Critical Failures


Robert Bevan - 2012
    The next minute, they're in a horse-drawn cart surrounded by soldiers pointing crossbows at them. Tim now has the voice and physique of a prepubescent girl. Dave finds that while he lost a foot or two in height, he somehow acquired a suit of armor and a badass beard. Julian's ears have grown ridiculously long and pointy. And Cooper... well Cooper has gotten himself a set of tusks, a pair of clawed hands, and a bad case of the shits. He also finds that he's carrying a bag with a human head in it - a head that he had chopped off when they were still just playing a game.Shit just got real, and if they want to survive, these four friends are going to have to tap into some baser instincts they didn't even know existed in their fast-food and pizza delivery world.It's fight, flight, or try to convince the people who are trying to kill them that they don't really exist.Meanwhile, a sadistic game master sits back in the real world eating their fried chicken.

King's League


Jason Anspach - 2020
    King’s League is more than a game… it’s a way of life.For recently expelled college dropout Dirk Wilson, picking up and re-selling other player’s scraps from cleared dungeons and side quests gone sideways is the only thing keeping him from living on the streets.Tired of ramen noodles, past due notices, and feeling like his future is over before it ever started, Dirk decides that if he’s going to make something of himself, it’ll be within the game, taking advantage of the real life payouts from selling in-game goods on King’s League’s River Market.But the game leaves little margin for error, and Dirk’s virtual problems grow as large as his real life ones as he discovers a powerful conspiracy that impacts players from level one to level 99.1,000,000 copy #1 Bestselling authors Jason Anspach & JN Chaney team up to tell this action-packed, humorous LitRPG adventure that blends the cheeky fun of Ready Player One with all the adventure and excitement of Elder Scrolls & World of Warcraft.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob)


Dennis E. Taylor - 2016
    Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty. The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.

Upload


Matthew Siege - 2018
    Unbeknownst to him, he’s one of a handful of individuals capable of implementing a Save Point, a static moment in time he’s able to revisit over and over upon death.It’s a good thing, too. Brain cancer was turning into a real drag…The government owns the list though, and they’ve wasted no time snapping him up. According to them, he has thirteen days in an alien realm to learn as much as he can before the inevitable, at which point his memories, Skill Progressions and Weapon Proficiencies will endure despite his body resetting.Then it’s rinse and repeat.But there are unwritten rules to the game he’s about to play, and unseen forces acting in judgment. Adam will have to learn the hard way that dying is the easiest thing he’s going to do today.

Forced Login


R.K. Billiau - 2019
    You can live, laugh, and love. You can feel pain, hatred, and anguish. This world allows you the full range of human experiences while also granting abilities unheard of. Will you unlock the secrets of magic? Will you study the blade or bow? Will you attempt to recreate the technology of the world you left behind? Anything is possible!***No matter how many times you die, it still sucks.For Hudson, the virtual world of PrimeVerse isn’t all bad. It’s beautiful; much nicer than overpopulated Earth. It almost feels like a vacation except for the volatile wildlife, lack of any amenities, and — oh yeah — the inability to log out.Exploring the world, learning his class, and leveling skills is all fun and games until a powerful rogue player with a vendetta shows up to wipe out Hudson and his primitive tribe. Thrust into a conflict he didn’t create, Hudson is forced into a cycle of respawning where he learns that even death can be used as a tool. So much for that vacation.It’s not like he signed up for this. Or even went willingly. But when life hands you lemons… use them to kill the dog-size spiders that are trying to eat your face.PrimeVerse: Forced Login is book one of a brand new LitRPG series that explores an uninhabited, newly created virtual world with game mechanics and a whimsical MC who, despite being uploaded against his will, sets out to make the best of it.

The Android's Dream


John Scalzi - 2006
    Earth is on the verge of war with a vastly superior alien race. A lone man races against time and a host of enemies to find the one object that can save our planet and our people from alien enslavement...A sheep.That's right, a sheep. And if you think that's the most surprising thing about this book, wait until you read Chapter One. Welcome to The Android's Dream.For Harry Creek, it's quickly becoming a nightmare. All he wants is to do his uncomplicated mid-level diplomatic job with Earth's State Department. But his past training and skills get him tapped to save the planet--and to protect pet store owner Robin Baker, whose own past holds the key to the whereabouts of that lost sheep. Doing both will take him from lava-strewn battlefields to alien halls of power. All in a day's work. Maybe it's time for a raise.Throw in two-timing freelance mercenaries, political lobbyists with megalomaniac tendencies, aliens on a religious quest, and an artificial intelligence with unusual backstory, and you've got more than just your usual science fiction adventure story. You've got The Android's Dream.

