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Dominion of Blades #2
The Hobgoblin Riot
Popper, Jonah, Gretchen, and Alice are back! The Hobgoblin Riot, Dominion of Blades, Book 2. A litrpg adventure.
CLUSTERF*CK
clus·ter·f*ck
\ ˈklə-stər-ˌfək \
vulgar slang. Noun.
1) a disastrously and utterly mishandled situation or undertaking.
2) Popper’s scouting mission to Castellane.
It was supposed to be a simple scouting mission. In and out. No fighting. No new quests. Just me, my hippocorn Alice, and a few hired mercenaries. We were going to tiptoe into the Spiral, get the info we needed, and leave. You know, the Spiral? That tower defense run that protects the hobgoblin capital from invaders?
Easy, right? Nobody would even know we were there.
Yeah, so about that…
CLUSTERF*CK
clus·ter·f*ck
\ ˈklə-stər-ˌfək \
vulgar slang. Noun.
1) a disastrously and utterly mishandled situation or undertaking.
2) Popper’s scouting mission to Castellane.
It was supposed to be a simple scouting mission. In and out. No fighting. No new quests. Just me, my hippocorn Alice, and a few hired mercenaries. We were going to tiptoe into the Spiral, get the info we needed, and leave. You know, the Spiral? That tower defense run that protects the hobgoblin capital from invaders?
Easy, right? Nobody would even know we were there.
Yeah, so about that…
589 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 13, 2018
759 people are currently reading
1406 people want to read
About the author
Matt Dinniman
34 books12.7k followersMatt Dinniman is the best-selling writer and artist from Gig Harbor, Washington. He is the published author of dozens of short stories and a gaggle of books. In addition, his art publications—from greeting cards to stationery kits to calendars—can be found in boutique and stationery shops around the world. Also, he strongly feels like a pretentious twat when he writes about himself in third person.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
May 6, 2024
DNF 51%.
Unlike the first book, with its interesting fantasy-within-scifi setting and some mystery to the plot, this one feels too much like generic LitRPG.
The best part of the Dominion of Blades series, for me, was seeing Dinniman playing with the same ideas he would later use for Dungeon Crawler Carl.
I'm pretty sure the ideas in this book will become a major part of DCC's faction wars in the next book. This also explains why Dinniman had set up faction wars from the very beginning: he wanted to redo this book.
It's fascinating to me how a chosen style can fit or not fit an author's inherent style, giving hugely different results. DCC and DoB are clearly written by the same author, but while DoB tries too hard to be a "serious" book, the dark humor and general insanity of DCC make it peak entertainment.
Unlike the first book, with its interesting fantasy-within-scifi setting and some mystery to the plot, this one feels too much like generic LitRPG.
The best part of the Dominion of Blades series, for me, was seeing Dinniman playing with the same ideas he would later use for Dungeon Crawler Carl.
I'm pretty sure the ideas in this book will become a major part of DCC's faction wars in the next book. This also explains why Dinniman had set up faction wars from the very beginning: he wanted to redo this book.
It's fascinating to me how a chosen style can fit or not fit an author's inherent style, giving hugely different results. DCC and DoB are clearly written by the same author, but while DoB tries too hard to be a "serious" book, the dark humor and general insanity of DCC make it peak entertainment.
August 23, 2018
Absolutely hate books when a author decides to pull on guilt strings over, over and over again to gain some semblance of favor towards a character or in this case characters. All the characters are broken mentally and have major physiological issues that keeps droning on and on and takes away from the story and the story stops being fun.
April 23, 2018
The first book in the Dominion of Blades series has been my entrance to the pure LitRPG world. To summarize, the backstory, the characters, the gameplay and the feeling of "i have to find out what happens next" was awesome.
After reading it, I was eagerly waiting to see how will the author continue the series...
The second book, The Hobgoblin Riot, picks up where the first one stopped. The writing style has changed a bit, taking a "Game of Thrones" approach of telling a story from the first person view of each of the main characters. There is also a good explanation for it, so i liked it! What could have been done is to maybe shuffle and alternate those notes a bit more, just to add another point to the suspense...
The quality of the back story is still top notch. The world, the races, the plot and the quests are fantastic. There is an excellent balance on the given level of information details vs the information saturation. The key is to put just a right amount so that the book is made enjoyable to read, and at the same time to have enough depth. This is something which I unfortunately fail to see in some other books of the same genre. Here, I can feel that lots of thought has been given into each of the quests, characters and story movements. This is what motivates me to read it.
The best part from the first book was reading those bolded game notifications when something important happens to the character. They bring so much fun as they could range from the simple notification to the life changing character information. It is similar here. When turning the pages, I caught myself scanning the new page quickly just to see if there is some important message coming up... Level of suspense is amazing.
I also liked the idea and the central plot, the book is similar but still different than the first one, in a good way. We also find out more about the players themselves which makes it even more interesting. Another chapter of the book is closed, but of course, the new questions are set and left unanswered.
