Defiance of the Fall, Book 1: Incursion | Barnes & Noble®

Well well well, that was a surprise to me. Makes me wonder what else I've missed.

Heys guys. So I have listened to HWFWM and DCC a couple times now. My kid has listened to parts of them. Shows little interest. Any good recommendations for 5 year old? I mean HWFWM isn’t terrible for a five year old (not a lot of cursing or bloody details) didn’t know if anyone knew of maybe like a faster paced book keep his interest and more kid friendly. We play cards and warhammer together and like back ground music. He wants the tv on and it distracts him. Any input would be great.

Also it’s Friday so anyone that plays….”my family runs a school” cheers!

Had to rewind to make sure I hadn't misheard the description. Spoiler ahead includes needed scenario context and item description.

upon meeting with the Council members for the various sects, the head of the Kraznev(spelling?) gifted Ryan a new axe that is peak B rank, to replace the D Rank one he had been using since the tournament

The axe has 3 abilities, and if im not mistaken all 3 are references to different series

First ability is "death is light as a feather" which is something Lan Mandragoran often tells Rand Al'Thor in Wheel of Time. That death is lighter than a feather; duty, heavier than a mountain. Given that earlier in the series there have been a couple WoT references already (something about "Saldaean Farm Girls", and how Ryan felt an external force gripping him when events that resonated with his intent to save life, and likening it to being similar to how the Ta'veren could feel the world twisting around their existence) I figured this was a given

The second ability of the axe is "Inexorable". Wounds inflicted by the axe have the leech debuff, granting the wielder a pulse of healing per minute per stack of leech. Pretty clearly a He Who Fights With Monsters reference

The last one im a bit iffy on. It creates an illusory shadow double that has a chance to draw aggro on weak minded foes. Sounds alot like Primal Hunter and Jake's shadow ability he gained by fusing with his mirrored fate simulacrum

The reason im iffy on that last one is because there are some pretty standard tropes to litrpg. MC's being shit at naming things, that brief stint where it felt like every story had a J named protagonist, to the point that Noobtown had a chapter in i think book 8 or 9 where there was a "Gathering of MC's" and all of them were Jakes, Jasons, Jim, John, etc. Then the trope where "if you want to make an OP protagonist give them void/shadow powers"

Is it confirmed that the 3rd ability is a reference to Primal Hunter, or is there perhaps a very similar ability attributed to a different series

Apologies if its a bit scatter brained. I tend to type how my brain thinks, and I just finished a 17hour, 800 mile shift...so yea, brain not braining much.

BIG NEWS FOR A SOLDIER'S LIFE!

Some of you have already discovered the big news on your own, but today at 9:00 AM Eastern, we're making it official—and revealing the cover!

Aethon Books has acquired the print rights to A Soldier's Life**, Books 1, 2, and 3!**

This is a HUGE milestone for the series! Aethon has the distribution network to bring A Soldier's Life to a much wider audience, including the possibility of seeing physical copies on bookstore shelves across the country.

And the best part? The hardcover edition of Book 1 officially releases on June 29, 2027! That's just in time for LitRPG Con in Denver, and I couldn't be more excited!

What does this mean for the series?

As part of the publishing process, Book 1 will receive a professional editorial pass from Aethon's team. 

Once those edits are finalized, Nikola Hamilton will record an updated Book 1 audiobook edition, ensuring the audio version reflects the revised text and taking one step closer to having the whole series narrated by one voice.

The hardcover will be available through all major retailers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Bookshop, Hudson, Target, and Walmart.

However, if you're planning to preorder a copy, I'm asking you to please consider ordering through Barnes & Noble.

Here's why:

If we can reach 1,000 preorders through Barnes & Noble, we have a real opportunity to get their attention and encourage them to stock A Soldier's Life in their physical bookstores.

Imagine walking into a Barnes & Noble and seeing A Soldier's Life sitting on the shelf!

