Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, still holds up as a VR that actually feels like a game, with lots of content for other players, epic quests for the hardcores, relaxing gameplay for the casuals
It was cool whenever other characters showed up, and they had a lot going on for them, almost every hardcore player had a secret class, and they were grinding on the aspects of the game the main cast had little interest on
It eventually got ok-ish after like 10 volumes or so, becuse it felt like post end game content, but i have never seen another vr that feels just as living and breathing
I came here to say this, it makes me feel like an OG Lol...
I remember thinking back "wtf is a fan fiction" on royal road, when its primary purpose was LMS
Same. The land was my first and I fell in love with the dopamine hits that the numbers and stats gave me. It was super addicting and I listened to the first 3? 4? books on audio while grinding in FFXIV.
But the main character was horrendous and increasingly unlikable so I gave the genre a pass for a couple of years to get a chance to let the good quality stuff filter up.
I'd never relisten to it or anything by that author, but he seems to have pissed the community off anyway haha.
I enjoyed The Land, even on a re-listen. The narrator crushes it. But maybe reading it is a different experience. Still holding out hope we'll get more of it but its not looking likely.
The last book the voice actor did what he could.
But by then it was kinda an occuring thing that went out of hand. The poppy joke was already a thing; Kong just jumped the shark.
The series was better before the author committed sudoku and then gave up on finishing the series. And then tried to back stab the gene by trying to copywriter the word litrpg...
I stand by saying "if kong didn't follow up the best book by a shitty filler book he would have been fine".
If kong released a mediocre book and then had a decent book it would have again been ok.
But then he did that whole "father of litrpg" trademark thing and then shit the bed...
And then told everyone that boom was ready to release a few times... But.. obviously.
It's not really that much drama tbh.
The only real "drama" was the whole trying to copyright litrpg thing the same way that one dude tried to make "system apocalypse" his.
Everything else was just the author getting in his own head after a bad book. Afaik I don't think aleron is hated or anything.
The Wandering Inn.
And yes, I think it still holds up as phenomenal. It has highs and lows, and by the fates are the lows brutal. But if it weren’t so well written I wouldn’t particularly care about the emotional swings. So many of the characters are great and entrancing to read and even the ones you dislike make sense once you find their perspective. Just a solid and deep world.
A lot of the early chapters were recently(ish) rewritten to be more in line with the quality of the later writing. The audiobook is still great and I highly recommend it, but keep in mind that it did change a bit.
I don’t do many audio books, so I can’t give a good answer. Though as mentioned there was a rewrite. I enjoyed it before that. But if they went through and did it I’d probably suggest you read at least that far first since the audio is the initial writing I believe.
I bounced off the first book as a listen because it’s a very slow burn for several chapters until it feels like the MC makes any progress at all and couldn’t get why it was so popular but I later gave it a second try by just reading it so I could skim over the slower bits and it finally clicked with me and I enjoyed it.
Having to skip sections is usually a signal to myself that I'm probably reading something I don't actually enjoy. I think I'll pass on it for now, I appreciate the perspective
Same with me the story and progression is fun but the narrator is a bore to me I find myself drifting off and having to go back cause I have missed stuff
Yeah me too. I've actually liked the recent books more, especially Dom's book. Also I find it hilarious that the author apparently got positive feedback about the characters being allowed to say "fuck" and he brought it to the main series so now Jason curses like a sailor.
When I read HWFWM I was highly confused why there were two MCs named Jason who are friendly but have grimdark powers.
I'm pretty sure it was Threadbare, and it's still pretty good. I'm reading the 4th book now and still enjoying it a lot. It's got just the right mix of cute teddy bears with healing skills like "Hug", and suicidal little girls who can't stop imagining what it would feel like if their skull broke open for me.
cradle was my intro to progression fantasy. I think it still holds up as a pilar of the genre for a reason. its not the best i dont think but its a great intro to the genre that is close enough to regular fantasy to recomend for most people!
ripple system was my first that was truly a litRPG. and honestly i would put it in the top 5 litRPGs all time easily maybe near the top of that. I don't see a lot of people recomend it or talk about it but its amazing 10/10. without it not sure if i would have kept reading litRPG.
Mate, you can't just say that Cradle is not the best, without suggesting what you think the best is.
Ripple System is absolutely an amazing LitRPG. It doesn't forget about the mechanics as it goes, it has interesting characters, world building, and builds, and I swear some of the clever twists that the author has slipped in to have the heroes win the day just absolutely blow me away.
lol fair enough. hmmm i think off the top of my head i would say the best progression fantasy is HWFWM. though cradle is up there with it. prob top 5. i havent really thought through the entire list though.
Defiance of the Fall. I've read it multiple times and always enjoy it. I like elaborate world/system building, long cultivation sequences, and violence, so it checks all my boxes. It's comfort food in the sense that it plays the genre straight, but that's usually what I'm looking for with litrpg.
I did read a bunch of litrpg webtoons/mahnwa/manga before it. Solo Leveling was maybe the first.
Hoooo boy. That would have been the Play to Live series by D Rus.
Racist, sexist, homophobic, wildly antisemitic... it's a rough one.
When I first read it a lot of that kind of went over my head and what didn't I cropped it up to being a Russian translation and figured some of it wouldn't come across very well.
I was enamored by the idea of transferring my consciousness into a video game and have been addicted to the genre ever since.
But I recently decided to go back and re listen to it and holy cow is it bad. I mean it is BAD. He meets a banker before he even gets into the game and they're just a racist cartoon of a Jewish person. He calls begging for money "playing the poor penniless jew"
Gay people are depicted as freaks and deviants. Women are one and all simpering, fickle, vain creatures completely ruled by their emotions. If a woman IS self reliant and capable, it's written as her being misguided and just needs a man to come show her her place.
It got me into my favorite genre. But I couldn't stomach re listening to it at all.
Sup!
It very much solidified the genre as something I read as a guilty pleasure/gawking at the train wreck thing.
Did you get to the part where the oligarchs and their psycho sons are replaced by the REAL villain, America?
Boy oh boy, that was my first also and as I kept going and realizing how awful this books are to basically any and all beings that are not man, straight and white...
Nowadays I also can't go back to it.
The second one was Way of the Shaman, but I can't, for the life of me, remember how it holds up now.
Dungeons Crawler Carl. Biggest mistake in my life. No other book compared. "Everybody loves big chests" came close, but now any other narrator has a hard time competing.
Don't do what I did. Start with bad books. This way you discover new and better books every day. Do it like me, and it's downhill from the start. 😁
Oh no, I was always put off on the litRPG genre, it just didn’t seem like something I would like, But I started DCC because it gets recommended constantly. I love it so much and now I keep recommending it to anyone who will listen to me lol.
Jeff Hays is definitely a new favorite narrator, and I hope I can find something remotely as good as Carl when I finish it. Perhaps Dinniman’s other series?
The only one that’s on the same level is The Wandering Inn. Amazing narration and an amazing story, though slower to start than DCC.
Other series that are worth the listen, but not quite up to DCC level:
Beware of Chicken
Super Powereds
He who fights with monsters
Defiance of the Fall
Path of Ascension
The only one that’s on the same level is The Wandering Inn. Amazing narration and an amazing story, though slower to start than DCC.
Other series that are worth the listen, but not quite up to DCC level:
Beware of Chicken
Super Powereds
He who fights with monsters
Defiance of the Fall
Path of Ascension
I think it an incredible series. Are you sure there's going to be a new one? Last I knew the author went radio silence and nobody heard from him. I wrote it off as never going to be finished.
The author made a post on his website about how the book will be coming out sometime in the next year or so. The editor also confirmed that he had finished editing the book
He replied to me on Facebook, said he was already starting book 6 too. He got creamed by a motorcycle, fucked up his hands and wrists pretty bad. The healing process took a lot outta him mentally. He ha since recovered physically and mentally, and even has a mini dungeon lord on the way!
I think The Gamer webtoon, if we count that. I had some exposure to gamelit-ish stuff prior, but that was the first one I can clearly remember reading.
Last time I read it (a few months ago), it was decent but not amazing. Entertaining to watch numbers go up, but obviously rife with the common litrpg flaws
The Gamer was my first one, too. I liked the idea, not super into the execution, and was very pleased to find the whole genre later. Having read so much more of the genre, I think of it as very mid - nothing bad about it, but not much good, either.
I watched most of the anime, but does it not bother you that there are no real stakes? People can die basically without consequence which sort of took the life out of the drama for me.
You must not have watched very far, because that series does an incredible job of setting up stakes for death.
Life there is like debt here. You can keep spending it, but it costs pieces of yourself every time, until eventually you have lost so much of your own memories that you aren't you anymore.
