LitRPG Podcast

Every week Ramon brings you the latest LitRPG news, reviews, and author interviews

LitRPG Podcast 289 - The Wandering Inn 7, Arise: Alpha, Portal to Nova Roma, Path of Relics: Aether Shard 09/15/2022

LitRPG Podcast 288 - Reality Benders Book #9, Dungeon Walkers 3, He Who Fights with Monsters 6 07/28/2022

LitRPG Podcast 287 - Delvers LLC: Hostile Takeover, Battle Mage Farmer, Shadow Sun Consolidation 06/25/2022

LitRPG Podcast 286 - Underdog Book #8, Third Apocalypse: A Generic Reincarnation Apocalypse, Connection Unknown 06/04/2022

LitRPG Podcast 285 - Rorkh, Wizard's Tower, The Wandering Inn Book 6 05/19/2022

LitRPG Podcast 284 - Master of the Hoard, He Who Fights with Monsters 5, Blessed Time 3, The Second Coming of Gluttony, Red Mage Book 3 04/17/2022

LitRPG Podcast 283 - Death's Favorite Warlock 3, Portal to Nova Roma, The Primal Hunter, Return of the Shattered Constellation 04/02/2022

LitRPG Podcast 282 - Mars System Reboot, We Hunt Monsters, Sleeping Ranker, Rescue System 03/19/2022

LitRPG Podcast 281 - Black Centurion, Eternal Dominion Book 2, Tower Climber Terry, The Infinite World Book 4, Heavenly Demon Cultivation Simulation 02/26/2022

LitRPG Podcast 280 - Lord January, Luck's Voice 4, Airship Privateers, Paths of Power, Eternal Dominion: Restart, Disillusionist 02/04/2022

