Book picks similar to
First Steps by David Burke
litrpg
harem
fantasy
dnf
On a Pale Horse
Piers Anthony - 1983
The new Thanatos is superbly competent, ends pain when he ends lives. But Satan is forging a trap for Luna, the woman Death loves.
Kushiel's Dart
Jacqueline Carey - 2001
It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good... and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt. Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission... and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.Phèdre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber, but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair... and beyond. Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear. Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel's Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age, and the birth of a new.
Cataclysm
James A. Hunter - 2016
Collision, imminent. An international team of scientists is working around the clock to avert the cataclysm—few are optimistic. World governments are preparing for impact with deep earth bio-dome bunkers, but only a select few lottery winners will be saved. Jack Mitchel, a thirty-two-year-old EMT living in a tiny studio apartment on the West Coast, isn’t one of those winners. Still, there might be a way for him to survive Astraea: a slim chance, requiring a radical leap of faith. Through a connection at Osmark Technologies, Jack’s acquired a NexGenVR capsule and with it, a one-way ticket to the brand-new, ultra-immersive, fantasy-based VRMMORPG, Viridian Gate Online. Taking that leap of faith, though, means permanently trapping his mind in the game, killing his body in the process. Worse, one in six die during the transition, and even if Jack beats the odds, he’ll have to navigate a fantastical world that’s home to vicious monsters, domineering AIs, and cutthroat players. And when Jack stumbles upon a secret conspiracy to sell off virtual real estate to the ultrawealthy—transforming V.G.O. into a new feudal dark age—the deadly creatures inhabiting Viridian Gate’s expansive dungeons will be the least of his concerns. If Jack can’t game the system, he’s going to be trading in a quick death for a long, brutal one …
Rotherweird
Andrew Caldecott - 2017
Some say they are the golden generation; some say the devil's spawn. But everyone knows they are something to be revered - and feared.Four and a half centuries on, cast adrift from the rest of England by Elizabeth I and still bound by its ancient laws, Rotherweird's independence is subject to one disturbing condition: nobody, but nobody, studies the town or its history.Then an Outsider arrives, a man of unparallelled wealth and power, enough to buy the whole of Rotherweird - deeply buried secrets and all...
Contractor
Andrew Ball - 2014
They have a special spark of soul; not quite enough to be naturally gifted in spellcraft, but greater than the average person, a tiny flame that can ignite incredible potential. They possess the ability to fight back against the Vorid; the ability to become a Contractor.Daniel Fitzgerald is one of those people, but when duty comes calling, he promptly slams the door in its face. He has no illusions of grandeur. He is not someone special. He wants to go to school and study law. And frankly, he doesn't really like people. He doesn't want anything to do with magic - he just wants to be left alone.But when the entire planet is a battlefield, there is no place to run.
Sins of Empire
Brian McClellan - 2017
The young nation of Fatrasta is a turbulent place -- a frontier destination for criminals, fortune-hunters, brave settlers, and sorcerers seeking relics of the past. Only the iron will of the lady chancellor and her secret police holds the capital city of Landfall together against the unrest of an oppressed population and the machinations of powerful empires. Sedition is a dangerous word... The insurrection that threatens Landfall must be purged with guile and force, a task which falls on the shoulders of a spy named Michel Bravis, convicted war hero Mad Ben Styke, and Lady Vlora Flint, a mercenary general with a past as turbulent as Landfall's present.The past haunts us all... As loyalties are tested, revealed, and destroyed, a grim specter as old as time has been unearthed in this wild land, and the people of Landfall will soon discover that rebellion is the least of their worries.
Nexus
Ramez Naam - 2012
There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it.When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage – for there is far more at stake than anyone realizes.From the halls of academe to the halls of power, from the headquarters of an elite US agency in Washington DC to a secret lab beneath a top university in Shanghai, from the underground parties of San Francisco to the illegal biotech markets of Bangkok, from an international neuroscience conference to a remote monastery in the mountains of Thailand – Nexus is a thrill ride through a future on the brink of explosion.
Djinn Unleashed
Mark Albany - 2019
A Legend of Three Elves. Darkness Threatening to Return. Elves were supposed to be gone, defeated in the great war. Magic is practiced behind closed doors, and only by the elites. All I was trying to do was survive, maybe with a bit more curiosity about my master's magic than I should've allowed. He caught me snooping, and sent me on a quest to steal a magic scroll. A quest that would change my life. Soon I found myself caught up in a whirlwind journey that involved elves, monsters, and more than one hottie in my bed. I was terrified. I was challenged. I was pleasured beyond belief. I was loving every second of it, and now get to share that journey with you. Harem elements, though more so in book 2 and 3. The spicy sort, with detail.
One More Last Time
Eric Ugland - 2018
A broken heart. He thought it was the end, and his gun sat ready to make sure. But an oddball offer from his last friend comes at the literal last second. Curiosity gets the best of him, and he finds himself sucked into iNcarn8, a game claiming to be a whole new life. Now as Montana, the larger-than-life tank warrior, he has one more last time to get his life right. One More Last time is the first book in The Good Guys, a LitRPG GameLit series. If you like fast-paced adventure, RPG mechanics, and sweet level progression with a deep magic and game system, this book is for you. It has notes of The Land and classic Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, and stars a lovable idiot of a main character who can’t seem to shake his dark past and find the quiet life he so wants. Pick up this page-turner today!