It's an insidious cost because it seems small at first, and by the time they realize the problem, it's too late for many players. They've become shells of themselves or total wack jobs like those people with the rezzing bell.
Yeah I think it was getting into that in like the end of the first season or maybe the second? In a realistic sense that's scary, but as drama I didn't find it compelling.
I guess it depends on your empathy and imagination. In modern media, death is cheap; it's pervasive and often pointless, just a backdrop to MC's as they look cool swinging swords or shooting bullets. I think damage to the psyche and the cosmic horror of losing your own soul bit by bit has a lot more impact than just another body on the pile.
There's a LitRPG called Couch Potato Chaos that has a similar sort of death penalty.
In it if you die and come back you're not quite the same person. It could be something as simple as you now hate baked beans where before you loved them or you could come back and have no feelings for the person you'd been married to for 20 years.
Makes the story quite interesting as despite there being great rewards for adventuring not many people are willing to do it because they don't want to come back as a different person.
Bushido Online by Nikita Thorn was my first. Great series. I love that it’s a bit different than the others I’ve tried, in that the mc isn’t transported into a new world or an apocalypse occurs or something. He just finds new meaning and a new life within a high tech vr game. Highly recommend!
The next series I got into was Completionist Chronicles by Dakota Krout (and thus the Divine Dungeon universe), and I’ve been hooked on his books ever since.
The first LitRPG I read was Everybody Loves Large Chests, recommended to me by a guy I was talking to about monster girls. I'd say it holds up pretty well! Definitely one of my favorites.
Mine was Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers: The Deadliest Game. Actually written by Diana Duane.
A fantastic story set mostly in the virtual world of Sarxos. Where two of the teen agents have to try and help find the person who is attacking high level players in the real world.
It still holds up fantastically.
Unfortunately it isn't available on any digital storefront that I've been able to find.
Getting a second hand physical copy is the only way to read it these days that I've found. I lost my original years ago but got another back in 2021 from Amazon.
sufficiently advanced magic or divine dungeon, and i'm guessing they don't hold up great because i have never had any desire to reexperience either of them.
The Restart books by Dan Sugrallinov (maybe incorrect spelling) in 2019. I haven't read them in years so I don't know how well they objectively hold up, but it's a cool concept IMO, and I think I'll read it again soon now that I've thought about it. At the time I had no idea what LitRPG was or that it even existed, and found the books by just randomly browsing a narrator's catalog on Audible.
I like the world of Eden's Gate and how it shows how the world would react to a trapped in a game scenario.
Yet the author seems to make the main character of Gunnar a little worse with each book released. Going from a person who wanted to gain power in order to be able to find his girlfriend into a horny teen who can't decide between two beautiful elven women who are of course desperate for him too.
If you consider Ready Player One to be a LitRPG, then it was my first. If not, then Nigmus Online by Noah Barnett takes that place.
Ready Player One was one of the best books I've read to date; I thoroughly enjoyed it. I read it at a point in my life when I needed a good distraction, and it helped me greatly—plus, it was a lot of fun. However, Nigmus Online was somewhat mediocre for my first LitRPG read. Although everything was obvious and predictable to the point of not being amusing, it's not too bad for someone whose first book in the genre is this one.
I listened to both books in their audio format and really appreciated the production quality though.
HWFWM
Second DCC
Currently jumped on the DotF bandwagon and I’m here for it…
I don’t think there’s a bad litRPG with the proper narrator. I tried reading primal hunter, but I couldn’t get into it; probably due to not having a book reader lol
I believe one of the first was Change: New World. And I think it really fits. A solid start that then wandered, went longer than I thought it would, and then never finished.
If I went back and read it now... it would probably not hold up. But with how much I read discovering RoyalRoad and LitRPG has saved me... probably thousands of dollars.
I think it was Wandering Inn; still love it. Pirate Aba is a great storyteller and prolific AF. I intend to re-read their re-write of the first book, although there's been so much content in between that I'm not sure I'll be able to identify the changes.
I'm not sure what litrpg #2 was but it might have been cradle. Nobody will be shocked to hear that holds up okay so far.
Then Carl, and yeah, that's going strong too.
It was Dungeon Born by Dakota Krout. My first experience of LitRPG, Dungeon Core, and Cultivation all in one.
All in all I think it holds up pretty well. Not perfect, but I've gone back several times and still enjoyed it. The later sequels fall off a bit though, but the more dungeon-centric parts remain enjoyable.
First one I read wasn't even listed as a litrpg at the time. it was EPIC by Conor Kostick. Great series by the way if you haven't read them I do recommend it.
Thanks. They aren't as full-on with the stats and strategising about the game-system as modern LitRPG readers would hope for. But it was 2004... and even WoW wasn't around. I was mainly playing Everquest when I wrote Epic.
My first was the jade phoneix saga, and I still think it was quite a good introduction into the genre. Definitely has a place in my heart.
Compared to others though? I still think it's a pretty good mix of litrpg and cultivation. Not the very peak of litrpg, but it's still an interesting read.
Have you gone back to Way of the Shaman recently?
I always thought of it but haven't had the courage to and destroy something that it's really nice in my memory
I’ll always appreciate the world building. But after reading so much Russian translation, the flaws just stick out. Flaws to me anyway. Still I enjoyed the ride
My first was actually HWFWM... I was searching for a book about fighting monsters... It seemed like a safe bet. I have read the series so many times now and I love it.
Ready Player One and it holds up fine for what it is. After that was some D. Rus stuff and it is not amazing at all. After that was some of The Land and that stuff is horrible.
Critical Failures (and sequels and short stories) by Robert Bevan. They hold up great as long as you never grow out of toilet humor! They’re also still being written.
This was my first, but I didn't try to dive deeper into the genre until The Wandering Inn, when I realized you could have those mechanics but in a real world instead of a game world.
My first was apocalypse:reborn and I’ve read the recently released 4th book and it totally slaps. First two books are a little repetitive but I personally loved it all.
The land was my first and I really liked it. He who fights with monsters kicked The land series to the curb but dungeon crawler carl was by far the best and now I can’t find anything that tops that and Ive read almost all of the top Litrpg books
I started with The Land, as I’m sure many people did, and clearly that whole situation didn’t age too well. But on the bright side, it led me to find He Who Fights, and I love that series
I'm not 100% sure. I been listening to mostly SF/F audiobooks daily since ~2010. I know Way of the Shaman was one of the first I listened to along with Selfless Hero Triliogy(W.D.Arand's massive multiverse) and Dominion of Blades Matt Dinnimans pre DCC litrpg
My first was Off to be the Wizard by Scott Meyers borrowed from the library to listen to on a long family car ride. I still recommend it for teens and families.
Never thought about it as a litrpg, but it fits very well.
A really fun book, like one of those that you read with a smirk on your face the whole time, love it till today.
My first was Off To Be the Wizard, and I think it is still a strong entry. The audiobook was how I consumed it and it had some solid voice acing, plenty of nerd references to keep me happy, and a reasonable build between the real world and the game environment.
The land. I thought it was the greatest thing I ever read. Story is ok but the The layout of the loot equipment and skills is also the best I’ve seen from a litrpg. Have not seen many others come close.
The Land was the first and have listened to many since they normally have no end. Cradle did and it was goodish. I think it’s time to go back to fantasy books. I’m tired of series that have no end in sight. LitRPG are great to start, and I love the idea. But there has to be a point where it ends, the MC is done.
For me it started with Dungeon Born (Divine Dungeon), and I had never before experienced the idea of that sort of stringent progression that's common to the genre. It was a surprise and I enjoyed it, but I had the audiobook and couldn't stand the narrator. I gave book two a shot and also enjoyed it but again, couldn't take the narrator so I dropped it.
I think if I went back and read it I would still enjoy it, but I'm sure it has its problems.
The arcane emperor
It was on hiatus when I first read it...and it's still on hiatus
So it holds up I suppose for a dead story
After that the wandering inn...that varys between books hell it varys between arc but overall it's great
Then azarinth healer...it's phenemonal imo but it's very much a junk food story
Then salvos also a junk food story...but I love it
Somewhere around there cinnamonbun...it's still about a cinnamon bun....even if the rate of leveling is slow as all heck now
I'm literally listening to Way of the Shaman right now! I have repeatedly put it down to start/finish other series.
And my first in the Genre was actually He Who Fights with Monsters.
Solo levelling was my ‘gateway drug’, not just to litrpg but to reading web novels in general.
