Book picks similar to
Death March by Phil Tucker
litrpg
fantasy
lit-rpg
spfbo4
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.
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.
Otherlife Dreams
William D. Arand - 2016
He and 499,000 men and women of the military are trapped in a game. Runner is the only person in the IT department in game, the only one with administrative access rights. And he doesn't remember his password. When their brains were synched with the game, it scrambled most of their memories. The problem is that whoever loaded their minds into the game, loaded them completely. If they die, their brain dies. Now it's time for Runner to flex his skills as a power gaming min maxer and see what he can do. Because every time he levels, he might just gain the memory of the password. Time to go Hardcore.
Harbinger
Shae Ford - 2012
Now the new King wields the vast and unvanquished army of Midlan with his right hand, and with his left has granted a small group of thugs — the nobles he calls his Sovereign Five — unbridled rule over the other regions. As if this weren’t bad enough, the King has also outlawed the practice of whispering — which is a problem for Kael. It’s not like he asked to be born a whisperer: he didn’t ask for his strange healing powers anymore than he asked to be the village runt. And when he rescues a wounded girl from the perils of the Unforgivable Mountains, his luck only gets worse. She couldn’t have been just any girl: she had to be Kyleigh —the sword-wielding renegade knight with all of Midlan on her trail. Then one miserable, snowy evening, things go from bad to worse, and Kael is left with no choice but to follow Kyleigh down the mountains and into the tumultuous lowlands. She leads him on one mad quest after the next — eventually pulling off an act of such mischievous proportions that it threatens to change the Kingdom as they know it.
Game Break: Hayden's Book 1
G.S. Hodgson - 2016
Seek out a comfortable chair to marvel at the sight of two setting suns or revel in bloody battle on the Plains of Deadalon, destroying skeleton warriors with your devastating magic. Whatever your heart desires, Waara will provideeeeeeeeee Error304, Error 6799, Report! Critical Failure! Click here for customer support. That is unless your name is Hayden and you wake up in a pitch black mine, with no idea how you got there and are thrust into an unimaginable world of pain and heart attack inducing adventures/catastrophes. “Waara will provide ‘MY ASS’. Can you believe that PR ‘crap’? Come and find out what happened to me and we will see if you still want to play, ‘The Land of Waara,’ ” Hayden griped. “What the hell is that? Get it off me Spike. A little help would be nice.” Game Break is a LITRPG Series There is some swearing and a bit of nudity, but all in good taste, I hope.
Thornbear
Michael G. Manning - 2014
Struggling to find his place in a world where politics and wizardry appear to have replaced the need for men of might and main, he must make his own mark. Trapped within the seemingly safe confines of Castle Cameron, Gram faces both love and tragedy. His choices will define not only himself, but serve to remind others of his family’s legacy, and the reason only a fool threatens those a Thornbear protects.
Hollow Core
Gage Lee - 2019
To survive, he will have to master long-lost jinsei techniques, repair his wounded soul, and face down a most unexpected enemy: the academy's ruthless headmaster and cunning professors.Hollow is the first book in the School of Swords and Serpents series, a tale of wuxia adventure, cultivation mastery, and lurking threats.
“Wow, this book is crazy-good. If the Harry Potter series were somehow violently smashed together with the characters from Mortal Kombat, you might have something that comes close to the School of Swords and Serpents.” —James A. Hunter, Bestselling Author of Rogue Dungeon, Bibliomancer, and the LitRPG epic Viridian Gate Online
Warden
Alex Knight - 2018
Playing as a unique class while surrounded by aliens, pirates and warring guilds, he and his squad are tasked with protecting new players and enforcing the rule of law. But Kaiden has other ideas; he is intent on proving his innocence. The keys to his freedom lie hidden in the game’s seedy underbelly. And as he’ll soon discover, the bloody trail that led to his arrest is more twisted than he could have ever imagined.