Again, I will be waiting for the next book in the series and hope that the author will manage to make it last (maybe release more than a trilogy).
One more thing. When I am looking for a good fantasy book, I also look at the front cover. The picture has to show some artistic approach to the story, and have some quality into it. The first book contains a logo (i liked the cover) and this one shows the imagined character of Poppy with her pet Alice. Nice! I hope to see other characters from the author's imagination.
To summarize, this book gives exactly what I am looking for in LitRPG genre. My rating is 4.5 out of 5 stars, so I will be rounding it up as I like the series very much. Highly recommended for the lovers of the genre!
After reading it, I was eagerly waiting to see how will the author continue the series...
The second book, The Hobgoblin Riot, picks up where the first one stopped. The writing style has changed a bit, taking a "Game of Thrones" approach of telling a story from the first person view of each of the main characters. There is also a good explanation for it, so i liked it! What could have been done is to maybe shuffle and alternate those notes a bit more, just to add another point to the suspense...
The quality of the back story is still top notch. The world, the races, the plot and the quests are fantastic. There is an excellent balance on the given level of information details vs the information saturation. The key is to put just a right amount so that the book is made enjoyable to read, and at the same time to have enough depth. This is something which I unfortunately fail to see in some other books of the same genre. Here, I can feel that lots of thought has been given into each of the quests, characters and story movements. This is what motivates me to read it.
The best part from the first book was reading those bolded game notifications when something important happens to the character. They bring so much fun as they could range from the simple notification to the life changing character information. It is similar here. When turning the pages, I caught myself scanning the new page quickly just to see if there is some important message coming up... Level of suspense is amazing.
I also liked the idea and the central plot, the book is similar but still different than the first one, in a good way. We also find out more about the players themselves which makes it even more interesting. Another chapter of the book is closed, but of course, the new questions are set and left unanswered.
Again, I will be waiting for the next book in the series and hope that the author will manage to make it last (maybe release more than a trilogy).
One more thing. When I am looking for a good fantasy book, I also look at the front cover. The picture has to show some artistic approach to the story, and have some quality into it. The first book contains a logo (i liked the cover) and this one shows the imagined character of Poppy with her pet Alice. Nice! I hope to see other characters from the author's imagination.
To summarize, this book gives exactly what I am looking for in LitRPG genre. My rating is 4.5 out of 5 stars, so I will be rounding it up as I like the series very much. Highly recommended for the lovers of the genre!
September 23, 2018
Mini-Review:
1st) Ignore the story blurb and dive into the story. The only thing you need to know is that a good portion of it will be a little like a tower defense game.
2nd) Yay for more information about the "real" world.
3rd) Nice follow up to the first book and mostly reasonable leaps of power for the main trio and friends. I enjoyed the ending sequences a lot and hope the next book will come out within a year.
Fun LitRPG series with engaging characters. It's one of the better stories within this offshoot genre.
1st) Ignore the story blurb and dive into the story. The only thing you need to know is that a good portion of it will be a little like a tower defense game.
2nd) Yay for more information about the "real" world.
3rd) Nice follow up to the first book and mostly reasonable leaps of power for the main trio and friends. I enjoyed the ending sequences a lot and hope the next book will come out within a year.
Fun LitRPG series with engaging characters. It's one of the better stories within this offshoot genre.
September 5, 2023
In some ways better than book one, but it just didn't add enough to the story (and seems to dead-end here) so it tops out at a 4.
Someone said something about less "existentialism" in this one, and that is certainly a good thing. What was not such a good thing was the division of POV which tends to annoy me, and there was a lot of that here. Seems to be a dead property at this time so I'm not holding my breath for a book 3.
Someone said something about less "existentialism" in this one, and that is certainly a good thing. What was not such a good thing was the division of POV which tends to annoy me, and there was a lot of that here. Seems to be a dead property at this time so I'm not holding my breath for a book 3.
May 12, 2018
Fantastic book and I am not just saying that because of the name. I am writing up a full review for my blog https://thebloggoblin.com
September 10, 2025
This could have been better, much much better. Well, at least he is still writing better books.
November 11, 2025
Another great story by Matt Dinniman. His characters continue to be well written and the story stakes continue to get higher and higher. I can't wait for the next book.
July 25, 2018
God I love this story. Dominion of Blades has the perfect amount of Stakes, Game Mechanics, World Building, and Character Development. Every main character, even the NPC ones, are dynamic and sympathetic. The Game Mechanics aren't just 'shoot fire ball' 'shoot bigger fire ball' ' shoot even bigger fire ball' and are actually interesting in variety and use, the world outside the game is interesting (if a bit preachy at one point), and the stakes are high for not only the main characters, but the human race.
So, this book splits from being Jonah focused and is spread between all the other main characters, with a slightly heavier focus on Poppy and a slow drip exploration of his/her back story. While it is a bit cliche, it's does a good job of establishing him as more of multi-dimensional character. (though I'm not a fan of the Brooklyn accent personally). You also get some great explanation of the world, the mission, and why things are happening by the end, highlighting why what they are doing is so important.