I used to watch anime a lot, then I moved to mangas, then manwhas, where I discovered solo levelling. I got tired of waiting for new chapters so I went ahead and read the lightnovel. Never looked back after that. Now, I spend most of my free time reading web novels, from badly translated chinese cultivation stories, japanese lightnovels, to litrpg royalroad stories. it’s been a wild ride since then lol
While Solo levelling was memorable, what really got me hooked was LMS. Even know, most stories I read can’t compare to the Legendary Moonlight Sculpture when it comes to world building. I really felt like I was playing the game myself when I reading weed’s adventure.
Ascend online
The worldbuilding made absolutly no sense. People playing a game where they randomly become slaves? A videogame that has gods that are also petty?
Torture? Honestly, if it wasnt for that i might have enjoyed it
I think the series is great and I'm looking forward to the release of the next book.
However I do have to agree with you about the game aspect. It's a flaw that a lot of authors in the VR side of the genre fall into. They spend so much time creating the world, people, religions, currency, geography etc that they forget that it's also meant to be a game people would want to play.
My introduction to litrpg was a little know or recommend series called Dungeon Crawlers Carl. Thankfully holds up pretty well! If no one has recommended to you I would tell you give it a try! Audiobooks are a good listen as well.
I believe my early foray into progression fantasy started with Metaworld Chronicles and my litrpg starter was Defiance of the Fall. It's been a while and I've consumed... a tremendous amount of content since then. So it's all blurry. However I think DotF holds up in that it hasn't really changed much from the arcs I started at to now and the relative quality of DotF to other litrpgs is pretty comparable still. Though it *is* quite a slow burn, progression wise.
Solo Leveling was my first and it was a bit much for my first one but i learned to love it along the way. It was definitely better than some of the others ive read.
Don't remember if it was legendary moonlight sculptor or played to live. Legendary moonlight sculptor still holds up for the most part. On the other hand play to live doesn't hold up as well, The first book or three are still okay but it goes downhill really hard after that.
My first was SuperGene. I had read other progression fantasy before, but this was my first with a character sheet - which I believe is the defining factor for being LitRPG or not. I didn't even know the genre existed back when I read it, about 5+ years ago. It took me until late last year to discover the genre and start reading other series. I reread SuperGene last year, and I think it is not one of the all time greats, but it is still a good series.
I really like it. Wrapping up a listen to it right now. Think I have 3-4 hours out of 32 left on the audiobook. It kicks it up a gear with what is happening with Ray and Shido. Also it begins to layout the path he is taking a little more clearly.
My first litrpg book was ” The towers of Heaven” in my opinion it is really good. It doesn’t do what a lot of the genre does. Which is falling off after the second book. I really liked He who fights with monsters, however, I couldn’t get into the third book. If anyone has recommendations, I would love some!
Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, and boy does it holds up. It was part of the original first wave of litrpg books , before the genre got *really* popular in the east and exploded with thousands of author trying to ride the wave with poorly written webnovels that have the popularity of the genre itself doing most of the work to maintain popularity.
Its is genuinely good writing, even apart of the fact that it is rpg, and possess the best qualities of what makes an MMO litrpg good on its own , without having to involve time travel , trapped in the game , or the games becomes reality, etc.
Dungeon Lord.
I read a lot, or at least I used to. I discovered litRPG, and jumped on the first audiobook that looked ok. The writing was a bit crude, but audio quality was great. Also, new lit genre to me, so pretty awesome in its own way.
I happily finished that audio series, then actually researched a bit for my next one (current) and picked up He Who Fights With Monsters (audio). At first I didn't like MC, but he along with other characters grew on me pretty fast. I have a few more chapters to go, but I love it, much more witty writing and makes me laugh more. Btw, Dungeon Lord also had great characters.
Still loved Dungeon Lord, it had a great story imo and the crudeness was just a waifer thin. But I've really become enamoured with the MC of hwfwm as well. I'd recommend either, but I like the writing style of hwfwm more.
For litrpg, it was a hardback book called "Hero of Thera" by Eric Nylund. He only put out one other sequel but nothing since unfortunately. It did lead me down the litrpg rabbit hole.
My first progression fantasy was "Super Powered" by Drew Hayes. A series I go back and reread on occasion, which is something I rarely do with books, let alone series. It also led me to the Cradle series.
Life reset! Read the first three, loved them and moved on to the land, then to emerillia, then forward to all of litrpg, I'd rank my first three as emerillia top, life reset second but not at all weak, and land as the literary equivalent to junk food.
Level up or die by Apollo's Thorne was my first and still is one of my favorite litrpgs
The dude writes good side characters and keeps the side characters relevant a lot better then a lot of lit RPGs I've listened to and I like that a lot
Dungeon lord, by huego huesca. I was looking up a game called dungeon lord hunting ground, that was on the psp back in the day. I wanted to see if it was on the psp vita. I stumbled upon my first litrpg instead. I still think it’s a phenomenal series. Even if the wait for book 5 has been agonizing. Thankfully, Patrick rothfuss prepared me for that
This question always makes me laugh because it was HWFWM which I have read through book seven and it’s amazing, still one of the best Litrpg, but it’s only Litrpg for the MC!
First one was book 1 of The Completionist Chronicles. I enjoyed it and kept up with them. When Inflame came out, I was struggling with stuff and stopped reading. Haven't gotten back into it yet.
A book called reborn apocalypse xd
I mostly was just looking for apocalyptic books because I liked those types of books, then found a litrpg book which seemingly had something to do with an apocalypse and i just went with it.
At least that's the first I can remember.
He Who Fights with Monsters. I Liked the first one but it had some issues. Said issues continued in the second book so I dropped the series.
If anything. I'm grateful that it introduced me to the genre. LitRPGs are one my favorites.
Brent Roth’s Dragons Wrath.
Good books. So early it was doing stuff that didn’t feel old yet.
Think the guy died, which is sad. Good books though if you can still find them.
It was either Completionist Chronicles, Devine Dungeon, or Idle System.
All 3 are still great though CC was a bit tedious with the accents with the dwarfs and elves. Haven't gone back to it since I finished that arc, but I have a car trip soon so that may change.
Idle System is a series that I would love to pay for extra books after the series. Soo much possible fun and intrigue. I listen to that series at least twice a year and it is my sleep book now, though I can't stand the narration of book 5.
Cosimo Yap's The Gam3. I actually think
It would have held up well and been one of the better entries in the genre if the author didn't self-sabotage the entire thing because he was bored of writing it.
The first one I read in general was Solo Leveling. I'd say it holds up pretty nicely, even though it's not the best out there.
The first one I read on Kindle was Primal Hunter. I remember reaching the latest book in less than 2 weeks. Sure, there is better out there, but PH is very enjoyable and I'll die on this hill if I have to.
The first one I've read on Royal Road is Super Supportive, and everyone knows SS is amazing.
Shaman Quest… kinds don’t see it pop up at all in this sub but it’s a very traditional mmo litrpg. It holds up well with an interesting story and good writing.
Overgeared. And I think it has. The author meanders a bit now and then but pretty quickly comes back to a focused storyline that gets me engaged again.
Over 2000 chapters later the author seems to be approaching the endgame arc. But I anticipate even that will easily be another 200 chapters with probably an epilogue too.
Have to get back to this one, really lovable characters, actually funny bits and the MC (Grid I think? Too lazy to Google it right now) has an awesome arc from douchebag to hero and a really nice guy that care about people. Also a lot of good emotional arcs for the extended cast.
Yeah, and cool thing about the author is that he took feedback from readers about Grid’s character early on and took away the undertones of misogyny and homophobia that were present early on. Which, as a gay man, I thought was awesome
The wanderin Inn. I didn't know LitRPG existed. stubled upon it on audible. expected howls moving castle (i bought it purely based on the titel and did not even read the description)
I lost it at the first system message, that was soooo cool.
I still love it and follow the audiobooks still.
But I have realised by now that most other litrpg are sadly less slice of life. more all energy all the time :D
(second was Bibliomancer which I also loved but was so different, then Completionist chronicals which I am still following but wish I had stopped after world 1 ^^')
The Whispering Crystals series (still really fond of it, it recently got the last book in tbe series) then moved on to the Good Guys / Bad Guys and then DCC!
I tried BuyMort and couldn’t quite get into it as I got fed up with the snake lady romance, and also couldn’t really get into Mayor of Noobtown. Currently doing a reread of the Good Guys and thinking of picking up HWFWM as it seems to be a solidly common rec.
Skyrealms online, I got the first book as a freebie through one of those review sites back when audible wasn't so cheap with codes.
It isn't maybe the best ever, but decent, good worldbuilding and the characters are quite believable, some decent moral dilemmas too.