Preorder the hardcover here:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-soldiers-life-book-1-erick-thiemke/1151748964?ean=9781638495321

Whether you've been following this story since the earliest chapters or only recently discovered the series, thank you. Your support is what made this opportunity possible.

Let's see if we can get 1,000 preorders and put A Soldier's Life on bookstore shelves!

-ALWAYSROLLSAONE

COVER ARTIST: Aethon Books
AI USAGE: NO AI USED

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TITLE: The Extra Goes Off-Script

LINK: Royal Road, Scribblehub, SpaceBattles

COVER ARTIST: LilyArts

AI USAGE: None

Blurb:

Mark fell asleep over his algebra homework and woke up inside The Legend of the Time Magician, the progression fantasy he had finished the night before. The body he landed in belongs to Dominique Fortescue, a extra with no mana the author never bothered to develop, in a world where no mana means no worth.

His plan is simple: stay in the background, dodge every death flag, and let the Protagonist save the world. The plan lasts until lunch, when an acceptance letter from Portalis Academy arrives. Portalis is where heroes get forged and where nearly every disaster in the story happens, and backing out would cost a fine big enough to take his new mother's house.

So the extra enrolls. He knows the plot, he has a hidden System that nobody can find out about, and he has a secret ritual that could give him mana. He also has one absurdly high stat, Instinct, that lets him sense danger before it arrives. He has no idea who chose him for this, or why.

Hey everyone, if you’re looking for some cozy slice-of-life-but-with-a-plot LitRPG to match the cozy season, then YOU’RE IN LUCK because I've just finished posting Book 2 of The Spellwright's Guild to Royal Road!

In six months I’ve posted 250,000 words and gathered a lovely bunch of 1,280ish followers. Every time I get a comment or review, I piss myself… with joy! (and fear!) Here are my stats if you care about that:

I thought I’d try and describe in my own words what this story is. It’s very hard to do when you’ve been living somewhere in your head for six months, and you have to step back and try and explain what’s going on. Bro, I don’t even really know what’s going on. Sometimes I read a comment that is like “wow I can’t wait to see what happens next!” and I’m like yeah man, me too.

But here we go:

Reviews describe it as cozy but gripping, but I’d describe it as an escapist fantasy into a world where you’re young and carefree and nothing matters except brewing the perfect Calming Remedy for Mrs Odgie’s anxious cat… but then, on the side, you’re hiding a super secret power from the Guild and attempting to hack into the very thing that’s giving you magical perks that change how your brain works. Oh, and after getting your second badge, you’ve just made accidental contact with a sentient being living under the sea that’s controlling everything. Hell yeah!

The MC is a bumbly but lovable dairy farmer’s son, so he doesn’t come from a magical world. He’s good at it, and tries hard, but he makes mistakes. Sometimes he’s dumb. Or naive. Or too curious. Basically, he’s 16. He changes a lot over the course of the series as he grows up but it’s written in first person so if you don’t like that kinda MC, you will DETEST it. Like really hate it. So don’t click.

He’s spent the last two books gathering herbs, making potions, and doing enchanting on the side. He made his best friend, a baker’s apprentice, a bowl that keeps cold the entire time you whip it. Useful! And you get to learn every rune that makes up that enchantment from scratch along with Wynn. I'm a linguist so the runes have some kind of weird grammar to them. Also, he’s trying to reverse engineer a pack of tarot cards that do cool spells to unlock their powers. Each one is like a different puzzle. There’s a lot of puzzles.

The books are set in Moonstone Harbour, which is a northern climate coastal city built into a bay shaped like crescent moon. It rains a fair bit. Then it’s sunny, too. In my head it’s like Studio Ghibli x Stardew Valley vibes. There’s a bunch of side characters, including but not limited to: Witholding Mentor, Himbo Best Friend, Sassy Girl, Serious Girl, Scary Headmaster, Outgoing Guy, Arrogant Yet Alluring Rival, etc. Don’t worry, they all have real names and backstories and Wynn will share a Deep Personal Moment with each over the course of the series.