LitRPG Podcast 280 - Lord January, Luck's Voice 4, Airship Privateers, Paths of Power, Eternal Dominion: Restart, Disillusionist LitRPG Podcast 280 - Lord January, Luck's Voice 4, Airship Privateers, Paths of Power, Eternal Dominion: Restart, Disillusionist Feb. 3rd, 2021 Hello everyone, welcome to episode 280 of the LitRPG podcast. I’m Ramon Mejia. I’m here to bring you the latest LitRPG news, reviews, and author interviews. We have 6 new reviews just for you. For the full show notes visit us at: New Releases and Reviews: (10:55) Not my favorite book from the author Score: 7.2 out of 10 (23:17) A delightful read whose action and pacing was on point Score: 7.6 out of 10 (25:53) A nice short read Score: 7.5 out of 10 (27:57) A good read once it got past the slow beginning Score: 7.5 out of 10 (33:06) Great regressor MMO story Score: 8 out of 10 (38:22) Bad cover, Illusionist MC, decent adventure Score: 7.2 out of 10 (Play Music 2) LitRPG News Dakota Krout and the good folks at Mountaindale Press are releasing both the audiobook and ebook for Anything - Full Murderhobo 2, a month ahead of Amazon/Audible on their own platform. There are several bundles where you can save money if you haven’t had a chance to pick up the 1st book/audiobook in the series. This is a great way to support one of the best authors in the genre and save yourself some money. Out Now! New LitRPG Audiobooks Upcoming LitRPG: (Feb. 7th, 2022) (Feb. 8th, 2022) (Feb. 8th, 2022) (Feb. 8th, 2022) (Feb. 9th, 2022) (Feb. 10th, 2022) (Feb. 14th, 2022) (Feb. 14th, 2022) (Feb. 14th, 2022) (Feb. 15th, 2022) (Feb. 16th, 2022) (Feb. 17th, 2022) (Feb. 21st, 2022) (Feb. 22nd, 2022) (Feb. 22nd, 2022) (Feb. 24th, 2022) (Feb. 25th, 2022) (Feb. 28th, 2022) (Feb. 28th, 2022) (Feb. 28th, 2022) (March 1st, 2022) (March 1st, 2022) (March 1st, 2022) (March 1st, 2022) (March 2nd, 2022) (March 2nd, 2022) (March 7th, 2022) (March 8th, 2022) (March 9th, 2022) (March 11th, 2022) (March 14th, 2022) (March 15th, 2022) (March 16th, 2022) (March 16th, 2022) (March 22nd, 2022) (March 23rd, 2022) (March 24th, 2022) (March 29th, 2022) (March 30th, 2022) (April 5th, 2022) (April 5th, 2022) (April 11th, 2022) (April 12th, 2022) (April 14th, 2022) (April 18th, 2022) (April 26th, 2022) (April 26th, 2022) (April 30th, 2022) Onto New Releases and Reviews (Play Music 3) New Releases and Reviews (Picture 1) Lord January: A LitRPG Cultivation Saga (Year of the Sword Book 1) Time is money. Time is a Weapon. Time is running out. Grant Leap is an orphaned, mortal farmhand in a world where cultivation methods and Weapons of Power are jealously guarded and only passed down among family. He’s not content with his lot; as a Januarian, someone living in District January, he should be living the good life just like everyone else. Food, parties, food, entertainment, and food are the minimum requirement. As an orphan, specifically a reviled Leap, there’s not even a chance of being treated as a human. When a celestial event pours time magic into his field, coalescing into a lost Weapon of Power, Grant leaps at the opportunity to advance beyond even the scope of standard cultivation. At the first touch of the weapon, the orphan gains everything he’s ever wanted: a Sword and a Name. Also, a pesky mandatory quest with his life as the price of failure. It doesn’t take him long to realize that the best thing for him to do is to sell it and live on borrowed Time. Yet, that would never happen. The blade offers him the first major choice he’s ever had to make: surrender to his desires… or live like a King. My Opinion: 427 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited The story combines a kind of physical cultivation with RPG progression. The main character (MC) is a Leap, one of the few people born on a leap day, Feb. 29th. As such he is relegated to a slave position in his society and for his entire life forced to work for his master. At least until a magic sword lands in front of the MC and he gets the quest to defeat the lord of the land, Lord January as a first step to restore the world to balance. What follows is a journey for the MC to learn the ways of the sword, get into shape, and stumble through the world to get to his goal while avoiding the forces that want to stop him. It's a lot of training and fighting, and a good bit of world building. The RPG stuff is consistent. The MC increases his stats and cultivation levels through completing quests, defeating opponents, or killing them. Training also improves stats. A unique aspect to the progression system is that cultivation time (in increments of seconds, minutes, hours, or days) are used for progression but also as a currency in the world. It lines up with the calendar/time theme of the series. There are some criticisms of the novel from readers. That the main character is unrealistically naive, which is partially true. The MC is a person that is treated almost as a slave, and is regularly beaten by the city population seems to still be a kind, trusting person. And despite being repeatedly told not to tell people his weaknesses or secrets, he does so throughout the story never really learned his lesson. It felt like a way to create problems for the MC but the behavior was consistent, I guess. Another criticism is that the novel fat shames. This is also kinda true, though I think it's more of a conflict between the described society the MC lives in and what the magic sword thinks. The setup for the background is that the country the MC lives in is full of overweight people. The bigger you are and the more you eat is a direct reflection of your wealth cultivation power. It's been that way for hundreds of years and the country once farmed enough food for the now magically