Ah, Literary Role Play Game novels. Such a dichotomy of pleasure and pain. Pleasure in their premise – a fantasy or (occasionally) sci-fi novel which incorporates game-like statistics to track character progress, all overseen by a gaming “System”. And… pain. Lots of pain, take your pick, this genre has it all: poor spelling, entirely missing words, awkward grammar, misogyny, shallow characters, stilted dialogue, poor translations and more!
And yet I’ve read over a hundred LitRPG titles over the past three or four years. In fact, I’ve barely read anything but this genre since I started on it. What’s going on??
There’s definitely an addiction here and I suspect that it’s a killer combination of being a board-games player, a video-games player and an avid reader that results in my ability to look past many of the pain points I mentioned above. Mostly look past, at least. There are some absolutely terrible examples of LitRPG out there, but there are also some absolute gems. Here’s a few worth talking about.
Diamond Rank
These are the books I’ve enjoyed the most over the past four years. They’re not perfect, but these are the series where I was hanging on the next book coming out, or have re-read entirely because I enjoyed them so much the first time around.
He Who Fights with Monsters, by Shirtaloon (aka Travis Deverell)
One of the more famous LitRPG series, featuring both xianxia themes of cultivation and isekai (travelling to another world), He Who Fights With Monsters is up to 12 books at the time of this article. We follow the exploits of Jason Asano, a seemingly ordinary half-Australian, half-Japanese office supplies middle manager who is suddenly and inexplicably whisked from Earth and deposited on Pallimustus, an alternative Earth that boasts heroes powered by magical abilities called “Essences”.
Jason has to quickly adapt to his new circumstances as an Outworlder, become an Essence-user and become stronger to face the many challenges of this new world.
There’s a lot of humour in these books as the sharp-talking protagonist navigates his way through some truly absurd situations, but there’s also an exciting undercurrent of grim tension that offsets that absurdity and grounds the series in a way that the reader can relate to. If you found yourself suddenly summoning swarms of leeches from your hands, your reactions might be quite similar to Jason’s! That relatability is key throughout later books that explore the mental and emotional burdens Jason faces as the harsh realities of his situation start to sink in.
Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman
The general advice on the internet is that if you’re going to read LitRPG and fall in love with it, you should save Dungeon Crawler Carl till last. Because if you start with it, it’s so good that everything else will pale by comparison. Turns out, this is absolutely true.
Written in the first person, Dungeon Crawler Carl is actually very light on traditional LitRPG progression themes. The premise, that the end of humanity is turned into an alien reality show which is broadcast across galaxies, is truly absurd. As is the fact that Carl’s cat, Princess Donut, gains sentience and together they form a duo that becomes one of the most successful teams of the “show”. But somehow Dinniman not only makes it feel real, but you become deeply and emotionally invested in the success of Carl and Donut as they traverse the various “levels” the aliens have devised to keep the show’s viewers happy.
And not just Carl and Donut. This is a world without limits, with a vast cast of supporting characters, and yet you’ll care just as much for Prepotente the talking goat as you do about Mongo the velociraptor, or Imani, a nursing home carer, turned butterfly/healer. Hell, you even become invested in the artificial intelligence that oversees the show, despite its, shall we say, unusual interest in our protagonist who is forced into the Dungeon wearing only his leather jacket and a pair of boxer shorts.
The humour is top drawer (pun intended), but like He Who Fights with Monsters, there’s a dark, visceral undercurrent as Carl watches humanity fall to the brutal gameshow and it becomes apparent that his fight is on multiple levels – one in the show, a second fight in the wider universe beyond Earth, and yet another for his own mental and emotional health and how that affects his relationships with the people who come to depend on him for their survival.
Cradle, by Will Wight
Probably the most faithful xianxia novel in the diamond list, Cradle follows Wei Shi Lindon on his journey from zero to hero, using a well thought-out, but fairly classic metal/gem progression tree. While this is classic progression, Cradle’s earliest surprise is that it includes an almost sci-fi element of a wider universe that oversees Lindon’s world. The combination of what’s happening in the Sacred Valley where Lindon grows up, and that “alien” oversight creates the sense of an enormous playing field for Cradle’s many and varied characters.
There’s a dollop of humour throughout the series, but Cradle is probably one of the more serious entries in this list. The stakes turn out to be very high, and it’s clear that author Will Wight had scoped almost the entire story line before he started writing – introducing glimpses of well-defined characters and plot progression that we don’t encounter until several books into the series.
