- Dungeon Crawler Carl — Alien corporation claims Earth, and the only way out is through a deadly gameshow livestreamed across the whole galaxy. Enter Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Donut. It's a terrific series, wildly creative and well-written. Loads of litRPG crunch, too.
#2Carl's Doomsday Scenario
★★★★★#3The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
★★★★★Minus one star because the irong tangle is so "impossibly complicated" that I'm lost the entire book. Slightly overengineered, this one was.
#4The Gate of the Feral Gods
★★★★★#5The Butcher's Masquerade
★★★★★#6The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
★★★★★#7The Inevitable Ruin
★★★★★Epic battles.
#8A Parade of Horribles
★★★★★
- Asgard's Fall — Old man enters VR game to prolong his remaining life, gets more than he bargained for.
#2Tartarus Rising
★★★★★Somehow surpasses the first book, and not by a little. Setting is peak. Author clearly does his research.
Catharsis
★★★★★Travis Bagwell · Awaken Online
An angry kid becomes a VR villain. Interesting take on the genre. A bit bland IMO.
- Opening Moves — Man and personal AI enter VR game to repay a debt. Action-packed, a uniquely familiar progression system, and an intruiging plotline. Never grows stale. FYI almost skipped on this series because of the underwhelming cover art.
#2Earth's Gambit
★★★★★I'm a sucker for an academy arc. This one was excellent. Not tropey.
#3Sacrificial Pieces
★★★★★End of a trilogy, a miracle in the litRPG genre, where books run indefinitely. The ending is a twist. In another universe, I'd be pissed. But it works here. I still think about it.
- He Who Fights With Monsters — Isekai'd Australian dude escapes a cult with a gaggle of adventurers. Things escalate from there.
#2He Who Fights With Monsters 2
★★★★★#3He Who Fights With Monsters 3
★★★★★#4He Who Fights With Monsters 4
★★★★★Peak. Author pulls off the "comes home, shows off how much he changed" in a way that feels fresh and riveting. I was glued to this book. Probably my favorite in the series.
#5He Who Fights With Monsters 5
★★★★★#6He Who Fights With Monsters 6
★★★★★Tied for favorite book in series.
#7He Who Fights With Monsters 7
★★★★★Pacing was rough. I almost didn't finish. Glad I did because the series picks back up.
#8He Who Fights With Monsters 8
★★★★★Better, still finding its feet, rebuilding lost momentum.
#9He Who Fights With Monsters 9
★★★★★#10He Who Fights with Monsters 10
★★★★★A bit slow in places.
#11He Who Fights with Monsters 11
★★★★★
- Ritualist — Standard "man enters VR game, kicks butt" except the system, plot, and character work together seamlessly to advance the story. Loads of crafting and theorycrafting rituals. Doesn't take itself seriously.
#2Regicide
★★★★★#4Raze
★★★★★I skipped over Book 3. The author wrote Book 3 from the POV of a side character. Fortunately, it's basically a stand-alone novel. I had no issues skipping it. From the main character's POV, book 4 picks up where book 2 left off. This is an excellent book, BTW.
#5Ruthless
★★★★★#6Inflame
★★★★★Author struggled with pacing. The main character lacked agency in a big way for the first half of the novel. Had to put it down a couple times. Glad I finished because the series goes back to being excellent.
#7Invent
★★★★★#8Implode
★★★★★#9Tenacity
★★★★★Introduces tower defense elements. Works shockingly well.
#10Thesaurize
★★★★★#11Thunderplump
★★★★★Caps a strong arc.
#12Untapped
★★★★★Fun return to his roots.
#13Unmapped
★★★★★#14Uncapped
★★★★★
- Player Manager — Poor English salaryman saves a stranger on a whim. His reward: a soccer progression fantasy... with caveats.
#2Player Manager 2
★★★★★Okay, so. Read this book twice. First time, the religious themes took me by surprise. Second time around, I went into it anticipating the themes, and I also read the Amazon version, which is presumably more polished. Excellent read, 5/5 stars.
#3Player Manager 3
★★★★★#4Player Manager 4
★★★★★#5Player Manager 5
★★★★★Wow, bit of a shocker, this one. Slight whiplash at how major the initial setback is. I was reading (walking?) on eggshells for the first three chapter, terrified the MC would totally regress to his book 1 self. Good news: he doesn't.
#6Player Manager 6
★★★★★This series could not possibly get any better.
Stuff and Nonsense
★★★★★Andrew Seiple · Threadbare
A stuffed bear gains sentience and explores the world. Mother of cozycore litRPG. Humorous, fluffy, plenty of litRPG crunch. Delightful characters, a plot with depth. I still think about the twist at the end of the series. Genius!
- The Grand Game — Man without memory dropped in gamelike world and told to get killing. MC is competent and world facinating. Goes down like water.
#2Way of the Wolf
★★★★★Writing is smooth and action fun, but mechanics feel flimsy and characters are forgetable.
#3The World Nexus
★★★★★Fluffy. The plot isn't plotting anymore.
- The Land: Founding — Top gamer seizes a virtual prize and wakes up in a game-like universe. Base-building starts slow, first book is mostly questing.
#2The Land: Forging
★★★★★Base-building picks up, new important chatracters are introduced. Continues escalation of book one smoothly.
#3The Land: Alliances
★★★★★Continues escalation of book 2, a mix of base-building and questing.
#4The Land: Catacombs
★★★★★#5The Land: Swarm
★★★★★#6The Land: Raiders
★★★★★Impressive large-scale battles introduced.
#7The Land: Predators
★★★★★Probably the peak of this series thus far.
#8The Land: Monsters
★★★★★Sloooooow. Loads of negative feedback. Arguably, the book that sent the author on permanent hiatus. Only worth a read if you adore the crunch of complex systems for its own sake.
The Novice
★★★★★Taran Matharu · Summoner
- The Primal Hunter — Quiet normie is caught in an apocalyptic, gamelike tutorial and doesn't hate it. One of the best litRPG systems, crunch-wise. MC has a storng personality, and worldbuilding is top.
#2The Primal Hunter 2
★★★★★Favorite book in the series.
#3The Primal Hunter 3
★★★★★Personal stakes are lost, the tight setting abandoned in favor of something grander. The author never really recovers the epic plot feel from books 1-2. However, the series is fun to digest as a between-books palate cleaners, with fun highlights.
#4The Primal Hunter 4
★★★★★Pacing issues.
#11The Primal Hunter 11
★★★★★Too much low-stakes dungeon-diving! It gets better after book 12, when the Nevemore arc ends.
The Wandering Inn
★★★★★Pirateaba · The Wandering Inn
An isekai adopts the inkeeper class. Funny, with heart. A very long series, but I stopped at around book one because I'm not a fan of multiple viewpoints.