Audiobook Review – The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 6) by Matt Dinninman, Narrated by Jeff Hays (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 305 pages
Publisher:‎ Orbit
Release Date: April 5, 2022
ASIN: B09V4RDTGJ
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Regency Faerie Tales
Source: Bought ebook for Kindle
Rating: 5/5 stars

“A pantheon of forgotten gods. An old grudge between a talk show host, an heiress, and the man they shattered along the way. A rapidly deteriorating AI system. An inconvenient tiara upon the head of a friend.
It is bedlam on the eighth floor.

As management reels from the unexpected conclusion of the seventh level, the surviving crawlers stumble onto the eighth and find themselves scattered. It’s a map based on Earth’s final days before the collapse, where ethereal, intangible ghosts of humanity go about their lives, oblivious of the impending doom. Living amongst these ghosts are monsters based in Earth lore. “Legendary” creatures tied to the geographical location they inhabit.

Each team of crawlers is given a task: find and capture six of these beasts. The captured monsters will be turned into cards. Cards that can be summoned into battle again and again. The stronger, the deadlier, the better.
At the end of the floor, the bad guys will also have decks, and they will have some of the most powerful cards available. So it’s crucial to assemble the toughest squad possible.

But, like always, there is a catch. There’s always a catch.

As Carl and Donut know all too well, just because someone is captured, it doesn’t mean they have been tamed.

Her name is Shi Maria. She’s easily the most powerful monster in their area. If they want to survive, they must capture her. But she is no ordinary beast. She’s intelligent. She was once married to a god, a god who is now missing. Her special attack is known to drive one insane. They call her the Bedlam Bride.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 6th book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I bought this on audiobook.

Thoughts: Just like all the previous books in this series, I really enjoyed this book a ton. I listened to this on audiobook, and the audiobook is incredibly well done. This book adds another twist to the series with this level being an oddly Pokemon-like game of capturing monsters and then using their cards in upcoming battles. Carl and Donut continue to work on screwing with the politics behind everything and the AI is starting to become increasingly independent.

At this point you either love this series or you have stopped reading it, so you probably won’t be reading this review if you haven’t read the rest of the series. Given the complexity of this series but the excellent way it is done (which makes it so stuff is never confusing), I don’t have a lot to say here. If you enjoy this series, you will love this sixth book.

Like previous books, this is action packed and complex, with rich world-building, intense action, and amazing character-building. The plot keeps having new elements added to it but these elements only enhance the story and never make it too confusing. At this point, I would call this epic humorous fantasy sci-fi. All of our characters are getting a bit quirky after their time in the dungeon, and this book tackles some of those mental health issues as well. So, it’s not all fun and games. Things do get pretty serious at times which I think is very appropriate and pulls the reader back to the injustices faced by characters throughout.

I continue to love Donut and Carl and all the other side characters as well. A couple of major new characters are introduced and I love what is happening with the Odette storyline. We also find out a lot more about Mordecai’s back story. This was just a highly entertaining and incredible read.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I absolutely loved this addition to the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. This remains highly entertaining, full of incredibly surprises, wonderful world-building, amazing characters, and break neck pacing. It is still humorous but has gotten a bit more serious as we start to look at the long-term effects of dungeon delving like this. I am eager to read book 7, “This Inevitable Ruin”, when it releases. It has a November ebook planned release date with the audiobook release pushed out to February. Given that I have been listening to all of these on audiobook with my family, I will probably wait until February to pick it up, although I want to read it in November!