I thought the first book set the bar pretty high, and somehow this one clears it. The dungeon gets bigger, the stakes get nastier, and Carl and Donut are back doing what they do best, which is somehow surviving situations that should absolutely not be survivable. Mordecai is a fantastic addition as their grumpy but endearing trainer, and Katia’s arc brings a layer of heart to the story that genuinely surprised me. The humor is still sharp, the action is still relentless, and Donut is still the undisputed queen of everything.
What really got me with this one is how much the world keeps expanding without ever feeling bloated. These new characters come in and actually matter, the lore deepens in ways that make you want to go back and reread certain moments from book one, and the emotional gut punches land harder now that you’re truly attached to everyone involved. I came in already a fan and left an evangelist. Carl and Donut are not slowing down and neither am I.