Book picks similar to
Lives 1-5 by Arthur Stone


litrpg
dropped
post-apocalyptic
fantasy

Edge of Reality


Andrei Livadny - 2015
    A gamer who's grown up in the web of virtual illusion woven from hundreds of phantom worlds. His biggest dream is to dump the real world for good.His desperate hunger of new experiences forces him to take a risk and become one of the first proud owners of a neuronet implant. The new gadget becomes part of him - but soon it's not enough. If only he could finally burn all his bridges and make a step beyond the real world!He soon gets this opportunity. A new universe, overflowing with mystery and unimaginable, mind-blowing authenticity, opens up before him.This is Phantom Server. The game of the future where your pursuit of an adrenaline rush soon turns into a battle for survival. But the most terrifying mystery lies ahead when you gradually start to realize: this is a road of no return. Your every decision may become your last. Your every step leads you further along the abyss between life and death.

Dodge Tank


Rick Scott - 2017
    Plus the world ended two centuries ago from nuclear war. Now, what's left of humanity live below ground, with the only escape from reality being the massive VR world of Crystal Shards Online.But even ingame, Ryan's life sucks. Unable to play a combat class due to his condition, he works as a miner, earning barely enough to get by and not nearly enough to afford the operation that will save his mom's life.When Ryan discovers an item that grants the ability to dodge any attack, however, he has the chance to become one of the game world's most elite and sought after players: a Dodge Tank.But for someone who's never played a combat class, success isn't so easily had.To save his mom, Ryan will have to overcome his disability and level his way to the top. But the real-world consequences are more far reaching than he ever could have imagined and the fate of not just his mother, but humanity itself, may be resting in his hands...WARNING: Contains RPG mechanics, detailed party combat and giant boss fights. If these things do not interest you, then this is not the book for you!BUY DODGE TANK TODAY!

The Great Filter


Russell Wilbinski - 2018
     What no one predicted was the sudden message that appeared before every living soul moments before impact, a message from 'The Administrators' revealing our entire world and everything in it to be a species simulation. According to the message, Humanity had been reset over a million times and every single time we could not prevent our own extinction. No more resets for humanity. No more chances. They would leave our world an irradiated disaster, but to keep things interesting, they would convert our species simulation to a game for their twisted entertainment. Digital or not, real or not, I have a family to protect. A wife and daughter who need me, universe be damned. I say bring it on. Welcome to the end of the world.  Welcome to The Great Filter.

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 …

He Who Fights with Monsters


Shirtaloon - 2021
    At least, Jason tries to be heroic, but it's hard to be good when all your powers are evil.He’ll face off against cannibals, cultists, wizards, monsters...and that’s just on the first day. He’s going to need courage, he’s going to need wit, and he’s going to need some magic powers of his own. But first, he’s going to need pants.After cementing itself as one of the best-rated serial novels on Royal Road with an astonishing 13 million views, He Who Fights with Monsters is now available on Kindle.About the series: Experience an isekai culture clash as a laid-back Australian finds himself in a very serious world. See him gain suspiciously evil powers through a unique progression system combining cultivation and traditional LitRPG elements. Enjoy a weak-to-strong story with a main character who earns his power without overshadowing everyone around him, with plenty of loot, adventurers, gods and magic. Rich characters and world-building offer humor, political intrigue and slice-of-life elements alongside lots of monster fighting and adventure.

AlterWorld


D. Rus - 2013
    Whenever you play your favorite online game, beware: your mind might merge with the virtual world and dump its comatose host. Woe be to those stuck forever in Tetris! And still they're the lucky ones compared to those burning alive eternally within the scorched hulls of tank simulators. But some unfortunates - the handicapped and the terminally ill, shell-shocked army vets, wronged crime victims and other society misfits - choose to flee real life willingly, escaping to the limitless world of online sword and sorcery MMORPGs. Once a seasoned gamer and now a terminal cancer patient, Max grasps at this final chance to preserve his life and identity. So he goes for it - goes for the promise of immortality shared with a few trusty friends and the woman he loves. Together they roam the roads of AlterWorld and sample its agony and ecstasy born of absolute freedom.

Opening Moves


Cosimo Yap - 2016
    The alien invasion brought social upheaval, advanced technology, and an armada of peacekeeping robots. But Alan, a college student pursuing a now-useless degree, cares little about all of this. He has only one thing on his mind: the Game. A fully immersive virtual reality, the Game appears to be a major part of the invading civilization. Alan can't wait to play, recklessly diving into the digital universe. Soon though, Alan realizes the Game is anything but simple, and the stakes are higher than he ever imagined.

The Feedback Loop Box Set 1-3


Harmon Cooper - 2016
     Trapped in an online world, he lives his days on repeat, fighting the same killer NPCs and playing out the same story line again and again. Suddenly, Quantum receives a message from an actual human player named Frances Euphoria, his first message in two years, a message that sparks an adventure across multiple online fantasy worlds the likes of which he could have never imagined. Now he's taking on a murder guild known as the Reapers, riding dragons across floating continents, using steam-powered robots to battle enemies as tall as skyscrapers, and equally important -- talking smack and backing it up with his vast inventory list of ridiculous guns and clever movie weapons. But things aren’t as easy as they sound. The Reapers are killing people in the real world. They are imprisoning players, manipulating orphans to do their bidding, running an insurance scam on trapped gamers, bringing death, violence, and destruction everywhere they turn. The Reapers are hunting Quantum Hughes online and in the real world, but they’ll soon learn the hard way that Quantum won’t back down without a fight. LitRPG action, humor, sci-fi fantasy worlds, adventure, and digital mayhem all in a cyberpunk setting.

