction in this format.  As such, I would strongly recommend the audiobook version of Open Season to anyone interested in checking this mystery out, and I can personally guarantee it makes for great entertainment on a long trip.

Even after all these years, Jonathan Kellerman still shines as one of the masters of the crime fiction genre.  The 40th Alex Delaware novel, Open Season, was an outstanding addition to the series, and I love the compelling and awesome narrative that emerged.  Slick, addictive and featuring some interesting twists, Open Season was a truly impressive read, and I am still having so much fun with Jonathan Kellerman’s incredible books.

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Four Ruined Realms by Mai Corland

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy11 Comments

Publisher: Recorded Books/Zaffe (Audiobook – 7 January 2025)

Series: The Broken Blades – Book Two

Length: 13 hours and 31 minutes

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

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One of the hottest fantasy sequels of 2025 is the impressive Four Ruined Realms by Mai Corland, that once again follows an entertaining band of killers and self-interested liars as they get drawn into dark events that threaten their entire world.

Last year I had the pleasure of reading the outstanding debut Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland.  The first book in Corland’s Broken Blades trilogy and one of my favourite debuts of 2024, Five Broken Blades was an impressive fantasy novel with some great Korean aesthetics that followed five deadly killers who are recruited to kill the king of Yusan and steal the magical crown that makes him invulnerable.  However, their planned assassination and heist becomes complicated by secrets, treachery and the fact that each member of the group had hidden motivations for being there.  Corland provided a pretty wonderful story for this first book, loaded with betrayals, lies and compelling character-driven perspective chapters, and I loved the great twist at the end that saw the protagonists captured and forced to engage in a new heist.  As such, I have been eagerly awaiting the sequel since last year, especially as I couldn’t wait to see how Four Ruined Realms resolved the awesome cliffhanger Corland left the first book on.

The group known as the Blades are five of the best killers, liars and thieves in the kingdom of Yusan.  Made up of a master spy, a beautiful poison-maiden, a murderous banished prince, a lethal thug and a mysterious thief, the Blades were hired to pull off an impossible task: kill Yusan’s God King Joon and steal his crown.  Each of the killers had a reason for becoming involved with the plot, as well as their own dark secrets that drove them onwards.  However, all of them underestimated Joon’s manipulations and greed, as the entire job was a ploy from the King to bring them together and evaluate their skills.

Captured and forced by bribes and threats to accept a new mission, the Blades now find themselves journeying to the neighbouring nation of Khitan, which has long resisted the armies of Yusan.  Ruled over by Joon’s vengeful sister, Quilimar, Khitan remains free thanks to the power of the Golden Ring of the Dragon Lord, one of five legendary magical treasures gifted to the ruling houses of the rival realms.  Determined to possess all the treasures, Joon gives the Blades one month to steal the ring and return it to him.  If they succeed, they will have everything they desire, but if they fail, then they and everyone they love will be killed.

Arriving in Khitan, the Blades find dangerous enemies all around, an impossible theft before them and their once cohesive group fractured thanks to their uncovered lies.  But even with their conflicting motivations and secrets out in the open, these killers can all agree on one thing: King Joon is their true enemy.  Determined to fight back, the Blades embark on a mission to gain an audience with Quilimar and find a way to use Khitan’s resources to defeat Joon.  However, there is a darker conspiracy at play within the borders of Khitan, and the Blades have once again underestimated the lengths their enemies will go to win.  Worse, each of the band still has secrets, and soon a new set of lies will tear them apart from within.

Four Ruined Realms was another exceptional fantasy novel from Corland that effortlessly drags you in with its fun action, compelling story, doomed romances and outstanding and damaged protagonists.  Perfectly telling a massive, multi-character narrative, Four Ruined Realms was a very worthy sequel to Five Broken Blades that proved very hard to put down.

Corland set forth another complex and emotionally charged narrative in Four Ruined Realms, and I loved how well she continued after the cool cliffhanger ending of the first book.  Taking place right in the aftermath of the betrayals and lies of Five Broken Blades, Four Ruined Realms begins just as the Blades arrive in Khitan and are forced to work together to survive and secure the prize, despite the complete lack of trust and the anger brought about by their revealed secrets.  Corland works a lot of great character development into these early chapters, as the book flits between the protagonists and showcases their respective mindsets.  There is a good blend of early planning, espionage, and personal issues, as the protagonists try to work together, while also maintaining additional secrets that they know will tear the group apart.  The first part of the book features some very fun sequences, especially when the male protagonists depart on an expedition for knowledge, while the girls attend a party that ends in turmoil.  At the same time, there are hints of a bigger conspiracy beneath the surface of the new realm they are in, and Corland provides some interesting clues that perfectly come into play later.

