Audiobook Review – This Inevitable Ruin (Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 7) by Matt Dinniman, Narrated by Jeff Hays, Travis Baldree (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Science Fiction
Length: 28 hours and 40 minutes
Publisher:‎ Audible Studios
Release Date: February 11, 2025
ASIN: B0DK29VYL1
Stand Alone or Series: 7th book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 5/5 stars

“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.”

Series Info/Source: This is 7th book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl (DCC) series. I listened to this on audiobook from Audible.com.

Thoughts: I thought this was an amazing addition to the DCC series and absolutely loved it. You know when you sit down to write a review for a book you love but you are dreading doing that because you just aren’t sure how to articulate your love for it? Yeah, that is one of those books for me. There is so much going on at this point that it is hard to recap and hard even to explain why I love this series so much. I was excited that this book lived up to all my expectations, which were pretty high at this point.

Finally, we have hit floor nine, Faction Wars. We have been hearing about this floor of the dungeon since the beginning of the series, and it definitely lives up to its hype. There is so much that happens on this floor, and it happens at a breakneck place. Alliances are made, veterans return to the dungeon, gods are summoned, and betrayals emerge. Yeah, it’s a lot.

I continue to love all the amazing characters in here and am amazed at how easy it is to follow this incredibly enormous cast. I love how complex the storyline has gotten without being confusing. Even though there is an absolutely ton of stuff going on, the storyline never felt bogged down and the pace never slowed.

In summary, if you love this series, you will love this book. The way it ends sets up the next book up for so many intriguing possible paths. Carl and his team are very literally influencing the whole galaxy at this point and it is awesome to see the way the scope has changed since that first book when Carl stumbled in to the dungeon with his girlfriend’s cat….

My husband and I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook quality is amazing. I highly recommend listening to the whole series on audiobook if you enjoy audiobooks; it is incredibly entertaining.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I loved this and thought it was an amazing continuation of the DCC series. I absolutely love everything about this series. There is an amazing cast of characters here, the plot is complex and interesting, this is very fast-paced and there is a lot of action. I can’t even begin to scratch the surface of everything I love about this series in this short review. I would highly recommend this whole series and am incredibly excited for the next book, “Carl’s Book of Boom”!