The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Read Time: 2 Minutes

Like most people into this series, I grabbed my copy the second it came out. A year and bit since the last and I was waiting (somewhat) patiently for this one since everything about the series had me hooked from book one. The story continues to evolve in interesting and unexpected ways, and Dinniman’s writing really kicks up a gear.

First off, this deep in the dungeon (floor eight), there is a lot going on and a lot of people to keep track of. I’m not sure if I’d be keeping up had I not relistened to the series so many times. Not just the stuff happening in the dungeon, but the political games being played outside by a bunch of different factions all with their own agendas.

Much of the fighting action in this revolves around a Pokemon-style card game where the crawlers need to capture fighters for their card deck and use them in battle. As someone who never got into that whole thing, some of this was a little tedious at times but didn’t hamper the story too much for me. I did enjoy the character Uzi Jesus… which is just what it sounds like.

The AI in charge of the crawl is getting even more insane as it becomes more aware of its nature and its true history. Sometimes it feels like it has a split personality where one loves Carl and wants to help him while the other is trying to murder him and everyone he knows. The various loot boxes and their bonkers descriptions continue to make me laugh at every opportunity.

The narration and production was as top-notch as ever. A few minor changes in this from the previous that I noticed, mostly around the “text chat” sections with a more noticeable echo which I’ve seen people complain about. Honestly, it’s not that big of a deal.

Patrick Warburton was a good choice for the character he gets to play. Note – in the introduction where Jeff Hays tells you who is narrating, you get a honking big spoiler about who Patrick is playing which was somewhat annoying. So my advice is to skip the intro if you don’t want the spoiler.

As always, the main problem I have with this series is that it’s likely going to be another eighteen months before I get the next one. Oh well! I better give this one a relisten then! 🙂