Divine Apostasy (Shade’s First Rule), by A.F. Kay
Another classic xianxia series, the Divine Apostasy kicks off with Shade’s First Rule. We’re introduced to Ruwen Starfield, a sharp young man on the brink of his 16th birthday – a birthday that will trigger his ascension and allow him to fulfil his lifelong dream of becoming a mage. However, his ascension is far from normal and he’s quickly plunged into a world of layered conspiracies that change his life forever.
A.F. Kay does a fine job of throwing multiple fun curve balls with this series of books, and like Will Wight’s Cradle series, it’s clear that the author has already penned out significant milestones in the story arc such that early hints in book one might not be realised until several books into the series (up to 11 at the time of writing). Also similar to Cradle, the series alludes to a wider universe with accompanying light sci-fi elements underpinning the classic fantasy atmosphere.
The author has a real job on his hands with Ruwen’s development. Our main character will often experience an enormous jump in power, which then equally often needs to be balanced in order to provide any sense of threat or danger in future situations. Ultimately, this is a series about a one in a trillion individual challenging the gods and beyond, so this kind of McGuffin-like balance crops up quite frequently and can be slightly frustrating.
But the book is written with such warmth and humour to balance the gritty situations Ruwen finds himself in, it’s impossible not to love the series.
Unintended Cultivator, Eric Dontigney
Lu Sen’s progression from orphaned street rat to an immortal’s disciple is as classic as it comes, and the book, indeed the first two books, take their time in introducing Sen to the wider world. But it slowly becomes clear that cultivator Feng Ming, the legendary “Fate’s Razor”, chose Sen for a reason. Ming takes Sen back to his mountain retreat to train him, alongside Ming’s companions Kho Jaw-Long (The Living Spear) and Ma Caihong (Alchemy’s Handmaiden).
Sen’s humility is a key personality trait throughout the series, and it never stops being funny when he runs into powerful foes and yet overcomes them, all while claiming mediocrity, because of who he was trained by. He simply has no context of what “normal” is, so always talks himself down when comparing his capabilities to his immortal mentors.
But as the series progresses, and Sen’s circumstances and capabilities extend beyond even what the world considers normal, the series starts to take shape as Sen races to survive his unorthodox “double” cultivation method, and ancient sprits meddle in his development.
There’s a innocence and pureness to the way Sen is written in these books which make them a joy to read.
Gem Stages
Here’s a selection of shorter reviews of series I’ve enjoyed, but some element is holding me back from putting them in the diamond section. It might be quality of writing, vision of the series as a whole, or (in the case of Warformed) a lack of books over a long period of years. Still highly recommended, but perhaps a diamond in the rough, rather than the finished, polished gem it could be.
The Path of Ascension, by C. Mantis
Classic xianxia in a sci-fi universe featuring “rifts” which create a path to power. Unusual in that while the MC has a unique “talent” that powers the story, he is rarely the sole focus on the book, which encompasses his entire team. It also features the concept of progression taking decades or centuries, and the wider universe is often brought into focus politically as the years pass.
Warformed, by Bryce O’Connor (and for book one, Luke Chmilenko)
The story follows weak, sickly Reidon Ward who qualifies, through a combination of grit, determination and luck, for an army-like academy at which each attendee is given a “Combat Assistance Device” (CAD). Reidon’s CAD is incredibly weak, ranked at the lowest category “F”, for every stat… except one. This is stat-heavy, classic (but sci-fi) xianxia, with a hint of manga. Great fun, but with only two books in the series to date since 2020, we’re in for a wait for the full story arc. Both books are over a thousand pages long, however, so there’s still a lot of content in there!
The Grand Game, by Tom Elliot
Another reasonably stat-heavy entry, The Grand Game features a fractured world, split into sectors, in which Michael, our protagonist, must initially survive, then somehow flourish. An early encounter with imprisoned wolves turns out to be a central theme for the series, and Michael’s evolution and power-set is dominated by his desire to restore “House Wolf” and challenge the three existing domineering powers and their monopoly over new players.
The Stargazer’s War, by J.P. Valentine
The Stargazer is a rare beast in that its purely sci-fi, and almost “hard” sci-fi at that, featuring the very real risks that open space creates – hard vacuum, and the cold, cramped spaces of a mining rig, or colony. Our protagonist exists in a universe where humans might become cultivators, living gods with the power to enhance their physicality, or manipulate the environment around them, but who rely on cultivating the qi, or life energy, of their environment. This means that cultivators in space run the risk of becoming qi-starved monsters, and it’s such an event that catapults Cal into an unusual form of cultivation that changes his life forever. Featuring a great cast of believable characters, this story starts strong and gets even better in book two as we start to see the wider universe and how its politics affect Cal and his friends.
