Carl and Princess Donut have finally arrived at the fabled Ninth Floor and Faction Wars. They have managed to buy a spot in the war, making them warlords. The whole floor is a massive war between nine armies. There can only be one winning team. All others die. The leaders of the other teams have been drawn into the dungeon. The rules this time are different. The characters who usually play at war without any real consequences are now physically vulnerable. If you die in Faction Wars, you die forever. No more respawning outside the dungeon. This raises the stakes tremendously. Donut and Katia have additional drama to deal with on this floor, caused by a unique item they each wore in previous books. To survive, they must eliminate the Naga army and kill the Naga Queen (who has never been killed before in Faction Wars). This side quest eats up a bunch of time and resources as the countdown to full hostilities keeps the other armies at bay. The Princess Posse army is joined by many mercenaries who are former crawlers who return to the dungeon to exact some revenge on the enemies responsible for their trauma. The former crawlers use all their extensive knowledge, skills, tricks, and subterfuge to bring chaos and death to their enemies. The first half of the book is a lot of political posturing and philosophical droning. It got dark and boring for me. But the second half is non-stop chaos, war, traps, twists, and gore. It took me several weeks to get through the first half, but the second half hooked me, and I finished it in a couple of days. This is the last published book in the series so far. I couldn’t find a release date for book 8. I saw guesses ranging from next month to next summer, so you’ll get a break from these bizarre books for a bit.
This is for warriors, tricksters, and not for the easily offended.