Countdown


Michael Atamanov - 2018
    However, no one on Earth took their communique for the genuine article. In a similar vein, very few people appreciated just how little time our new suzerains had promised to keep our planet safe.Regardless, the end of their message showed humankind how to access a mysterious game. The objective of this game is unclear. No one can say where its servers are located, and its inner workings are beyond comprehension. But the game slowly gained momentum, pulling in more and more players. Soon enough, it became impossible to ignore the fact that things that happened in the game had a direct impact on our reality. And not only ours...But as people figure out this mysterious game, the countdown timer ticks away. And no one can say exactly what will happen when Earth’s safety is no longer guaranteed.

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)

Equalize


Ryan DeBruyn - 2019
    On top of everything else, his father has just passed, and Rocky has to go it alone on their annual trip. But his plans for drinking alone in Algonquin Park are rudely interrupted by a sea of cosmic energy that governs the universe. Ether, the driving force of creation, has returned. Now a confused Rocky must navigate odd hovering messages to survive.With the awakening of the very planet they reside on, humans are in a desperate fight to survive in an evolving world. If only Gaia hadn’t woken up so very… very… unhinged.

Nigmus Online


Noah Barnett - 2017
    Nigmus Online is the first MMO to use this new device. The only caveat to the game; there is no manual. The only instruction the player gets is how to interact with the user interface. That's it. Nobody is going to hold their hand or give out rare items. Players begin life as a level zero commoner. Its entirely up to them what class they become. Explore a world that spans five continents. ~Story Summary~ Liam is tricked into trying an expensive and innovative online MMO. On his first trip into the game he stumbles upon a hidden class. The Undead Necromancer. Intrigued by this turn in events he continues to explore this mysterious world. In another part of the country Kathrine(Kat) suffers from a debilitating and paralyzing disease. Taking part in an experimental research could offer her a new lease on life (of a sort). Even further afield Russia and China are undergoing a massive spike in suicide rate. What could be causing so many young adults to dire ends?

Axiom


Dennis Vanderkerken - 2019
    The young forcibly recruited. An old man out for revenge.After his town is put to the sword and the children are taken to replace the fallen, an old man is out for revenge. He’s ready to fail at the most difficult challenge in the world: cultivation.Too corrupted to even take the first steps, the sly old elder simply agreed with those who told him that it was impossible. Then he quietly ignored them, rubbed his hands together, and started anyway. He had always failed in what he did: he lost his way from the academy, his command was devastated by a Mage, he lost his town, and now his last hopes for the future had been stolen by a group of raiders. The only thing that had never failed him was his sharp mind and philosophy. He would cultivate... no matter what it cost him.A lifetime of failure can dull and dampen a soul. A reason to live, a goal, can change that in an instant. It is always darkest just before the dawn.

Reborn: Apocalypse Volume 1


L.M. Kerr - 2019
     Micheal's answer to that question would be quite simple. Yes. A million times yes. Humanity has fallen, killed by stronger races of beings after being warped away to a new reality, the mystical 7 Layers. Humanity's goal had been simple. Make it through all 7 Layers and reach Heaven. Humanity failed. Humanity died. Micheal Care's memories have been transported back into his past self thanks to a magical Artifact he found by chance. He is no chosen savior. He is no divinely picked hero. Can he change the future? Can he catch up to the mightiest warriors of humanity and surpass them? Read on and find out. -

Omnia Online


Christopher Booth - 2016
    The people of Earth being to primitive to to be useful members of the Imperium. Now a new member of the Department of Cultural Development has a new idea to bring the people of Earth into the Imperium... "Let’s ask them to play a game…” I would like to invite you on an adventure with me, as we explore the potential of a Fully Immersive Virtual Reality Massive Multi-Player Online Roleplaying Game (FIVR-MMORPG) to change lives. Not just a game, but also as a tool for physical and mental development. Omnia Online is soon to be released, the first ever of it’s kind in Kevin’s world. Join Kevin, as he experiences just how big and complex his universe really is. Warning: This book contains adult content and language…

Towers of Heaven


Cameron Milan - 2019
    Each one stands hundreds of stories tall, and are invulnerable to all attacks. At the base of each tower is a portal, welcoming in all who dare enter it. All sorts of magical monsters can be found inside the towers. Even treasure, magic and superhuman strength can be acquired. The problem is that the towers aren't a friendly place. Even worse, the towers sometimes release waves of monsters to attack Earth. In the year 2083, there are only a hundred survivors. In one last attempt, they challenge the final floor without regard for their lives. By some miracle, they manage to beat the floor at the cost of their lives, leaving only one survivor. As a reward for clearing the tower, he is granted one wish. He decides to go back in time to before the towers arrived. His goal is simple: prevent humanity from being wiped out.