This was a fun read, but it is by far the worst book in the series.

I returned the Graphic audio version to get this one. Its just better. I love the voice acting.

My major complaints are:

Carl has no real agency. He seems to get dragged from scene to scene so that other characters can get some air time.

My second complaint is that this book just keeps ratcheting things up and there is no room to breath.

Third. There are to many characters in this book.

fourth, The AI Is just to OP outside the dungeon.

And fifth. You just had to many plot lines to tie up from previous books.

I feel like this novel should have been broken up. If you doubled the page count, some of this stuff would have felt earned, and not just a footnote onto the next scene.

I have hope the next book will be more concentrated. It needs to focus on Carl and Doughnut, with a supporting cast.

As for the Happenings outside the dungeon, Slow it down. Politics take longer than a boss battle.

The former crawlers that got introduced, I loved the writings from the cookbook at the beginning of chapters. Those would have been better going back a couple of books. That way when they were introduced in this book, it would have been more impactful. Treat characters like Chekov’s Gun. If they don’t server a vital plot point, ditch the character and give the scene to a better character. Jamal the shark is a great example. So annoying. and he never did anything that mattered. He was just an annoying character that added problems to an already bloated book. Give these scenes to the other crawlers that were introduced. A dynamic duo situation to show off the talent of the veterans would have been cool.

The worst plot hole that was created was a maxed out Crawler theoretically able to solo the end game boss. That was a slot previously held by Prepotente.

This book feels like you had so many idea’s, but no way to show them, so you made the reader omnipotent and able to see everything happening in the world. All knowledge Carl would not have access to. In the end it felt like a DM monolog and lore dump in DnD.

All in all this book was a good rough draft. It needs to be work shopped badly. and a lot of fat trimmed.