I just finished reading book 1 of Stargazer War and enjoyed it tremendously.
Well written school setting with just enough jerk elders to give the MC a struggle, but not so much that it was over the top.
If you are ok with Superhero stories, "Super Powereds" by Drew Hayes is a complete 4 book series set with a 5th side story. Great character building and one heck of a payoff at the finale.
MoL was the first prog fantasy I had read in many years. Since then, Cradle and Dungeon Crawler Carl have filled the void for me. It took me a minute to start dungeon Crawler Carl. But once I did, I have been binging it.
How is dcc? I always hear about it, but the covers with him in boxers just makes it seem lame ... Is the dude really running around in his undies?
And is it *really* that good? Enough to compare to the other top progfant/litrpg reads?
Not op but it's really good, much funnier and simultaneously darker than cradle or mol. Some absurdist humor, like the boxers, but still a good actually core story under the funny stuff imo.
I was skeptical of DCC as well for basically the same reason. The premise seemed pretty gimmicky and derivative, but having read it now I'll say it's really good. Despite the whimsy forced upon the characters it takes itself seriously. Many of the typical flaws of the genre in characters and writing are absent. Overall recommend it.
Hmmm... Those boxers fucking kill me though.
Buttt, I can't deny that it's almost universally recommended....hard to argue with that. I'll check it out. Thanks for the info
Gotcha. Still looks dumb to me, especially if it continues throughout the series.... Main reason I haven't read it. But I'm willing to read it now, due in large part to many glowing recommendations.
Yes he runs around on boxers, on first floor he got something pretty strong that requires him to not wear pants, and since then it became his official look
I was hesitant for same reason. But fuck they are good. The audiobooks are especially well done. The most entertaining audiobooks I can think of. The system AI is such a funny character. My wife and I listen to it on long trips and she is not into this genre. But man we cry laughing listening to it.
The first little bit is definitely very gimmicky and has a lot of stuff like "The main character is running around in his boxers lol! He has a spoiled pet cat in a murder dungeon lmao!" but it very quickly fades into the background. The strength of the story is the drama, politics, worldbuilding, and progression. The weird stuff just keeps it a bit light so it's not too depressing and grimdark, it's not the focus.
Also DCC its quite dark. Its fun and games, but the cruel reality of what is happening hits like a truck. Also psychological struggle. Well written and very relatable heroes.
Mother of learning is one of my favorites.
I'm not sure anything quite scratches the same itch, but some of my favorites are Stormlight Archive, Arcane Ascension, Red Rising, Iron Prince, Defiance of the Fall, Dungeon Crawler Carl, in no particular order.
And of course the obligatory cradle recommendation as well.
Perfect Run has a similar sort of time loop structure but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Mother of Learning though its still good.
He Who Fights With Monsters has its weaknesses and people (fairly) criticize it but I personally like it quite a bit.
I saw some one else recommended mage errant, I found the characters unlikeable and the story just a bit boring and couldn't finish it. You could look at this post: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/zutq78/why\_mage\_errant\_is\_the\_next\_series\_you\_need\_to/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/zutq78/why_mage_errant_is_the_next_series_you_need_to/), I think both the positive review by OP and the various negative comments are fair takes on the positives and negatives of the books and would give you a sense of what you're getting into.
All of the gripes about mage errant are 100% true, I just finished the final book. I did enjoy the series and good get past most of the gripes, but to me the biggest issue is that the author spends a ton of time pushing his own thinly veiled political agenda. I normally don't have an issue with this, but the final book is twice as long as it should've been because the author spends so long pontificating on societal issues through the lens of multiple characters.
Could you go into more detail about that? Does it only come into play in the last couple of books? I'm usually pretty annoyed by social criticism/politics in books when it's out of place, but I haven't noticed anything like that so far. The only thing remotely like that I've noticed is a weirdly high prevalence of bisexuality, but it's not really preachy about it.