As Four Ruined Realms continues, Corland enhances the book by including more chapters from the perspective of returning protagonist Tiyung.  Tiyung, while a perspective character in Five Broken Blades, only had a relatively minor point-of-view role, so it was interesting to see him as more of an equal protagonist in the sequel.  His storyline of being stuck in a notorious prison back in Yusan proved to be particularly compelling, especially as he gets to interact with two of the book’s best supporting characters.  Tiyung’s storyline blends well with that of the main protagonists, and thanks to the simultaneous timeline, you get to see him react to the events occurring over in Khitan and find out secrets that have potential impacts on how the Blades succeed in their task.

The second half of the book primarily details the Blades’ attempts to learn more about Khitan and find a way to get an audience with its queen.  Their plans to achieve this see them once again split up into dramatic groupings, and you get some interesting adventures and interactions as a result, especially as all the powerful emotions come to the surface.  It also perfectly sets up the final massive sequence of Four Ruined Realms, which really delivered in both action and tragedy.  While I don’t want to spoil too much, readers will come away from this novel pretty heartbroken, and there are some very intense moments going on in the last third of the book.  Combined with a series of final reveals and twists, all of which are nicely foreshadowed by earlier subtle inclusions from the author, you come away from Four Ruined Realms both moved and extra excited to see how the series is going to come to an end.

As with the first book in the series, Corland sets Four Ruined Realms out in a fantastic manner, and I deeply enjoyed how the complex narrative came across.  The use of six separate perspective characters was a major highlight as it allowed for a multi-layered narrative with a focus on character development and interactions.  The author did an outstanding job of balancing the different perspectives, with all the protagonists getting their chance to shine in their respective chapters, and even the increased use of Tiyung didn’t throw this out of whack.  Indeed, Tiyung’s chapters honestly pulled the other perspectives together into a tight and captivating overarching narrative, as the inclusion of an outsider character viewing events from afar increased the complexity of the plot.

The author makes full use of the book’s alternating viewpoints to insert a lot of great story elements into the plot, so there is a little something for everyone here.  The constant intrigue and danger that the protagonists found themselves in was well balanced by the author’s excellent worldbuilding, while the cool action scenes are guaranteed to get anyone’s blood pumping.  There are also multiple romance subplots that none of the protagonists are immune to.  While not a full-on romantasy novel, a good chunk of the book is focused on the complicated relationships that have formed between various protagonists, which will appeal to some readers, especially as the doomed nature of many of these romantic affairs leads to some excellent drama and heightened personal tensions.  While there were a few more romantic subplots than I typically enjoy in a fantasy novel, I felt that Corland got the right equilibrium here, with the focus on relationships and failed love enhanced the main fantasy intrigue elements of the plot rather than distracting from them.

Four Ruined Realms proved to be a very worthy sequel to Five Broken Blades, and I really enjoyed how effectively the author continued her elaborate storylines and continued to build up her great characters.  Corland uses this book to substantially expand the overarching setting of the series, including exploring a second realm and diving into the larger politics of the world.  The primary new setting, Khitan, worked extremely well as a background to the story, especially as its history and inherent intrigue played nicely into the chaotic mission of the protagonists and the plots surrounding it.  While I loved how the narrative continued in this sequel, readers should be warned that Four Ruined Realms isn’t necessary the best place to dive into the Broken Blades books, primarily because it is the second entry in a complex ongoing fantasy series.  While Corland does a great job of recapping the key events of the first book throughout Four Ruined Realms to make it accessible to newcomers, readers should really start at the start of the trilogy as it will give you the full emotional impact, especially when it comes to the character arcs.  Still, there is plenty for everyone to enjoy here, and I feel that Four Ruined Realms was a great book and sequel for readers new or returning.

As with the first book in this trilogy, the element that really ensures Four Ruined Realms stands out was its well-crafted main characters through whose eyes we see the narrative unfold.  Corland brings back all six protagonists from the first novel, made up of Royo, Sora, Euyn, Mikail, Aeri and Tiyung, and features them as equal parts of the plot.  After exploring their tragic backstories in Five Broken Blades, Corland spends this second novel diving into the drama and turmoil caused by the events of the first book, including the reveal of their darkest secrets and hidden motivations.  This brings out a lot of mistrust, antagonism and broken romances, which works to create quite a turbulent and entertaining plot.  I really appreciated how well each of these protagonists came through as a result, and it was fascinating to see their next set of secrets and hidden concerns, especially the deeper you get into their new mission.