Great series, 5/5, can't wait for the next one.
So, this book splits from being Jonah focused and is spread between all the other main characters, with a slightly heavier focus on Poppy and a slow drip exploration of his/her back story. While it is a bit cliche, it's does a good job of establishing him as more of multi-dimensional character. (though I'm not a fan of the Brooklyn accent personally). You also get some great explanation of the world, the mission, and why things are happening by the end, highlighting why what they are doing is so important.
Great series, 5/5, can't wait for the next one.
July 1, 2018
Outstanding
In a world filled with simple plots, thin story lengths, and shallow characters, this book (and series) stand as outstanding examples of rich content. Not only is the story complex, but the characters have real depth and personality. Add to that a story length that far exceeds the episodic novellas that dominate, and you have an incredibly good read. Finally, the story remains very true to the genre, and is edited superbly.
If you’re a SF and/or gamelit fan, then you *really* need to read these books. Excellent stuff.
In a world filled with simple plots, thin story lengths, and shallow characters, this book (and series) stand as outstanding examples of rich content. Not only is the story complex, but the characters have real depth and personality. Add to that a story length that far exceeds the episodic novellas that dominate, and you have an incredibly good read. Finally, the story remains very true to the genre, and is edited superbly.
If you’re a SF and/or gamelit fan, then you *really* need to read these books. Excellent stuff.
March 5, 2019
I honestly don’t know what the hell happened. I’ve never read a series where the quality of the writing has declined so sharply from book 1 to book 2. The characters were there, the plot was solid, the premise was fantastic, and the writing was so bad… Repeated words everywhere (not in the typo sense, the ‘I have no thesaurus’ sense), insanely repetitive sentence structure in almost every paragraph, and so much telling transformed the series from one I really enjoyed into something I won’t bother to finish. If anyone edited the novel, they should look for a new career as quickly as possible. Seriously, the writing was actually that bad. I found myself rereading almost every single sentence in my head in order to change the flow / line edit on the fly, trying to make it bearable because I enjoyed the story—and that sucks.
Also, the whole format of doing the book in “notes” and constantly head jumping from one character to the next was kind of terrible. It simply didn’t work. An easy 3rd person limited POV would have done just fine, and it would have carried the story through the character location splits without issue. At the end of the day, the bad outweighs the good. I’m just disappointed.
Also, the whole format of doing the book in “notes” and constantly head jumping from one character to the next was kind of terrible. It simply didn’t work. An easy 3rd person limited POV would have done just fine, and it would have carried the story through the character location splits without issue. At the end of the day, the bad outweighs the good. I’m just disappointed.
October 14, 2025
3.5
I gave the same rating to the first Dominion of Blades book, although I think this one is very slightly better. However, it still wasn't as enjoyable as the average Dungeon Crawler Carl book, and although part of me hates continuing to compare this series to that one, they are very similar and sometimes the comparisons can't be helped. Nevertheless, I shall try to refrain from doing so too much.
This book was a bit more exciting of a read than the first one, and the actual battles were the most fun parts to read. It did feel overly long (I realize this book was originally supposed to be two separate books; maybe that would have made for a breezier-feeling read) and the periods between big fights could sometimes be greatly weighed down by wordiness and over-explanation. One thing Dinniman likes to do is withhold information until something happens, then take a step backward to expose that information after the fact (a greatly oversimplified example: "The boss took a step forward and exploded. Earlier that day, I'd placed an invisible bomb in the boss's path.") The first couple of times this happens, it feels interesting because it's almost like you've been cleverly tricked by the author. Something happened and you wondered if maybe you'd spaced out and missed a detail in the story, but then it was revealed that you didn't actually know the whole story, ha, gotcha! The more times this happens, this less clever it gets.
Character development was nicer in this story, though. Jonah isn't quite so much the clueless, milquetoast protagonist he was in the first book, and Popper, who remains my favorite character, exposes more of his tragic backstory. Gretchen remains the most uninteresting of the three, and we still don't get too much exposition of her backstory, but she is a serviceable deuteragonist. There are several new tertiary characters who are fun and interesting, like Bingo and the 80's hair metal triplets, and the skills of all the characters have advanced to the point where they can hold their own against powerful enemies, which is fun to read.
Overall it was a pretty fun read that can sometimes be a bit confusing to follow; I enjoyed the story, but at the conclusion of the book, which ends on a cliffhanger, I didn't feel the powerful urge to continue the story like I did with Dungeon Crawler Carl. The end of the most recent DCC book caused me to feel almost physical pain at the frustration of not being able to continue reading until the next book is released, but with this series, eh, I can wait. If Dinniman ever continues this series, I will read on for sure, but until then, I'm happy to let it be.
I gave the same rating to the first Dominion of Blades book, although I think this one is very slightly better. However, it still wasn't as enjoyable as the average Dungeon Crawler Carl book, and although part of me hates continuing to compare this series to that one, they are very similar and sometimes the comparisons can't be helped. Nevertheless, I shall try to refrain from doing so too much.
