In this set of novels, we really start seeing more and more of the external impact, and some of the bigger picture. There are still so many questions but the story is continuing to grow bigger as we learn more. So many more lawsuits and injunctions about decisions and actions in the game that play but they are mostly just irritating the ever more off the rails AI.
Book 6: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride – floor 7&8
First a maze and then a Pokémon game with cards? Where the parties (or squad in this one) have been separated again to various regions of the world? While the books have been warning that crawlers will often have to confront their friends and families in later levels, we actually see it in this one. And given the structure of the game, Carl and Donut can tell that the game creators are trying to turn the crawlers against each other.
Book 7: This Inevitable Ruin – Floor 9
The Faction Wars – these have been looming for quite a while and Carl was taking actions as far back as Floor 5 to mess this up for the real government and corporate entities that would participate in these. Carl and Donut have managed to get the crawlers included as their own faction, buying their way into one of the nine slots with Donut’s fan club, and the NPCs have also been acknowledged as their own independent party, making them an unprecedented 10th party. The game creators and the syndicate have lost control of the AI, and the results of these faction wars could have some very long ranging impacts if the eight other factions don’t take out the crawlers quickly. One of my favorite parts of this was seeing more of past crawlers and more about the previous cookbook authors, and where they ended up.