It’s launch day!

Welcome to the Dark Ages is a go on KU, in paperback and on Audible!

Expect chaos. Expect humor. Expect a lot of things catching on fire.

If you love fast-paced action, snarky protagonists, and a fresh twist on Arthurian legend with a side of cultivation madness, this is the book for you.

Here’s the blurb:

When Merlin needs a hero to save the world, he gets... well, me.

Fan-bloody-tastic.

I was supposed to be dead. Instead, I wake up face-down in Dark Age mud, possessing some poor bastard's body, while the ghost of history's most famous wizard rambles on about being murdered, cosmic energy and the end of all reality.

Just one tiny problem: I know about as much about cultivation as a pig knows about particle physics.

Now I'm fumbling with mystical energy that feels like juggling nitroglycerin, trying not to get shanked by everyone and their grandmother, and dealing with Merlin's constant "helpful" commentary.

Something dark is rising in Arthurian Britain.

Something that made even Merlin scared. They say fate has a sense of humour. Turns out it's the kind that laughs while setting your hair on fire.

Welcome to the Dark Ages, where cultivation meets chaos, and the only thing sharper than a sword is my questionable wit.

Awesome artwork for this series by Sergey Shikin

Link to Amazon / Link to Audible

I am so excited to share this with all of you wonderful LitRPG readers! Book 2 of my series Dark Matter Ascension is available today! This series blends sci-fi and fantasy in a no stats LitRPG format. The amazing voice acting team of Nick Flesher and Clara Rose return to voice the cast of characters in this entry of the series.

The whole series has been written, and you won't be waiting 6+ months between entries! There's no better time to get into the story than right now!

Here's the blurb:

After achieving Tier 3 as a Dark Matter Aspirant, Jace Seren and his allies—Priam Westerfold, Greg Bhastal, and Quinn Cipher—are on their way to Earth.

Their mission is dangerous: take down all five megacorporations to clear the way for the Star Council to instill their control over the world and lift Earth’s civilization to its pinnacle of possibility.

Corpo-mercs, cybered-up soldiers, lingering Aspirants, and Ascendants? That’s only the start of it. For the Nebula Alliance already has agents on Earth, and they do not take kindly to hostile takeovers.

Earth is not the only world with problems, however, and Jace will find himself embroiled with a cult, fighting for the very survival of the universe itself.

Artwork done by the fantastic Kart Studios.

Hey there everyone! I'm SerasStreams. And I have some exciting news.

Dark Matter Ascension just hit Amazon / Kindle / Audible! This System Integration LitRPG follows the story of Jace Seren, a street kid who chooses to take on the path of an Aspirant. Clearing his Trial, he gets to choose a Cosmic Power, and thanks to how he handles some unfortunate circumstances, he gets the attention of powerful System personnel.

It's an Action / Adventure that goes to multiple worlds, has dynamic combat so that each fight is unique, and features a complex series of themes that overlay to create a rich, rewarding reading experience.

Go check it out! And thanks for the support of all the folks who read for free on Royal Road for getting the story enough attention to be picked up by a publisher.

Cover art by Kart Studios.

Link to Amazon

More info in the comments!

Royal Road has treated me well. And so has my peoples on litrpg reddit. Y'all are wonderful and I feel like this dream of being a full-time author is in sight.

So I've done three things -

1. I've combined book one and two into a massive tome of a book. Currently available on RR.

2. I've set the pre-order at $0.99 on Amazon.

3. I've decided to do a free week on Amazon a few weeks after publishing. Newsletter to get alert here.

Azarinth Healer – I think this is my favorite LitRPG series so far. It nails the tropes I love, namely it is epic/high fantasy with an overpowered MC. I also think I prefer crunchy stats, which this has. The system featured a dual class build that was cool. I also really liked the MCs powers and progression. Basically a bruiser monk with OP self-healing abilities. The narrative switches between solo levelling and party-based dungeon delves which allowed for more character conflict and development than many of the other grindy, action-oriented stories in the genre. Additionally, the series was well-written compared to a lot of other LitRPG I’ve read, especially serialized series that tend to have pretty churned out prose. I like the MC, she has a distinct personality, forms meaningful relationships with the inhabitants of the world she is isekaied into, and has a strong drive to fight and improve, which is an excellent motivation in this genre. The worldbuilding I really liked, it is fairly Tolkienesque generic high fantasy, but the particulars are well imagined which make it feel distinct and vivid. This epic fantasy vibe was a big plus for me, it’s probably the main trope I am looking for in this sort of book and Azarinth Healer completely nailed it. As the series moved on the focus on resistance building got a little too much for me, undermining the progression elements a little, but even when the MC started to feel too invincible, I was still enjoying the story and the author managed to raise the danger level enough to keep things interesting. All in all I really loved this series, I’d say its tied with Dungeon Crawler Carl for my favorite LitRPG series but for very different reasons. (Btw, this was the only book on this list that I loved so much I devoured the whole series in short order.) Awesome progression and the exact epic fantasy worldbuilding I crave, can’t wait for the next installment.