This book was a bit more exciting of a read than the first one, and the actual battles were the most fun parts to read. It did feel overly long (I realize this book was originally supposed to be two separate books; maybe that would have made for a breezier-feeling read) and the periods between big fights could sometimes be greatly weighed down by wordiness and over-explanation. One thing Dinniman likes to do is withhold information until something happens, then take a step backward to expose that information after the fact (a greatly oversimplified example: "The boss took a step forward and exploded. Earlier that day, I'd placed an invisible bomb in the boss's path.") The first couple of times this happens, it feels interesting because it's almost like you've been cleverly tricked by the author. Something happened and you wondered if maybe you'd spaced out and missed a detail in the story, but then it was revealed that you didn't actually know the whole story, ha, gotcha! The more times this happens, this less clever it gets.
Character development was nicer in this story, though. Jonah isn't quite so much the clueless, milquetoast protagonist he was in the first book, and Popper, who remains my favorite character, exposes more of his tragic backstory. Gretchen remains the most uninteresting of the three, and we still don't get too much exposition of her backstory, but she is a serviceable deuteragonist. There are several new tertiary characters who are fun and interesting, like Bingo and the 80's hair metal triplets, and the skills of all the characters have advanced to the point where they can hold their own against powerful enemies, which is fun to read.
Overall it was a pretty fun read that can sometimes be a bit confusing to follow; I enjoyed the story, but at the conclusion of the book, which ends on a cliffhanger, I didn't feel the powerful urge to continue the story like I did with Dungeon Crawler Carl. The end of the most recent DCC book caused me to feel almost physical pain at the frustration of not being able to continue reading until the next book is released, but with this series, eh, I can wait. If Dinniman ever continues this series, I will read on for sure, but until then, I'm happy to let it be.
June 9, 2019
3 / 5
The Hobgoblin Riot (THR) is the continuation of the story that started in Dominion of Blades. DoB is a great LitRPG book that introduced me to the LitRPG genre and made me love it. So THR is the second book in that story... and also the third according to the author. And to be honest, I thought this was a trilogy and it was the end of the story arc but it's not! We know there's at least one more book coming out but we're not sure when...
Coming to my review and critique, there's a lot in common with my review of the first book, DoB. You can read my review here!. So what are the differences then?
Positives:
+ Lots of secondary characters and NPCs that actually matter and are very interesting. In the first book, only the 3 protagonists mattered. Here, the book has so many interesting secondary that sometimes it's hard to keep track of!
+ Interesting reveals about the RL parallel plot. Can't say much more though in order to avoid spoilers.
Negatives:
- It's all defense... If defensive football, basketball and generally turtling strategies don't appeal to you then stay away. Other reviewers say it's mostly a tower defense game and they are not really far off. .. because it is!
- The pace is all over the place. Especially the middle part was very uneven and boring and slow. Bleargh!
- The constant switching of POVs does not really help things. Ok, we get to know the main characters better but this is at the expense of plot progression.
- The ending (or lack of!) was very disappointing and it felt very rushed! The last 20-30 pages read as if they were hastily put there just to make a deadline.
In conclusion, if you liked the first book, it's worth reading this one too, just to get to the next part of the story. If you didn't love the first then you'll probably like this one even less. I will read the next one when it comes out but with a lot of reservations.
Conditionally recommended!
3 / 5
The Hobgoblin Riot (THR) is the continuation of the story that started in Dominion of Blades. DoB is a great LitRPG book that introduced me to the LitRPG genre and made me love it. So THR is the second book in that story... and also the third according to the author. And to be honest, I thought this was a trilogy and it was the end of the story arc but it's not! We know there's at least one more book coming out but we're not sure when...
Coming to my review and critique, there's a lot in common with my review of the first book, DoB. You can read my review here!. So what are the differences then?
Positives:
+ Lots of secondary characters and NPCs that actually matter and are very interesting. In the first book, only the 3 protagonists mattered. Here, the book has so many interesting secondary that sometimes it's hard to keep track of!
+ Interesting reveals about the RL parallel plot. Can't say much more though in order to avoid spoilers.
Negatives:
- It's all defense... If defensive football, basketball and generally turtling strategies don't appeal to you then stay away. Other reviewers say it's mostly a tower defense game and they are not really far off. .. because it is!
- The pace is all over the place. Especially the middle part was very uneven and boring and slow. Bleargh!
- The constant switching of POVs does not really help things. Ok, we get to know the main characters better but this is at the expense of plot progression.
- The ending (or lack of!) was very disappointing and it felt very rushed! The last 20-30 pages read as if they were hastily put there just to make a deadline.
In conclusion, if you liked the first book, it's worth reading this one too, just to get to the next part of the story. If you didn't love the first then you'll probably like this one even less. I will read the next one when it comes out but with a lot of reservations.
Conditionally recommended!