separated 12 calendar named divisions. The fat shaming comes from the magical sword, Sarge, that trains the MC. I mean there are some serious insults about how the people of the district are killing themselves, being lazy, should be ashamed for letting themselves get obese, and how much better a person the MC is when he loses weight. Sarge, I think, is based on a military drill Sergeant persona from before that country became the way it was, so from his perspective everything he says is correct. But it still felt weird as throughout actual history being fat really was a sign of wealth and prosperity as only the rich could afford enough food, especially meat and sweets. Also, in the fictional January district, no one ever starved as the abundance of food meant it was given out for free, which doesn't seem bad. Also there's this odd revelation that the leader intentionally shifted the culture from being clever and industrious to hedonism and gluttony. Like somehow big people couldn't still be clever or hard working. Overall, the story was ok. It's the first in a planned 12 book series and as such the author may be stretching out character development with that in mind. The action is regular and there's good world building which was enough, for me at least, for the story to be fundamentally entertaining. However, I found it hard to root for such a naive character as it felt like he should have been more untrusting and vengeful for how poorly he was treated by just about everyone. But his journey has really only begun and I'm assuming that's part of his eventual character development. While entertaining it was not my favorite book from the author. Score: 7.2 out of 10 Dangerous Gamble (Luck's Voice Book 4) Life had gotten both better and more chaotic for Doc— he’d already been happy with Fiala and Sonya as his wives, but then Ayla and Lia joined his family. To top it off, he collared the willing dryad, Rosa. With five wives at his side, Doc had a full house of love. He was still in the town of Deep Gulch, needing to achieve the mission Luck had given him. When Sheriff Grange killed Mayor Goodman, it removed the least of Doc’s troubles while showing that Grange was clearly a problem. Even with the Mayor out of the way, there was still plenty to take care of. The first annual poker tournament at the Lily was coming up. The cardsharp, Mr. Suez, was one of Doc’s biggest roadblocks to freeing the town. He had a plan for him, but it would be a gamble... luckily, his patron goddess was Lady Luck. Even if he dealt with Suez, Doc would have to handle Grange as well. The sheriff wanted him gone so he could move on Lia. On top of that, the Church of Apoc was still a threat. In Deep Gulch, that meant Adam McIan, Preacher of Apoc, would have to be removed. Doc had managed to lie to and placate the preacher, but he knew it would come to a head soon. With all the troubles building, a dangerous gamble would have to be made. Doc knew he had allies of his own— some of the townsfolk; the Oresmelter clan in town; and of course, his lovely and talented wives. Trusting in his goddess, Doc embarked on his plan to rid Deep Gulch of the Darkness. My Opinion: 509 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited A delightful read whose action and pacing was on point and did a good job of creating tension from non-combat situations like a gambling tournament. The story also gave me the resolutions I’d found a little wanting in the last book and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the bad guys finally get their comeuppance. The adult content still exists, but is very skippable if it isn’t your thing as it’s not for me. Overall, a good read. Score: 7.6 out of 10 Airship Privateers (Secrets of the Old Ones Book 2) Trent Noguero plays as Vale dePardon in the massive, culture-redefinining deep dive VR game, Secret of the Old Ones. The game feels like reality, a better version of reality. The primary form of entertainment on Earth is to either play SOO or watch those who do. After becoming a streamer and a professional gamer, Trent abruptly discovered how dark and ruthless the real world can be. Now he does what he can to search for those who threatened his loved ones. His regular job remains growing his career as Vale, a member of one of the most powerful streaming parties in SOO. The new PVP event in Secret of the Old Ones offers unprecedented opportunities for player advancement and quest rewards. But a growing faction of inhuman players are threatening human-controlled lands, razing cities to the ground. Human characters like Vale might actually lose the war. And with everything else going on in his life, Trent feels a growing suspicion that something is amiss in the real world, something related to the game... My Opinion: 173 pages, $2.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited A very nice short read that advances the MMO adventuring of the main character (MC) and his group of friends and adds a nice dash or real life danger. The story hits all its plot points pretty succinctly which means there’s less fluff. Enjoyed the read, especially the ending and only wish I could learn to use the rapier as well as the MC. Score: 7.5 out of 10 Paths of Power: Initialization Book 1 A mid 30s Truck driver must make hard choices on his quest to get home to his family while the world as we know it comes to an end. 700 miles, no truck and just his loyal dog to accompany him, can he survive in this new world? A world where The System spawns monsters and mutates plants and animals to absorb and refine essence? Let us find out. My Opinion: 379 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited This is an RPG apocalypse story that allows the people