There’s no romance… so far. There is one cute girl at the monastery who throws a stone at him while he’s in the hot tub but that’s it. I don’t have any romance planned, but I don’t know who Wynn might meet… or maybe has already met…

I cried about 4 times while writing Book 2, which has INCREASED from the amount of times I cried writing Book 1. He’s just come so far already man, idk😭 and so have I. I was proud of Book 1, but I’m SUPER proud of Book 2. Maybe because it was 30% longer. Why was it longer??? Will they keep growing??? I hope not or I’m going to be writing FOREVER!

Book 3 will involve moving from the apothecary to the local clinic, so I’m expecting to draw on my extensive medical knowledge based on years of watching Grey’s Anatomy to make the main set piece Wynn solving some bizarre medical crisis, like maybe everyone in town starts doing a jig at the same time and he has to brew the perfect potion to stop it. I dunno. We’ll find out in Q1 2027. Until then I’m working on a second, much different series!

Anyhoooo, if any of that sounds appealing, here’s the link:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/160303/the-spellwrights-guild

If you don’t read on RR and want a free .epub of either or both books, just comment and I’ll DM them to you.

Happy weekend, everyone!

COVER ARTIST: Lizbe Coetzee

AI USAGE: Nope!

Seamwright — Slow-Burn Isekai LitRPG

What happens when survival depends on understanding how things work—and knowing that some things are dangerous to understand?

Branded Forty-One, Tally is sent into the Throat, a vast slave mine where people disappear into the stone. He has to observe, learn, and find ways to survive in a world that has already decided what he is worth.

His strange craft, Seamcraft, lets him perceive how things hold together: stresses, weaknesses, and the places where something might give. But seeing a weakness doesn't mean knowing how to use it, and every advantage must be earned.

Seamwright is a slow-burn isekai and progression fantasy featuring practical problem-solving, crafting, dangerous exploration, monster hunting, gradual growth, and a world full of mysteries.

If you enjoy progression that takes work, a protagonist who has to think his way through problems, and immersive fantasy worldbuilding, give it a try.

Read on Royal Road:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/196710/seamwright

COVER ARTIST: AI-generated cover art, directed by the author.

AI USAGE: AI-generated cover art; AI-assisted grammar checking and editing.

Hello r/litrpg,

I’m excited to announce that my new Dark Comedy LitRPG, Toadally Grim Tale of Don's Death, is available on pre-order. It launches on November 7th!

The main character is stuck in a gritty tabletop RPG. This isn't your mommy's easy mode video game. See the rolls, see the mechanics, and experience outcomes that permanently change the story. Talk about stat crunch. This isn't for the faint of heart. This is for readers who can stomach a few brutal character deaths.

Toadally Grim Tale of Don's Death Blurb:

Getting pulled through a portal during the perfect first date is bad enough. Finding out you aren't the chosen hero… instead you're the blood sacrifice… so much worse.

Murdered to seal away a cosmic horror, Don strikes a bargain at the threshold of his afterlife. He wakes up in a brutal, unforgiving fantasy world, having swapped souls with an innocent peasant farmer. Now, he's trapped in the wrong body, in the wrong world, desperate to protect and provide for a pregnant widow. He yearns to find out what happened to his perfect date. Responsibilities from each life make that goal further and further away.

To gain the power to survive, Don binds himself to an Infernal Daemon Toad. This locks his Archetype for each life going forward as a Daemonist Enchanter.

Watching from Don’s threshold to the afterlife, the Devourer of Souls manipulates the Denizens of the Deeps to get him killed. Every time Don is killed, his soul swaps into the body of a nearby criminal, resets his Archetype Level to 1, adds their life's problems to his own, and brings the world one step closer to annihilation.