3 / 5
December 3, 2024
5⭐ 0🌶️ 5🎧
The Good:
If you’re into characters that break the mold, Dominion of Blades will hook you with Jonah's lv 86 fly fishing skill. The characters wake up from an NPC amnesia. What's more, this book brings LGBTQ+ representation into a genre that’s usually all about basic hero tropes. Dinniman takes your typical hero mold and gives us a 42-year-old man stuck in the body of a six-year-old girl. Andrea Parsneau’s audiobook performance brings the characters to life.
The Dark:
This book can get pretty intense. Dinniman's twisted side shines through like torture and nightmare-like settings. If you’re someone who loves adventure but not super graphic scenes, this might catch you off guard. It’s not a deal-breaker, but I wish there’d been a heads-up. There's also a good amount of cursing, earning it a 14A rating.
The Imaginative:
The world-building in Dominion of Blades is next-level amazing. If they gave out awards to DMs -- wait, do they? Dinniman’s creativity rivals big names like Brandon Sanderson and N.K. Jemisin. Dinniman's world building blends perfecty with his game mechanics, making this a gem worth picking up.
If You Like This, Try:
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman: This has become the pinnacle of RPGLit, and set new standards for the genre. Sadly, it's also the reason why Dominion of Blades won't see a book 3 for a long, long time.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe: The perfect breakout room/tower to imbue your MC with sufficiently advanced magic ;). The school system and dungeons are awesome.
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin: World building and earth magic that you've never seen before.
The Good:
If you’re into characters that break the mold, Dominion of Blades will hook you with Jonah's lv 86 fly fishing skill. The characters wake up from an NPC amnesia. What's more, this book brings LGBTQ+ representation into a genre that’s usually all about basic hero tropes. Dinniman takes your typical hero mold and gives us a 42-year-old man stuck in the body of a six-year-old girl. Andrea Parsneau’s audiobook performance brings the characters to life.
The Dark:
This book can get pretty intense. Dinniman's twisted side shines through like torture and nightmare-like settings. If you’re someone who loves adventure but not super graphic scenes, this might catch you off guard. It’s not a deal-breaker, but I wish there’d been a heads-up. There's also a good amount of cursing, earning it a 14A rating.
The Imaginative:
The world-building in Dominion of Blades is next-level amazing. If they gave out awards to DMs -- wait, do they? Dinniman’s creativity rivals big names like Brandon Sanderson and N.K. Jemisin. Dinniman's world building blends perfecty with his game mechanics, making this a gem worth picking up.
If You Like This, Try:
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman: This has become the pinnacle of RPGLit, and set new standards for the genre. Sadly, it's also the reason why Dominion of Blades won't see a book 3 for a long, long time.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe: The perfect breakout room/tower to imbue your MC with sufficiently advanced magic ;). The school system and dungeons are awesome.
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin: World building and earth magic that you've never seen before.
January 15, 2025
Incredible continuation of the last book. The first had all of the mystery and introduction to the world at large, but what I liked more about this one was the diverse places the crew travelled to, and I felt the NPC characters were a lot more unique and likeable. Also loved the way this book was formatted, giving me a chance to see the perspectives of all the main characters in a seamless and immersive way.
But something that’s undeniable about both of these books is the sheer creativity when it comes to complex scenarios and insurmountable odds. There are some truly ingenious plans set up in place for all battles, small, big, and humongous, all the while staying true to the RPG aspect of this universe. Holy shit, this was good.
I just feel like I wanted more clarification on the ending. There were some incredible plot twists and outcomes, but some loose ends need to be adjusted in the future, and I think some moments where anticlimactic, and some details about certain battles where too complex and fluffy to the story. I'm still super excited to read part 3 if it gets released.
Most of all I truly want to thank this series for introducing me to the litRPG genre of books, I didn't know books like these existed on such a large scale, and I'm super excited to check out dungeon crawler Carl.
I like Raj. Be like Raj.
Pro tip: If you read this book while listening to synthwave, awesomeness increases by 25%
But something that’s undeniable about both of these books is the sheer creativity when it comes to complex scenarios and insurmountable odds. There are some truly ingenious plans set up in place for all battles, small, big, and humongous, all the while staying true to the RPG aspect of this universe. Holy shit, this was good.
I just feel like I wanted more clarification on the ending. There were some incredible plot twists and outcomes, but some loose ends need to be adjusted in the future, and I think some moments where anticlimactic, and some details about certain battles where too complex and fluffy to the story. I'm still super excited to read part 3 if it gets released.
Most of all I truly want to thank this series for introducing me to the litRPG genre of books, I didn't know books like these existed on such a large scale, and I'm super excited to check out dungeon crawler Carl.
I like Raj. Be like Raj.
Pro tip: If you read this book while listening to synthwave, awesomeness increases by 25%
November 3, 2025
“He has it, too… The Hobgoblin Riot. It lives and breathes in him. ”
Stars: 4.5
I didn’t expect The Hobgoblin Riot to include a troll bukake joke so early on – or at all, for that matter – but that’s on me for thinking Dinniman had limits. That aside (or because of it?) I was equally impressed by book two of this series.
