14 min until he who fights monsters book 13 in WA time.

(In the newest book)

Title basically. I have an itch to read about a necromancer specifically. Hit me with your faves!

WORLD SPHERE BOOK 3 IS COMING 10/10/26! Preorders for ebook and audiobook available.

Written by AlwaysRollsAOne
Narrated by Nikola Hamilton

The audiobook is complete (over 22 hours!). The ebook is complete. The cover is still in progress, but we have our placeholder. For those who like physical books, Book 2's cover is next, and both Book 2 and 3 will be available in paperback by the end of the year.

Come back and enjoy one of the largest fantasy settings out there!

Preorder for Book 4 is up on Amazon... and thanks for reading!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F214Q7R6 EBOOK

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HM29JLWQ AUDIOBOOK

ROUGH COVER....above...still going through edits and will use a placeholder for release. And those of you who hate my Soldier Life series covers, they are being remade over the next 3 months. This post contains no AI.

FUN FACT ABOUT ME BECAUSE IT IS APPARENTLY REQUIRED: I sleep roughly 20 hours a week.

COVER ARTIST: KART STUDIO

AI USAGE: NONE

Repost for formatting.

Hello everyone,

I am Ian B. Urns and I’d like to share the release of The Lich King Reincarnates as a Baby Book 1: New Ages! It's a slow-burn progression fantasy/reincarnation story with comedic elements.

[Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HKQ9S5CH)

Blurb:

Lord Dread was the greatest magical prodigy the world had ever seen. He was also the first lich in history. The Gods feared his potential and banished him. Or so they thought.

He frees himself from prison after countless millennia, but finds his powers diminished and his body now that of a baby girl. Born to an aristocratic family and given a fresh chance to relearn magic differently than he originally taught himself, he has set his sights on regaining his former glory. In order to rebuild the dark empire he once used to challenge the Gods and take revenge on the fearful divinity that struck him down, he must first learn about this strange new time period he finds himself in.

It would be easier if girls could inherit land, but Lord Dread is not one to let something like this get in his way.

COVER ARTIST: [Ben Moran](https://www.artstation.com/minhanhnh)

AI USAGE: None.

Just like the title says the Kessedi the author of Ascendancy, Bricked, and Rise of the Rune Carpenter deleted all his work. His Royal Road and Reddit account has been deleted. What happened?

I’m reading book two (King of the Scrap Heap) of the Junkmancer series by V. M. Law.

Book one was ok. A little light on world building and character development, but kind of neat characters and crafting mechanics. Everything moves at a fast pace - almost a little too fast based on how long the world has been apocalyptic - but no big deal.

I start book two.

The characters need to get from Seattle to Denver via underground maglev tracks. Fine. They jury rig a weird scrap maglev train in nine hours. Fine. It holds together and they take off down the track, hitting 1200 kph and breaking the sound barrier. Fine.

How long to get to Denver at this speed, the MC asks.

32 hours.

32 hours?!?

At 1200 kph, in 32 hours they would almost travel a full circumference of the Earth. 1200 kph should get them from Seattle to Denver in about 80 minutes, if the track is relatively straight.

Nowhere is it mentioned that Earth has gotten larger, as many integration stories do. I understand the need for pacing and building tension, but if you want your characters to need 32 hours of time to go from Seattle to Denver for plot reasons, their train would need to go around 50 kph. Not as exciting, but more realistic.

I don’t think I missed anything, but this one little bit has somehow totally derailed my enjoyment of the story.

Has anything similar happened to anyone else?

I realize I likely fanboyed a bit too hard about them and their books, but it's always really cool to meet people who've been writing books you enjoy for years!

A bunch of authors are doing book promo tours right now, go meet em!

I’m a big fan of LitRPG, fantasy, leveling, magic, dungeons, and progression stories, but lately a lot of them have started to feel a bit too familiar.

I’m curious: what do you think makes a really good LitRPG story? What kind of system, progression, worldbuilding, classes, skills, monsters, or dungeon mechanics would actually feel fresh to you?

What would you love to see more of in LitRPG that most stories aren’t doing right now?

If you haven't yet, you should grab it (and all the other cool stuff on offer!) before it closes AND we are just a couple thousands short of the $30k mark to unlock the Jake's Magical Market x Nova Roma crossover short story!!

We also have only two Ultimate Bundles left if you ever wanted to name a character after yourself, a loved one, or someone you hate that you want to immortalize as a villain for all eternity. I promise I won't judge. :P

P.S. If you've been waiting patiently for Portal to Nova Roma: Empire on Audible it's currently just waiting for approval so should be out anytime in the next 10 business days or less - it's also looking like it'll be 30+ hours long so get ready!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jrmathews/portal-to-nova-roma-signed-collectors-edition

Cover Artist: the special edition has been designed by Claymore Covers.