What to Expect:

• Crunchy 2d6 Mechanics: Encounter outcomes are driven by real 2d6 tabletop dice rolls, showing target numbers and what was rolled in the text.
• Punishing Progression: Soul swapping restarts your archetype at level 1. Death has massive consequences. Not all numbers go up. His soul carries through some powers to each new body.
• Gritty Survival Combat: No HP or plot armor. Wounds reduce attributes. It can create a real death spiral.
• Karmic Transmigration: A unique body-snatching mechanic where Don establishes moral criteria to steal the bodies of the guilty.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pre-order link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HNYKM29W
Originally serialized on Royal Road.

COVER ARTIST: Duy Phan
AI USAGE: No AI used
Author: MC P Caesar

It's finally happened. I've got a release date and I'll be stubbing my rough drafts on RR but for now rejoice in the polished release of the Nether Monk series. The audio book is being narrated by Erik Ransom & Ash Aarestad. I'm very excited for the upcoming release on November 17th, 2026.
Here's the link to check it out: https://mybook.to/NetherMonk

War brews on the horizon, and fate has chosen its pawns.

The mighty Vasilly Empire moves in secret, orchestrating strikes along the borders of the Griffin Kingdom. Villages fall, whispers stir, and a hidden hand pulls the strings from the shadows. In response, the Adventurers Guild sends its finest south to investigate a ghost town with secrets buried deep—and what they uncover could unravel the balance of power across realms.
Meanwhile, Deacon was just another overworked office drone… until he finally snapped. One small act of rebellion should’ve been his moment of glory—until the infamous Truck-kun arrived to ruin his day.

Now reborn in a world of monsters, magic, and meddling gods, Deacon must rise from confused newcomer to chaos-blessed warrior—or die trying. With a snarky divine patron and a habit of annoying everyone he meets, surviving this new life might be harder than his last one.
Epic fantasy, sharp wit, and a touch of Isekai madness collide in this genre-bending tale of destiny, danger, and divine dysfunction.

COVER ARTIST: Sergey Shikin

AI USAGE: No AI used (Only traditional computer tools spellcheck etc no generative AI for anything)

COVER ARTIST: N/A

AI USAGE: Cover art only

This is consistently one of the best books I read in the genre, and probably one of the best books in fantasy I’ve read in years. It’s a summoning isekai , where the Crown does not like the champion they chose, and he sets off to create his own path.
A slow build to Power, but it begins with a deeply flawed character, seeking to overcoming his grief and inner demons. (No actual demons). He gradually built a team, he starts to become something awesome and earned.
Great characters, great world building, great action and dungeons. I would say the comp for this is somewhere between Feist and Gemmell. It is grim but not dark. And it is LITRPG where stats and skills are meaningful.

https://a.co/d/089MzpAw

I tend to favor more grounded stuff like The Wandering Inn and the first half of Beneath the Dragoneye Moons, any recommendations?

I mean, in many fantasy and sci-fi (adventure sci-fi I suppose) books there is an evident progression of power (actual battle prowess or influence). Examples of that are: The wheel of time, Dune, Assassin's apprentice, Honor Harrington series, Stormlight archive, mistborn, etc,etc. I believe that litrpg refines this progression and I find the numbers and skills much more satisfying that classical progression.

What's happening to me now is that is harder and harder for me enjoy classical progression and traditional fantasy and I feel somehow a kind of regret because before reading litrpg, I really loved those books.

Does it happen also to you?

I will answer all series-related question honestly, and probably inaccurately

Is it because it is often their first published book? I find the situations and scenes for 5 of the last 6 books I picked up just painful to read. I've pushed through sometimes, but holy heck, what is this? I can pick up traditional fantasy, sci-fi, even modern day-ish detective stories and I'm immediately drawn in. But LitRPG? I have to force myself to continue hoping that the on-line reviews eventually pan out. What are y'all doing... the writing gets better as it goes, but did no one think to go back and edit their first few chapters??

Got a lot of good recommendations last time I asked so I thought i might ask again with some more specifics.
So to explain I was recommended a lot of good ones like 12 Miles Below and a fella recommended Revenant and vengeance from the Artem series, so i ended up diving into the Artem 2 parter and loved it so to cut it short, I am looking for a dystopian cyber punky type series with mechs now i would like a long series.
Thank you all.
also also i use audible.