Storyline & Worldbuilding
This book had a larger scale than both DoB and DCC, which I really enjoyed. Ruling an entire city is something totally different in gaming and I appreciated the depth of worldbuilding. The book graduated from “keep yourself alive” dungeon crawling to full-on kingdom management with politics, infrastructure systems, and large-scale troop movements.
The book definitely echoes DCC's stratified level structure—there's no dancing around that. Dinniman differentiates them enough that it functions (the Spiral operates as dimensional invasion waves rather than static floors), but the iterative rhythm creates unavoidable narrative déjà vu. The prepare-defend-upgrade-repeat loop is mechanically satisfying but creates monotony.
Side note: The skill integration is really solid. The world responds to player action in ways that make progression feel earned and meaningful (characters boosting tower range through stats, for example, or unlocking skill trees by doing random shit like fishing).
Considering Dinniman's author note about compressing two books into one, the 589-page length simultaneously feels too long (those repetitive Spiral sequences) and too short (the broader political arc deserved more breathing room).
Characters
I liked the way this book is written with “notes” from each character, especially bringing Poppy’s foul-mouthed, curse-filled debauchery to the forefront of the story. Alice scored big points here, too. It set the book apart from the more traditional, straight-forward litRPG story that was Dominion of Blades. And, honestly, Poppy was really the main character of The Hobgoblin Riot in my mind.
I also felt like as the NPCs began to gain their independence and personalities, they formed a strong cast of supporting characters, which was not something really seen in DCC where it was focused just on human players. Raj's arc alone justifies this book's existence.
The other critical thing to understand: this series is NOT complete. But I think there’s a lot of potential for book three to go big both in and out of the game.
Stars: 4.5
I didn’t expect The Hobgoblin Riot to include a troll bukake joke so early on – or at all, for that matter – but that’s on me for thinking Dinniman had limits. That aside (or because of it?) I was equally impressed by book two of this series.
Storyline & Worldbuilding
This book had a larger scale than both DoB and DCC, which I really enjoyed. Ruling an entire city is something totally different in gaming and I appreciated the depth of worldbuilding. The book graduated from “keep yourself alive” dungeon crawling to full-on kingdom management with politics, infrastructure systems, and large-scale troop movements.
The book definitely echoes DCC's stratified level structure—there's no dancing around that. Dinniman differentiates them enough that it functions (the Spiral operates as dimensional invasion waves rather than static floors), but the iterative rhythm creates unavoidable narrative déjà vu. The prepare-defend-upgrade-repeat loop is mechanically satisfying but creates monotony.
Side note: The skill integration is really solid. The world responds to player action in ways that make progression feel earned and meaningful (characters boosting tower range through stats, for example, or unlocking skill trees by doing random shit like fishing).
Considering Dinniman's author note about compressing two books into one, the 589-page length simultaneously feels too long (those repetitive Spiral sequences) and too short (the broader political arc deserved more breathing room).
Characters
I liked the way this book is written with “notes” from each character, especially bringing Poppy’s foul-mouthed, curse-filled debauchery to the forefront of the story. Alice scored big points here, too. It set the book apart from the more traditional, straight-forward litRPG story that was Dominion of Blades. And, honestly, Poppy was really the main character of The Hobgoblin Riot in my mind.
I also felt like as the NPCs began to gain their independence and personalities, they formed a strong cast of supporting characters, which was not something really seen in DCC where it was focused just on human players. Raj's arc alone justifies this book's existence.
The other critical thing to understand: this series is NOT complete. But I think there’s a lot of potential for book three to go big both in and out of the game.
May 22, 2024
So I've come to DoB after reading Dungeon Crawler Carl. This somewhat has changed my opinion of this book but overall I'd say I'm giving DoB a fair shake. Originally I came across DoB some year or years ago and missed reading book 2. Now that I have read book 2 I'm a little disappointing on the writing and story overall. Reading other reviews I'm a little confused on people like DoB over DCC as I feel the writing and plot is far superior from Dinniman in DCC. DoB and the characters just feels a little more distant and less enjoyable. It could be my lack of enjoyment of things moving at the speed of plot that can easily be changed at any point in time. The spaceship plot, the attempts at character development, and the changes in the game all just seem to be so fluid it's hard to get attached to any one aspect. It's hard to pin down but there's just a hollow feeling from this story compared to all else that's out there.
December 3, 2021
As the author wrote himself he mashed two books into one. His way to use the form of notes of the characters is mildly put rather annoying (unlike JL Bourne´s "Day by Day Armageddon"). The writing and editing (if any) got really bad unfortunately. The perpetual switch between the characters seemd sometimes somewhat forced and them going on and on of the characters about their personal issues was REALLY annoying. Popper´s writing in particular put me off. The motivation behind the intention to crash the ship and kill everybody seemed rather idiotic to me... Same goes for the Hobgoblins - they have been driven out from Indonesia and now they are in France to avenge themselves....