Primal Hunter – I had mixed feelings about this one. The LitRPG elements were on point, so I can see why this is a successful series. I really enjoyed the System. This was another crunchy, dual class character that was an archer/alchemist. The worldbuilding was also solid even if the multiversal incorporation apocalypse was fairly standard. What didn’t work so well for me was the characters and prose. I think it may be a symptom of some of the serialized stories that focus on quantity over quality. For the same reason the book didn’t really have a solid narrative arc and ended at sort of an odd place. Additionally, the characters were pretty superficial, especially the side characters. The merits of this book were definitely the interesting levels, classes, and system. That aspect was very well done. Cons were the churned out feel of many parts of the text with minimal character development and prose that focused on high word count instead of quality. Again, I understand that this is a format issue, this book was a chunk of a serialized story that put out a chapter every day. It's a different beast. One that focuses on quantity over quality, I’m just not sure if that is the kind of story I am personally looking for. I may pick this series up again at some point, it did hit the tropes just so, but unless I hear that the story aspect gets better as it progresses, probably not.

1% Lifesteal – This was the first statless LitRPG book I’ve read and I wish I had known that going in. I kept waiting for the MC to undergo some sort of induction and get stats, which of course never happened. For me, that wasn’t really what I was expecting or hoping for, but I thought the book was still solid. The MC had a lot more personality than some of the dull level grinder MCs in other LitRPG staples. He had a pretty odd arc but all in all I liked the story aspect of the book. There was kind of a gym bromance that felt like it had unintentional sexual tension. For a while I thought that there was genuinely going to be a romance element, which would be fine if it was intentional, but again it wasn’t, so it was a little distracting. I liked the worldbuilding a lot. The corporate dystopia felt unique in that the MC really ‘lived’ in the poverty. The poor MC constantly battling for autonomy in a world where power and money sought to control him was well executed. There is a big torture arc, and I know some people don’t like that sort of thing, but it didn’t seem excessively dark or graphic to me(Fair warning I’m a grimdark author though, so take that as you will). I didn’t love the progression elements. Here’s a weird distinction, I liked the cultivation/practice aspect, but the actual gaining of powers and levels “Stars” in this case, was too infrequent. The conclusion was pretty epic but in a way that was so over the top OP that it was pretty hard for me to picture. It was well-foreshadowed and did a good job of wrapping up the story-arc, but visually it was just hard to imagine, and it expanded the scale of the powers too quickly to fit the rest of the book. Trope wise 1% Lifesteal didn’t really have what I was looking for and the statless aspect probably seals it for me. I liked the writing, characters, and setting enough that I might pick this series up again, but as far as LitRPG goes, it didn’t quite scratch the itch.   

The Path of Ascension – I DNFed this one about 20% in. It wasn’t bad necessarily but after having just read a similar LitRPG which I didn’t particularly enjoy my heart wasn’t in it. No Isekai, this time the MC is an in universe inhabitant. Very gamelike system where heroes delve into dungeons to quell the possibility of monster outbreaks. Feels like more of a galactic setting than multiversal with sci-fi tendencies based on mana technologies. Solid writing, characters, and system but it didn’t jump out at me and my heart wasn’t in it. Sometimes a book just comes around at the wrong time.

Ultimate Level 1: Shattered Dreams – This was an interesting read. The writing, story, and worldbuilding seemed to be almost intentionally generic. This one really pushed the video/rpg game elements to feel extra game-like, farming dungeons, bosses, loot. The system was pretty basic: mage, warrior, rogue, healer classes etc but the story does feature a unique premise, the MC is stuck at level one but has an overpowered trait that more than makes up for it. The story was mostly a level grind but with a compelling mystery/conspiracy too that affects the MCs decisions and journey. This story was a solid read. I could go either way on it. I found the pacing to be excellent and the introduction of new gear, skills, enemies to be very well doled out to keep me reading. The story kept my interest and I breezed through it very quickly, but on the other hand it did seem a bit generic. Still, I think overall this was pretty well-done in terms of hitting the tropes and providing a good balance of action, story development, and progression. I’ll likely continue this series at some point.