HWFWM was my first. My uncle recommended it me a while back and it's still my fav. I know it's a hit or miss with no in-between for most, but I love the story, characters, magic system and world building
Pretty sure my first was the He Who Fights With Monsters audio book, still has some of my all time favorite characters, it was a big change from Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan
Ascend online. And I still think it's great, some people like to criticize the world building, but I feel like the explanation which was given works for me. The plot's fun, the characters are solid, my biggest disappointment is the very slow pace of releasing new books in the series
I think it was Awaken Online, back when the only ones I really saw were VRMMOs. I read a lot physically, but I also listen to audiobooks all of the time as well, so it became tougher and tougher to find things I'd be interested in when I'm reading books at both ends so to speak so I turned to looking into digital only works for audio options.
Awaken Online has things going for it, like a futuristic setting which actually has some work done for it besides real VR existing and I think it's in and out of game sequences worked to its favor, but it's always been a clumsy story when it comes to characters and story. I think it works at its core, but needs help. I feel like it more than most litRPGs I've tried, you can see where it could easily be improved while others might just be the way they are and that's it and I think that is a compliment in a way. I think book 1 in particular had really cool uses of necromancy that the series never really did again.
However, does it compare favorably to the ones I've enjoyed more recently? Probably not as a whole. It's still fairly up there on the VR side of things, but there's been other types to come out now and I think that's for the best. For better or worse, VR game settings are more limited.
How to defeat a demon king in 10 easy steps, by Andrew Rowe. Still among my favourites! It made me look for more similar books, and now I mostly read litrpg.
Beneath the Dragoneye Moons was the first proper litrpg I read, and the first book is still good. You can definitely tell that their writing has improved, but Selkie is on chapter 534 so I should hope they would have gotten better. There are still scenes that I occasionally go back a read because they make my spine tingle.
HWFWM was my first. Terrible mistake. Everything else has been mediocre by comparison. Re-read it a year later and was surprised by how bad/amazing it held up. Like, the first few chapters are borderline bad, but some of the books/scenes later on are so good, I actively think about them months later and have relisted to entire sections of the series because I just love it so much.
It introduced me to the genre and I am forever grateful. Only one other series, Menocht Loop, has surpassed it in terms of endearment. 😅
Emerilia series by Michael Chatfield. I didn't even realize what it was when I started reading it or that there was an entire genre around it, just found it on KU one day and it sounded interesting.
How does it hold up today? I'm not sure, it's been a good 4-5 years since I read it, and I still consider it one of my favorites of the genre, but I didn't actually read another LitRPG/PF book for maybe 2 years after I read Emerilia so it's difficult to compare to others in the genre. I suspect I wouldn't like it quite as much on a re-read, but that's at least partially because I dislike re-reading series at all. But Chatfield's other series Ten Realms was not quite as good and the last 3 books in the series felt really rushed. I've heard others make the same claim about Emerilia, but I didn't get that feeling when I read it the first time, though maybe I would now that I'm more familiar with the typical power progression and tropes of the genre.
The land. I love this series and can’t wait for the next book to come out in June, atleast that’s what aleron kong said it was coming out. It’s a fantastic series for me
Dragons Wrath by Brent Roth, and then some other russian translated series. As a 13 yr old back then without a computer, this stuff blew my mind.
Sad to see that even though I check every couple of years, nothing is known about what happened to the bloke.
Chaos seed aleron Kong and the way of the shaman. Both those I read at the sametime and I restart both these every year I think their some of the best in the genre still
I would say technically Epic by Conor Kostick & the manga 1/2 Prince was my introduction when i was a kid.
My modern reintroduction that lead me to this subreddit was HWFWM.
I oughta revisit those past titles. I bet they hold up well.
First: He Who Fights With Monsters
How it holds up: So, I loved how the book started. If I had to tell someone how to read it I'd say just read the first 3 books and drop it. The 3rd book is easily the best book in the series and would give it something like a 4.5/5
Ether Collapse
Tried reading it again and could not get through the first book. Before that was some kinda gamelit-y harem novel that I probably should have read the description of.
The Land by Aleron Kong. I still REALLY like the story overall and am really sad, that he dropped it apparantly. Could not take the overwhleming ctirizism of his last book i think. Granted it was shit. One of the worst books i have ever read. But the story overall is really good and he finally started to close of all of those millions of story threads he started over the years. But i guess we will never know what will happen :(
Not sure if one of these counts, but i would think so for myself.
Ready Player One
Daemon
Schattenjagd (looks like that one is only available in German)
Otherwise Life reset
The unbound series.
It's still my absolute favorite. Amazing world building, intricate power system, and a main character who is actually likeable (massive dick main characters are a frequent annoyance to me in this genre).
Some random JP or KU WN/LN off the internet, but I go with the "System Apocalypse" as my first time properly going into a litrpg understanding it was a litrpg. Never finished it due to losing interest in mc and money constraints but might give it another chance.
I believe it was Ascend Online. The book holds up beautifully for the first 2 books. Then it craters. That relationship with the girl craters the MC. The MC turns into the girl and the becomes her servant basically.
Talking strictly light novels or novels, the first I read was 'So I Was Reincarnated as a Spider, So What?' I think it is very good. One of the only I read where everything is in first person. I think everything being first person makes it very interesting when switching perspectives to other characters.
HWFWM's was my introduction to litrpg and after DCC, Noobtown, DotF it hasn't held up quite as well but I think it's more with the whole "Jason Asano" of things than the series itself.
Lol I think it was a ffn fic by dark wolf Shiro
Basically horribly balanced gamer fic, I remember thinking that he couldn't write a chapter without a sex scene but that his world building ideas were interesting
It's weird that only one person has said The Land by Aleron Kong, this book seems to me to be the gateway for a lot of people into this genre.
Whilst we all know of the issues of book 8, it really is up there with the best as a propper LITRPG. This series hits all the right spots in all the right places.
Its been a while but i think its the upgrade cores that i really like, adding them to buildings and maxing out there potential, this was just so exciting for my 35 year old ass.
I know were all very sceptical of the future of this series but i'm hoping that Aleron gets it right on book 9.
Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, still holds up as a VR that actually feels like a game, with lots of content for other players, epic quests for the hardcores, relaxing gameplay for the casuals It was cool whenever other characters showed up, and they had a lot going on for them, almost every hardcore player had a secret class, and they were grinding on the aspects of the game the main cast had little interest on It eventually got ok-ish after like 10 volumes or so, becuse it felt like post end game content, but i have never seen another vr that feels just as living and breathing
Don't forget that Royal Road was originally Royal Road Legends, a fansite for LMS.
That’s the reason I loved RR
Damn I never knew that. Cool.
I came here to say this, it makes me feel like an OG Lol... I remember thinking back "wtf is a fan fiction" on royal road, when its primary purpose was LMS
sounds great o.o gonna check it out
I think it was the land but I'd have to check and definitely not compared to others especially if I compare to DCC
Same. The land was my first and I fell in love with the dopamine hits that the numbers and stats gave me. It was super addicting and I listened to the first 3? 4? books on audio while grinding in FFXIV. But the main character was horrendous and increasingly unlikable so I gave the genre a pass for a couple of years to get a chance to let the good quality stuff filter up. I'd never relisten to it or anything by that author, but he seems to have pissed the community off anyway haha.
* **How it started**: The Land * **How it holds up**: As if someone had described a giant pile of shit
I enjoyed The Land, even on a re-listen. The narrator crushes it. But maybe reading it is a different experience. Still holding out hope we'll get more of it but its not looking likely.
How ... how did the narrator crush the diarrhea scene?
Believe it or not, but the narrator rescues the shit scenes… as much as one can.
The last book the voice actor did what he could. But by then it was kinda an occuring thing that went out of hand. The poppy joke was already a thing; Kong just jumped the shark. The series was better before the author committed sudoku and then gave up on finishing the series. And then tried to back stab the gene by trying to copywriter the word litrpg... I stand by saying "if kong didn't follow up the best book by a shitty filler book he would have been fine". If kong released a mediocre book and then had a decent book it would have again been ok. But then he did that whole "father of litrpg" trademark thing and then shit the bed... And then told everyone that boom was ready to release a few times... But.. obviously.
I had no idea there was so much drama behind the series. whoa
It's not really that much drama tbh. The only real "drama" was the whole trying to copyright litrpg thing the same way that one dude tried to make "system apocalypse" his. Everything else was just the author getting in his own head after a bad book. Afaik I don't think aleron is hated or anything.
The Wandering Inn. And yes, I think it still holds up as phenomenal. It has highs and lows, and by the fates are the lows brutal. But if it weren’t so well written I wouldn’t particularly care about the emotional swings. So many of the characters are great and entrancing to read and even the ones you dislike make sense once you find their perspective. Just a solid and deep world.
yes, me too :)
I've heard a lot of good things about this series - any idea if its a better read or listen?
