About the Book
-
Author:
- Matt Dinniman
- Genres:
- Action-Adventure
- Science Fiction
- Voices:
- Cis Boy
- Straight
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: Mind the Gap
Drinking Buddy: Bar Car
MPAA Rating: R (Violence, violence, and more violence)
Talky Talk: Incomprehensible Train Pass
Bonus Factors: Anarchists, Girl Power
Bromance Status: I Do Have a Life, You Know
Cover Story: Mind the Gap
Just your typical pantsless hero, a cat, and her pet velociraptor about to be squashed by a subway car. Kind of sums up the book.
The Deal:
Carl and Donut descend to the fourth level of the dungeon. Their fans number in the quadrillions, while the number of crawlers is now in the low seven digits. And now they’re facing off in the Iron Triangle. A labyrinthine train network made up of all the worst forms of above and below ground railroads from all of history. Worse than New York. So convoluted, there’s an author’s note warning against trying to decipher or map the system. And it’s filled with people who want to kill our heroes.
So what else is new?
Drinking Buddy: Bar Car
Carl and Donut are not so much a duo anymore. They’re being managed by Mordecai, their shape shifting guide and mentor who has taking the form of a toad this level and is oftentimes the only one who knows what’s going on. There’s Katia, a fierce though quiet warrior who was separated from her army of shield-maidens and is sticking with Carl until she can get back to them. And there’s Elle, the 99-year-old who found a new life in the dungeon and is having a raucous second youth. Somehow they have to navigate the train system and get to the stairs before the level collapses.
MPAA Rating: R (Violence, violence, and more violence)
I have to say, most of this book was just Carl turning trains into giant bombs to destroy something. Over and over again. But there are interesting things on this level: a demon that lives in the train’s boiler and constantly gives birth to fuel rods, a mantaur (a horrible creature with the head of a man and the body of a man!), zombie baggage handlers, and an elder god with a bone to pick with Carl.
They all go splat. Which would be a good think, except Carl is starting to realize all these monsters have personalities and lives and even families. At least they believe they do. So should he just go around killing them?
Talky Talk: Incomprehensible Train Pass
My non-scientific poll (asking Sandy and Sophie) shows that this book wasn’t anyone’s favorite of the serious. I found myself frequently asking ‘What’s Carl going to blow up now?’ Still, we get more background on Mordecai, and Katia was a great addition to the team. They say things really pick up in book four.
Bonus Factor: Anarchy
Does anyone remember The Anarchist’s Cookbook? It was a book which found new life in the early days of the internet. It showed how to fashion bombs from household materials. I got a hold of a copy in high school, but ultimately decided that I liked having fingers and eyes.
Well, Carl wins a Dungeon-themed copy in a strange game show. It’s filled with notes from previous crawlers about how the dungeon actually works. But the second anyone realizes what it is (it appears as an actual cookbook to everyone else), he’ll lose it. The secrets of the universe are there, but he can only access them in the bathroom.
Bonus Factor: Girl Power
So one of the most feared and awe-inspiring crawlers in the dungeon is Hekla, the Icelandic leader of Brynhild’s Daughters, a terrifying all-female corps of soldiers. Katia, one of her team, was separated from the group when they descended. Hekla asks Carl and Donut look out for Katia and to help reunite her with the team. Now I assumed Katia, who is about Carl’s age, was being set up to be the book’s love interest, but apparently that’s not the case.
The thing is, Brynhild’s Daughters are a force to be reckoned with. And membership is only open to women, which excludes Carl…but not Donut. Hekla has an eye on her. Now Donut would never betray Carl. But if Carl were to have an unfortunate accident–all too common in the dungeons–then Donut would be forced to find a new team.
Is Katia really ‘lost’ or is she there for another reason?
Bromance Status: I Do Have a Life, You Know
No, I don’t. I’m reading book four as we speak.
Literary Matchmaking
Start from the beginning…
Diana Urban’s All Your Twisted Secrets also features a bomb.
As does Courtney Stevens’s Four, Three, Two, One.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received neither money nor a copy of Steal This Book for writing this review.
