Book Review: The Dungeon vol. 5, The Hidden City

Getting to the second Charles de Lint book in Phillip José Farmer's The Dungeon series was a great treat. In this novel, heavy inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Major Clive Folliot and company have now reached the penultimate (next-to-last) level of The Dungeon, and as the last gateway was a looking glass, the problems begin for the group almost immediately.

For starters, the group is split into four rather than two groups - which does allow the story to focus on each group for a section of each chapter to build tension, and in true Alice in Wonderland fashion, one of the groups starts out over sized compared to the world and the other being this level in a micronized (less than an inch in height) fashion.

The story builds quite nicely from the previous two novels, taking the actions, plot and motivations offered there into account with this book. Part of what I've enjoyed so much about this series is how a group of four authors work to create this amazing world.

As with the second novel, I wouldn't recommend reading this book alone if, like me, you are working through the works of de Lint, but assuming the final novel ends works the same way, this entire series is definitely worth a visit.