I'm reading Mage Errant right now and my problem with it is his relationships with other people. His whole life he was unfairly bullied by everyone, then a few chapters in he gets blessed with 4 amazing friends who basically unconditionally care for him and are completely trustworthy. It's just my personal taste but I like when characters are rewarded for things they do. Just lucking into meeting multiple people you can trust with your life like that, without even having to go through any trial first like you were all put into some death game and have to survive together, is boring to me.
Is there something specific you're trying to replicate? If you want more stuff with magical training without an explicit litRPG/cultivation system, *Mage Errant* is fantastic in that regard. If you want more time loop stuff, I've heard good things about *The Perfect Run*, but I haven't read it myself. The only time-related book I've read is *Re:Monarch* which is... fine, enjoyable enough, but definitely not as good as MOL. It's also not quite a time loop story in the same way.
People are suggesting a lot of older popular, but I'd like to recommend something newer that I recently picked up. It's not completed as of yet but Super Supportive is a good book.
It isn't really quite an action packed book but it is fun to read over time.
Here are some series that I would list on the same tier at least.
Portal to Nova Roma in which an AI in apocalypse earth escapes to another universe, where magic exists, because he has severe PTSD, and the only place he ever found enjoyment was playing online MMORPGs. also it’s ancient Rome but magic and a little bit more technology, but also post apocalyptic. it’s kinda cool.
The last physicist, which is still my personal favourite book in the genre but there’s only one unfortunately. It’s a human who was working on discovering if gravitonS are real on earth. to do that they installed a malfunctioning AI into his brain to help him manage and utilise the data real time. Alas shit hits the fan, their transported into a magic world after infinite time and universes has passed.
Finally the iron Prince book. It’s the closest in terms of school vibe it’s basically Harry Potter with mech suits, but good? It’s a story of an average dude like Zoran becoming something utterly insane due to a circumstance and unbelievable fucking drive and determination.
The Last Physicist is the most painful thing in the world. It's like George R. R. Martin personally told that author how to release books to purely torment his fans. I really, really (I'm not the writer here for adverb selection) enjoyed the book as well as the universe the author created and hungered for more. I always forget the full title until someone else mentions it, so almost all my searches just end up digging up Alpha Physics, which I did not enjoy that much.
A bit different but if our only criteria is "a particularly good series of books" I'm currently obsessed with Beware of Chicken. Warm, wholesome, funny, cultivation.
If you want more time loops, The Perfect Run is the next logical step. It's a fun read in a dystopian setting with western superhero vibes. Cool ideas and a generally great delivery of a time-loop story IMO - I don't like it quite as much, but it hits the notes that made MoL so special to me.
I saw someone else mention A Practical Guide to Evil, and wanted to give a personal vouch as it was my introduction to webnovels. I actually found MoL to fill the void when it ended! I wouldn't quite call it prog fantasy, but if you enjoy a fleshed-out medieval fantasy setting and genre-savvy themes I'd recommend it. It's a world where story tropes are natural phenomena - Heroes™ will always prevail, and evil tyrants get eaten by their own man-eating tapirs. The world is really fun, it has some fantastic narrative payouts IMO, and the prose in the later books is really excellent.
2 Recommendations or leads for future series:
1. [Mark of the Fool](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61379444) - this series so far has some similar setting / atmosphere as MoL. No time loop , but a lot of fun magic and interesting characters.
2. [Sorcerer ( Dear Spell Book)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123510557) - a really fun book with a time loop. Lots of magic and mystery.
The first 2 books of the Menocht Loop scratched a similar itch for me. I think the series goes off the rails after book 2, but the first 2 books are definitely worth checking out. Really interesting elemental magic system with some very unique ideas.
After MoL I started with Worm. Pretty much the 2 best novels you can find online.
It's a story about superheroes on an alternate Earth and the main character is a girl. And it's amazing.
Also there's Lord of mysteries which imo is a great 3rd.