that are caught in it to use one of three paths to power: divine, cultivation, or mana. Because it combines three types of progression it also ends up info dumping a bit to describe all of them. Which is probably the biggest draw back of the first 25% or so of the story. There’s a lot of info dumping compared to the action. Thankfully this changes once the main character (MC) meets up with other apocalypse survivors and he deals with all the bad people that produces. On the game mechanic side of things it's ok. There are lots of notifications, skill descriptions, item descriptions, character sheets, and even a town building after the beginning of the story. The MC chooses cultivation and the story spends a significant amount of time with the MC clearing meridians, strengthening his bones, blood, skin, muscles, and all the normal cultivation stuff. When he does this, he increases his cultivation level and unlocks various bonuses and increases his ki pool. Overall, a good read once it got past the slow beginning. It doesn’t do anything new and the cultivation aspect was overly explained sometimes, but once the MC meets some other people there’s more action and tension with other survivors, and the apocalypse aspect becomes more prominent which compliments the general monster fighting. Score: 7.5 out of 10 Eternal Dominion Book 1: Restart Year 2286 Alex Bell has put in 20 years of work in the VR game Eternal Dominion a full dive fantasy VRMMO game that accounts for around 20% of the world's economy. He had risen to the top as a vice guild leader and thanks to his work his guild was steps away from truly standing with the other top guilds. Only fate decided to rip it all away at the last moment. After his fall Alex awakens to see his 18 year old self looking back at him in the mirror. It's 2266 and Eternal Dominion is set to launch in a matter of hours, this time things will be different. This time he will succeed in life and make sure his friends and family are along for the ride even if he has to drag them along to do so. My Opinion: 254 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited *Great regressor MMO story* This is a great regressor book where the main character relives his life just as what will become the world's most popular MMO starts. He uses his foreknowledge to make person and guild gains to build wealth and power. It’s a smart story that has the gains not only shown in-game but in real life. There’s enough real world consequences with game gold being transferable to real money that the antagonists feel like a real threat, even if the MC knows how to deal with them for the moment. I also appreciated how the MC was planning long term both with his in-game guild, real life money making opportunities, building real life assets, and dealing with the consequences of having wealth. The story is well balanced between real life events, in-game action, guild building, and it even has some crafting. Overall, a great read that kept the pacing tight and entertaining. Score: 8 out of 10 Disillusionist, The LitRPG Misadventures: Fetch Quests and Bog Gods What's the smart move when playing a support class mage with no offensive magic to speak of? Undertake a solo adventure in a monster infested bog of course! Who needs a well-rounded party when you have second-hand daggers, illusions, and flexible morals? Dean, probably, but he's not about to admit that. The last adventurer sent to the Pitmerdan bog for some routine fantasy-world community service failed to complete their quest, so now Dean's goddess has made it his problem. Spending days in a backwater bog town isn't Dean's idea of fun in the first place, with its stinking cold waters and lack of creature comforts. Even the quest-giver seems to think this is some sort of hazing from Dean's faction. What started out as an unpleasant fetch quest becomes a nearly impossible struggle for control when Dean finds himself at odds with everyone who was supposed to support him and the forces of a lesser deity. He'll surely be able to thwart their plans with his ability to produce convincing illusions that cause absolutely no damage. Taking into account his allies, the alcoholic alchemist and a tavern maid, he's got this in the bag. My Opinion: 197 pages, $3.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited *Bad cover, Illusionist MC, decent adventure The story is pretty decent. It has an unusual main character (MC), an illusionist character with a boost to those class spells but little else in the way of magic and minimal combat skills. The character uses those skills to game the other players and NPCs in this short quest. There’s not much world building but it’s not a particularly long story so it focuses on the quest and how the MC uses his limited skills intelligently. Game stuff is consistent. The author sets up the MC to use his illusion magic alot without running out of resources but also tracks what spells costs. There are also notifications and quest. I didn’t like the formatting for the notifications, it was all in caps with a # in front of it, which felt unnecessary and cumbersome. But it's a minor gripe. Overall, a fine story for its page length. Nothing groundbreaking but I appreciated the smarter feel for the MC as caster. Score: 7.2 out of 10 That’s it everyone! Thank you for watching/listening. You can follow us on Facebook: Twitter: YouTube: Patreon: Our Webpage: Spotify: Audible: Other LitRPG facebook pages If you enjoy the podcast and want to support us you can also find all the other ways to support the podcast at Thanks for hanging out with me today. Until we can hangout again, remember to go read some LitRPG! (Music 4) /episode/index/show/litrpgpodcast/id/22021166

