Ever since that first monkey looked up into the sky and saw something twinkling up there, you meat puppets have tried to force twenty pounds of existential meaning into a ten pound sack of chaos.

Holy crap things just keep escalating.

We have another single level this time. Bubbles in space, each populated by a subset of crawlers that can’t (initially) interact, and each of which separated into air/earth/water/underground sections with their own puzzles.

Of course by the end Carl has done an excellent job of not being broken (more or less), saved people, killed even more people, and managed to summon and/or fight entirely too many (feral) gods.

“You know what, Carl? I’ve decided something,” Donut said, finally speaking. She released Mongo, who squawked and started investigating this strange, new world. “Yeah, Donut?” “I think they’re right about you. I think you’re crazy. Like, not a little weird crazy. Not guy who eats cereal without milk crazy. But crazy, crazy. Straitjacket crazy.” I took the cat into my lap, and then I pulled her to my chest. She purred heavily into my ear.

Man that ending hits hard.

And now… based on the afterward, we’re really going to have some complications next book.

I’m looking forward to it!