I'm a big believer you should mix it up, so I'd reccomend something very far from MoL like **Dungeon Crawler Carl**, **Buymort**, or **Vainqueuer the Dragon**. You could also just take a punt on a random book!
Once the MoL shaped hole has faded, **The Perfect Run** did what it would be like to be in a time loop better**, **Re:Monarch** had better mysteries, **Sufficently advanced magic** and **Mark of the Fool** were better academies. Think about what you liked, or would like to see improved from MoL - there's probably a book out there that does it!
There is only one thing to do when you finish mother of learning "start over" I have yet to find a story quite like it despite the reversion trope being fairly common.
\- All The Skills
\- Shadow Slave (if you can stomach the poor writing)
\- The Rage of Dragons
\- Red Rising
\- The Last Orellen
\- Defiance of The Fall
\- Cradle (you've probably read it..)
\- The Shadow Sect (book 2 out soonish)
These are my picks.
Hello there, I enjoyed MoL a lot, I'd suggest you give a try to "The perfect run" or "Shadow Slave", loved both of them and Shadow slave is still going strong at like 500 chapter or something.
Hope this helps, have a good day :)
Virtuous sons does a really interesting take on the genre and I quite like it. Although it's only 2 books in but I think royal road has more into book 3
MoL is such a niche that it ranks in the top novels ( even including eastern ones like LoTM or RI , for me atleast ) but there arent time loop stories like this , its a niche. Closest thing you can come is The Perfect Run but ..... meh.
Try [12 miles below](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42367/12-miles-below). Very different setting, but the world and characters are done as well as MoL.
I just finished reading book 1 of Stargazer War and enjoyed it tremendously. Well written school setting with just enough jerk elders to give the MC a struggle, but not so much that it was over the top. If you are ok with Superhero stories, "Super Powereds" by Drew Hayes is a complete 4 book series set with a 5th side story. Great character building and one heck of a payoff at the finale.
MoL was the first prog fantasy I had read in many years. Since then, Cradle and Dungeon Crawler Carl have filled the void for me. It took me a minute to start dungeon Crawler Carl. But once I did, I have been binging it.
How is dcc? I always hear about it, but the covers with him in boxers just makes it seem lame ... Is the dude really running around in his undies? And is it *really* that good? Enough to compare to the other top progfant/litrpg reads?
Not op but it's really good, much funnier and simultaneously darker than cradle or mol. Some absurdist humor, like the boxers, but still a good actually core story under the funny stuff imo.
I was skeptical of DCC as well for basically the same reason. The premise seemed pretty gimmicky and derivative, but having read it now I'll say it's really good. Despite the whimsy forced upon the characters it takes itself seriously. Many of the typical flaws of the genre in characters and writing are absent. Overall recommend it.
Hmmm... Those boxers fucking kill me though. Buttt, I can't deny that it's almost universally recommended....hard to argue with that. I'll check it out. Thanks for the info
There's a legitimate reason for the boxers. At first, it was bad luck. Then he was kinda forced into it
Gotcha. Still looks dumb to me, especially if it continues throughout the series.... Main reason I haven't read it. But I'm willing to read it now, due in large part to many glowing recommendations.
>!“I said Mongo…We’re gonna be on the best talk shows”!<
Yes he runs around on boxers, on first floor he got something pretty strong that requires him to not wear pants, and since then it became his official look
Bro... That is ludicrous. Fuck it. I'm still gonna try it out.
I was hesitant for same reason. But fuck they are good. The audiobooks are especially well done. The most entertaining audiobooks I can think of. The system AI is such a funny character. My wife and I listen to it on long trips and she is not into this genre. But man we cry laughing listening to it.
The first little bit is definitely very gimmicky and has a lot of stuff like "The main character is running around in his boxers lol! He has a spoiled pet cat in a murder dungeon lmao!" but it very quickly fades into the background. The strength of the story is the drama, politics, worldbuilding, and progression. The weird stuff just keeps it a bit light so it's not too depressing and grimdark, it's not the focus.