The Reborn
Edward Brody - 2017
No more 9-to-5 job. No more studio apartment. No more reality TV. Finally, he's in a place where he can call home, a place with people he can call friends. But as more people want to trade their real world lives to get inside Eden's Gate, the government of the outside world wants the "game" shut down at all costs. Gunnar must learn to survive, grow in power and find a way to send a message back to his old home. "We're fine. We're alive. Eden's Gate is real." Eden's Gate is a LitRPG adventure.
Sin and Soil
Anya Merchant - 2020
After years of performing as a gladiator across the cities of Veridan’s Curve, he’s returning home under dangerous circumstances, to the farm on which he and his fellow orphans were raised.Velanor, the precocious blonde socialite. Ria, exotic and sexy, a natural born tempest mage. Both are now grown women, and so much has changed since their intimate childhood under one roof. But Malon, their guardian and protector, is still as beautiful and mysterious as ever.With conflict on the horizon, it’s up to Damon to protect them, to love them, and to figure just where the boundaries are. Ten years is a long time to be away from a home filled with buxom, confident women.This book contains forbidden consensual sexual encounters between the main character and the closest women in his life.
Blood Mage
Edmund Hughes - 2018
Fresh out of college and lacking a clear direction in life, he’s been asked by his aunt and uncle to travel back to the place he once called home to settle his recently deceased grandfather’s estate. Jack has little to look forward to in regard to his return, outside of a chance to reacquaint himself with Katie, his childhood friend and former crush. When Jack discovers that his grandfather wasn’t broke after all, as he’d been led to believe, he’s surprised. When he discovers that most of the old man’s monetary assets have been left to him, along with the employment contract of a cute, young maid, he’s virtually dumbfounded. And when an old enemy of the Masterson family decides to strike in the wake of his grandfather’s passing, Jack is the natural target. After being turned into a monster by a beautiful woman who claims to be his new broodmother, he’s left with a new outlook on life, one that strides a thin line of moral judgement. Dark magic, enthralling powers, and a thirst for blood that just can’t seem to be sated. Would it really be so bad to give in? WARNING: This book contains graphic sex, a slow building harem, and increasingly disconcerting moral dilemmas.
Tech Mage
Chris Fox - 2017
He’s conscripted into the Confederate Marines as a Tech Mage, given a spellrifle, then hurled into the war with the draconic Krox and their Void Wyrm masters. Desperate to escape, Aran struggles to master his abilities, while surviving the Krox onslaught. Fighting alongside him are a Major who will do anything to win, a Captain who will stop at nothing to see him dead, and a woman who’s past is as blank as his own. Caught between survival and loyalty Aran must choose. If he flees he will survive, but the Krox will win and the galaxy will burn. Stopping them requires a price Aran may be unable to pay: Learning to trust the very people who enslaved him.
A New Fate
Stuart Grosse - 2020
A world where monsters spawned and preyed on the weak. A world where men became monsters to stand against them.The Black Knight was one such monster of a man, facing down the hordes with his loved ones and allies. Together, they struck down many powerful warlords and monsters, to protect the people. But, at the moment of his greatest triumph, he was betrayed by his lover and his closest friend, struck with a cursed blade that would end him once and for all. But he refused to go quietly.The explosion cast him back in time, in the body of his former self, before the System Apocalypse began. And, in that moment, he thought about the life he had led. He had been a hero, a Black Knight to stand against the darkness. All that had earned him was betrayal and death. If that was the case, then he would become the darkness, itself, and bend it to his will.His new fate may be a dark one, but he will never be betrayed like that again!----------------------Author's Note: This is a story set in a world where everything we knew suddenly got turned upside down by a System coming online. This is not a tale of heroics. This is the tale of a man who has chosen to throw away his humanity and embrace his inner demon, to put himself beyond betrayal. This story features cursing, gore, enslavement, mind control, non-consensual acts, and more. If you were hoping for a tale of a white knight in the midst of the apocalypse, you're going to be disappointed. If you have triggers, consider this your warning.
Dragon Storm
Lindsay Buroker - 2017
Magic is feared and forbidden in Iskandia, so he’s struggled his whole life to hide his eccentricities. As a boy, he was forced to watch his mother’s execution. Her crime? Witchcraft. Understandably, Trip wants nothing to do with the power that lurks within him, always threatening to reveal itself. Instead, he dedicates himself to serving as an officer in the king’s army, to battling pirates and imperial conquerors. He longs to become a soldier as respected and renowned as the legendary General Zirkander. But his country is in need of more than a soldier. After disappearing for over a thousand years, dragons have returned to the world. A few of them are willing to be allies to mankind, as they were millennia before, but far more want to destroy or enslave humans and claim the world for themselves. There are few people left with the power to fight dragons. For reasons he doesn’t understand, Trip may be one of those people. But if he chooses to learn more about his heritage and the power he can wield, he risks losing everyone he loves and everything he longs to be.