LitRPG Podcast 279 - He Who Fights with Monsters 4, The Otherworlder Exploring the Dungeon Vol. 1, Guardian of Aster Fall 2, Overgeared 01/23/2022

LitRPG_Podcast_278.mp3 12/30/2021

LitRPG_Podcast_277.mp3 12/13/2021

LitRPG_Podcast_276.mp3 11/25/2021

LitRPG_Podcast_275.mp3 11/05/2021

LitRPG_Podcast_274.mp3 10/16/2021

LitRPG_Podcast_273.mp3 10/02/2021

LitRPG_Podcast_272.mp3 09/18/2021

LitRPG_Podcast_271.mp3 08/28/2021

LitRPG_Podcast_270.mp3 08/14/2021

LitRPG_Podcast_269.mp3 07/31/2021

LitRPG_Podcast_269.mp3 LitRPG Podcast 269 - The Winds of Cooper, Master Hunter K, World of Magic, The Grand Game, Great Doctor Ling Ran July 30th, 2021 Hello everyone, welcome to episode 269 of the LitRPG podcast. I’m Ramon Mejia. I’m here to bring you the latest LitRPG news, reviews, and author interviews. We have 5 new reviews just for you. For the full show notes visit us at: New Releases and Reviews: (06:31) A short adventure Score: 7.4 out of 10 (08:58) Lots of fighting Score: 7.7 out of 10 (13:31) Ok story, big draw is the magical theory development Score: 7.1 out of 10 (18:29) Gets better as it goes on Score: 7.7 out of 10 Great Doctor Ling Ran (21:59) Medical doctor with interface Score: 7.6 out of 10 Online Manga: Webnovel: (Play Music 2) LitRPG News (none) Out Now! New LitRPG Audiobooks Upcoming LitRPG: (July 31st, 2021) (July 31st, 2021) (Aug. 1st, 2021) (Aug. 1st, 2021) (Aug. 1st, 2021) (Aug. 1st, 2020) (Aug. 2nd, 2021) (Aug. 3rd, 2021) (August 6th, 2021) (Aug. 9th, 2021) (Aug. 10th, 2021) (Aug. 10th, 2021) (Aug. 11th, 2021) (Aug. 12th, 2021) (Aug. 13th, 2021) (Aug.15th, 2021) (Aug. 17th, 2021) (Aug. 24th, 2021) (Aug. 24th, 2021) (Aug. 30th, 2021) (Aug. 30th, 2021) (Aug. 31st, 2021) (Sept. 1st, 2021) (Sept. 7th, 2021) (Sept. 11th, 2021) (Sept. 14th, 2021) (Sept. 14th, 2021) (Sept. 17th, 2021) (Sept. 27th, 2021) (Sept. 28th, 2021) (Sept. 30th, 2021) (Sept. 30th, 2020) Onto New Releases and Reviews (Play Music 3) New Releases and Reviews (Picture 1) The Winds of Cooper (Caverns and Creatures) With Cooper facing a public execution, his friends pull a Hail Mary stunt to rescue him. When they inevitably bungle that, their chances for survival don't amount to a fart in the wind. But the wind has never met a fart like this before. Join Cooper, Tim, Julian, Dave, and Ravenus on another crazy Caverns & Creatures adventure! My Opinion: 30 pages?, $2.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited Another fun and highly curse-wile adventure with the C&C gang. This time it starts with Copper getting ready to be hung and the results of the group trying to free him. It’s an interesting exploration of the evil uses of diplomacy and bardic tricks. As usual, the story has lots of cursing, potty humor, and very funny dialogue. Score: 7.4 out of 10 Initialization: A LitRPG Adventure (Master Hunter K, Book 1) Without so much as a warning, humanity in its entirety was suddenly moved to another dimension. Every person without exception. But this new world with all its opportunities and gifts of wondrous abilities, was a stadium. A deadly arena of an unimaginable scale. And Humanity were to be its latest gladiators. Every man, woman and child was given a weapon and ordered to fight. Stuck in this dimension without a way out, only two options existed for the would be hunters: Fight with monsters to complete the many trials ahead, or perish. Faced with hordes of powerful monsters, thrown into battle with complete strangers at random, the unfair game of survival began. And from the very beginning, billions of lives were extinguished in mere moments. But even within this abyss of despair was a small ray of hope: If even one person were to complete every raid, then humanity would be redeemed and restored back to its former glory. No save points, no revives, no retries. Everyone had just one life to make their way through the gauntlet of raids prepared to test their mettle. Within this marathon of death, one man becomes aware of an exception to the rules of the game. My Opinion: 394 pages, $3.