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Dungeon Crawler Carl reread continues
Just started book 7 (This Inevitable Ruin).
It is really something how much of this I've forgotten from my first read. I think this is probably because I read books 5-7 all in a rush, so the details ran together. But I've just forgotten SO MUCH. Most of the outcomes of the fights and the way they resolved the main floor conflict(s) have been almost as surprising on the reread as they were the first time, because I don't remember most of the details. For example, I remembered that they got almost everybody off floor 8 alive, in spite of being set up to fail, but I didn't remember how they did it. I remembered the end of floor 6 felt like a total bloodbath at the time, but in retrospect - compared to floors 9 and 10 - it's actually not that bad; I was expecting more people to die!
One thing I was kind of randomly wondering about is why Mordecai went to such lengths to keep from Carl and Donut that he was hiding the changeling kids in the saferoom. The fact that he kept it from them on floor 6 makes total sense, because it happened towards the end of the floor, everyone was really busy, and they didn't need that as a distraction. But surely after watching Carl save people right and left for several floors now, including NPCs, he couldn't have thought Carl would object to it. Just didn't want to admit that he's that much of a soft touch, maybe? Carl says they'll talk about it later, and then stuff starts happening and they never do.
I think it's interesting how much Carl is concealing from us (the reader) in books 5 and 6. Especially book 6. There are a LOT of things that we only find out as they become relevant, ranging from his various deals with his lawyer, to Paulie giving him the failsafe. IIRC, this didn't really happen much in books 7 and 8, that I can recall?
The card fights are so utterly BATSHIT. I also enjoyed the AI having trouble calibrating the floor, having clearly made it all up on the fly and not really being sure how well the power levels will work in practice (and sometimes they simply don't work at all, like with the crawlers immediately mopping the floor with their first few opponents once the crawler-vs-NPC/boss fights start happening).
These books continue to be so insanely inventive. Just a few chapters of any given book is a whole book's worth of ideas, and they just keep coming. The giant pile of Iowa stacked on top of Florida is such a crazy location for a fight, and it's just one of like a hundred fights in that book.
And yet, it doesn't feel like nonstop fighting at all. In fact, I feel like books 6 and 7 are the ones where the series really starts to have a strong team/found-family vibe. The Christmas party!! SO much fondness for all the times Donut does affectionate cat things with Carl, like jumping up into his lap or purring and rubbing on him.
That being said, book 7 is the one that I wasn't really looking forward to that much on my reread, because I remember that it was a really harrowing read, with the WWI-esque trench warfare and the extremely high body count. So I'll see if I can maintain momentum now that I'm this deep in the series. It's working out pretty well to have read book 8 before doing the reread, though. It's been really interesting rereading all the Primal/Residual stuff, as well as everything with Samantha, now that we know so much more about what's going on there!
It is really something how much of this I've forgotten from my first read. I think this is probably because I read books 5-7 all in a rush, so the details ran together. But I've just forgotten SO MUCH. Most of the outcomes of the fights and the way they resolved the main floor conflict(s) have been almost as surprising on the reread as they were the first time, because I don't remember most of the details. For example, I remembered that they got almost everybody off floor 8 alive, in spite of being set up to fail, but I didn't remember how they did it. I remembered the end of floor 6 felt like a total bloodbath at the time, but in retrospect - compared to floors 9 and 10 - it's actually not that bad; I was expecting more people to die!
One thing I was kind of randomly wondering about is why Mordecai went to such lengths to keep from Carl and Donut that he was hiding the changeling kids in the saferoom. The fact that he kept it from them on floor 6 makes total sense, because it happened towards the end of the floor, everyone was really busy, and they didn't need that as a distraction. But surely after watching Carl save people right and left for several floors now, including NPCs, he couldn't have thought Carl would object to it. Just didn't want to admit that he's that much of a soft touch, maybe? Carl says they'll talk about it later, and then stuff starts happening and they never do.
I think it's interesting how much Carl is concealing from us (the reader) in books 5 and 6. Especially book 6. There are a LOT of things that we only find out as they become relevant, ranging from his various deals with his lawyer, to Paulie giving him the failsafe. IIRC, this didn't really happen much in books 7 and 8, that I can recall?
The card fights are so utterly BATSHIT. I also enjoyed the AI having trouble calibrating the floor, having clearly made it all up on the fly and not really being sure how well the power levels will work in practice (and sometimes they simply don't work at all, like with the crawlers immediately mopping the floor with their first few opponents once the crawler-vs-NPC/boss fights start happening).
These books continue to be so insanely inventive. Just a few chapters of any given book is a whole book's worth of ideas, and they just keep coming. The giant pile of Iowa stacked on top of Florida is such a crazy location for a fight, and it's just one of like a hundred fights in that book.
And yet, it doesn't feel like nonstop fighting at all. In fact, I feel like books 6 and 7 are the ones where the series really starts to have a strong team/found-family vibe. The Christmas party!! SO much fondness for all the times Donut does affectionate cat things with Carl, like jumping up into his lap or purring and rubbing on him.
That being said, book 7 is the one that I wasn't really looking forward to that much on my reread, because I remember that it was a really harrowing read, with the WWI-esque trench warfare and the extremely high body count. So I'll see if I can maintain momentum now that I'm this deep in the series. It's working out pretty well to have read book 8 before doing the reread, though. It's been really interesting rereading all the Primal/Residual stuff, as well as everything with Samantha, now that we know so much more about what's going on there!