#Review - The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman #Dystopian #LitRPG

Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl # 3

Format: 544 pages, Kindle Edition

Release Date: March 19, 2021
Publisher: Dandy House
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Dystopian, LitRPG

Welcome to the Gun Show!

The top ten list is populated. The sponsorship program is open. The difficulty is ramping up. The first three floors were nothing compared to what Carl and Donut now face.

The Iron Tangle. An impossibly-complicated subway system built out of the world's subterranean railway systems, all combined and then tied together into a knot. Up is down. Down is up. Close is far. The cars are filled with monsters, the railway stations are less than safe, and the exit is always just a few stops away.

But there is hope. For the first time, the crawlers are all working together. The loot is better than ever. And the secret to unraveling it all may be hidden in the pages of a seemingly-useless book. Welcome, crawlers. Welcome to the fourth floor of the dungeon.

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook is the Third installment in author Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl series. The story drops Carl, Princess Donut, and their growing party onto the dungeon’s fourth floor—the Iron Tangle—while meaningfully expanding character arcs, series lore, and Carl’s anti-system ambitions. After surviving the first three floors of the alien-run Dungeon Crawler World reality-TV death game (following Earth’s destruction for resource extraction), Carl (a former Coast Guard veteran in heart-patterned boxers and increasingly powerful gear) and Princess Donut (his ex-girlfriend’s vain, fame-obsessed, talking Persian cat) enter the Iron Tangle. 

This is a nightmarish, impossibly knotted subway system assembled from Earth’s underground railways, complete with color-coded lines (including absurd names like Zonk), speeding trains full of monsters, transfer stations, and spatial logic that defies easy mapping. Up is down, close is far, and the stairwells to the next level are deliberately hard to reach within a tight timer. The top-ten leaderboard is live, sponsorships are open, and high-profile crawlers have bounties on their heads. Carl’s party includes the new addition Katia (a doppelganger with identity and shapeshifting struggles) and Mongo (Donut’s pet velociraptor). 

They must navigate monsters, other crawler groups (including reunions with previous allies and tensions with powerful teams like Hekla’s Brynhild’s Daughters), and the floor’s puzzles. A key turning point is Carl’s acquisition of the titular Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook—a seemingly innocuous recipe book that previous crawlers have secretly annotated across seasons. Visible only to those with the right skills, it contains exploits, recipes, monster weaknesses, and personal notes that push Carl from pure survival toward actively subverting the system. 

The story balances nonstop action, inventive ability use (traps, spells like Protective Shell or Hole used creatively, party synergies), dark humor, and rising stakes involving galactic politics, sponsors, the dungeon AI, and NPCs. Themes include the dehumanizing nature of corporate entertainment, the fragility of identity, cooperation versus competition among crawlers, and anarchy/subversion as tools for resistance. Carl continues evolving from a resourceful survivor into a reluctant but effective leader who prioritizes protecting others even when he can’t save everyone. 

Donut’s arc deepens as she matures (in her own gloriously vain way), gains new skills (including class choices and Mascot-related abilities that benefit the party), and navigates fame and relationships. Katia’s growth is a standout for many readers—her struggles with identity, place in the group, and rising competence make her a major emotional and tactical asset. Supporting figures (including mentor Mordecai, who is less available this floor) and various crawlers, monsters, and NPCs gain more weight. 

Deaths and alliances carry more impact as the cast expands. The humor remains sharp: Donut’s unfiltered commentary, Carl’s exhausted sarcasm and “Carl plans,” the AI’s cheerful corporate sociopathy, and absurd encounters (from regenerating foes to inventive combat) keep the tone signature DCC. The Iron Tangle is deliberately confusing—a “bowl of hell spaghetti” of tracks, portals, schedules, and stations—mirroring the characters’ disorientation. 

Dungeon mechanics remain a strength: inventive ability combinations, loot, leveling, and traps feel rewarding rather than purely game-y. Broader world-building advances with more insight into the Syndicate, sponsors, outside politics, the system AI’s quirks, and the nature of NPCs/former crawlers. The Cookbook itself is a clever device that deepens series lore and Carl’s arc toward systemic disruption. It is not the absolute peak of the series for everyone, but it is an exciting, memorable installment that meaningfully advances the story, characters, and themes. The Tangle's confusion is intentional and part of the fun if you lean into the chaos rather than fighting it. Highly recommended if you loved the first two books—you’ll almost certainly want to keep going right away. 

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