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited This is a fairly straightforward regressor serial where the main character (MC) is the last surviving human after a series of life or death tests in the future. His reward? He’s sent back to the start of the tests with all his future knowledge. He uses that knowledge to gain an advantage during each of the tests and becomes super OP because he knows all the little tricks and equipment pieces, and hidden aspects of the tests. That’s the story, on repeat, each chapter. There’s no real character development, but it's still an entertaining story that emphasizes action, a variety of different monsters to be fought, and a realistic percentage of terrible people that would try to betray their teammates during the tests to gain an advantage for survival. Game mechanics. Pretty straightforward with the people that survive each test or chapter gaining stats and currency based on how much they contributed to the completion of the test scenario. Hit hidden objectives? Get bonus points and currency and rare items and weapons. After the 3rd chapter, the stat gains for the MC doesn’t really have a real impact. It’s just a way to keep showing that he’s getting more and more powerful. But the system is consistent and of more importance are all the rare items, titles, and abilities the MC gets as he already knows about hidden objectives in the tests and special items he can purchase. Overall, a good action focused story that is easy to pick up and put down as each chapter is almost self contained. Score: 7.7 out of 10 Awakening: A LitRPG/GameLit Series (World of Magic Book 1) The future lies within our minds... Paralyzed in a workplace accident, Lox’s life is looking bleak. He can't even use the cutting-edge hardware that would allow him to play in the full-immersion-games that have become so popular. This all changes when he hears from New Universal Frontiers, the company with the best game out there: World of Magic. They offer him the ability to use their hardware despite his injuries, but at a cost... he can never leave the game. Once in the game world, Lox quickly realizes that there is a lot more to this new realm than just a game. Given a class that everyone thinks is useless due its inherent dangers, Lox begins a long and painful series of trials, some of them explosive, almost all of them dangerous as he masters his magical abilities. As Lox explores the depths of this world's magic system, he soon discovers there is a lot more going on here than anyone ever expected. My Opinion: 371 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited This is a mix of dungeon diving and lots of magical theory. I mean lots of it too. The main character (MC) is uploaded to an RPG fantasy MMO world. He gets the class Magical Engineer because he was an engineer on earth. He spends quite a bit of time playing with the fundamentals of his class, the combining and organizing of magical aspects, to create new spells with near endless combinations of effects. He experiments, fights monsters, and when his spells blow up or just aren’t effective enough to kill his enemies, he dies and is resurrected at a chosen altar he is bound to. He also has a mindscape where he can practice and go to learn fundamental truths about himself. There are some interesting aspects to this part of the story but not much is done with it. The story is supposed to shift to the MMO setting after the 25% where the MC meets two other players and goes on adventures with them. Though I’ll also note that for an MMO, there aren’t many players the characters interact with and not much of the stuff you’d expect from an MMO. For the most part this is a slice of life story with a big emphasis on magic and class theory with some regular action and questing. It’s good if you like magical theory and spell casting. But there’s no real character development. The MC is the same person at the end of the story as he was at the start. By the end of the novel, it felt more like a DnD game with a small group of players instead of the MMO world that the characters were supposed to be in. There was little to no interaction with other players, no PvP, no guilds, or other things you’d expect to see in an MMO. Though there were vague threats about high level players that took delight in torturing people that had been uploaded permanently to the world or issues resulting from streaming their adventures, none of that amounted to anything. In fact, it seemed like a lost opportunity for some interesting conflicts. There are some sub-plots about the MC fully integrating into the world and losing all the game stuff, but that’s backtracked fairly quickly. Also a small bit about the MC awakening NPCs into realizing they can actually be real beings. Again, not much done here with either potentially interesting story thread. Overall, it's an ok story. The biggest draw is likely the magic and class developments for the MC. The actual adventures are fairly linear with no real repercussions for failure