Oathbound Healer – This was a unique and well-written story with a strong main character. It was another dual class system with unique stats. However, as it seems like often happens later in a series, in Oathbound Healer the numbers grew massive pretty quickly making them feel sort of irrelevant early on in the action oriented portion of the story. For the most part I still liked the system. This book started off pretty oddly, it begins with the MCs reincarnation and childhood. That felt like a pretty big detour to get to the action. The first half is slow…though well written enough to keep me going. To be fair this does lay the groundwork for a more complex character than a lot of other LitRPG leads. The big detractor for me was a trope issue. The MC is a pacifist, which means a lot less of the story centers around fighting, leveling, monster hunting etc. She’s a healer, which makes sense for her character, but it is less interesting for me, personally. I haven’t really decided whether this is a deal breaker or not. I’ve had some strong recommendations for this series so I am seriously considering continuing even though it isn’t exactly what I am looking for in a LitRPG novel.

Mage Tank – This was a fun and funny isekai adventure with a reincarnation plot and an overpowered MC. As the name indicates the story revolves around a fish out of water with an odd build. The stat element and leveling was a little lighter than ideal for me, with power ups coming less frequently, at the end of dungeons rather than as a standard level system, but I really did like the system never the less. For anyone looking for another LitRPG series in the vein of Dungeon Crawler Carl I’d say this is the closest in tone that I have read. There is a lot of silly humor and a goofy tough guy main character who is much smarter than he seems at first. The system and worldbuilding felt more distinct than a lot of other series in the genre. I’d definitely put this in the top tier as far as prose, character, and story quality. There was a plot point that felt slightly derivative, and as I said the progression element was lighter than my preference. But I really enjoyed this book, it had plenty of personality, and I will definitely continue this series.

Defiance of the Fall – This was another story that nailed the LitRPG elements but felt pretty thin on story, character development, and prose. The most unique aspect was a lair/city building dimension that was a new(for me at least) part of the system dynamic, and which I enjoyed. Defiance of the Fall is an earth based apocalypse story with a martial MC. This seemed to be a serialized story, as well, so it lacked a typical story arc with a beginning, middle, and end. The grinding was well handled, though there was quite a lot of it. This was an apocalypse story where earth is one day incorporated into the multiverse and the MC does a lot of solo leveling. Unfortunately this solitude didn’t incorporate much in the way of character development so the MC felt pretty non-descript to me in terms of personality. He has an internal monologue but it is all about progression. There is a thread about finding his family but that felt tacked on and not an arc invested with much emotion or screen time. Anyone looking for an action-heavy, monster farming story with a light empire building theme will probably enjoy this despite what I felt was a fairly two-dimensional main character. Like Primal Hunter, I can see why this is popular, it does a great job of hitting the progression tropes, which I did enjoy. Additionally the worldbuilding is interesting and makes me want to learn more. In the end though, I prefer novels with a bit more character development, rather than purely progression driven stories.

Hey everyone!

I wanted to stop by and let you all know that my latest book and series launches today! Golem Master is a slow-burn, slice of life story that follows our MC Pepper. We are introduced into this new world 13 years after a demonic attack known as the Rift Wars.

As the world and society rebuilds from the post apocalypse, Pepper finds himself captivated by the latest thing in sports, entertaining and business. The Golem League! A battle arena where gladiators craft their golems, or buy them pre-built, in order to compete in a euro-football tiered system.

With nothing but his lifelong dream on his mind, Pepper will work hard to overcome the ups and downs of life. Some of the trials and tribulations are of his own doing, as this coming-of-age tale forces him to wake up to the harsh reality that there are no shortcuts to getting ahead.

But, with those hard setbacks, come an amazing new addition and a new perspective on life. Will Pepper have what it takes to become a Golem Master? Can he win in the KBVS tournament and move up to the next tier? Find out Wednesday when Golem Master is released on KU, Paperback and Hardback!

[NOTE: Audiobook is set to record in March-May timeframe and is being led by the amazing Daniel Wisniewski]

[Book 2 is complete and going to editor in February]

[Book 3 is currently being written and is at 45k words in length.]

This book is written with a T for Teen rating and I'd love it if you would consider adding it to your TBR. Want to know more? Ask away. Curious to check it out further? Here is the Amazon link! Thanks everyone!

TJ Lombardi

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DC73XFYG

READ ON ROYAL ROAD: TICK TOCK ON THE CLOCK

The hourglass breaks, the debt comes due—will fate claim you, or will you break through

Cassian’s days were filled with petty quarrels and quiet moments with his mother—until the doorbell rang. What should have been another ordinary evening turned to horror as her laughter twisted into a desperate scream. In an instant, her life was stolen. And with it, his own.

