Review of This Inevitable Ruin

Let me start by saying this: I’ve been obsessed with the Dungeon Crawler Carl series since Book 1, but "This Inevitable Ruin" absolutely wrecked me... In the best way possible. If you’ve ever wondered what it’d be like to laugh your ass off one minute and ugly-cry into your steering wheel the next (yes, I listened to this on my commute—no regrets), this audiobook is your answer. Matt Dinniman’s seventh installment doesn’t just raise the stakes—it detonates them. And Jeff Hays’ narration? Flawless. Again. These two are unbeatable.

The story picks up on the ninth floor, the “Faction Wars,” where Carl and Princess Donut are thrust into a brutal free-for-all between alien armies. Imagine Game of Thrones meets Mad Max, but with sentient NPCs, glitching AI, and a sassy Persian cat who’s somehow the emotional core of this chaos. (Cat lovers unite!) The floor’s gimmick? Permanent death. No respawns. No take-backs. Every battle feels like it could be the last, and Dinniman doesn’t hold back. Characters you’ve grown to love over six books are put through the wringer here, and I’m still not over some of the choices they’re forced to make.

Let’s talk about Donut. She’s always been hilarious—her narcissistic one-liners (“I AM A QUEEN”) are legendary—but "This Inevitable Ruin" gives her shocking depth. Without spoiling anything, there’s a moment in the final act where she confronts a life-or-death ultimatum involving Katia, and holy hell, I didn’t think a talking cat could make me sob. (I made the mistake of listening while doing household chores that make me want to cry to begin with.) Jeff Hays’ voice acting here is next-level. He balances her trademark sass with raw vulnerability, and it’s impossible not to feel every beat of her arc.

Carl demonstrates maximum strategic effectiveness during this situation. He stands against the dungeon rules now with deliberate intent to wreck the game as the AI suffers its breakdown. The relationship between Carl and Donut has deepened after their conflict died down to become moments when they show pure loyalty to each other. A whispered message about sharing survival or none at all delivered a more powerful impact than any final combat confrontation.

The developers created an excellent system with their addition of faction mechanics. The gameplay involves total war combined with NPCs who defy their programming while the dungeon environment becomes increasingly glitched and unstable. Baldree delivers an outstanding performance as the game's AI co-narrator since he transitions through mechanical directives into desperate and almost authentic emotions as the AI faces system failure. The game's world creation brings players into a setting where alien profit seekers control mutant soldiers through a castle that operates as an intelligent loot bag.

The mounting existential anxiety underneath the wild turmoil of events proved to be the factor that truly affected me. The NPC rebellion story serves as more than plot progression because it exposes issues regarding power abuse. These artificial intelligence characters display self-awareness while they are designed to suffer for entertainment before struggling for control of their existence. The narrative gains a poetic dark tone when Carl begins to lose control toward the game designers. This leads me to believe Dinniman wants to probe difficult questions such as who should be considered the most terrifying element? Do the extraterrestrial controllers behind the events match the status of those who watch the show (us)?

The situation is not permanently dark. The dark humor remains as a twisted thread throughout the story. The funny dialogues from Carl's sentient "Gladiator" shoes delivering the lines "KILL FOR FEET" made me laugh out loud just as much as Donut's rivalry with the leader of a competing faction who happens to be a worm wearing a diamond hat. The comedic elements enhance every emotional impact which occurs in the story. I burst out laughing when Donut criticizes her "brand" so dramatically while suddenly I tense up watching Katia confront a painful decision for her friends.

The outstanding talent at work is Jeff Hays and Travis Baldree. The voice actor Jeff Hays displays unbelievable range throughout the performance because he portrays more than 12 (that's as far as I got before losing count) different voices including both obnoxious goblins and slippery corporate bosses flawlessly. A chilling effect emerges from the AI narration delivered by Baldree because it descends into static-filled anxiety. These performers merge a 28-hour audiobook into a totally entertaining production of sound. Pro tip: Listen to the “Cold Reads” version afterward for bloopers. Listening to Hays produce his corpse-laugh during dramatic moments of the audiobook creates a therapeutic effect.

If I had one gripe? The sheer scale. Several characters face obscurity because the narrative contains multiple factions, nine in total, and twelve main subplots. The mix of several alien leaders in the story fails to capture my attention while I wish Mordecai would have remained in the story longer. Any complaint about this flaw is basically a distant concern. My screaming at the headphones during the finale overrided any issues I had.

"This Inevitable Ruin" serves as much more than just a sequel so much as it invents new standards. The dungeon is collapsing into destruction because the AI became a renegade while Carl has abandoned all previous guidelines. Anyone who continued reading this series must read this book. If you’re new? Start from the beginning. Trust my word because you will crave to understand the complete heartbreaking story later on.

Final Rating: 5/5 screaming goblins. The authors Dinniman and Hays achieved impressive results. Sorry I need to turn my eyes away from this space while I try to comprehend the conclusion.

click here to read "This Inevitable Ruin" for free with a 30-day free trial