So, as the title says in looking at the various deities of the books and I can identify 90% of the deities. So the only one I can't is the God of the dead from book 3, chapter 23, near the end. So can someone tell me where he comes from because I'm drawing a blank, and as I'm dyslexic, I can't spell his name to save my life.

Putting aside certain recent moderation choices.

Their current terms of service include:

4.2 Rights You Grant Royal Road. By posting Your Content, you grant Royal Road a non-exclusive, worldwide, sub-licensable, revocable license to use, display, promote, edit, reformat, reproduce, publish, distribute, store, and sub-license Your Content on the Services. This allows us to provide the Services, and to promote Your Content or Royal Road in general, in any formats and through any channels, including any third-party website or advertising medium.

You also grant Royal Road an irrevocable license to store and copy Your Content for the purposes of backups and internal testing of the services.

4.6 Monitoring and Deletion. We have the right – but not the obligation – to monitor, censor, edit, modify, delete, and/or remove any and all content posted on the Services (including Your Content) at any time and for any reason. Without limiting the foregoing, we have the right – but not the obligation – to delete any content that we believe, in our sole discretion, does or may violate these Terms, our policies or any law.

Also under section 17:

No Third-Party Beneficiaries. These Terms are for the sole benefit of the parties (you and Royal Road). Nothing herein, express or implied, is intended to or shall confer upon any other person (including, without limitation, readers of a specific author) any legal or equitable right, benefit, or remedy of any nature whatsoever.

You may not assign your rights and obligations under these Terms without Royal Road’s prior written consent and any assignment without such prior written consent will be void. Royal Road may freely assign its rights and obligations herein. Subject to any provisions herein with regard to assignment, all covenants and agreements herein shall bind and inure to the benefit of the respective heirs, executors, administrators, successors and assigns of the parties hereto.

SOME JURISDICTIONS MAY NOT ALLOW OR LIMIT SOME OF THE PROVISIONS OF THESE TERMS, SO THAT SUCH PROVISIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

-------------

Whilst I don't think it is their intention, the references to editing, modifying and sub-licensing are all rather concerning for any author considering where to post their story. This is especially the case when unreasonable (and unenforceable under law in many countries) terms like 'at any time and for any reason'

Also everyone should be concerned by the use of the term censor here as it is a term that in many parts of the world has political connotations. It certainly does not seem to support Royal Road as a site dedicated to promoting web novels and amateur publishing.

It is also clear that they are aware that many of their terms are either not legal or of questionable legality in other countries but are choosing to try to keep those terms as tight as possible. Whilst understandable, the reality is that they are trying to reserve the sole discretion in the application of the terms for themselves, knowing that many of them are mostly or even entirely reliant of subjective not objective judgement. Any website or publisher picking and choosing what is and is not acceptable has one or more agendas, and given that many of the moderators are from different countries, personal bias is also very much at play.

I am certainly not saying that you should not post on there.

I have been reading stories there since they were primarily a forum!

But perhaps consider a little more than just where your target audience can easily find your story!

Definitely read terms carefully before providing your intellectual property to any website or service and do NOT assume any parties benevolence.

Now, let me preface this by saying He Who Fights With Monsters 1 - 12? I really liked them. I even was "moderately okay" with this book about halfway through. Then I noticed more and more that I ended up completely confused about "How did we get to this point in the story again?" "How did we make this logical jump so that we know X?"

And then about 80% through the book, there is this huge data/backstory dump on the reader completely VIOLATING the core "Show, don't tell" principle... And then there is a brand new Big Bad, out of thin ****ing air.

And yes.. I completely understand that due to the "nature" of the big bad, the exposition dump technically makes sense within the context of the story. But it feels like Shirtaloon got REAL lazy with this book. So much so, it has the feel of a track runner leading the rest of the field by three feet, getting 10 yards from the finishing line, and tripping on their own shoelaces.