AI Usage: None!

To varying degrees the list below I've read and enjoyed. Oddly enough i enjoyed Tutorial Hell Difficulty the most. A combination of the team of characters and the level of detail in exploring skills and upgrading them is probably why. (And actual character development, the mc is psychotic but he has reasons and actually cheanges) i could go on and on.

Dcc

Hwfwm

Primal Hunter

Apocalypse Parenting

Ultimate lvl 1

Azarinth Healer

Unsouled

Tutorial Hell Difficulty

1% LifeSteal

The Path Of Ascension

Azarinth Healer

To varying degrees the list below I did not enjoy.

Discount Dan I just couldn't get hooked.

Dotf I actually read until like book 10 but it got so damn

repetitive I didn't finish.

Mage Tank was just annoying. Can't put my finger on why.

And Morning Wood....for obvious reasons.

Edit: actually no. Not for obvious reasons. You'd think from that it would've been the fact that its a harem. But I never actually got to that. I stopped reading early because I couldn't sympathize? Identify? (Idk if im using the right word) as a fucking chest. Thats it. So I probably wouldnt like chrysalis.

Anything related to the first list ill be interested in. I hear There's a lot of VR litprg? What would be considered the best? But by no means only recommend vr litrpgs.

Thanks guys.

A little bit of a rant and a little bit of getting the thoughts of others who have been in this situation. My series hit fairly decent success on RR, averaging about 30 new followers a day before I stubbed book 1 where it started losing followers. Decent score, a few thousand followers, almost 1500 comments - overall, pretty decent. (Don't judge it by today's follower count) So when it was time to move it to Amazon/KDP and Audible, I followed the standard advice:

"Don't bother spending on advertising until you get a few of your books on Amazon. KDP and Amazon readers binge read and they don't want to start following a new story until there are a few of the books out."

Fair advice, makes sense, and it's repeated by some of the authors in this genre who are definitely big and popular enough to know what they're talking about.

The Catch 22 of it all is that when reaching out to publishers and audio-publishers, I ran into this odd situation. For all of them the reason they didn't want to pick up the story was that book 1 didn't have enough growth on Amazon. Fair enough, I don't blame them. They want to make their money back. But following the conventional wisdom gives this Catch 22:

1. RR readers don't carry over to Amazon, so if you want to build an Amazon following big enough to be picked up then you need to advertise
2. Most publishers aren't going to pick you up if you have more than 1 book of the series published already, so you want to avoid putting multiple books out in the series. Since they're generally taking 3-book deals, they need the option to pick up the first 3 books
3. Even if you do decide to advertise, the conventional wisdom is still true: People aren't going to be as committed to following a new series with only 1 book out

It reminds me of the old days before indie publishing was a thing, when a publishing house would only pick you up if you had already been published.

Doodled by a dame and passed over by the patriarchy, Sally Salamander was never meant to take center stage.

Her creator—an uncredited cel-washer with ambitions no studio man would ever approve of—gave her form, hoping she could share her voice. But when a fire takes her life, Sally awakens in a cartoon realm where Ink ‘n’ Paint Pioneers grind for Star Power, Rubber Hose Rookies hustle for precious frames of screen time, and slapstick serves the highest purpose.

"Comedy is on my calling card, but satire’s my specialty”“

Animated Ambitions is a late-1930s cartoon-style LitRPG that explores themes that are just as significant today as they were almost 100 years ago.

Tags: Comedy, Satire

Animated Ambitions: A Cartoon-Style LitRPG is available on Royal Road: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/180301/animated-ambitions-a-cartoon-style-litrpg

(And feel free to chat about classic cartoons in the comments!)

COVER ARTIST: Juan D Giraldo (Fiverr)

AI USAGE: No AI Used

Music and Narration (Chapter 1): Steven & Mellissa Hinrichs (StevensSounds, LLC)

One Fun Fact About Myself: My favorite Looney Tunes cartoon is Duck Amuck (1953, directed by Chuck Jones).

Hello all!

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who supported Dragonmancer returns book 1! The reception has been warm, and I thank everyone who read it!

Now, 2 months later, the second book of the trilogy is finally out! Come check it out!

Blurb:

The battle is won, yet the war is far from over.

Three years after the battle of Mura, Meriel waits for his apprentices to come back from various missions, securing help for the upcoming civil war. Yet the gods don't wait for no-one.

