The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #4) by Matt Dinniman 
Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl #4
Published by Ace on June 14, 2021
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 589
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.
You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that’s talent.
A floating fortress occupied by warrior gnomes. A castle made of sand. A derelict submarine guarded by malfunctioning machines. A haunted crypt surrounded by lethal traps.
It was supposed to be easy. One bubble. Four castles. Fifteen days. Capture each one, and the stairwell is unlocked.
Here's the thing. It's never easy. Carl and his team can't go it alone. Not this time. They must rely on the help of the low-level, I-can't-believe-these-idiots-are-still-alive crawlers trapped in the bubble with them. But can they be trusted?
Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the fifth floor of the dungeon.
Not my favorite story of this series.
In Gate of the Feral Gods, Carl is getting punished for trying to save crawlers and getting everyone to work as a unit to accomplish the last level. For the 5th Floor, groups of crawlers are separated into bubbles, think giant bubble wrap. Each bubble must successfully capture the castle on the land, the sea, the air and subterranean. The crawlers in each bubble are broken into units but all castles must be successfully captured in order for the bubble to pop and your group to progress down to the 6th floor.
Carl knows that he is being punished because all of his friends are spread out among the other bubbles and everyone in Carl’s bubble is barely above level 20 to Carl’s 41. Carl and Donut are trapped in a bubble and they cannot succeed in escaping without the help of crawlers who have been hanging in the background letting other crawlers do the dirty work.
Carl once again leads the charge and wrangles this ragtag bunch of losers to capture all their castles, allowing Carl and Donut to escape their bubble so they can move on to helping the other crawlers escape their bubbles. Carl is determined to save as many people as possible.
After a shaky start, Carl is able to help level Louis and Firas, who become friends, as well as meeting some changelings who are other NPCs who are realizing that something isn’t right about this dungeon crawl and the part they play in it. They will all become important later on.
They also meet “Samantha,” who is a withering spirit of Psamanthe. She is a minor deity whose father banished her to the Nothing. The Nothing is opened when Carl gets his hands on that Gate of the Feral Gods. Every time he uses the gate, it opens a portal to the Nothing where feral gods and the like have been banished, which leads to chaos in bubble world as feral gods escape into bubble world and other gods have to jump in to recapture them. Back to Samantha, her spirit was put into a sex doll which was frozen and was knocked over by Carl and the gang and shattered, which left only her head. Now Samantha’s head had become an important part of the group.
There is a crawler Quan who is becoming a problem. Carl and Donut were given a quest and failure would mean a lot of lives lost. Carl was trying to get the other crawlers to help but the AI offered $1 Million credits if they could make Carl fail. Quan was more interested in the money than helping anyone which left Carl no choice but to take Quan out so he could save people’s lives. At this point, Quan goes from an annoyance to a real problem.
I didn’t like the whole bubble premise and suddenly being thrown in with a bunch of sad, new guys. The whole feel of the story is off as Carl and Donut were building a guild of sorts of the different groups where they trust each other and work together so everyone succeeds. Everyone here was happy to have Carl tell them what to do but their failures made the whole thing that much harder since Carl and Donut are doing all the heavy lifting to capture each of the castles. I don’t know that I would have liked the whole bubble level even with our friends to help but at least it wouldn’t seem so endless.
You really can’t skip this one as some of the people here become very important to the next few levels, so you have to work your way through it.
This whole series is throwing off my TBR. I have to keep going and see where how the next level goes.
Favorite Scene:
“Carl, what in god’s name is on the back of your hands?” Donut asked. “What did you do?”
I examined the twin tattoos. They were round tribal-style tats of the sun. The tattoos were almost identical, but not exactly. The rays coming off the sun on my right hand were curled, and on my left, they were little triangles. The difference was subtle. Each tattoo was black, but with an orange glow. I could feel them there, warm and vaguely uncomfortable.
“I’m guessing they’re a sign of my new religion,” I said as we trudged toward the stairwell. We wanted to examine it to make sure Quan really went down there. Plus there had to be a safe room around here somewhere. Even if everything got destroyed, they would persist.
The ground was too hot for Donut, and she rode on my shoulder. We’d had to put Mongo away, too. The area was barren.
“Religion? Whatever do you mean? You can’t join a religion, Carl. You wake up at noon on Sundays. I don’t even know what the Ten Commandments are, but I’m certain I’ve watched you break almost all of them multiple times.”
I told her what I did and why I did it. Before I could finish, we were interrupted.
MORDECHAI: Which one of you two idiots is responsible for this?
CARL: What?
MORDECAI: A shrine just appeared in the safe room. It’s a sun disc with a cup and a skull. It doesn’t say what god this is for, but I’m guessing it’s Emberus.
DONUT: CARL DID IT. DON’T GET MAD AT ME.
Donut sighed. “Really, Carl. We could’ve avoided all this just by going down the stairs earlier.” She examined the twin suns again and clucked with disdain. “With your new jacket and bandanna and tattoos, you look like someone whose pictures gets put on the news because he did something involving indecent exposure and a Walmart. What does this new religion actually mean for you?”
“I don’t know,” I said, grinning sheepishly. “I’m kind of scared to click on the notification.”
“Don’t be a baby, Carl. Guys covered in disgusting tattoos shouldn’t be babies. Look, there’s a safe room that way. You can find out what you did while we walk. Let’s get inside before Imani and Katia start blowing everything up.”
