Book picks similar to
Tree Dungeon by Andrew Karevik
litrpg
fantasy
dungeon-core
dungeon
Manufacturing Magic
Jaime Castle - 2021
One Game Master. Big Problems.Infinite Worlds is the most popular VRMMORPG on the market. Its maps are so vast, developer Hard Rock Data utilizes a network of highly advanced Artificial Intelligences to control it. But it's not without problems.That’s why Game Masters like Jeff Driscoll have jobs. The downside? He’s not allowed to play the game. Something about conflicts of interest and favoritism.His very boring and tedious job is to help players deal with the occasional bug that slips through the cracks and ensure they enjoy their time playing enough to give a 5-star rating. It’s a gig. It pays the bills.However, when the A.I.s unexpectedly issue a Rogue Patch, the game becomes a buggy mess and Jeff's role radically changes. He finds himself as the only Game Master around, dealing with more problems than he can handle.It’s up to Jeff to return Infinite Worlds to normalcy using his ability to manipulate the game's code into what appears like magic... But will the A.I.s let him?Manufacturing Magic is a unique spin on the LitRPG genre, not just providing the perspective of the players, but also of one of those mystical, magical, all-powerful GMs we all dream of being.About the series: As a GM, Jeff utilizes a unique progression system of magic built around the manipulation of video game code. Weaving his hot-fixes with the already established Infinite Worlds’ code, Jeff rescues players, corrects glitches and more. Additionally, experience Infinite Worlds through the eyes of the players through Dak, Rikardi, Aesir and Jeweliette. Enjoy the mundane-to-vital character growth with a main character who is Hard Rock Data’s only hope with plenty of quests, loot, adventurers, dragons, and magic. Rich characters and world-building offer humor alongside lots of monster fighting and adventure.
Kill the Farm Boy
Delilah S. Dawson - 2018
. . and so begins every fairy tale ever told.This is not that fairy tale.There is a Chosen One, but he is unlike any One who has ever been Chosened.And there is a faraway kingdom, but you have never been to a magical world quite like the land of Pell.There, a plucky farm boy will find more than he's bargained for on his quest to awaken the sleeping princess in her cursed tower. First there's the Dark Lord who wishes for the boy's untimely death . . . and also very fine cheese. Then there's a bard without a song in her heart but with a very adorable and fuzzy tail, an assassin who fears not the night but is terrified of chickens, and a mighty fighter more frightened of her sword than of her chain-mail bikini. This journey will lead to sinister umlauts, a trash-talking goat, the Dread Necromancer Steve, and a strange and wondrous journey to the most peculiar "happily ever after" that ever once-upon-a-timed.
Death March
Phil Tucker - 2018
It wasn't enough. I lost my mother, and now I'm about to lose my brother.I've got only one thing left to gamble: my life. Which is why I'm willing to play Euphoria Online in Death March mode.If I survive six months in-game against a lethal array of wyverns, ogres, necromancers, and more, I'll earn my brother a pardon.If I lose?Well. I'm done with losing.
Storm Glass
Jeff Wheeler - 2018
The privileged live in sky manors held aloft by a secretive magic known only as the Mysteries. Below, the earthbound poor are forced into factory work to maintain the engine of commerce. Only the wealthy can afford to learn the Mysteries, and they use their knowledge to further lock their hold on society.Cettie Pratt is a waif doomed to the world below, until an admiral attempts to adopt her. But in her new home in the clouds, not everyone treats her as one of the family.Sera Fitzempress is a princess born into power. She yearns to meet the orphan girl she has heard so much about, but her father deems the girl unworthy of his daughter’s curiosity.Neither girl feels that she belongs. Each seeks to break free of imposed rules. Now, as Cettie dreams of living above and as Sera is drawn to the world below, they will follow the paths of their own choosing.But both girls will be needed for the coming storm that threatens to overturn both their worlds.
Sunset
Garon Whited - 2006
blood?Eric didn't ask to be a vampire.In fact, he didn't even believe in them. Then he meets a beautiful woman, wakes up with a hangover, and bites his tongue with his own fangs.Which pretty much settles the question.Now he's trying to hold down his day job while learning the rules of the Undead -- the most important being that bloodthirsty urges and predatory instincts are a real bitch.Upside; Eric has the beautiful Sasha to teach him the ropes, including the magic he'll need to survive.Downside; it turns out being a vampire is the least of his problems.When Sasha is killed, Eric is thrust into an alternate world in his quest to avenge her death. There he becomes a Nightlord, fights a dragon with the help of his magical steed, Bronze, and upchucks a sword named Firebrand.But things get really interesting when Eric finally finds Tobias, head of the Church of Light. Soon Eric finds himself at the center of an epic battle at the literal edge of the world in a fight to keep a terrible darkness at bay."When you fall off the Edge of the World into hordes of demonic 'Things from the Outer Darkness,' you really start to wonder about your life choices."--Eric, part-time undead, expectant father, and short-term astronaut.
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!
