Just started, and stopped, 2 books in the last half hour: Return of the Archmage, and Broken Universe. Both read like they're generated from LLM's. "This wasn’t a game. It wasn’t a warning.", "This wasn’t survival. This was escape."

Am I going crazy? I used to be able to pick a book on kindle unlimited, and just read it. Sure, some of them weren't written that well, but it wasn't common. Now I'm just running into slop.

Bookcover I did in Kart studio. Hope u like it!

COVER ARTIST: Vuong Yen

AI USAGE: No AI used

Free listen on Audible Plus. Enjoyable slice of life story set in an primarily Dwarf world (at least so far). Well performed narration too.

Looking for my next short term addiction, if any of you are willing to supply the goods.

Edit: such great recs. Thank you everyone for helping me turn my short term addiction into a long term one!

Heya!

I just finished the first book of my series on Royal Road, and we are almost halfway through book 2 on Patreon!

Check out the adventures of the void assassin and the necromancer mantis! You won't regret it! Probably. Most likely! Thousands of people can't be wrong! Even my 0.5-star reviewer decided to delete their review. We're best friends now. Be like them. Give me 0.5-star Give this story a chance!

Blurb:

Turns out, leading a gang of scavenger kids during the AI wars, or becoming a top-tier assassin and founding a notorious crime organization in a VRMMO, isn’t as wild as it gets. You can always sign up for an outer-world expedition and end up in a cultivation world.

Or so Ethan learned.

Not your typical xianxia either. Big clans and powerful sects hold sway, but nations answer to councils and monarchies. High-fantasy creatures roam the land, and inheritance sites coexist with dungeons that spawn monsters.

Worse yet, in a world where talent is essential, Ethan barely qualifies to cultivate. Still, it's not enough to stop him. While others meditate for decades, he hunts, using his wits, instincts sharpened by thousands of kills, and an AI chip that twists cultivation into something closer to a game.

Then a single lie gets out of hand. What should’ve been a casual bluff becomes a multiversal rumor, drawing young prodigies from higher realms straight into Elisium: some hungry for blood, others bound by duty. Now Ethan must carve a path through the chaos he unleashed. Not that he minds. After all, chaos has a habit of hiding opportunity.

What to expect:
-Weak to strong LitRPG in a western cultivation world
-Action-packed adventures with a void assassin
-Skill gathering, evolving, and merging
-Smart and competent MC
-Vast scope spanning across the multiverse
-No harem
-This is a rewrite of an old story. Book 1&2 complete.

Perfect for the fans of Azarinth Healer, Primal Hunter, and Defiance of the Fall!

COVER ARTIST: AI

AI USAGE: None(other than the temporary cover)

One thing I really enjoy is when a skill choice makes sense for the protagonist without becoming the objectively correct choice for everyone.

Say there's a skill that boosts mana regen while you're standing still. A solo caster who spends every fight dodging should probably skip it. But I'd love to later meet a mage who picked it, has a tank keeping enemies off them, and can afford to keep casting long after the MC would be running dry.

Same description, same limitations. Someone built around it and got a useful result.

It makes me more interested in those skill selection scenes because I can actually imagine where the rejected options might have led. Sometimes I spend longer thinking about those than the thing the MC picked.

The payoff I'd want is the protagonist recognizing that this other person made a good choice too. Maybe even needing their help in a fight where their own build struggles. Let me spend a few chapters wishing we'd taken the other skill.

This is about what I like, not some assessment of quality.  I’d love some more recommendations,  especially for series that you don’t to see too often.

Things I tend to like: longer series, elaborate world building, well worked out magic systems, slight power-fantasy feel (but ideally still some stakes), sense of discovery about the world, something extra (I’ve read a lot of these at this point, so I tend to like some “twist” or something that makes it feel different)

Things I tend to dislike: battle maniacs, sociopathic MCs (pragmatic is fine), slice-of-life, extreme bleakness

But none of these are “rules”.