Metal Stages
These books are all, in various ways, fun to read, but perhaps didn’t grab me in the way I’d hoped. I still enjoyed them – as evidenced by the fact that I bought multiple books in these series. Maybe they’ll resonate with you even more though!
Eight, by Samer Rabadi
Normally, in isekai, the whole language barrier is hand-waved away by magical translation provided by the “system”. In Eight, not only is the protagonist born into the world as an eight-year-old boy, but he also has to learn the language while surviving in the forest while he does so. An unusual story told from an unusual angle makes this worth a read.
An Outcast in Another World, by Kamakaze Potato
Classic isekai that sees Rob, a perfectly normal human, catapulted into a world of elves and dwarves where those races have committed genocide against the human race. Rob has to deal with the “high” that comes from levelling up, all while piecing together the history that led to the genocide in the first place.
System Universe, by SunriseCV
Another isekai, where the “system” comes to Earth, transforming humans into powerhouses. The story starts when the highest-level human is trapped by a void spell that catapults him to another world, already dominated by a similar, but competing “system” that resets him to level 1, but keeps his stats as a baseline, allowing him to become massively over powered as he progresses all over again.
All the Skills, by Honour Rae
A villager-to-hero story, as a young man happens across the devastation by a dragon of a noble’s high-value delivery – a rare “spell shard” that allows him to develop as a “Master of Skills”, becoming excellent at, well, everything, through simple repetition.
The Rest
Honestly, there are too many to list, but I’ll give it a shot. LitRPG, as a sub-genre of GameLit, is one of the fastest growing genres right now, and the choice, on Amazon at least (more on that below), is staggering. Some more series I’ve enjoyed, in no particular order:
- Oath of the Healer, by Jonathon Brooks
- Oath of the Survivor, by James Meyer
- The Calamitous Bob, by Alex Gilbert
- The Jade Phoenix Saga, by F.I. Freed
- The Ripple System, by Kyle Kirrin
- Beneath the Dragoneye Moons, by Selkie Myth
- Falling with Folded Wings, by Plum Parrot
- Unbound, by Nicoli Gonnella
- The Crystal Shards Online, by Rick Scott
- Apocalypse: The Stitched Worlds, by Macronomicon
Quirks
It’s been suggested that LitRPG books often seem to feature quite neurodiverse protagonists, such as in the series Primal Hunter or Defiance of the Fall. Sadly, this isn’t really explored, and there’s some debate as to whether they were intentionally written that way or not! But some autistic readers on the internet have reported that they find some of these characters, or at least some of their traits, very relatable.
Personally, I feel that this does neurodiversity a disservice. Primal Hunter’s Jake is pretty distant emotionally and frequently comes across as arrogant, which can be off-putting. I read four or five of the series before giving it a pass. Meanwhile, I bounced right off Defiance of the Fall’s Zac. He lacks the barest of empathy and comes across as insular and condescending.
Now, the few neurodiverse people I’ve met are all lovely individuals. I think these protagonist characters are just caricatures of driven go-getters; the author’s vision of “alpha male”. That seems to work for a lot of people – Defiance of the Fall is up to 16 books now and Primal Hunter is on book 14 at the time of writing. But they’re not for me.
Another quirk of this genre is that many series are “born” on Royal Road, where they’re written chapter by chapter, and uploaded as the author progresses. While this is a great method of content consumption for many, I find that the stories I’ve read that are written like this suffer in a very specific way. They never end. This might be a positive for you! But when I look at Will Wight’s Cradle, even at 12 books, it was clearly written with a start, a middle and an end, according to a vision that’s often lacking in a chapter-by-chapter series. So if you’re going to dive into the Calamitous Bob, or Beneath the DragonEye Moons, just bear in mind that you might be in for the long haul!
Parting note
Sadly, due to the genre’s immaturity, many entries are self-published on Amazon, and therefore tied into Amazon’s monopolistic and insanely anti-competitive “Kindle Unlimited” feature. If you’re not aware, KU prevents the author from selling their work anywhere else, even on their own web page. This means that if you intend to read on anything other than a Kindle device, or Kindle app, you’re out of luck (unless you de-DRM the file using something like Calibre, which may be illegal in your country).
As a Kobo owner (I highly recommend these readers), that’s a real pain, as I have to jump through various hoops to get content out of Amazon’s monopolistic walled garden.
Please don’t sign up for Kindle Unlimited. And please buy non-DRM encumbered books whenever you can!