The story is mainly about tower defense, mass murder and revenge. For me this was Dinniman´s worst book so far.
The story is mainly about tower defense, mass murder and revenge. For me this was Dinniman´s worst book so far.
August 26, 2025
Now I’m just pissed. Because after his enormous success of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, and The Hobgoblin Riot sitting unsequelized since 2018…I don’t know when we will get more adventures from Jonah, Gretchen, and Poppy.
This isn’t as good as the first book. I have the same issue with this as with Book 7 of DCC…it all takes place in one place/with one objective. Don’t get me wrong, I was never bored for almost 600 pages because Matt Dinniman is one of the most readable authors alive. But I really think he thrives and excels in variety. One other thing I wish? I wish the “out of game“ world was more fleshed out. Because every time I got a nugget of that world, I was completely fixated.
I guess I will have to wait until February for more Dinniman. But I’ve really enjoyed this journey. He’s arguably the most fun author I’ve ever experienced.
This isn’t as good as the first book. I have the same issue with this as with Book 7 of DCC…it all takes place in one place/with one objective. Don’t get me wrong, I was never bored for almost 600 pages because Matt Dinniman is one of the most readable authors alive. But I really think he thrives and excels in variety. One other thing I wish? I wish the “out of game“ world was more fleshed out. Because every time I got a nugget of that world, I was completely fixated.
I guess I will have to wait until February for more Dinniman. But I’ve really enjoyed this journey. He’s arguably the most fun author I’ve ever experienced.
December 6, 2020
Dull start but decent end
I really struggled with the first, I wanna say, 60% of this book. It felt like a real slog to get through and I feel the way the information (it felt like information rather than story) was doled out wasn't as good as the first book.
The real meat of the actual story happens in the last 30% after all that info is set up, but considering the premise is that this book is a collection of notes detailing past events, I feel the set up vs the story pacing could have been handled differently.
It was very disappointing to have to wait so long in to feel like the story was actually progressing, but with that said, I'm now soo intrigued by the ending that I do want to pick up the next book. Hopefully the pacing issues will be ironed out
I really struggled with the first, I wanna say, 60% of this book. It felt like a real slog to get through and I feel the way the information (it felt like information rather than story) was doled out wasn't as good as the first book.
The real meat of the actual story happens in the last 30% after all that info is set up, but considering the premise is that this book is a collection of notes detailing past events, I feel the set up vs the story pacing could have been handled differently.
It was very disappointing to have to wait so long in to feel like the story was actually progressing, but with that said, I'm now soo intrigued by the ending that I do want to pick up the next book. Hopefully the pacing issues will be ironed out
April 19, 2021
Two books mashed into one did not a good storytelling make.
"My original intention was to have the action of Books 2 and 3 happen at the same time. One would be from Popper’s point of view, and the other would be from Jonah’s. As I came to the end of the first draft of Book 2 way back in August of 2017, it became clear that wasn’t going to work. As a result, I’ve combined the two." Authors Note.
The result is pretty damned annoying to read. Not bad as content, but the transitions between viewpoints tend either to blur together or force you to take non-sequential trips. Also, ending get's several sort of shades confusing and i can only guess that most of the dramatis personae suffer from some sort of mental trauma.
"My original intention was to have the action of Books 2 and 3 happen at the same time. One would be from Popper’s point of view, and the other would be from Jonah’s. As I came to the end of the first draft of Book 2 way back in August of 2017, it became clear that wasn’t going to work. As a result, I’ve combined the two." Authors Note.
The result is pretty damned annoying to read. Not bad as content, but the transitions between viewpoints tend either to blur together or force you to take non-sequential trips. Also, ending get's several sort of shades confusing and i can only guess that most of the dramatis personae suffer from some sort of mental trauma.
March 14, 2022
Piles of undead chasing the main character because of his curse, taking over a kingdom, and deciding to have one of his people go and investigate another kingdom.
While having his magical advisor open up the gate, when his friend steps through he is drafted into a world event that requires him to defend the city.
Quick and easy like the magical advisor helps the king through the portal. He too is drafted, and cut off from his kingdom.
For the rest of the book its like a castle defense game with traps, and a long path the invaders have to travel through. 5 waves and the boss of the final wave, defeated by a level 1 spell.
We do find out a bit more about whats going on with the ship saboteurs but, thats mostly in passing in the epilogue.
While having his magical advisor open up the gate, when his friend steps through he is drafted into a world event that requires him to defend the city.
Quick and easy like the magical advisor helps the king through the portal. He too is drafted, and cut off from his kingdom.
For the rest of the book its like a castle defense game with traps, and a long path the invaders have to travel through. 5 waves and the boss of the final wave, defeated by a level 1 spell.