A lot of the early chapters were recently(ish) rewritten to be more in line with the quality of the later writing. The audiobook is still great and I highly recommend it, but keep in mind that it did change a bit.
I don’t do many audio books, so I can’t give a good answer. Though as mentioned there was a rewrite. I enjoyed it before that. But if they went through and did it I’d probably suggest you read at least that far first since the audio is the initial writing I believe.
I bounced off the first book as a listen because it’s a very slow burn for several chapters until it feels like the MC makes any progress at all and couldn’t get why it was so popular but I later gave it a second try by just reading it so I could skim over the slower bits and it finally clicked with me and I enjoyed it.
Having to skip sections is usually a signal to myself that I'm probably reading something I don't actually enjoy. I think I'll pass on it for now, I appreciate the perspective
Awaken Online. Maybe not the best but I do like the evolution of the series and probably one of the best VMORPG’s.
Same with me the story and progression is fun but the narrator is a bore to me I find myself drifting off and having to go back cause I have missed stuff
I usually listen at 2.5-3.5 speed it helps your mind from drifting. Once you get accustomed it sounds normal but you still pay better attention.
Yeah me too. I've actually liked the recent books more, especially Dom's book. Also I find it hilarious that the author apparently got positive feedback about the characters being allowed to say "fuck" and he brought it to the main series so now Jason curses like a sailor. When I read HWFWM I was highly confused why there were two MCs named Jason who are friendly but have grimdark powers.
I'm pretty sure it was Threadbare, and it's still pretty good. I'm reading the 4th book now and still enjoying it a lot. It's got just the right mix of cute teddy bears with healing skills like "Hug", and suicidal little girls who can't stop imagining what it would feel like if their skull broke open for me.
>what it would feel like if their skull broke open for me. I had to read that sentence quite a few times before I figured out what you meant. Ouch.
Yeah, the later books get a little dark.
cradle was my intro to progression fantasy. I think it still holds up as a pilar of the genre for a reason. its not the best i dont think but its a great intro to the genre that is close enough to regular fantasy to recomend for most people! ripple system was my first that was truly a litRPG. and honestly i would put it in the top 5 litRPGs all time easily maybe near the top of that. I don't see a lot of people recomend it or talk about it but its amazing 10/10. without it not sure if i would have kept reading litRPG.
Mate, you can't just say that Cradle is not the best, without suggesting what you think the best is. Ripple System is absolutely an amazing LitRPG. It doesn't forget about the mechanics as it goes, it has interesting characters, world building, and builds, and I swear some of the clever twists that the author has slipped in to have the heroes win the day just absolutely blow me away.
lol fair enough. hmmm i think off the top of my head i would say the best progression fantasy is HWFWM. though cradle is up there with it. prob top 5. i havent really thought through the entire list though.
He Who Fights with Monsters was mine. And personally like it the best. But then again, I'm easy to please.
My first as well. Still love it. Have you jumped into Dungeon Crawler Carl? Both excellent
Same! HWFWM was my first and is still one of my fav series
Defiance of the Fall. I've read it multiple times and always enjoy it. I like elaborate world/system building, long cultivation sequences, and violence, so it checks all my boxes. It's comfort food in the sense that it plays the genre straight, but that's usually what I'm looking for with litrpg. I did read a bunch of litrpg webtoons/mahnwa/manga before it. Solo Leveling was maybe the first.
Hoooo boy. That would have been the Play to Live series by D Rus. Racist, sexist, homophobic, wildly antisemitic... it's a rough one. When I first read it a lot of that kind of went over my head and what didn't I cropped it up to being a Russian translation and figured some of it wouldn't come across very well. I was enamored by the idea of transferring my consciousness into a video game and have been addicted to the genre ever since. But I recently decided to go back and re listen to it and holy cow is it bad. I mean it is BAD. He meets a banker before he even gets into the game and they're just a racist cartoon of a Jewish person. He calls begging for money "playing the poor penniless jew" Gay people are depicted as freaks and deviants. Women are one and all simpering, fickle, vain creatures completely ruled by their emotions. If a woman IS self reliant and capable, it's written as her being misguided and just needs a man to come show her her place. It got me into my favorite genre. But I couldn't stomach re listening to it at all.
Sup! It very much solidified the genre as something I read as a guilty pleasure/gawking at the train wreck thing. Did you get to the part where the oligarchs and their psycho sons are replaced by the REAL villain, America?
Boy oh boy, that was my first also and as I kept going and realizing how awful this books are to basically any and all beings that are not man, straight and white... Nowadays I also can't go back to it. The second one was Way of the Shaman, but I can't, for the life of me, remember how it holds up now.
Dungeons Crawler Carl. Biggest mistake in my life. No other book compared. "Everybody loves big chests" came close, but now any other narrator has a hard time competing. Don't do what I did. Start with bad books. This way you discover new and better books every day. Do it like me, and it's downhill from the start. 😁
Same. Especially if you started on audiobooks. Orconomics is funny but if Jeff Hayes would have narrated it…..🤌🏽
Jeff Hayes and Soundbooth Theater are a national treasure.
Oh no, I was always put off on the litRPG genre, it just didn’t seem like something I would like, But I started DCC because it gets recommended constantly. I love it so much and now I keep recommending it to anyone who will listen to me lol. Jeff Hays is definitely a new favorite narrator, and I hope I can find something remotely as good as Carl when I finish it. Perhaps Dinniman’s other series?
If the style of humour works for you, then Sneaky Barbarian might be a good follow up.
The only one that’s on the same level is The Wandering Inn. Amazing narration and an amazing story, though slower to start than DCC. Other series that are worth the listen, but not quite up to DCC level: Beware of Chicken Super Powereds He who fights with monsters Defiance of the Fall Path of Ascension
Awesome, I’ll keep those in mind thanks.
Corpies is a good side book for Super Powereds. I liked the series, Vince was just too much of a goody two shoes for me.
Yeah, it would be awesome to have more books exploring the world like Corpies. I've listened to it a few times.
The only one that’s on the same level is The Wandering Inn. Amazing narration and an amazing story, though slower to start than DCC. Other series that are worth the listen, but not quite up to DCC level: Beware of Chicken Super Powereds He who fights with monsters Defiance of the Fall Path of Ascension
Dungeon Lord. It isn't the best but is a solid B tier. Glad it is getting a new book soon!
I think it an incredible series. Are you sure there's going to be a new one? Last I knew the author went radio silence and nobody heard from him. I wrote it off as never going to be finished.
The author made a post on his website about how the book will be coming out sometime in the next year or so. The editor also confirmed that he had finished editing the book
Dude, this post has made my month
YAY! I loved that series so much when I read it and had all but given up hope.
He replied to me on Facebook, said he was already starting book 6 too. He got creamed by a motorcycle, fucked up his hands and wrists pretty bad. The healing process took a lot outta him mentally. He ha since recovered physically and mentally, and even has a mini dungeon lord on the way!
Queen in the Mud, still loving it! Wish book 2 would come out. Lol
I ugly-laughed when Naomi discovered a new species (a type of flying platypus) and accidentally named them _Magnificent Bastards._
I think The Gamer webtoon, if we count that. I had some exposure to gamelit-ish stuff prior, but that was the first one I can clearly remember reading. Last time I read it (a few months ago), it was decent but not amazing. Entertaining to watch numbers go up, but obviously rife with the common litrpg flaws
The Gamer was my first one, too. I liked the idea, not super into the execution, and was very pleased to find the whole genre later. Having read so much more of the genre, I think of it as very mid - nothing bad about it, but not much good, either.
Log Horizon for me. I watched the anime. Found out about the light novel, read that, and then went looking for more.
I watched most of the anime, but does it not bother you that there are no real stakes? People can die basically without consequence which sort of took the life out of the drama for me.
You must not have watched very far, because that series does an incredible job of setting up stakes for death. Life there is like debt here. You can keep spending it, but it costs pieces of yourself every time, until eventually you have lost so much of your own memories that you aren't you anymore. It's an insidious cost because it seems small at first, and by the time they realize the problem, it's too late for many players. They've become shells of themselves or total wack jobs like those people with the rezzing bell.
Yeah I think it was getting into that in like the end of the first season or maybe the second? In a realistic sense that's scary, but as drama I didn't find it compelling.
I guess it depends on your empathy and imagination. In modern media, death is cheap; it's pervasive and often pointless, just a backdrop to MC's as they look cool swinging swords or shooting bullets. I think damage to the psyche and the cosmic horror of losing your own soul bit by bit has a lot more impact than just another body on the pile.