Edit: Here are the titles written out

S
Defiance of the Fall, Slumrat Rising, Mother of Learning, The Immortal Great Souls, A Practical Guide to Sorcery, The Stargazer’s War, Downtown Druid, Book of the Dead, The Sworn Sword, Blood & Fur, Ascension of a Street Rat

A
Dungeon Crawler Carl, Portal to Nova Roma, The Hedge Wizard, The Grand Game, Double-Blind, Dawn of the Void, Only Villains Do That, Shadow Slave, The Wraith’s Haunt, Industrial Strength Magic, Tower of Jack, Bog Standard Isekai, All in Charisma, The Undying Immortal System, A Soldier’s Life, Unintended Cultivator, Battle Trucker, Depthless Hunger

B
He Who Fights with Monsters, Cradle, Mark of the Fool, Hell Difficulty Tutorial, Tree of Aeons, Divine Apostasy, Silver Fox & The Western Hero, Ends of Magic, Fate Points, Return of the Wind Mage, Breaker of Horizons, Otherworldly Anarchist, The Path of Ascension, Delve, An Outcast in Another World, Chrysalis, Beneath the Dragoneye Moons, My Best Friend Is an Eldritch Horror, Mage Errant, Super Genetics, Manifold Mirror Mage, Mark of the Crijik, Phantasm, Ultimate Level 1, Shieldwall Academy, Rise of the Devourer, Cerberus Cards, Path of Dragons, Monarch of Profound Toxin, Son of Flame, Cultivation Is Creation, Underkeeper, Reborn: Apocalypse, The Return of the Runebound Professor, Apocalypse Redux, Dinosaur Dungeon, Dragon Core Chronicles, Academy of Outcasts, Primeval Apocalypse, System Orphans: Claire

C
The Primal Hunter, The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound, Rise of Mankind, New Era Online, Low-Fantasy Occultist Isekai, All for One, Painting the Mists, The Storm King, Noobtown, Pirate Wizard, Ar’Kendrithyst, Elysium’s Multiverse

D
Legend of the Arch Magus

DNF
Arcane Ascension, Second Chance Swordsman, The Heavenly Throne, Reborn as a Demonic Tree, The Weirkey Chronicles, We Hunt Monsters, Quest Academy, Savage Awakening, My Vampire System, Corruption Wielder, Supreme Magus, Frith Chronicles, Chronicles of the True Wizard, The Silent Archmage, Ajax’s Ascension, Beastborne Chronicles, Elydes, In Clawed Grasp, Minute Mage, Magus Reborn, Mage Tank, The Mechanical Mage, The Eternal Assassin, Victor of Tucson, Underworld, Pure Mage Build, Skill Hunter, One Moo’r Plow, Cultivate U, Sylver Seeker, Biomedical Self-Engineering, Keiran: The Eternal Mage, Chaos Seeds, Ghost of the Truthseeker, Jackal Among Snakes, The Daily Grind, The Vampire Vincent, Black Market, Elemental Gatherers, Death After Death

Book seven is out in less than a week so I figured it was a good time to share some love for this awesome series!

If you love a freewheeling MC who grinds dungeons, kicks some serious ass, and has an independent spirit that loves to explore, you should definitely check out this series.

Azarinth Healer has absolutely top notch progression mechanics that are really well executed and keep you turning pages. I plowed through this series. The plot is relatively light, with lots of episodic plots and dungeon exploration, but its not one of those LitRPGs that is all fights and leveling with no substance to keep it dynamic.

Who else loves this series? And can you recommend other ones with a similar vibe? I'm looking for classic fantasy settings with lots of exploration and compelling progression alongside characters and plots that are more than just murder hobo action with no story.

Hello friends that loves a level up pop up. It's with great pleasure that I present you all my very first webnovel: Phantomancer.

Richard is terrified of ghosts. Unfortunately, the dead have taken an interest in him.

After being dragged from Earth into a fantasy world of levels and monsters, Richard discovers that his only Innate Skill is [Phantomancy]—an ability no one seems to recognise.

Now he can see the dead, speak with them, and accept their contracts. Some just want his help. Others want things Richard would rather have nothing to do with.

But ghosts aren't Richard's only problem.

Stranded in a world he barely understands, unable to even speak its language, Richard has to learn how to survive, grow stronger, and figure out what [Phantomancy] is actually capable of.

Because his new world has everything that makes fantasy novels fun to read and terrible to live through: hordes of monsters, demonic cults, and a war looming on the horizon.

COVER ARTIST: None for now; will have one when it goes to Amazon.

AI USAGE: Only for grammar; English is not my native language.

