As with the previous books, I loved it. Princess Donut is as funny as ever and Samantha and Pony add greatly to the laughs. If anything, this novel builds upon the strengths of the previous adventures while working on the few weaknesses.
Matt Dinniman keeps up the inventive and interesting challenges, but he has scaled this one back enough that it remains epic while not requiring several rereads to be understood. Additionally, while many of the more standard fights are related simply as afterthoughts, the larger battles felt more like they were solved using the stats, skills, and levels of the characters rather than relying on a MacGuffin or the solving of a mystery to save the day. Those things still happen, as they should, as Carl’s pre-game is his most important asset, but as a fan of progression novels and litrpgs, I want those levels and skills to be meaningful – and they did.
Finally, Jeff Hays knocks this out of the park again. I honestly think that this series will long be the shiniest (or at least among the shiniest) feathers in his cap, and I think he knows it too. I know that people give all 5 stars on Audible all the time because the algorithm is setup for users and not true critics but were we precious with that fifth star in order to reserve it only for those few performances deemed to be worthy of awards, he would be earning them for this series. Bravo.