Initializing
K.T. Hanna - 2018
Determined to overcome the unexpected setback, she assembles her guild, intent on the coveted #1 spot. Twelve keys stand between her and victory, but finding them is only part of the puzzle.Armed with telepathic abilities, Murmur rises to the challenge. However, old rivals have followed her to Somnia Online desperate for revenge. Intricate quest lines become more dangerous as NPCs absorb powerful artifacts, and Murmur begins to wonder just what sort of AI controls the world. Murmur questions her sanity as the real and virtual worlds mesh together. Everyone is keeping secrets from her, even the AI, and Murmur’s determined to uncover them.
Lives 1-5
Arthur Stone - 2018
Level zero. Empty of mind and memory. Even your past has been stripped from your brain by the inscrutable System. A long, difficult road lies between you and remembering any part of who you are. A road punctuated with one death after another. You are too puny to survive by might alone. Information is the single resource that might keep you alive, but the brainless “digis” have none of it. Only those with experience can give you what you need, but most care nothing about you or your plight. In fact, some make it their mission to kill you. So die you will, again and again, your life counter clicking lower and lower. Even the creators do not know what happens when your counter reaches zero, but many are sure that your last life here is just that. No more respawns. You are not the first player in the world of S.T.Y.X., and you will not be the last. You can only hope luck will be on your side. The luckiest players are those who find a vulnerability in the System. Those they call cheaters. Perhaps cheating is the only way to win. Enjoy your game
Master of None
Shane Walker - 2019
He's pretty much always been broke. A misspent youth led to mistakes which led to convictions and plea deals. No career, no education, no hope. Now he has a chance to make things right for him and his family when the newest immersive MMO comes with the ability to convert money earned in the game into real currency. Well, it's cryptocurrency but that's real-ish, right? Seeing an opportunity, Alex joins The Realms as Jack Alltrades, looking to make money any way he can. He may be a Master of None, but he's determined to learn every way possible to make money and turn his life around. Along the way, he'll find answers to important questions like: Can he win Employee of the Month? Do gnomes dream of electric sheep? How many kobolds does it take to swing a pickaxe? Can NPCs commit tax fraud? OK, maybe he won't answer most of those, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't come follow the high margin adventures of Jack Alltrades!
Empire in Black and Gold
Adrian Tchaikovsky - 2008
But meanwhile, in far-off corners, the Wasp Empire has been devouring city after city with its highly trained armies, its machines, its killing Art...And now its hunger for conquest and war has become insatiable. Only the ageing Stenwold Maker, spymaster, artificer and statesman, can see that the long days of peace are over. It falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of his people, before a black-and-gold tide sweeps down over the Lowlands and burns away everything in its path.But first he must stop himself becoming the Empire's latest victim.
Mythian
John L. Monk - 2019
Immortality means adventure. Life begins at seventy.Running on the world's fastest quantum computer is a very special game: one where retirees leave their flesh-and-blood lives in search of endless adventure. Weapons, spells, gold, experience points… These are the marks by which life is now measured.Ethan Crane wants none of it. In fact, he never wanted to retire at all, let alone play a game for all eternity. But now he's on a mission to find his wife—a wife he just discovered is still alive and inside the game.Nothing will stop him from reaching her. Not even himself.
Project Daily Grind
Alexey Osadchuk - 2014
He’ll never have a castle of his own. Neither will he ever tame a dragon. And he’s definitely not the type to conquer a kingdom, however virtual it may be.Oleg is doomed to toil away in the recesses of Mirror World’s mines. His goal is to raise enough money for a heart transplant for his dying six-year-old daughter. The clock is ticking. Will he make it?
Condition Evolution
Kevin Sinclair - 2020
One with the power to repair his mind and body while he lives out his wildest dreams.What could possibly go wrong?It turns out fighting monsters and obesity is tough wherever you are! Then there’s the unrequited love. Weren’t the women supposed to fall head over heels with the hero? Not in Anatoli, a brutal and unforgiving land on the brink of apocalypse.If Shaun can survive this very real experience, he might just get to be a hero back in the real world!Warning, lots of profanity and gratuitous violence.
A Snake's Life
Kenneth Arant - 2020
He served his country far from home. He outlived his soulmate. He died alone.However, his assumptions about a peaceful eternity, reunited with his wife, are thrown out the window when a meddling god digs his fingers into Albert’s afterlife.The positive? He will have a chance to see his wife again.The negative? He has to survive the dangers of the legendary World Tree for the next three hundred years. He’s been reincarnated into a world full of magical evolutions, monstrous deer, sassy ten-year-old elves, and untold hidden dangers. It won’t be easy, but if life has taught Albert anything it’s this: If something is worth having, it's worth fighting for. And he intends to fight.
The Wolf of the North
Duncan M. Hamilton - 2016
Many have made the claim, but few have lived to defend it. Timid, weak, and bullied, Wulfric is as unlikely a candidate as there could be. A chance encounter with an ancient and mysterious object awakens a latent gift, and Wulfric’s life changes course. Against a backdrop of war, tragedy, and an enemy whose hatred for him knows no bounds, Wulfric will be forged from a young boy, into the Wolf of the North. This is his tale.