I can very confidently say this is the best book centered around trains I’ve ever read. This is also the only book centered around trains I’ve ever read.
The third book in Matt Dinniman’s ‘Dungeon Crawler Carl’ LitRPG saga sees Carl, Donut, Mongo, and new party member Katia brave the 4th floor of the crawl, which is made up of a very confusing maze of train tracks.
I don’t really have much to say about this — at this point you’re either really into the series or not I think. It’s still the same winning formula of LitRPG/video game elements mixed with humor, and a plot which has started to become more mature as an overall story, in my opinion.
In a vacuum, this book would probably be a 4 star read for me, but books in a series are kind of trickier to rate, wouldn’t you say? It’s hard not to compare them with other entries of the same series, so with that in mind, as a DCC book, it’s a 3 star read for me (and that’s the rating I’ll be standing on). It’s really a good book with one big caveat in my opinion. The very beginning of the book, even before the novel properly begins, is essentially a note from the author saying that we shouldn’t worry about not understanding how the train tracks and stations work and to just go along for the ride.
But here’s the thing — I can’t just ignore it. I don’t know about you, but when I read, it’s like a movie is playing in real time in my head. I imagine whatever I’m reading, vividly, in my mind. That means I can’t “just go along for the ride” in this case. I definitely enjoyed the book, but I was confused for a fair bit of it, which is something I wasn’t super stoked about while reading. Maybe in a re-read I’ll get a better hang of it.
Anyway, I still love the series, and like I said — if you’ve already read up to this book, there’s no point in me recommending it or not to you. Unless you haven’t read any of the books in the series yet, in which case: why are you reading a review for the 3rd book? Go read from the beginning and enjoy it, it’s just good ol’ fun all around.
Rating
⭐⭐⭐☆☆