girish0731's reviews
393 reviews

The Butcher's Masquerade by Matt Dinniman

adventurous challenging dark funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The best book after book 3 and the best book for my taste. This book from page 1 starts setting up and developing this entire arc of war between the hunters and the crawlers. The ending of the book 5 started Carl's actions and madness against the outside world and this book just blows out all imagination into oblivion with the book constantly building up steam from 1 arc to another explosive arc. The epilogue and finale being absolutely insane, as per the rumor mills book 6 seems to be the best so fingers crossed. This book also gives us an idea of the scope of madness that's in store for Floor 9 and moving forward as the stakes is building towards an incredible scale in all aspects.

The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman

adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book on its own is good but the ending and setting up for the next book is the elevation it needed within the story which lacked in parts of the story overall. 

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Best of the 3 books and solid plot line which kept increasing the stakes as the book progressed and the final clash was perfectly done.

A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold by George R.R. Martin

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

When I reached the end of this part-1 of A Storm of Swords - Part-1, I realized this to be 1 giant setup of things about to blow up. The character perspectives and their trajectories of the story progression, the prose and the world building is just pure brilliance. I will be picking up the conclusion to the best book of this series as considered by many ASAP. 

Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This sequel is slower on pace with a single floor throughout the novel with 2 different quests. The latter quest not only slowing down the pace of the novel overall but also weaker compared to book-1. The story overall is much better with solid setup for book-3 and both characters have amazing moments to shine. Credit also to brilliant audio-book narration done by Jeff Hays and the narrative keeps getting better. 

The Wandering Inn: Volume 3 by Pirateaba

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An entertaining Volume 3 expanding the world with new characters, the world-building developing at a slow pace. Erin still isn't my favourite perspective to read as she falls under the character trope of annoying with good character moments in between. Ryoka when showing us the perspective of this world and history does fall under my favourite of both main characters, but she does some things which grate my gears as well. Fleshing out the supporting characters like Lyonette, Pisces, Ceria, and Rags and giving us much more depth to each of their perspectives is perfect this time around. Very eager to delve deeper into this world and many more character perspectives. 

The Stranger by Albert Camus

informative reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

The book is around 117 pages but it packs a lot of topics and philosophy for such a short read. I would consider one of the best reads of this just for the reason of reading something which is entirely unique in its character and the perspective, I was introduced to through ''Meursault''. This book needs re-reads to pick and understand perspectives not picked on the first read through.

A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow by George R.R. Martin

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

When I reached the end of this part-1 of A Storm of Swords - Part-1, I realized this to be 1 giant setup of things about to blow up. The character perspectives and their trajectories of the story progression, the prose and the world building is just pure brilliance. I will be picking up the conclusion to the best book of this series as considered by many ASAP. 

Enemy of God: A Novel of Arthur by Bernard Cornwell

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Enemy of God the sequel to the Winter King aka book-1 of Warlord Chronicles, hits hard and provides much more character depths and new character introductions.The story starts with a marriage and moves towards a quest with peace in between and war at the end, is the short summary of it, but the way the story progression and the character developments intertwine together at a pace where we genuinely feel like we are seeing a real life war epic drama unfolding. The prose and the some of the quotes in this book hits harder even on current context and time period. On-wards to the final book of this trilogy and I expect it to hit much harder than this book with the last incidents occurring in this book.