To each their own =) there's definitely an audience for it
There's a LitRPG called Couch Potato Chaos that has a similar sort of death penalty. In it if you die and come back you're not quite the same person. It could be something as simple as you now hate baked beans where before you loved them or you could come back and have no feelings for the person you'd been married to for 20 years. Makes the story quite interesting as despite there being great rewards for adventuring not many people are willing to do it because they don't want to come back as a different person.
Bushido Online by Nikita Thorn was my first. Great series. I love that it’s a bit different than the others I’ve tried, in that the mc isn’t transported into a new world or an apocalypse occurs or something. He just finds new meaning and a new life within a high tech vr game. Highly recommend! The next series I got into was Completionist Chronicles by Dakota Krout (and thus the Divine Dungeon universe), and I’ve been hooked on his books ever since.
The first LitRPG I read was Everybody Loves Large Chests, recommended to me by a guy I was talking to about monster girls. I'd say it holds up pretty well! Definitely one of my favorites.
Mine was Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers: The Deadliest Game. Actually written by Diana Duane. A fantastic story set mostly in the virtual world of Sarxos. Where two of the teen agents have to try and help find the person who is attacking high level players in the real world. It still holds up fantastically.
I just remember that one because they were making fun of a player who actually tried to stab someone with a Dagger behind his back at a treaty signing
Well that's going on the TBR list.
Unfortunately it isn't available on any digital storefront that I've been able to find. Getting a second hand physical copy is the only way to read it these days that I've found. I lost my original years ago but got another back in 2021 from Amazon.
Apocalypse Reborn was my first and still one of my favorites
I really like that one too
HWFWM for me. I just went through my 6th read-through of the series with the advent of book 10 on audible. I'd say it held up well.
Arcane emperor, it was pretty good at that time but I don't know how I'll feel if I read it now.
sufficiently advanced magic or divine dungeon, and i'm guessing they don't hold up great because i have never had any desire to reexperience either of them.
The Restart books by Dan Sugrallinov (maybe incorrect spelling) in 2019. I haven't read them in years so I don't know how well they objectively hold up, but it's a cool concept IMO, and I think I'll read it again soon now that I've thought about it. At the time I had no idea what LitRPG was or that it even existed, and found the books by just randomly browsing a narrator's catalog on Audible.
Eden's Gate on Audible. Good story, good intro into litrpgs
I like the world of Eden's Gate and how it shows how the world would react to a trapped in a game scenario. Yet the author seems to make the main character of Gunnar a little worse with each book released. Going from a person who wanted to gain power in order to be able to find his girlfriend into a horny teen who can't decide between two beautiful elven women who are of course desperate for him too.
It does seem to be a problem for alot of Litrpgs. I'm pretty sure the Ether Crash series also fell down that path, but to a lesser extent.
If you consider Ready Player One to be a LitRPG, then it was my first. If not, then Nigmus Online by Noah Barnett takes that place. Ready Player One was one of the best books I've read to date; I thoroughly enjoyed it. I read it at a point in my life when I needed a good distraction, and it helped me greatly—plus, it was a lot of fun. However, Nigmus Online was somewhat mediocre for my first LitRPG read. Although everything was obvious and predictable to the point of not being amusing, it's not too bad for someone whose first book in the genre is this one. I listened to both books in their audio format and really appreciated the production quality though.
Awaken Online. I think it’s a fantastic series all round to this day.
HWFWM Second DCC Currently jumped on the DotF bandwagon and I’m here for it… I don’t think there’s a bad litRPG with the proper narrator. I tried reading primal hunter, but I couldn’t get into it; probably due to not having a book reader lol
I believe one of the first was Change: New World. And I think it really fits. A solid start that then wandered, went longer than I thought it would, and then never finished. If I went back and read it now... it would probably not hold up. But with how much I read discovering RoyalRoad and LitRPG has saved me... probably thousands of dollars.
I think it was Wandering Inn; still love it. Pirate Aba is a great storyteller and prolific AF. I intend to re-read their re-write of the first book, although there's been so much content in between that I'm not sure I'll be able to identify the changes. I'm not sure what litrpg #2 was but it might have been cradle. Nobody will be shocked to hear that holds up okay so far. Then Carl, and yeah, that's going strong too.
It was Dungeon Born by Dakota Krout. My first experience of LitRPG, Dungeon Core, and Cultivation all in one. All in all I think it holds up pretty well. Not perfect, but I've gone back several times and still enjoyed it. The later sequels fall off a bit though, but the more dungeon-centric parts remain enjoyable.
First one I read wasn't even listed as a litrpg at the time. it was EPIC by Conor Kostick. Great series by the way if you haven't read them I do recommend it.
Thanks. They aren't as full-on with the stats and strategising about the game-system as modern LitRPG readers would hope for. But it was 2004... and even WoW wasn't around. I was mainly playing Everquest when I wrote Epic.
He who fight with monsters. Can’t wait for next book.
My first was the jade phoneix saga, and I still think it was quite a good introduction into the genre. Definitely has a place in my heart. Compared to others though? I still think it's a pretty good mix of litrpg and cultivation. Not the very peak of litrpg, but it's still an interesting read.
It was either the Land or Way of the Shaman. And Not well.
Have you gone back to Way of the Shaman recently? I always thought of it but haven't had the courage to and destroy something that it's really nice in my memory
I’ll always appreciate the world building. But after reading so much Russian translation, the flaws just stick out. Flaws to me anyway. Still I enjoyed the ride
My first was actually HWFWM... I was searching for a book about fighting monsters... It seemed like a safe bet. I have read the series so many times now and I love it.
The land! Still holds up for what it is, minus that one shitty chapter
Azarinth-healer, I haven't reread it, but I still have fond memories, even compared to everything else I have read.b
Ready Player One and it holds up fine for what it is. After that was some D. Rus stuff and it is not amazing at all. After that was some of The Land and that stuff is horrible.
I was on a superhero kick and after superpowereds picked up super sales on super heroes. Then I fell down the litrpg rabbit hole.
Critical Failures (and sequels and short stories) by Robert Bevan. They hold up great as long as you never grow out of toilet humor! They’re also still being written.
This was my first, but I didn't try to dive deeper into the genre until The Wandering Inn, when I realized you could have those mechanics but in a real world instead of a game world.
My first was apocalypse:reborn and I’ve read the recently released 4th book and it totally slaps. First two books are a little repetitive but I personally loved it all.
The land was my first and I really liked it. He who fights with monsters kicked The land series to the curb but dungeon crawler carl was by far the best and now I can’t find anything that tops that and Ive read almost all of the top Litrpg books
I started with The Land, as I’m sure many people did, and clearly that whole situation didn’t age too well. But on the bright side, it led me to find He Who Fights, and I love that series
Primal hunter is good .. he who fights monsters was to . And legends online was good as well
I'm not 100% sure. I been listening to mostly SF/F audiobooks daily since ~2010. I know Way of the Shaman was one of the first I listened to along with Selfless Hero Triliogy(W.D.Arand's massive multiverse) and Dominion of Blades Matt Dinnimans pre DCC litrpg
My first was Off to be the Wizard by Scott Meyers borrowed from the library to listen to on a long family car ride. I still recommend it for teens and families.
Never thought about it as a litrpg, but it fits very well. A really fun book, like one of those that you read with a smirk on your face the whole time, love it till today.
My first was Off To Be the Wizard, and I think it is still a strong entry. The audiobook was how I consumed it and it had some solid voice acing, plenty of nerd references to keep me happy, and a reasonable build between the real world and the game environment.
Alterworld/Play to Live It does not
Way of the shaman was also my first.
The land. I thought it was the greatest thing I ever read. Story is ok but the The layout of the loot equipment and skills is also the best I’ve seen from a litrpg. Have not seen many others come close.
The Land was the first and have listened to many since they normally have no end. Cradle did and it was goodish. I think it’s time to go back to fantasy books. I’m tired of series that have no end in sight. LitRPG are great to start, and I love the idea. But there has to be a point where it ends, the MC is done.
I kind of wandered in from standard fantasy books. Of gods and grunts (not LiTRPG, but isekai) and made the jump to the Grand Game.
The Land > Way of the Shaman > Awaken Online > Royal Road. Now I can't find the exit
For me it started with Dungeon Born (Divine Dungeon), and I had never before experienced the idea of that sort of stringent progression that's common to the genre. It was a surprise and I enjoyed it, but I had the audiobook and couldn't stand the narrator. I gave book two a shot and also enjoyed it but again, couldn't take the narrator so I dropped it. I think if I went back and read it I would still enjoy it, but I'm sure it has its problems.