Unfettered
Shawn SpeakmanNaomi Novik - 2013
That’s when New York Times best-selling author Terry Brooks offered to donate a short story Shawn could sell toward alleviating those bills—and suggested Shawn ask the same of his other friends.Unfettered is the result, an anthology built to relieve that debt, featuring short stories by some of the best fantasy writers in the genre.Every story in this volume is new and, like the title suggests, the writers were free to write whatever they wished. Authors contributing are -Walker and the Shade of Allanon by Terry Brooks (a Shannara tale)-Imaginary Friends by Terry Brooks (a precursor to the Word/Void trilogy)-How Old Holly Came To Be by Patrick Rothfuss (a Four Corners tale)-River of Souls by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson (a Wheel of Time tale)-The Old Scale Game by Tad Williams-Martyr of the Roses by Jacqueline Carey (a precursor to the Kushiel series)-Dogs by Daniel Abraham-Mudboy by Peter V. Brett (a Demon Cycle tale)-Nocturne by Robert V. S. Redick-The Sound of Broken Absolutes by Peter Orullian (a Vault of Heaven tale)-The Coach with Big Teeth by R.A. Salvatore-Keeper of Memory by Todd Lockwood (a Summer Dragon tale)-Game of Chance by Carrie Vaughn-The Lasting Doubts of Joaquin Lopez by Blake Charlton-The Chapel Perilous by Kevin Hearne (an Iron Druid tale)-Select Mode by Mark Lawrence (a Broken Empire tale)-All the Girls Love Michael Stein by David Anthony Durham-Strange Rain by Jennifer Bosworth (a Struck epilogue tale)-Unbowed by Eldon Thompson (a Legend of Asahiel tale)-In Favour with Their Stars by Naomi Novik (a Temeraire tale)-The Jester by Michael J. Sullivan (a Riyria Chronicles tale)-The Duel by Lev Grossman (a Magicians tale)-The Unfettered Knight by Shawn Speakman (an Annwn Cycle tale)and artist Todd Lockwood, who donated artwork as well as a story.With the help of stalwart friends and these wonderful short stories, Shawn has taken the gravest of life hardships and created something magical. Unfettered is not only a fantastic anthology in its own right but it’s a testament to the generosity found in the science fiction and fantasy community—proof that humanity can give beyond itself when the need arises.After all, isn’t that the driving narrative in fantasy literature?
Battle Spire
Michael R. Miller - 2019
Now he's fighting for his life. When a mysterious hacker takes control of Hundred Kingdoms, Jack is trapped inside the fantasy VR world along with millions of other players. But Jack is in a worse predicament. He's cornered in the very tower the terrorists have taken as their base; the only free player left within its walls. Even worse, in the real world, his body lies in a sweltering room with no hope of relief. Playing the profession-based Scavenger class, and at a low level, Jack's prospects of fighting his way out are next to impossible. Crafting gear, traps and weapons, allying with a deadly dungeon master and an AI he can't fully trust, Jack is in a race against time to save not just himself but the millions of players held hostage. Battle Spire is a meeting of World of Warcraft and Die Hard, using crunchy LitRPG mechanics with a heavy focus on crafting. Readers can expect to find in depth item and spell descriptions, along with stat tables and profession recipes. Note: strong language is used throughout.
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.
The Curse
Phoenix Grey - 2018
Will refused to admit to the HR lady at Radical Interactive that he’d never played their debut virtual reality MMORPG The Realm. From what he’d seen in videos and heard from reviewers, the game sucked. With the company’s failed attempt at entering the gaming industry, they switched their sights to focus on smaller scale educational programs. Being a beta tester for Radical Interactive was not the dream job that Will had envisioned, but he had hoped it would get his foot in the door to one day becoming a graphic designer for the company. As he filled out his new hire paperwork, he never realized that he was literally signing his life away. Now a phenomenally successful company, Radical Interactive was secretly working on something behind closed doors that would change both the medical and gaming industries forever. The Realm was reborn. The only problem was that it wasn’t a game—at least not to those trapped inside. Dumped into a fantasy world filled with nightmarish monsters, awe-inspiring magic, and way more walking than Will thought he was physically capable of as a nerdy desk jockey, he has to navigate the perils of The Realm and unravel the mystery of how he came to be here and how to get out. Fantasy meets real-life consequences in a game that could mean the difference between life and death. But first, Will must get over being a noob…
The Game
Terry Schott - 2012
The best players are celebrities, adored and worshiped by countless fans. Zack is a superstar among players.His final play may change the world, forever...
The Dungeoneers
Jeffery Russell - 2015
That's where The Dungeoneers come in. Dungeons sacked, artifacts recovered, no job too big or too small. They're not adventurers; they're professionals.With the discovery that Durham may have arrived with a destiny attached to him the Dungeoneers find themselves in the midst of some history about to happen. Will experience and Dwarven know-how be enough to carry the day?
Reincarnation
Michael Head - 2021
A man fated to destroy it. There’s a prophecy to ignore.Jim was thrust back in time, returned to his body at the moment he started cultivating. Anyone else might have given up, but Jim doesn’t have that option. He’s already made the mistakes that doomed him in his first life, and he knows what to do to make it right. Jim wants to right the wrongs of the past… or, future? All while a pair of angry gods torture him through lack of sleep.He must find a way to reach the top of the cultivation world without drawing the attention of those who would take his knowledge of the future for themselves. Jim has seen how the world ended, and he is determined to fight his way through the world’s hidden foes and defeat his destiny.Weakened to merely a shadow of his former strength, he quickly learns that fighting alone may not be his best option, even though fate seems to like it that way.Luckily for the world, Jim thinks fate is stupid. He doesn’t care what it wants.