The Mayor of Noobtown


Ryan Rimmel - 2019
    You could be stuck with a literal shoulder demon. After dying and being reborn into a world that's built like a video game, Jim has found himself stuck in a very old world style new player zone for low level adventurers. Unfortunately, the zone fell out of use centuries ago, and no one told the monsters they were supposed to take it easy on the Noobs. Even worse, the only new player around is Jim. Jim has been given an opportunity, and he'll do his best to take advantage of it.

Pangea Online: Death and Axes: A LitRPG Novel


S.L. Rowland - 2021
    Pangea Online is no different. Esil has spent the past year toiling in the mines of Pangea while the more wealthy traverse its myriad of gameworlds. His luck changes forever when he stumbles upon a legendary Developer's Chest, containing an invaluable Worldpass, which grants him unlimited travel to all gameworlds. Now, Esil isn’t just stuck watching as others explore Pangea. He can finally level up. But his in-game actions have real world consequences and failure online threatens everything he holds dear.

The Beginning


Charles Dean - 2017
    Day in and day out, he shuts off his brain, keeps his head down, and goes about doing his job and minding his own business. That is, he does until a drunken god shows up randomly one day and whisks him off into another world, demanding that Lee serve as his pawn in a game between the gods. Now, trapped in a completely different world full of danger, magic, and creatures he's never imagined outside of fairy tales and video games, Lee has to figure out how to stay alive long enough to make it back home.

World-Tree Online


E.A. Hooper - 2018
     In 2056, the world’s most powerful AI System, ARKUS, comes online. Created to extend human lifespans, it quickly designs new kinds of nanomachine therapies, in addition to making world-changing discoveries in health science. It also develops an advanced VR headset that uses consumable nanomachines to allow users to experience time faster in virtual worlds. Two years later, ARKUS releases World-Tree Online. The game’s time-dilation makes it so that one hour of playtime feels like one month to those in-game, allowing humans to live extended, virtual lives that feel real. However, shortly after an old gamer named Vincent joins World-Tree Online, an update begins that stretches the time-dilation to one year for every five seconds. Players are unable to exit the game during the update—with an estimated wait time of three hundred sixty years. While trapped in the game, Vincent discovers an exploit in the physics that might take him higher up the World-Tree than he ever expected. Unfortunately, he crosses paths with the last moderator in the game, a young man named Lucas that uses his mod abilities to torture and subjugate other players. Lucas is willing to abuse his power to conquer the World-Tree, but Vincent’s exploit might just be the key to stopping him.

Catharsis


Travis Bagwell - 2016
    He attends a prestigious private school on scholarship and his parents are reasonably well off. Yet life hasn't been easy for Jason. He has spent most of high school being tormented by both the students and faculty and his parents are never home. Frustrated and alone, his one escape has always been video games. In-game, he can feel the type of power and freedom he lacks in his day-to-day life. Fortunately, a new virtual reality game (the first of its kind) has just been released, which promises the opportunity for an even greater escape. Once he begins playing, Jason quickly finds himself on the path to becoming the game’s villain. In the process, he also starts to suspect that there is something unusual going on within the game. (This novel contains graphic violence and language. Books don't have ratings, but, if they did, this book would be rated "M" for Mature)

They Called Me Mad


J. Pal - 2021
    Most humans struggled to pronounce Khjurhnalva, so we opted for the easier version. They had a message for us: forces that had eradicated their species' males were now heading for Earth.Hungry for our resources, the alien hordes annihilate everything that stands in their way. The space elves offered us access to the System and asked for very little in return. After all, cooperation was vital to the survival of both our species.I, Mathew Alexander Dunphy, know all of the above is bullshit. I saw the truth with my own eyes and heard it from their beautiful, delicate, deceitful mouths. No one believes me, though. They call me mad.What reason could the space elves have to lie?Planet-wide survival reality show?Ridiculous.Don't miss the start of a fun new LitRPG Series in a system apocalypse setting and featuring mad scientist powers along with plenty of laughs. Oh, and killer aliens. Lots of em.About the MAD world: Not all game-mechanic systems hand out levels, stats, and skills. Sometimes it offers super powers and leaves the progression up to the user. What is LitRPG without the fan-favorite blue boxes, though? Instead of STR, DEX, AGI, expect them to house crafting-based notifications.

Edge of Eons


Darren Hultberg Jr. - 2019
     In daylight, the realm is ruled by the adepts, a group of mighty cultivators that use their spirits to wield world-bending, mystic power. These adepts live in constant strife, fighting for control of relics that hold the divine powers of ancient gods. In twilight, the realm belongs to the darkbeasts, nightmarish creatures born of a mysterious fog known as the veil. These creatures are drawn to power, hoarding relics in their dungeons and slaying any adepts that dare venture too close. Together, these opposing forces create a grim balance of power, one only survived by those with strength, cunning and a bit of wit. But balance is not easily maintained... Dark forces work from the shadows, putting events into motion that will drive the realm into chaos. Soon, portals begin to open, drawing warriors from other realms to test their mettle on Eon’s battlegrounds. Many perish before reaching their true potential, falling victim to the realm’s many perils. However, the cosmos is a vast sea of souls, and one police officer from earth may prove he has the fighting spirit needed to shake Eon to its very core... ***This is a cultivation novel with xianxia and litrpg elements***