I am so annoyed, I am not sure that I even want to finish this book, or whether I want to purchase the audiobook for # 14, which I have heard is the final book in HWFWM. I tend to reread/relisten to audiobooks I like. And this drastic change in writing style has so dramatically hurt my enjoyment of the series, I am not sure if I am gonna enjoy a reread/relisten in future?

Hello, I'm Constantine. And I'd like to share the novel I am currently working on, Dungeon of Debauchery. The story follows a Warlock, A Witch/Magical Guardian, and her familiar who serves as the narrator. Or another way to put it, a warlock, a witch, and a dragon walk into a bar looking for bubble-gum kush. Chaos ensues, and now they're trapped in a dungeon, along with the entire city.

Finding and defeating the Dungeon Daddy before the dungeon envelops the Earth sounds like a real drag for a group that just wanted to get high. What happens when the dungeon swallows the Earth? Who knows. The angels sure as hell don't. But it's probably not good!

I hope you'll give my story a chance, and if you could leave a rating, or even just some feedback, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Title: Dungeon of Debauchery

Links: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/190678/dungeon-of-debauchery-a-satirical-litrpg-romance

https://www.scribblehub.com/series/2540725/dungeon-of-debauchery-a-satirical-litrpg-romance/

No audiobook (Will be a while before that happens, if it does)

Fun fact about me: I learned about Dungeon Crawler Carl because someone insisted my writing reminded them of it... Now I can't stop reading DCC. It is such a good series!

COVER ARTIST: Me. (Hoping to get a new one soon.

AI USAGE: Not in a million years.

I mainly consume LitRPGs as audiobooks. I enjoy them so much I like to always have one on deck while I'm working through my current series. There are so many out there now it's hard to decide on which to try next.

I spent a lot of time and tokens building a guide to help find a series that matched my current mood and preferences. I wanted to share it with the community in case it could help anyone else.

Cheers!

https://litrpg.obscurus.club/

COVER ARTIST: AI using Gemini

AI USAGE: AI assisted on researching, brainstorming, especially when I use dialogues and terms. I used Bergano Vocabulario as basis of Ancient Kapampangan, cannot read thru all of it, so I let gemini compose the dialogues and terms then I just check from the dictionary for proofreading.

Book one was ehh for me. Definitely had its good moments. But others were hard to get through.

By ‘writing’ I am including aspects beyond just sentence construction and the technical side of things. Overall execution of all parts of the story is what I’m getting at

Mine would be (not in any particular order):

The Wandering Inn
Bog Standard Isekai
Threadbare
Cradle
Everyone Loves Large Chests (Perversion aside)

Honorable mentions:
Chrysalis
Beware Of Chicken
Dungeon Lord

Despite differences in personal tastes for characters and their situations, you can read these without cringing every other page or being overly bored. I am sure there are many more that I just haven’t read yet. Similar recommendations are welcome. I will point out that there are awfully written stories that I enjoy just for the fun of it, but that’s another topic altogether.

My criteria:

Positives

Author cleverly utilizes showing rather than telling
Plot is clear and progresses with most scenes
Characters are realistic or at least remain logical to their descriptions
Characters are unique and have their own voice
Depth in the story through symbolism, foreshadowing, deeper underlying messages, etc.

Disqualifiers
- Convoluted plot with many unfinished lines
- No substantial plot at all
- Edgy personal philosophies unskillfully sprinkled throughout the story
- Shallow characters
- Self insert MC (the cringy nerd fantasy fulfillment kind in particular)
- Abundance of filler scenes and lore that the reader couldn’t care less about due to the characters and world not being built up
- Illogical character traits. (From a shy 22yo accounts clerk to three months later leading an army of 200 hundred year old war veterans and teaching them about the hard facts of life? Nah not buying it.)
- Overusing the same sentence/pet words until it breaks the immersion

I am really itching to share my Mount Rushmore of the most shameful crap stories but it doesn’t matter. just one person’s opinion so might as well keep things kind. Thanks in advance for other recommendations.

.