The Battauri Empire certainly doesn't.

The invasion of the Southern Peninsula kicks off a series of events in which the dragons hurry to hastily complete their various tasks before the war gets to their home's doorstep, yet the humans they were enlisted to find help in are one more foolish than the next.

And the Maizha does not wait for the mortals' squabbles to be over.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HCYHJMNW

COVER ARTIST: MinhKhanh
AI USAGE: None

Im looking for more books like The Primal Hunter and The Azarinth Healer where the mc motivation is mostly just progress for the sake of progress. They seek challenges because they enjoy the challenge itself and the power they gain is just to find even harder challenges. They arnt motivated because they want to find their family of because there is some overarching threat or goal just progress and enjoyment in their path.

Does anyone know of any series that focus on the MC building a town/city/country/etc.? Almost like a strategy game with rpg elements and a MC that goes on adventures.

It’s one of my favorite aspects to many of the series that I’ve read in the past going all the way back to Chaos Seeds by Aleron Kong (yea, he’s annoying, but the town part of his series is great to me). I even like the tiny bits of growth we get to see of Haven in Primal Hunter.

I’ve read a ton of series with it as an element, but it always feels like the story gives up on that side of things and just becomes focused only on the MC and their adventures rather than building up the town. An example of this to me is Life Reset. He gets in charge of this town of goblins, grows it to a point, conquers, then just throws it all out the window to “finish the game.”

If no one has done one yet, then give me a few years and I’m going to fill this niche for myself once I learn to write worth a damn.

I think this might be a bug on Amazon/Audible’s end, but you can get The Maelstrom (World Sphere Book 3) audiobook now, four days before the Kindle version releases on October 10.

Audible is already showing it as available and it’s in my library.

Amazon.com

audible.co.uk

What kind people are the MC and his family?

Spoilers ahead of course:

I’m perfectly fine with the MC hiding his class and needing to run. Makes complete sense.

Completely fine with the grave robbing. It’s how class works. I get that. Doesn’t even make me bat an eye.

A yellow flag started to rise in my head with how he talked to the priestess when his former friends confronted him before running away. The other two are completely terrible and I don’t mind him being acidic to them. But her biggest crime seemed to be one of ignorance and innocence (I kind of feel like authors put this onto the “healer girl” too often). I don’t think that she deserved to get dragged like that. But even this I can accept. He needed to get out of there and was feeling betrayed. I can’t very well expect some form of understanding.

What REALLY shocked me was how his parents responded to the mayor. From the mayors perspective, the son of the two strongest slayers had an illegal class. Only a personal level, that son, within days, desecrated his family’s tomb and made off with the bodies of his grandmother and grandfather. It’s also completely reasonable for him to be horrified by this.

Unfortunately, he has to task the boys parents, as the most powerful slayers around, with bringing him back. He doesn’t want to. This is his job.

Only to find out that the parents not only refuse (completely understandable), but tell him to his face “we don’t care what he did to your family. He’s our son. He can do whatever he wants. You should be more concerned with the living” (yellow flag). They didn’t threaten his life for even suggesting that they go after him. (I’m not even mad at that)

What trips me up is that the mayor then goes home to find that the mother and father have flattened his home to the complete ground, burned his farm, slaughtered his livestock, and destroyed the mausoleum where his ancestors are buried.

I get that it’s supposed to represent the links that these two are willing to go to protect their son, but it doesn’t come off that way to me.

Am I missing something? Is this supposed to be more of a morally gray series where you have to weigh If the actions of the people you’re reading are good or bad. Or do you all more so feel like the mayor and his family deserved it?

Hey all, it's me, Bertt Arina again! I ended up doing my edits faster than I thought I would, and so here we are a bit early! Moneymaker 2 is live, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as you enjoyed the first one!

Once again, thank you all for your support!

Also, a few of you have been pointing out that I should state this on the last promo thread, and so I will: Yes, this series is harem. The nsfw scenes are in their own chapters though, and I truly believe it's entertaining even if we just take the action into account.

Blurb:

After the events of the Tournament, Nathan Brody is taken to New York by Vermillion Strike.

Of course, things immediately go off the scale. Instead of a nice summer rest, his summer holidays are filled with battles with supervillains, meeting his family which are doing far better than they should be, and navigating his strange relationships. Worse, some members of Red Lily have taken a strange interest in Nathan, and with his superhero license in hand, it's time to take the reigns of the former Oni gang members.

Thankfully, his teacher Yukiko starts opening her heart to Nathan more than before, and Chiori, a mysterious woman they meet in New york, seems to be harboring some strange thoughts about him as well.

