My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available for me.

While it may be a bit disheartening to have the dungeonmasters continually changing up the rules just so that it's more difficult for our intrepid questers, it is still great fun to see how Carl and Princess Donut manage to overcome the various obstacles. They do lose some friends and allies along the way, but they also gain some behind-the-scenes allies who can give them the occasional boost. And their sometime teammate who is always threatening everybody's families while trying regain her body is a source of continuous amusement. I mean, who wouldn't want a teammate who is literally just the head of a department store dummy that has been possessed by a demon while talking smack to anyone and everyone? That's entertainment.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the opportunity to continue reading this fantastic series via ARC.

Welcome, crawlers, to the eighth floor and welcome, Princess Posse fans, to Cuba just weeks before the collapse. In Book SIx, "The Eye of the Bedlam Bride", we find our intrepid duo of Carl and Princess Donut on a floor which is a "memory" recording of Earth in the weeks leading up to the Christmas just prior to the start of Book One. The floor is populated this time with monsters based on various regional folklore creatures (mostly wrongly interpreted by lazy alien observers and the evolving AI) and memory "images" of the people who were going about their everyday lives in the weeks prior to the collapse. This floor also has a series of three phases to be completed as part of a new combat wrinkle, a form of card-based combat that is a mixture of various CCG/TCG tropes. The first phase is standard combat similar to every other floor except crawlers have the option to "flag" nearly defeated monsters to turn them into "totem" cards to be used in the deck-combat which will make up the other two phases. There is one catch, however; while strong monsters would obviously be the best choice, deckmasters without sufficient Charisma might be unable to control their summoned totems. In addition, deckmasters cannot use any of their personal spells, attacks, or inventory items as long as they have cards in their decks.

I will freely admit, I was originally concerned about this deck-combat adding a confusing new layer of complexity, but it absolutely grew on me, making this book one of my favorites, second only to the absolute insanity of Book One that brought this series to life. The crazy AI/alien take on the monsters is what originally drew me in to the series, and on this floor it returns en masse. At the same time, we continue to learn more about the galactic state of affairs, the levels of intrigues within intrigues both inside and outside the dungeon, and the history of the Crawl. The story has started to work on so many levels that you can enjoy it simply as mindless fantasy fun, a political thriller, or a damning commentary of a crazy end-stage capitalism. And the stage is set for the Ninth Floor and the Faction Wars where the never-say-die human Crawlers led by Carl will provide even more mayhem. I absolutely cannot wait.

Matt Dinniman is a genius! I am convinced of this! Every book in the "Dungeon Crawler Carl" serious is somehow better than the last. Each book is so inventive and interesting, and nothing ever feels repetitive. Dinniman is also carrying a larger plot through out each book, which leaves me on the edge of my seat. He somehow manages to transition thoughtfully from laugh out loud funny scenes to scenes in which I am tearing up. I cannot wait for this series to continue!