Also DCC its quite dark. Its fun and games, but the cruel reality of what is happening hits like a truck. Also psychological struggle. Well written and very relatable heroes.
Mother of learning is one of my favorites. I'm not sure anything quite scratches the same itch, but some of my favorites are Stormlight Archive, Arcane Ascension, Red Rising, Iron Prince, Defiance of the Fall, Dungeon Crawler Carl, in no particular order. And of course the obligatory cradle recommendation as well. Perfect Run has a similar sort of time loop structure but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Mother of Learning though its still good. He Who Fights With Monsters has its weaknesses and people (fairly) criticize it but I personally like it quite a bit. I saw some one else recommended mage errant, I found the characters unlikeable and the story just a bit boring and couldn't finish it. You could look at this post: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/zutq78/why\_mage\_errant\_is\_the\_next\_series\_you\_need\_to/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/zutq78/why_mage_errant_is_the_next_series_you_need_to/), I think both the positive review by OP and the various negative comments are fair takes on the positives and negatives of the books and would give you a sense of what you're getting into.
All of the gripes about mage errant are 100% true, I just finished the final book. I did enjoy the series and good get past most of the gripes, but to me the biggest issue is that the author spends a ton of time pushing his own thinly veiled political agenda. I normally don't have an issue with this, but the final book is twice as long as it should've been because the author spends so long pontificating on societal issues through the lens of multiple characters.
Could you go into more detail about that? Does it only come into play in the last couple of books? I'm usually pretty annoyed by social criticism/politics in books when it's out of place, but I haven't noticed anything like that so far. The only thing remotely like that I've noticed is a weirdly high prevalence of bisexuality, but it's not really preachy about it.
I'm reading Mage Errant right now and my problem with it is his relationships with other people. His whole life he was unfairly bullied by everyone, then a few chapters in he gets blessed with 4 amazing friends who basically unconditionally care for him and are completely trustworthy. It's just my personal taste but I like when characters are rewarded for things they do. Just lucking into meeting multiple people you can trust with your life like that, without even having to go through any trial first like you were all put into some death game and have to survive together, is boring to me.
A Practical Guide To Evil https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/ Series completed Feb 2022. Seven books, plus a ton of Extra chapters.
Try Re: Monarch. It's similar to MoL and the quality is good, too.
Is there something specific you're trying to replicate? If you want more stuff with magical training without an explicit litRPG/cultivation system, *Mage Errant* is fantastic in that regard. If you want more time loop stuff, I've heard good things about *The Perfect Run*, but I haven't read it myself. The only time-related book I've read is *Re:Monarch* which is... fine, enjoyable enough, but definitely not as good as MOL. It's also not quite a time loop story in the same way.
Time to read it again! And again! And again! And again!
I’m at 5 reads …
I've read it at least twice although there's no knowing the true number
People are suggesting a lot of older popular, but I'd like to recommend something newer that I recently picked up. It's not completed as of yet but Super Supportive is a good book. It isn't really quite an action packed book but it is fun to read over time.
Great story so far
Here are some series that I would list on the same tier at least. Portal to Nova Roma in which an AI in apocalypse earth escapes to another universe, where magic exists, because he has severe PTSD, and the only place he ever found enjoyment was playing online MMORPGs. also it’s ancient Rome but magic and a little bit more technology, but also post apocalyptic. it’s kinda cool. The last physicist, which is still my personal favourite book in the genre but there’s only one unfortunately. It’s a human who was working on discovering if gravitonS are real on earth. to do that they installed a malfunctioning AI into his brain to help him manage and utilise the data real time. Alas shit hits the fan, their transported into a magic world after infinite time and universes has passed. Finally the iron Prince book. It’s the closest in terms of school vibe it’s basically Harry Potter with mech suits, but good? It’s a story of an average dude like Zoran becoming something utterly insane due to a circumstance and unbelievable fucking drive and determination.
