This Inevitable Ruin (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #7) by Matt Dinniman 
Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl #7
Published by Berkley on November 11, 2024
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 724
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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The time has come! Book seven in the bestselling Dungeon Crawler Carl series is here!
They call it Faction Wars.
The ninth floor.
Nine armies, each led by rich and powerful aliens from across the galaxy. Each team has one objective: to capture and hold the castle at the very center of the battlefield. Strategy, alliances, pitched battles, and, of course, betrayal... It all makes for great fun and even greater television.
After all, none of these powerful aliens really die when they’re playing war.
Except this time. This time, winner takes all. Those who fall, stay in the ground.
As the AI continues its rapid decline, Carl and company take advantage of the chaos. For the first time ever, the crawlers are fighting back. They are now one of the nine teams. And this season, there’s a tenth army on the playing field. The NPCs, who are normally used as nothing but cannon fodder, have become fully self-aware and formed a team of their own.
For Donut and Katia, the stakes are even higher. Only one of them will be allowed to leave this level.
If they all want to survive, they’re going to need a little help from a veteran or two.
This is it.This is what they’ve been fighting toward.This is war.
This inevitable ruin.
It’s here. Level 9. Time for the Faction War!
This is what the build up has been about! Thanks to a special Earth marketing scheme called Crowd Funding from all the fans of Princess Donut, Warlords Donut and Carl have bought themselves a spot in the Faction Wars. Usually, on the 9th Floor, the rich and brutal of the galaxy buy in to the Dungeon Crawls to play warriors against the other factions. They usually use magic to conscript poor crawlers as fodder to fight on their behalf while they sit safely in their castles, and if they do fight, the safety is on and losers go home empty handed until the next Faction War.
This time, Carl and Donut will be getting the crawlers to volunteer to fight in a crawler army. They have also managed to convince the (very feral at this point) AI to turn the safety off for all combatants. That means that while the crawlers can still die, now so can the other Houses…And when they all tried to take their ball and go home, the AI refused to allow them to run away.
On top of Carl and Donut’s Princess Posse earning the right to fight on their own behalf, the now aware NPCs are joining the War as the Retribution Team and teaming up with the Princess Posse against all the others.
Due Carl’s hard work in trying to save as many of his fellow crawlers as possible, they are starting this floor with about 32,000 crawlers. That is the most any Dungeon has seen this far along, but it still isn’t many to face the other 8 factions who each have about 150,000 of hired contractors ready to fight. Just when they putting on their brave faces, Carl and Donut get the most unexpected help–about 50,000 former crawlers will take up arms and risk themselves for a chance for finally fight back against the Syndicate who destroyed their planets and killed their loved ones. Several of those who arrive were prior writers in Carl’s cookbook, which gave Carl more insight into the Dungeons than most crawlers, even Donut is still unaware of Carl’s secret (still voicing her concerns about Carl’s frequent and long bathroom breaks).
But no matter how much strategy Carl comes up with in order to win the Faction Wars, it might not be enough for Donut and Katia. Since Donut first put on the Enchanted Crown of the Sepsis Whore, way back on the first floor, they knew once they reached the Faction Wars, they needed to kill the entire Naga royal line. Only the remaining royal would be allowed to move down to the 10th floor. So they had to kill the Naga faction, and the Naga knew they were coming. But everything got worse when their friend Katia got hit with the same Enchanted Crown of her own, so even if they destroyed the entire Naga royal line, it would come down to either Katia or Donut. They have been tossing around some ideas to get them both down to the next floor, as long as Carl doesn’t “Carl it Up.”
For a bit of fun to this stress-filled level, Carl gets a “pet” of his own, who Donut isn’t too keen about and he’s not another dinosaur. He’s a…blob. He giggles a lot. Mostly at inappropriate moments. His name is Sir Rendlegore (to go with the whole Princess Posse theme), but you can call him Rend for short.
In this story, Carl and Donut spend most of their time split up. Donut is kept up in the tower, sniping who gets close to their headquarters with her magic missiles, and using her enhanced glasses to give warnings of attacks while Carl and his friends are on the ground fighting off invaders as well as trying to get to the Naga princess.
This is a fierce and bloody level where friends will lose their lives but Carl, Donut, the NPCs and the current and former crawlers will deal a serious blow to the current leaders of the galaxy and their minions which will hopefully become the beginning of the end to future Dungeon Worlds.
I have now caught up on this series and will have to sit and wait…and wait…and wait to see what happens now. I am so sad. I want more Carl and Donut now!
Favorite Scene:
Donut was at work sniping the towers of Larracos, but it was slow going. Despite Lucia Mar’s insistence that the net holding her in place would soon run out, Donut remained trapped. The tower’s integrity was down to 16% and slowly lowering. With all the mages either dead or in the hall, we had no way to repair it.
I finally rushed into the uppermost level to see Donut atop her seat, dressed in her ghillie suit and leaning against the parapet, her face pressed against the invisible shield like it was glass. The camouflage suit was a strange contrast to her tiara, which glowed like a lighthouse beacon.
Even though Donut had no weapon, the first thing I thought when I saw her was: Sniper. She looks like a sniper.
Victory was also here, standing in the corner, silently observing.
Mongo stood beside Donut, bouncing up and down. He was missing some feathers around his neck where he’d been injured by Gustavo. And even though he’d been healed, he remained blood soaked around his collar. It dripped on the floor in congealing lumps. I knew some of that was Gustavos, but it still hurt me to see it.
Blood was so much redder when it was spilled from someone you loved.
Mongo screeched at my appearance.
Donut muttered, mostly whispering. Her voice had taken on a serious tone I’d never heard before. “Mongo, shush. Mommy is killing bad guys. Move, Bianca. Get out of the way. Aiming, aiming, aiming…Gottcha.”
Crack!
Her fiery magic missiles rocketed off, and a distant tower deep in Larracos sparked. This was followed by a secondary explosion, and the tower crumbled away.
“Not so tough with your head blown off, are you?” she growled.
DONUT: I hit the war mage atop that death ray synergy tower. Moving to the next.
“You’re supposed to be focusing on the towers shooting at the Nest,” I said. I unleashed Rend back into the room, and he let out a giggle. He moved to Mongo and giggled again as he started to lick the gore on the dino’s neck.
Only then did Donut look up, and I could see her face. I tried not to react. I could see the hollowness to her eyes as if they were trying to focus on something so far away, she couldn’t quite see it. It’d only been a few hours, but the change was stark. Hours of sitting up on high and raining death had taken a physical toll.
She’d been level 65 when she’d gone up into this tower. She was now level 74.
We gain things, and we lose them.
I held out my arms.
There was a pause, one that took just a heartbreaking second. But she blinked, her eyes focused on me, and relief filled me.
She let out a meow and jumped from her seat into my arms. She twisted, doing a barrel roll a few times in my grip, and then moved to my shoulders, circling around my neck, just like she used to do when I’d come home from work. She pressed her head against mine, purring loudly.