We do find out a bit more about whats going on with the ship saboteurs but, thats mostly in passing in the epilogue.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 1, 2023
We get other PoV's following the first book, and while I appreciated the bold change as an idea, I may not have quite clicked with it. I preferred the first book's style. That being said, this book had more changes than just that.
This wasn't a normal LitRPG as the other. This was a tower defense, with wave after wave of attackers. It absolutely required a very different style. No casual adventuring. Just siege, a few story reveals and progressions, and more siege.
Maybe my mood was for more of the previous, alas, but this was still pretty decent. Hobgoblins are obviously a HUGE part of this. :)
This wasn't a normal LitRPG as the other. This was a tower defense, with wave after wave of attackers. It absolutely required a very different style. No casual adventuring. Just siege, a few story reveals and progressions, and more siege.
Maybe my mood was for more of the previous, alas, but this was still pretty decent. Hobgoblins are obviously a HUGE part of this. :)
December 10, 2019
The book continues where the first one left off, and was a good continuation of the story. The world building is very well done and has a ton of LITRPG elements. This story essentially takes place in a tower defense battle. It is also told as individual books by each character, but it works since their voices stay the same. We do get some more story on the ship and what is happening, but this book felt longer than it probably should have. The narration was better this time. I received this book for free for my honest review.
February 9, 2022
4.5 stars
Super action packed - it's one thing after another. I should feel fatigued by how much happens, all the twists and turns, but somehow I wasn't. I needed to know how they were going to get out of this mess.
Though looking at how long it took me to read it - maybe I was fatigued! Haha oops. To be fair, I did pick up a new game and got a bit obsessed with it.
Super action packed - it's one thing after another. I should feel fatigued by how much happens, all the twists and turns, but somehow I wasn't. I needed to know how they were going to get out of this mess.
Though looking at how long it took me to read it - maybe I was fatigued! Haha oops. To be fair, I did pick up a new game and got a bit obsessed with it.
May 29, 2019
This book is full of weaponized plot holes and expositional crimes against humanity, but also largely-unforgettable characters and awesome RPG-based battles. You remember all the whacky characters in Shrek and Toy Story? That's the type of character roster you can look forward to. Except they're all grown up, sexually active and ready to talk shit. That book cover with the little girl Chucky and a purple hippo/unicorn? That's only a small taste of the kind of shennanigans.
December 30, 2020
Wheeeee
While the first book came primarily from one character’s perspective, this one shot between several. The voice change wasn’t perfect, but it was interesting to see this take on the events from multiple perspectives. The characters have gotten WAY powerful, and it’s clear there are more powers to come. Some of the side characters have hinted at the future, but I don’t know what will come to pass.
And there is still the problem solving happening outside of the “game world”. In a lot of books, that stuff seems irrelevant, but it’s tied in nicely here.
While the first book came primarily from one character’s perspective, this one shot between several. The voice change wasn’t perfect, but it was interesting to see this take on the events from multiple perspectives. The characters have gotten WAY powerful, and it’s clear there are more powers to come. Some of the side characters have hinted at the future, but I don’t know what will come to pass.
And there is still the problem solving happening outside of the “game world”. In a lot of books, that stuff seems irrelevant, but it’s tied in nicely here.
November 5, 2021
More Twisted Than A Dozen Pretzels!
The plot line, the characters, and the traps are all more convoluted than dozen pretzels. This novel, the second in a series, delves deep into the history and psyche of the three main characters -- Jonah, Poppy/Popper, and Gretchen. All three are far more complex than the preceding novel had revealed.
This series may appeal to fans of the wider Fantasy genre and to those who enjoy playing RPGs.
The plot line, the characters, and the traps are all more convoluted than dozen pretzels. This novel, the second in a series, delves deep into the history and psyche of the three main characters -- Jonah, Poppy/Popper, and Gretchen. All three are far more complex than the preceding novel had revealed.
This series may appeal to fans of the wider Fantasy genre and to those who enjoy playing RPGs.
November 8, 2021
Great series
I love this series. The author has stated that he was going to finish Dungeon Crawler Carl before he finished this one. That series is actually what got me interested in this one (plus the wonderful narrator mentioned Popper's character at Litcon). Anyways I guess I get that but I hate I'm going to have to wait. The author really knows how to pull me into these books.
I love this series. The author has stated that he was going to finish Dungeon Crawler Carl before he finished this one. That series is actually what got me interested in this one (plus the wonderful narrator mentioned Popper's character at Litcon). Anyways I guess I get that but I hate I'm going to have to wait. The author really knows how to pull me into these books.
November 28, 2023
I NEED BOOK THREE!!!! I MUST KNOW WHAT COMES NEXT!!! Matt Dinniman is cemented as a fave LitRPG fantasy author ❤️ Along with Popper being my fave character, I'm adding Bingo, Alice, and Raj 🥰 Also, F*CK Isabella! That manipulative hypocritical c*nt! Super curious about Gretchen's backstory, she really keeps a lid on it. So glad NPCs respawn, or my heart would just 💔 forever, but what happened with that mage pr*ck? 🤔
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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