but there was a decent variety and semi-regular action. Score: 7.1 out of 10 The Grand Game, Book 1: A LitRPG Adventure One man. Assassin. Caster. A new world. And a Game that is as brutal as it is complex. Michael finds himself in the realm of the Forever Kingdom, with no memory of how he got there and who he is. Even so, he must participate in the Grand Game and forge a new destiny for himself. Dropped into a dungeon of monsters, and strange magics, would you survive in a Game where to lose means death? Alone, and with little more than his wits to aid him, Michael must advance as a player, slay his foes, and gain experience. All while navigating the intrigues around him and discovering his purpose. A world of Powers, Forces, and mysterious factions. A Game with endless opportunities for advancement and power. Join Michael on his epic adventure as he deals with the Game’s challenges, the machinations of the Powers, and the ambitions of his fellow players. The start of an exciting new portal fantasy epic! My Opinion: 434 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited This is a rather good story that gets better as it goes on. The first half is mostly a solo journey through caves with the main character (MC) choosing a stealth class to avoid the dangers of going with less savory players in a forced dungeon dive. There’s enough setup to get the dive started pretty quickly but the good stuff doesn’t really happen till you get to about halfway through the novel. At that point the MC hits a point where he’s figured out his build and gotten some decent equipment and skills. The story expands to include other players and a faction plot line between several groups of kidnapped players. It was surprisingly good with enough hints given about betrayer and hidden agendas that it felt good to follow through on the results. Game mechanics - This is rather well done and though the fundamentals of the system aren’t new with levels, classes, skills, pools of resources (mana, stamina, mental points, etc), and other similar LitRPG mechanics. The story has a smart MC who uses stealth and the system gives players three class slots, so the eventual combinations of chosen classes gives lots of room for customization and unique builds. There’s plenty of detail about stats, class building, synergizing abilities, equipment and ability notifications, etc. for those that really like that. But the thing I appreciated was that the MC was never too overpowered and used his skills intelligently so that the growth that eventually happens felt earned. Overall, the story has a good bit of action and adventure with some mid story shifts to larger group/faction stuff. It was never tedious and I finished the story in just a couple of sittings. Score: 7.7 out of 10 Great Doctor Ling Ran Ling Ran, whose goal is to become the world's greatest doctor, suddenly obtained the golden finger system! And this is a system with a high degree of medical expertise! With the help of the system, what medical height can the intern Ling Ran reach? My Opinion: 47 chapters, Free Online Manga, No English Publisher for Online Manga, English Publisher for the Webnovel This is a review for the manga version online. There’s a webnovel version that has an official english publisher that you may or may not like more. But for me, the manga version was surprisingly fun and interesting. I wasn’t sure just how the RPG mechanics were going to work with a rookie doctor training in a hospital but they come through pretty well. The system gives rewards to the main character (MC) as he completes medical related quests. The rewards range from energy serums, that help him get through long shifts, to specialist surgical techniques. The big boosts in skills don’t go unnoticed by the other doctors and there are pretty logical consequences for him becoming such a good doctor suddenly. There are of course some forced scenarios so he can continue to be challenged, but it's still an interesting manga that combines the interest of a medical drama with game mechanics. Score: 7.6 out of 10 Online Manga: Webnovel: That’s it everyone! Thank you for watching/listening. You can follow us on Facebook: Twitter: YouTube: Patreon: Our Webpage: Spotify: Audible: Other LitRPG facebook pages If you enjoy the podcast and want to support us you can also find all the other ways to support the podcast at Thanks for hanging out with me today. Until we can hangout again, remember to go read some LitRPG! (Music 4) /episode/index/show/litrpgpodcast/id/19987931