DCC4: The Gate of the Feral Gods Review
By Matt Dinniman
Reviewed by Oren Raynes
Book 12 of 2026
The Writing
Dinniman has crafted such interesting characters and worlds that I just can’t put his books down once I start them. His writing style is funny and I love the way that he weaves in pop culture (past and present) into his world. And yes, I know that it is based on our own world so the culture should be there anyway, but I find that Dinniman just does it so well. It doesn’t seem to be forced or in your face; it feels like it is happening naturally.
I am very excited to read something from Dinniman that is not DCC to get a different feel of his writing.
The Story
After Book 3 I was really worried about how the series would progress. Book 3 was a slog to get through. It seemed that many people had a hard time with this book and most blamed the confusion of the Iron Tangle. But for me, I just could not get interested in anything that Book 3 was offering.
But I didn’t need to be worried. Much like Books 1 and 2, Book 4 came out swinging and hooked me right away. The story follows Carl and Donut through level 5 of the Crawl. The level is divided into bubbles which were used to separate the crawlers from each other. Each bubble was divided into themed zones, Carl’s bubble had Water, Air, Land, and Tomb. The theming of the level made it feel like a classic video game, like an original Mario Brothers game where each world had its own themed levels.
Carl and Donut go through the level, solving the problems and growing stronger. I love the new Samantha character and I am so glad that Mordecai and Zev are back in the story as well.
I don’t want to ruin too much of the story and the plot points, but this book was really good and I am excited for the rest of the series.
The Takeaway
Read it! Read the whole series! Do it! Do it now!
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