Quick Look
Plot = 1
Character= 1
Promise = 1
Engagement = .75
Efficiency= .75

SPOILER FREE LOOK

Plot = Carl and Donut enter the Faction Wars, which have been built up since the second and third book and it is delivered like a ten course meal. The impossible is managed as not only do we get to see the play by play of the wars, but also get to delve into the deeper space politics, growing AI problem, and get introduced to a slew of other plot lines that somehow didn't bog the story down. 

Characters = We have the returning cast of Crawlers and etc that we continue to see fight their way to reach floor ten and the ability to get out of the Dungeon. That being said, one of the more interesting aspects of the book came from the former crawlers who came down to be mercenaries for the Princess Posse. They ended up giving Carl and Donut a run for their money as main characters, stemming from the fact that they WERE some of the main Crawlers of their seasons, and had their own machinations and plots to round out. In the spoiler section below I'll explain more on this, but I found myself drawn in to these new characters in a surprisingly fresh way. I was nervous they would redirect the plot away from what I've been loving, but nope, they added to it. 

Promise = I really don't know how Matt keeps doing this. I keep thinking there's no way he can top the last book and keep it grounded all the same, but then he does. Power Creep is a real threat to books and characters of this genre, and yes Carl and Donut are WAY more powerful than they were in book 1, but I still constantly feel like their life is hanging on a thread. The other characters are never as safe as we want them to be either and have managed to keep their power growing in cool and fascinating ways as well. So yeah, the promise of this book is kept and delivered. Faction Wars was awesome. 

Engagement = I have one criticism of this book and it is the same for the last two categories here. To be fair, this has been a pretty consistent issue, but I don't get as mad about it anymore. The author has a tendency to maybe over-explain things in the first hundred pages of each book. I know that I may pick on this a little more than I should, but the only time I wanted to put this book down and do something else was in the first 20%. Once the Faction Wars started I was sucked back in. I know there's an explanation needed, but some of it just goes right through my brain because I don't have a need for it yet. I'll give an example below in the spoilers, but I do think he is getting better at this overall. Once of the main reasons the Butcher's Maskerade is still my favorite of the series is because of how this was balanced. 

Efficiency = The above problem also affects efficiency. Because it got bored during the over explanation of things in the beginning it signals to me that some stuff could have been cut out or revised. That's all. 

SPOILER LOOK

Plot = I was absolutely hooked into the developments that happened here. The AI is growing in influence and I'm wondering how Car and Donut are going to deal with that. Carl's decision to eliminate the ability to shut down the AI was a twist I was not expecting. We also got to see some of the elements of the earlier books pop in. His Doomsday bomb was considered. The Cookbook and Gate of Feral Gods was massively important here as well. The Bedlam Bride also gets developed as something to use later on. The former crawlers made me nervous at first. I was really hoping we wouldn't see some nonsense betrayal stories and I'm glad we didn't. I did like that they had their own motivations or side quests that went alongside helping the Princess Posse though. Like, of course they wouldn't pass up a chance to wreak some havoc on the whole thing while supporting the Crawlers of the season. This was the major end of one of Carl's major goals as well, to get as many people as he could to the tenth floor. Yeah I had a ton of fun with the story here, and the FREAKING Lucia Mar stuff! WHAT?!!! So good. 

Characters = I'm just gonna highlight a few moments that I loved. That Crawler who blew up an entire faction by sabotaging their tanks was goddamn awesome. Justice Light was fascinating as well and I can't wait to see the amount of carnage he caused in the end. Juice box, a throwaway character of the fourth book has become the voice of the NPCs. And the way Carl avoids following the rules and killing her faction was a sigh of relief. Li Na and the consequence of the Divine Ring of Suffering was also intense. So yeah, I could write a whole review on each character by themselves, but you get it. Awesome. 

Promise = I have nothing new to add here for spoilers other than the Katia stuff was great. I feel Matt has forced an important commitment to her character arc since the second book and I'm glad he's delivering. I don't think she's done yet, but I was very pleased with her ability to leave the Dungeon. Heartwarming in a book series where we are often devastated at loss. 

Engagement and Efficiency = So let me give a spoiler for why I think these were rough in the beginning. To start, this was a lot to set up and I get that. I don't think I could ever juggle this many moving pieces in a book. I think writers of warfare and in depth military engagements could praise Matt here because he for sure kept it far from simple. That being said, it was a slog to read through in the first hundred pages. I wish there was a way to remove elements of it until it was important. I get that may look like Deus Ex Machina nonsense when every time something happens Carl has a backup plan that seems to come from nowhere, but I think I'd maybe prefer that. So my example is the entire Carl and Katia trapping Shi Maria scene. I still don't know what the heck happened there. Potion leads to shared dream for the two, then Shi Maria can get trapped in Katia's and be put to sleep or something, then an enemy attacks by teleporting them through a loophole since teleports are illegal at this phase, to Carl didn't fully teleport and so Shi Maria gets loose temporarily, but then the dream thing works so she gets put back in, then Carl does teleport fully to the bad guys where he learns of the carnage, then he returns and has it all explained to him. AND I got that all wrong I'm sure. I decided to just move past it and wait to see how it played out. There tends to be a moment in each book where Carl or another character does something so beyond the realm of normal thinking that I lose myself. Good example is when Carl assassinated that Kua Tin in book three (I think). None of that made sense to me, but whatever. I love this series but like anything else I have a gripe with that one element of it. Crazy is fine, but crazy complicated can go too far at times.