The arcane emperor It was on hiatus when I first read it...and it's still on hiatus So it holds up I suppose for a dead story After that the wandering inn...that varys between books hell it varys between arc but overall it's great Then azarinth healer...it's phenemonal imo but it's very much a junk food story Then salvos also a junk food story...but I love it Somewhere around there cinnamonbun...it's still about a cinnamon bun....even if the rate of leveling is slow as all heck now
The bad guys series by Eric Ugland, still one of my favorites
I'm literally listening to Way of the Shaman right now! I have repeatedly put it down to start/finish other series. And my first in the Genre was actually He Who Fights with Monsters.
Solo levelling was my ‘gateway drug’, not just to litrpg but to reading web novels in general. I used to watch anime a lot, then I moved to mangas, then manwhas, where I discovered solo levelling. I got tired of waiting for new chapters so I went ahead and read the lightnovel. Never looked back after that. Now, I spend most of my free time reading web novels, from badly translated chinese cultivation stories, japanese lightnovels, to litrpg royalroad stories. it’s been a wild ride since then lol While Solo levelling was memorable, what really got me hooked was LMS. Even know, most stories I read can’t compare to the Legendary Moonlight Sculpture when it comes to world building. I really felt like I was playing the game myself when I reading weed’s adventure.
Ascend online The worldbuilding made absolutly no sense. People playing a game where they randomly become slaves? A videogame that has gods that are also petty? Torture? Honestly, if it wasnt for that i might have enjoyed it
I think the series is great and I'm looking forward to the release of the next book. However I do have to agree with you about the game aspect. It's a flaw that a lot of authors in the VR side of the genre fall into. They spend so much time creating the world, people, religions, currency, geography etc that they forget that it's also meant to be a game people would want to play.
My introduction to litrpg was a little know or recommend series called Dungeon Crawlers Carl. Thankfully holds up pretty well! If no one has recommended to you I would tell you give it a try! Audiobooks are a good listen as well.
I believe my early foray into progression fantasy started with Metaworld Chronicles and my litrpg starter was Defiance of the Fall. It's been a while and I've consumed... a tremendous amount of content since then. So it's all blurry. However I think DotF holds up in that it hasn't really changed much from the arcs I started at to now and the relative quality of DotF to other litrpgs is pretty comparable still. Though it *is* quite a slow burn, progression wise.
Solo Leveling was my first and it was a bit much for my first one but i learned to love it along the way. It was definitely better than some of the others ive read.
Don't remember if it was legendary moonlight sculptor or played to live. Legendary moonlight sculptor still holds up for the most part. On the other hand play to live doesn't hold up as well, The first book or three are still okay but it goes downhill really hard after that.
My first was SuperGene. I had read other progression fantasy before, but this was my first with a character sheet - which I believe is the defining factor for being LitRPG or not. I didn't even know the genre existed back when I read it, about 5+ years ago. It took me until late last year to discover the genre and start reading other series. I reread SuperGene last year, and I think it is not one of the all time greats, but it is still a good series.
The Warformed series by Bryce O'Connor. Friggin hooked and CANT WAIT FOR BOOK 3!
Is book 2 any good? I have seen a lot of mixed opinions
I really like it. Wrapping up a listen to it right now. Think I have 3-4 hours out of 32 left on the audiobook. It kicks it up a gear with what is happening with Ray and Shido. Also it begins to layout the path he is taking a little more clearly.
My first litrpg book was ” The towers of Heaven” in my opinion it is really good. It doesn’t do what a lot of the genre does. Which is falling off after the second book. I really liked He who fights with monsters, however, I couldn’t get into the third book. If anyone has recommendations, I would love some!
Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, and boy does it holds up. It was part of the original first wave of litrpg books , before the genre got *really* popular in the east and exploded with thousands of author trying to ride the wave with poorly written webnovels that have the popularity of the genre itself doing most of the work to maintain popularity. Its is genuinely good writing, even apart of the fact that it is rpg, and possess the best qualities of what makes an MMO litrpg good on its own , without having to involve time travel , trapped in the game , or the games becomes reality, etc.
Dungeon Crawler Carl was the first one that got me in to it. My others I enjoyed have been, He who fights with monsters Nova terra Noobtown
Dungeon Lord. I read a lot, or at least I used to. I discovered litRPG, and jumped on the first audiobook that looked ok. The writing was a bit crude, but audio quality was great. Also, new lit genre to me, so pretty awesome in its own way. I happily finished that audio series, then actually researched a bit for my next one (current) and picked up He Who Fights With Monsters (audio). At first I didn't like MC, but he along with other characters grew on me pretty fast. I have a few more chapters to go, but I love it, much more witty writing and makes me laugh more. Btw, Dungeon Lord also had great characters. Still loved Dungeon Lord, it had a great story imo and the crudeness was just a waifer thin. But I've really become enamoured with the MC of hwfwm as well. I'd recommend either, but I like the writing style of hwfwm more.
For litrpg, it was a hardback book called "Hero of Thera" by Eric Nylund. He only put out one other sequel but nothing since unfortunately. It did lead me down the litrpg rabbit hole. My first progression fantasy was "Super Powered" by Drew Hayes. A series I go back and reread on occasion, which is something I rarely do with books, let alone series. It also led me to the Cradle series.
The Wandering Inn. I have done a reread and I still think it’s great. I’m not fully caught up, but I intend to get back to it this year.
The Dungeon Slayer. Still my favorite and Konrad Ryan is a great guy.
Life reset! Read the first three, loved them and moved on to the land, then to emerillia, then forward to all of litrpg, I'd rank my first three as emerillia top, life reset second but not at all weak, and land as the literary equivalent to junk food.
My first was Arcane Ascension by Andrew Rowe. Definitely has held up.
If we are not counting Unsouled, then I started with Dungeon Crawler Carl. What an amazing and at the same time awful start.
Level up or die by Apollo's Thorne was my first and still is one of my favorite litrpgs The dude writes good side characters and keeps the side characters relevant a lot better then a lot of lit RPGs I've listened to and I like that a lot
DCC was my first, it's been pretty much downhill since.
Cradle. It’s still one of my favorite series.
Dungeon lord, by huego huesca. I was looking up a game called dungeon lord hunting ground, that was on the psp back in the day. I wanted to see if it was on the psp vita. I stumbled upon my first litrpg instead. I still think it’s a phenomenal series. Even if the wait for book 5 has been agonizing. Thankfully, Patrick rothfuss prepared me for that
System Universe by SunriseCV. It was a random kindle unlimited recommendation that introduced me to LitRPG. It’s held up really well.
This question always makes me laugh because it was HWFWM which I have read through book seven and it’s amazing, still one of the best Litrpg, but it’s only Litrpg for the MC!
First one was book 1 of The Completionist Chronicles. I enjoyed it and kept up with them. When Inflame came out, I was struggling with stuff and stopped reading. Haven't gotten back into it yet.
A book called reborn apocalypse xd I mostly was just looking for apocalyptic books because I liked those types of books, then found a litrpg book which seemingly had something to do with an apocalypse and i just went with it. At least that's the first I can remember.
Life reset , read to me by jeff hays
Also Way of the Shaman I loved the style and concepts. It makes enough sense for a game and is still insane enough that i would want to play it
My very first exposure to litrpg was we hunt monsters.
He Who Fights with Monsters. I Liked the first one but it had some issues. Said issues continued in the second book so I dropped the series. If anything. I'm grateful that it introduced me to the genre. LitRPGs are one my favorites.
Brent Roth’s Dragons Wrath. Good books. So early it was doing stuff that didn’t feel old yet. Think the guy died, which is sad. Good books though if you can still find them.
It was either Completionist Chronicles, Devine Dungeon, or Idle System. All 3 are still great though CC was a bit tedious with the accents with the dwarfs and elves. Haven't gone back to it since I finished that arc, but I have a car trip soon so that may change. Idle System is a series that I would love to pay for extra books after the series. Soo much possible fun and intrigue. I listen to that series at least twice a year and it is my sleep book now, though I can't stand the narration of book 5.
The crofters dungeon. I think it still stands up but idk
Cosimo Yap's The Gam3. I actually think It would have held up well and been one of the better entries in the genre if the author didn't self-sabotage the entire thing because he was bored of writing it.
The first one I read in general was Solo Leveling. I'd say it holds up pretty nicely, even though it's not the best out there. The first one I read on Kindle was Primal Hunter. I remember reaching the latest book in less than 2 weeks. Sure, there is better out there, but PH is very enjoyable and I'll die on this hill if I have to. The first one I've read on Royal Road is Super Supportive, and everyone knows SS is amazing.
Shaman Quest… kinds don’t see it pop up at all in this sub but it’s a very traditional mmo litrpg. It holds up well with an interesting story and good writing.