Suffice to say, his summer just got steamier than ever.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Moneymaker-2-Superhero-Academy-LitRPG/dp/B0HLTWJ135

COVER ARTIST: ZunoArt
AI USAGE: None

I know complete stories, while they get recommended at times, are not talked about alot. Thus I want to see what Completed gems are collecting dust. One shots, trilogy, series, let's see what is just not hitting the top of new nowadays.

I just finished a handful of books, and a reread of Godclads. Has anyone come across any series with super technical/elaborate worlds and magic systems in a similar vein? Dark and brutal would be great, with a focus on destruction and mayhem. Thanks a ton!

I just finished Calamitous Bob, i quite enjoyed it, I do wish they focused more on like train-making technology etc.

I think I just enjoy novels of the 'competence porn' genre. Not so much the mc is omniscient sense, but that he/she has a very specific set of skills that are used to make impactful change.

Ideally kingdom building. Fantasy, but can also be historical. Magic or no magic is fine.
(Ngl doesn't even have to be litrpg- blasphemous i know)

Read - Ends of Magic, Calamitous Bob, Throne of the Magical Arcana

Thanks in advance.

Hi! I have been reading a few recs from here and some were good. I am asking my own recommendation because it’s honestly frustrating me to find a lot of absurdly stupid decision making from an mc for virtually no good reason. There will be spoilers on a few books to give an exemple of what I enjoy and don’t.

First exemple is what I have just dropped five minute ago after reading early book 2 of the grand game.

Everytime the mc makes a decision when it comes to other it lacks any rational decision making. I am not saying he should be a complete psycho, but early on, Morin and the group treat him like shit without good reason, when trying to explain still do the same shit, and he just decides .. oh let me help you guys and give you ALL of my loot. It is an investment ? Then he pretty much finishes everything by himself again, and when offered loot he’s like « oh you sure? I already got my share »… but the worst is the early book 2. Dude knows he’s being hunted down by the dark faction. See a group of players leaving the camp of goblin he is supposed to exterminate. And.. helps them. I get that the plot will probably have a good reason after but that’s what I don’t like.

Second exemple for other reasons : 1% lifesteal.

The mc has to be one of the most annoying character I have ever read. I still enjoyed it due to other characters around and the world building I find amazing. But the mc constant whining about morals for the most stupid shit, like by the end on Patreon when he did the arena stuff and acts like if he wiped a civilization. I know people are going to debate on this considering it’s a pretty cleaving story from what I read here, but it is simply my own opinion of the story. And before the comment appears, yes I still did pay for the Patreon because despite the annoying mc, the rest of the story is good.

Exemple of an mc I did enjoy personality wise, but not really his powers nor the story : sylver seeker.

The guy is supposed to have been one of the best necromancer ever and yet it still feels like he barely survives every encounter. Sure the wits and cunning of the mc are very good and his knowledge allows him to win against everyone, but it still feels.. void. It’s hard to explain, I don’t really have a good reasoning behind it rather than just what I felt reading it til half of book 2.

Story I enjoyed the most so far : hell difficulty tutorial.

Most people know about it already so I don’t really need to go into details, but how the mc function, from how he was psychotic early on due to his past and I would say a survival instinct to now where he’s still a bit insane while protecting and enjoying his group. The way the system and power function is what I enjoy best. Nathaniel worked pretty much insanely hard to get where he is now. And the stakes are always here. It feels like he is incredibly strong, while still always on the verge of death. Due to his build or challenge.

So to clarify I don’t necessarily want a psycho mc, I do enjoy a lone wolf type but it’s fine if not. I just want the mc himself to be strong and not a pushover in any way. I have read plenty of others books like primal hunter (dropped book 6 got bored) defiance of the fall (dropped around 5-6 got bored).
I read system universe (dropped half book 7, has to be the biggest drop in quality I’ve ever seen. Book 6 was already hard to get through, but 7 was just turned from action packed to household simulator).
I read half of skill grinder book one, same for savage awakening.
I tried reading reborn apocalypse but it felt way to cringe for me. And I don’t mean that as in I don’t like psychotic or violent mc, just this one specifically.
I read he who fights monster but the lack of mc growth was just to bothersome and dropped book 8. (Not in term of strength, just felt like the mc was exactly the same personality wise as he was at the start, monologuing about random moral.)

I tried a gamers guide to beating the tutorial but didn’t enjoy the system and how it’s made.

I don’t remember exactly all I’ve read since I read a lot, constantly, but this should give a decent idea. Sorry if it’s too long, I just thought it would be better to give examples. Thanks in advance for the recs! :)