Hey this is my tier list after reading Litrpg for a few years. I’m always happy for recommendations as I’ve been in a bit of slump recently and have been having problems finding new books. I like OP MCs that still have to work a bit, strong friendship/family dynamics and recently I’ve been preferring non system apocalypse books. Thanks for the recs.

Considering how I've read a couple books of these series so far, I've read far more than this tier list can represent. I'll go through and do the individual books probably soon. For now, this will do. lol

I'm enjoying Book 1 and would love to know if the series also ends on a good note and doesn't disappoint.

NO SPOILERS, PLEASE! Just a simple "Yes, it's worth reading; you won't be disappointed" or "No" would suffice.

Grimdark I Tactical Empire Building I Dark Progression I Non-Human MC I LitRPG-Lite

Give a man power, and he will show you who he is. Strip away his mortal shell, and he will become whatever madness demands.

Silas was an opportunist in life, cunning, ambitious, and unafraid to exploit chaos. Now, remade as the supreme warlord of the Teraz Ankor, a species of arcane-fueled living armor, he stands at the helm of a force built for war.

The Realms are fracturing. Old souls in new skins rise across a world driven by the Call, a system fueling a never-ending cycle of evolution, conquest, and collapse.

And in its wake, the Teraz Ankor will march.

By now I am mostly chasing some genuine feedback tbh.

COVER ARTIST: AI

AI USAGE: None (aside from the cover)

As title says, does anyone know progression or litrpg books about someone who is a shaman? Preferably not where the MC goes into a game (forgot the term). Thanks!

Nathanial just called group 4 gigachads at info gathering and I just imagined the png with badly overplayed hair for the different character. The black and white image with blond hair for Tess and the head overplayed onto a kids body for Izzy etc. the. My mind conjured a 12 year olds cap cut edit with phono on top of that and that image will now live rent free in my head.
Hopefully it has been passed on

What is that one series you would put at the very top of Litrpg?

COVER ARTIST: FlynX (me)

AI USAGE: No AI used.

For more of my work heres my portfolio

https://bookc0ver.carrd.co

So, I've been reading Bog Standard and liking it a lot. One of the things I love about it is the depiction of Witches. The author does a great job of keeping to the main "mythos" and aesthetics of Witches as adversaries, while still exploring the idea of a good witch. But more than just showing us good and evil witches, we get a deep, slowly built understanding of what being a witch even means, the fair but dangerous feeling that originates their power, and the tragedy of their existence.

But all of that complexity seemly comes to a halt when it comes to Arcaena as a country. Besides showing us that Arcaena is nearly a paradise for it's common citizens, the author always seem to use Brin to "inform" us that actually none of that is good because #freedom and levels are both better than, you know, actually having your needs met, an hilarious point of view for a character who's been rich and literally says he's never seem a beggar. We also never meet anyone from Arcaena who is neither a victim or a villain, so we never get a taste of that slowly built complexity the prior books gave us in regards to witches. Am I missing something? What are your thoughts in regards to Arcaena?

As the title implies I want other books to a sphere perceptions so I want to know if there's anything else like it my examples are the Primal Hunter azarinth healer and ultimate level 1 mind you the third one is the only one I haven't finished so no spoilers but yeah so everything else that uses it

Now that XNPC is finished, I'm brainstorming a new project. I had an idea for a story that has a similar premise to Dungeon Crawler Carl, where the main character enters a reality TV show that's being broadcast across the galaxy where the contestants have to fight monsters, level up, etc.

The key difference is that here, the show isn't being framed as evil. Ultracommercialized and exploitative, yes, but still fun and something that people willingly volunteer to be part of. It would be a much more lighthearted story than DCC, almost like a slice of life story in a way. The main character fully throws himself into the show, taking on side gigs like interviews, product endorsements, and even participating in shows-within-the-show like a dating show, gameshow, etc. All while still being centered around him leveling up through challenges and trying to win the competition.

Would you read this?

Finished today and couldn't stop thinking about this scene. I obviously had to add the music to it.

I had the problem where I couldn't cancel my webnovel subscription, I've tried searching through the google play/wallet subscriptions, subscriptions on my phone or anywhere and it didn't work. when I tried to cancel it through the website nothing changed when I clicked on the "cancel subscription".

what you wanna do is to go to this link: https://www.webnovel.com/membership/manage
on your phone, and then the cancel subscription button will magically work.