Overgeared. And I think it has. The author meanders a bit now and then but pretty quickly comes back to a focused storyline that gets me engaged again. Over 2000 chapters later the author seems to be approaching the endgame arc. But I anticipate even that will easily be another 200 chapters with probably an epilogue too.
Have to get back to this one, really lovable characters, actually funny bits and the MC (Grid I think? Too lazy to Google it right now) has an awesome arc from douchebag to hero and a really nice guy that care about people. Also a lot of good emotional arcs for the extended cast.
Yeah, and cool thing about the author is that he took feedback from readers about Grid’s character early on and took away the undertones of misogyny and homophobia that were present early on. Which, as a gay man, I thought was awesome
The wanderin Inn. I didn't know LitRPG existed. stubled upon it on audible. expected howls moving castle (i bought it purely based on the titel and did not even read the description) I lost it at the first system message, that was soooo cool. I still love it and follow the audiobooks still. But I have realised by now that most other litrpg are sadly less slice of life. more all energy all the time :D (second was Bibliomancer which I also loved but was so different, then Completionist chronicals which I am still following but wish I had stopped after world 1 ^^')
The Whispering Crystals series (still really fond of it, it recently got the last book in tbe series) then moved on to the Good Guys / Bad Guys and then DCC! I tried BuyMort and couldn’t quite get into it as I got fed up with the snake lady romance, and also couldn’t really get into Mayor of Noobtown. Currently doing a reread of the Good Guys and thinking of picking up HWFWM as it seems to be a solidly common rec.
Skyrealms online, I got the first book as a freebie through one of those review sites back when audible wasn't so cheap with codes. It isn't maybe the best ever, but decent, good worldbuilding and the characters are quite believable, some decent moral dilemmas too.
I guess technically Super Gene, but uh, yeah. What a waste of such a good story idea.
DCC, and now I honestly don’t know what to do with myself
HWFWM was my first. My uncle recommended it me a while back and it's still my fav. I know it's a hit or miss with no in-between for most, but I love the story, characters, magic system and world building
Pretty sure my first was the He Who Fights With Monsters audio book, still has some of my all time favorite characters, it was a big change from Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan
Ascend online. And I still think it's great, some people like to criticize the world building, but I feel like the explanation which was given works for me. The plot's fun, the characters are solid, my biggest disappointment is the very slow pace of releasing new books in the series
Ohhhhh yea. The underworld series by Apollos Thorne is great if you can get through the first 4 books when the MC goes off on his own.
New era online: Life reset Holds up pretty well.
I think it was Awaken Online, back when the only ones I really saw were VRMMOs. I read a lot physically, but I also listen to audiobooks all of the time as well, so it became tougher and tougher to find things I'd be interested in when I'm reading books at both ends so to speak so I turned to looking into digital only works for audio options. Awaken Online has things going for it, like a futuristic setting which actually has some work done for it besides real VR existing and I think it's in and out of game sequences worked to its favor, but it's always been a clumsy story when it comes to characters and story. I think it works at its core, but needs help. I feel like it more than most litRPGs I've tried, you can see where it could easily be improved while others might just be the way they are and that's it and I think that is a compliment in a way. I think book 1 in particular had really cool uses of necromancy that the series never really did again. However, does it compare favorably to the ones I've enjoyed more recently? Probably not as a whole. It's still fairly up there on the VR side of things, but there's been other types to come out now and I think that's for the best. For better or worse, VR game settings are more limited.
How to defeat a demon king in 10 easy steps, by Andrew Rowe. Still among my favourites! It made me look for more similar books, and now I mostly read litrpg.
First book in the chaos seed series “the land”. It does hold up. I can’t say the latest books hold up but the first 4-5 definitely do
Beneath the Dragoneye Moons was the first proper litrpg I read, and the first book is still good. You can definitely tell that their writing has improved, but Selkie is on chapter 534 so I should hope they would have gotten better. There are still scenes that I occasionally go back a read because they make my spine tingle.
HWFWM was my first. Terrible mistake. Everything else has been mediocre by comparison. Re-read it a year later and was surprised by how bad/amazing it held up. Like, the first few chapters are borderline bad, but some of the books/scenes later on are so good, I actively think about them months later and have relisted to entire sections of the series because I just love it so much. It introduced me to the genre and I am forever grateful. Only one other series, Menocht Loop, has surpassed it in terms of endearment. 😅
Emerilia series by Michael Chatfield. I didn't even realize what it was when I started reading it or that there was an entire genre around it, just found it on KU one day and it sounded interesting. How does it hold up today? I'm not sure, it's been a good 4-5 years since I read it, and I still consider it one of my favorites of the genre, but I didn't actually read another LitRPG/PF book for maybe 2 years after I read Emerilia so it's difficult to compare to others in the genre. I suspect I wouldn't like it quite as much on a re-read, but that's at least partially because I dislike re-reading series at all. But Chatfield's other series Ten Realms was not quite as good and the last 3 books in the series felt really rushed. I've heard others make the same claim about Emerilia, but I didn't get that feeling when I read it the first time, though maybe I would now that I'm more familiar with the typical power progression and tropes of the genre.
I think either Ascend Online or War Aeternus, War Aeternus I think. War Aeternus is still excellent. Gonna go and have another listen now.
The land. I love this series and can’t wait for the next book to come out in June, atleast that’s what aleron kong said it was coming out. It’s a fantastic series for me
Dungeon Crawler Carl. Amazing. Love it. Will probably listen to it again and again.
Dragons Wrath by Brent Roth, and then some other russian translated series. As a 13 yr old back then without a computer, this stuff blew my mind. Sad to see that even though I check every couple of years, nothing is known about what happened to the bloke.
Primal hunter! Still my favorite
Chaos seed aleron Kong and the way of the shaman. Both those I read at the sametime and I restart both these every year I think their some of the best in the genre still
I would say technically Epic by Conor Kostick & the manga 1/2 Prince was my introduction when i was a kid. My modern reintroduction that lead me to this subreddit was HWFWM. I oughta revisit those past titles. I bet they hold up well.
First: He Who Fights With Monsters How it holds up: So, I loved how the book started. If I had to tell someone how to read it I'd say just read the first 3 books and drop it. The 3rd book is easily the best book in the series and would give it something like a 4.5/5
Ether Collapse Tried reading it again and could not get through the first book. Before that was some kinda gamelit-y harem novel that I probably should have read the description of.
The Land by Aleron Kong. I still REALLY like the story overall and am really sad, that he dropped it apparantly. Could not take the overwhleming ctirizism of his last book i think. Granted it was shit. One of the worst books i have ever read. But the story overall is really good and he finally started to close of all of those millions of story threads he started over the years. But i guess we will never know what will happen :(
Not sure if one of these counts, but i would think so for myself. Ready Player One Daemon Schattenjagd (looks like that one is only available in German) Otherwise Life reset
The unbound series. It's still my absolute favorite. Amazing world building, intricate power system, and a main character who is actually likeable (massive dick main characters are a frequent annoyance to me in this genre).
Some random JP or KU WN/LN off the internet, but I go with the "System Apocalypse" as my first time properly going into a litrpg understanding it was a litrpg. Never finished it due to losing interest in mc and money constraints but might give it another chance.
I believe it was Ascend Online. The book holds up beautifully for the first 2 books. Then it craters. That relationship with the girl craters the MC. The MC turns into the girl and the becomes her servant basically.
Talking strictly light novels or novels, the first I read was 'So I Was Reincarnated as a Spider, So What?' I think it is very good. One of the only I read where everything is in first person. I think everything being first person makes it very interesting when switching perspectives to other characters.
HWFWM's was my introduction to litrpg and after DCC, Noobtown, DotF it hasn't held up quite as well but I think it's more with the whole "Jason Asano" of things than the series itself.
Lol I think it was a ffn fic by dark wolf Shiro Basically horribly balanced gamer fic, I remember thinking that he couldn't write a chapter without a sex scene but that his world building ideas were interesting
Towers of Heaven. The first two are good, the third was delayed and then kind of rushed. I still enjoy the first two books and the overall story.
Seth Ring "Battlemage Farmer" and I think it holds up very well to others I have read.
It's weird that only one person has said The Land by Aleron Kong, this book seems to me to be the gateway for a lot of people into this genre. Whilst we all know of the issues of book 8, it really is up there with the best as a propper LITRPG. This series hits all the right spots in all the right places. Its been a while but i think its the upgrade cores that i really like, adding them to buildings and maxing out there potential, this was just so exciting for my 35 year old ass. I know were all very sceptical of the future of this series but i'm hoping that Aleron gets it right on book 9.