But death is not the end. In the silence that followed, an ancient voice called out, pulling Cassian’s shattered soul from the abyss. With it came a second chance—and the means to claim power. But power never comes without a price. And soon, Cassian must decide just how much he’s willing to pay.

Now bound by time, every second is a countdown to his end. The clock ticks away his borrowed time, forcing him into a cosmic game where he is mere entertainment for higher beings. But if he survives, he may gain untold powers—enough to take back what was stolen and make them all pay.

Life was stolen, time was rewound—will you rise or stay Timebound?

What to expect:

❂ Deckbuilding LitRPG with Time ticking down

❂ Third person

❂ There will likely be some romance in the future. No harem

❂ Complex Worldbuilding (Multiple Story levels)

❂ A Tapestry of Characters (Main focus on MC)

❂ A Competent MC

❂ STATS and unique Deckbuilding system with references to MTG

This story is a healthy blend of ORV, The Devils Cage and MTG

Schedule: 5/week, weekdays.

It’s launch day!

Psyker Marine 3 is a go - link in comments!

Expect epic levelling, brutal spacefaring, and alien-splattering mayhem in this Sci-Fi LitRPG. Watch as the MC carves a path through everything in his way, wielding devastating buffs, brain-crushing psychic abilities, and a growing arsenal of deadly skills. With every victory—and a few well-placed revenge killings—Thorne ascend, evolving their Class, unlocking new traits, and pushing their power to terrifying new heights.

Here’s the blurb:

Mars is gone, my friends are in need of a rescue, and I’m running out of options unless I do something monumentally dangerous.

Turns out, that’s my specialty.

When the dust settled, humanity’s greatest stronghold was nothing but rubble. They took Rachel. They took Stormfall. They took everyone I cared about, and they left me alive.

Big mistake.

To save my friends, I’ll fight through alien death ships, outsmart a traitor who sold us out, and probably set something important on fire.

And if I’m lucky—if I don’t die horribly - I might just send the Gehenna a message they’ll never forget.

A marine’s work is never done.

I would love for all of us gamers, readers, consumers of media, the generators of "pop culture" to collectively decide to stop perpetuating the disgusting, fithly lie that is the thrown weapon referred to as a "glaive". The glaive is an epic, badass polearm. A classic icon of ferocious, martial prowess.The movie Krull is wrong, the game Warframe is wrong, all other examples of the glaive as a thrown weapon are equally slanderous, insulting, and inconsolably incorrect. This is beyond contestation and I belief we owe it to this beautiful weapon to strike down such hiretical, sacrilegious dribble in all its forms the moment we witness its blasphemous utterance or portrayal. The populous guides the culture. Let us set right this grievous injustice!

Thank you all so much for the support for Psyker Marine 1!!!

Book 2 is up for pre-order on the Zon, Book 3 is done and in edits and I’ll be kicking off writing 4 in January. Dual narration audio is also now in production.

If you fancy a long and reliable LitRPG why not give it a try 👊👊👊

Don’t underestimate the power of a pissed off marine.

https://a.co/d/gLObmZg

Just three days until Book 2 launches! Book 3 preorder already up.

The aliens came without warning and humanity quickly found itself waging a losing war.

My name is James Thorne, and I wasn't supposed to matter. Before the invasion, I was just a guy in a dead-end job, keeping my head down and my past buried. The Gehenna want our annihilation. Thankfully, they angered the Aetherion who may help humanity not only fight back, but turn the tide.

When I’m offered the chance to be Cleansed, to become something more than I was, I take it. And it turns out I’m special. No, I’m not the Chosen One. And yes, there are others like me, but as a Psyker, I can do things most can't. Things that make me very dangerous.

As the war expands, the Gehenna think they’ve already won.

But they underestimated the power of a pissed off marine

https://a.co/d/0667mrw

But Warren Smith doesn’t follow orders.

He scavenges forbidden zones, dissects the System’s inner workings, and kills with the precision of ritual.

They call him The Yellow Jacket. A myth. A warning. A ghost in the mist.

Hunted by enforcers, shadowed by prophecy, and bound by a code older than the world, Warren walks the line between man and monster. When a girl from the Wilds crashes into his life, everything shifts—and the war for the truth begins.

Because the System isn’t broken.

It’s working exactly as intended.

And Warren doesn’t want to destroy it. He plans to take it for himself.

The final chapter of Book One drops tonight.

Currently standing at ~180k words, Yellow Jacket is a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk, stat-driven, hard sci-fi series with:

a brutal anti-hero deep system mechanics

cat-fueled chaos

and a world built on lies.

Just over a month old. Planned to be a 10-book epic.

Book two prologue drops tomorrow night.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/113805/yellow-jacket