Of the six, Royo, Mikail and Tiyung probably had the best arcs in Four Ruined Realms.  Royo continues to be the loveable, tough street thug with a past, and his more straightforward approach to life and honest need for redemption are quite refreshing amongst the rest of the schemers in the group.  Mikail, the dark spy master, proves to be the book’s ultimate badass, and his entertaining persona, complex backstory, and conflicted opinions about his love interest Euyn, ensure that he is one of the better perspectives in Four Ruined Realms, especially as he continues to mislead and lie to everyone.  Tiyung, as I mentioned above, gets much more of a chance to shine in this sequel, and his transformation from spoiled rich kid to starving prisoner ensures you get a better look at his character.  A genuinely good person, Tiyung continues to rise above his family legacy here, and his narrative of prison life and unexpected connections was a true highlight of the book.

The rest of the Four Ruined Realms protagonists also had some excellent moments, and I really appreciated their storylines.  Euyn, the fugitive prince of Yusan, has a troubled time in this sequel, primarily as he has the most paranoia and mistrust after the events of the first book.  This leads to a lot of conflict, and Euyn’s character growth from the first book starts to reverse in places as he seeks fights and alienates his allies.  However, Corland works this conflict into an excellent overarching narrative for Euyn, with its resolution being a key part of the plot.  I also felt that Sora, the beautiful and deadly poison-maiden, had a great arc in this sequel, especially as she loses her confidence and her killing edge, becoming the group’s conscience.  The final protagonist, Aeri, is my least favourite, although she ties the central cast together nicely.  The secret child of the main antagonist Joon and the group’s traitor in the first book, Aeri is the most mistrusted protagonist, despite being in the same boat as the rest of the Blades, and spends much of Four Ruined Realms trying to prove herself again.  While her storyline is really interesting and an essential part of the overall plot, I still didn’t connect with Aeri.  I’m not sure if this is because of how she is written, or because of the narrator assigned to Aeri’s chapters, but I feel that there is a huge disconnect between Aeri and the other protagonists which makes her not quite fit in, especially with her overly manic (and horny) personality.  Still, she does have some great moments in Four Ruined Realms, and it will be very interesting to see where Aeri and her doomed romance ends up.  Throw in an array of excellent supporting figures, including outstanding and ruthless antagonists, and this proves to be an amazing overall cast, whose layered roles and interactions helps to turn Four Ruined Realms into quite an exceptional read.

As with the first book in the series, I chose to listen to the audiobook version of Four Ruined Realms, especially after Five Broken Blades came across so epically on the format.  Unsurprisingly, the sequel was just as impressive on audiobook with Four Ruined Realms also featuring talented narrators, Greg Chun, Zion Jang, Roger Yeh, Donald Chang, Jaine Ye and Sophie Oda, each of whom voiced the chapters of a particular character.  These multiple narrators worked wonders to tell Four Ruined Realms’s elaborate character-driven story, and I loved how each of them inhabited the role of their respective protagonist.  All the narrators really impressed me in Four Ruined Realms and thanks to the even spread of chapters between characters, they all got a chance to shine.  There was a fantastic array of voices featured in each chapter, and we get to hear several differing tones for the same characters throughout the course of the audiobook.  I will admit that the narration for Aeri’s chapters still didn’t quite seem to fit the tone of the rest of the audiobook, but the other chapters more than made up for it, and I really enjoyed some of the elaborate and varied voices that emerged.  Featuring a 13-and-a-half-hour runtime, this was a quicker audiobook to get through than Five Broken Blades, and it ended up being a wonderful way to appreciate Corland’s fantastic story.  As such, this format comes very highly recommended for Four Ruined realms, and I am currently planning to finish this series off on audiobook.

With even more betrayals, secrets and tragedy, Four Ruined Realms was another exceptional novel from Mai Corland, who is really starting to impress me as an author.  An outstanding sequel to Five Broken Blades, Four Ruined Realms perfectly continues the trilogy’s captivating narrative, and you won’t be prepared for all the cool twists, turns and major moments.  A brilliant and moving fantasy novel with some dramatic character moments, Four Ruined Realms was such a good book and I’m so very glad I continued this fantastic series.  I cannot wait to see how this trilogy concludes, and luckily the final book, Three Shattered Souls, is out in July.

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