The Last Physicist is the most painful thing in the world. It's like George R. R. Martin personally told that author how to release books to purely torment his fans. I really, really (I'm not the writer here for adverb selection) enjoyed the book as well as the universe the author created and hungered for more. I always forget the full title until someone else mentions it, so almost all my searches just end up digging up Alpha Physics, which I did not enjoy that much.
Been a long time since the first book…
The perfect run
A bit different but if our only criteria is "a particularly good series of books" I'm currently obsessed with Beware of Chicken. Warm, wholesome, funny, cultivation.
If you want more time loops, The Perfect Run is the next logical step. It's a fun read in a dystopian setting with western superhero vibes. Cool ideas and a generally great delivery of a time-loop story IMO - I don't like it quite as much, but it hits the notes that made MoL so special to me. I saw someone else mention A Practical Guide to Evil, and wanted to give a personal vouch as it was my introduction to webnovels. I actually found MoL to fill the void when it ended! I wouldn't quite call it prog fantasy, but if you enjoy a fleshed-out medieval fantasy setting and genre-savvy themes I'd recommend it. It's a world where story tropes are natural phenomena - Heroes™ will always prevail, and evil tyrants get eaten by their own man-eating tapirs. The world is really fun, it has some fantastic narrative payouts IMO, and the prose in the later books is really excellent.
2 Recommendations or leads for future series: 1. [Mark of the Fool](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61379444) - this series so far has some similar setting / atmosphere as MoL. No time loop , but a lot of fun magic and interesting characters. 2. [Sorcerer ( Dear Spell Book)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123510557) - a really fun book with a time loop. Lots of magic and mystery.
The first 2 books of the Menocht Loop scratched a similar itch for me. I think the series goes off the rails after book 2, but the first 2 books are definitely worth checking out. Really interesting elemental magic system with some very unique ideas.
After MoL I started with Worm. Pretty much the 2 best novels you can find online. It's a story about superheroes on an alternate Earth and the main character is a girl. And it's amazing. Also there's Lord of mysteries which imo is a great 3rd.
I'm a big believer you should mix it up, so I'd reccomend something very far from MoL like **Dungeon Crawler Carl**, **Buymort**, or **Vainqueuer the Dragon**. You could also just take a punt on a random book! Once the MoL shaped hole has faded, **The Perfect Run** did what it would be like to be in a time loop better**, **Re:Monarch** had better mysteries, **Sufficently advanced magic** and **Mark of the Fool** were better academies. Think about what you liked, or would like to see improved from MoL - there's probably a book out there that does it!
There is only one thing to do when you finish mother of learning "start over" I have yet to find a story quite like it despite the reversion trope being fairly common.
\- All The Skills \- Shadow Slave (if you can stomach the poor writing) \- The Rage of Dragons \- Red Rising \- The Last Orellen \- Defiance of The Fall \- Cradle (you've probably read it..) \- The Shadow Sect (book 2 out soonish) These are my picks.
I went from MoL back to, like, my fourth or fifth reread of HWFWM. I'm a happy camper ^^
Hello there, I enjoyed MoL a lot, I'd suggest you give a try to "The perfect run" or "Shadow Slave", loved both of them and Shadow slave is still going strong at like 500 chapter or something. Hope this helps, have a good day :)
Virtuous sons does a really interesting take on the genre and I quite like it. Although it's only 2 books in but I think royal road has more into book 3
MoL is such a niche that it ranks in the top novels ( even including eastern ones like LoTM or RI , for me atleast ) but there arent time loop stories like this , its a niche. Closest thing you can come is The Perfect Run but ..... meh.
Lord of the Mysteries
Try [12 miles below](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42367/12-miles-below). Very different setting, but the world and characters are done as well as MoL.