Book picks similar to
Hack by Paul Bellow


litrpg
fantasy
lit-rpg
tower-of-gates

Twilight Templar


C.J. Carella - 2020
    Next thing he knew, he had been transformed into his character, first-level Paladin Hawke Lightseeker, and found himself in a corpse-filled cavern complex crawling with monsters and undead. Armed with a sentient sword, Hawke must learn the rules of a reality where magic and power-leveling are as real as swords and knives, and where you only get a limited number of respawns before you die for good.Follow Hawke as he explores the mysterious Common Realm, meets new friends and foes, battles to survive, and learns more about his growing power and inner strength.Note to LitRPG Fans: This novel concentrates primarily on action-adventure, with a focus on power-leveling and learning new magic and class subsystems. Future novels will deal with town and stronghold management. There is also a harem (fade-to-black, non explicit) subplot that plays a part in the story without detracting from it.

You Need A Bigger Sword


Natalie Grey - 2019
    Turns out, punching zombie bears is  fun . Who knew? Enter the world of Metamorphosis Online, a fully immersive video game where players compete for spots in the Global Top 10—ranks that actually pay you to play the game.Gracie doesn't play the game to make money…at first.  Broke, single, and working a crappy job as a blackjack dealer, Gracie's just blowing off steam and having fun. Can playing a new type of immersive game help her overcome real-life issues, or will it cause more problems?Before she knows it, Gracie has intervened in a generations-long war between the kobolds and the fae and started a ragtag guild, and her weird math abilities make themselves known in a way that most could not have imagined. Can she deal with being pitted against the game developers? For the first time Gracie can remember, she has something worth fighting for. Go up and click "Buy Me" or "Read For Free" and find out what most gamers understand. GAMING IS REAL—MORE SO THAN BEING IRL...

Patch 17


G. Akella - 2015
    With Patch 17, the level of immersion experienced by players in their gaming capsules has made virtual reality indistinguishable from the real world. But every gamer's dream becomes a nightmare for Roman Kozhevnikov after he gets confined to Arkon against his will. And not just to Arkon, but to its deadliest zone--Demon Grounds. Playing, or rather living as his character Krian, it's not just about survival for Roman. He longs to exact revenge for his banishment to the virtual world where the sensation of pain has reached one hundred percent...

Apocalypse Game: A LitRPG Adventure


Grayson Sinclair - 2021
    To the victor go the spoils.My name is Killian Dunn. I'm eighteen, a high school senior, a gamer, and, oh yeah, the Harbinger of the Apocalypse. Not exactly what I had in mind as a career path.Reality took a nosedive when Armageddon came knocking. It brought with it classes, levels, and skills, as well as a horde of Lovecraftian abominations to use them on.I never wanted any of this, but the sick god who orchestrated this whole nightmare has my family. Their lives are forfeit if I refuse to play his game.He left me no choice but to accept my role and play my part—not as just another piece on the chessboard, but as the king—the Demon Lord of the Black.But if I'm the villain, then there must also be a hero. On the side of White stands the Archangel, and they're as determined as I am to win.The prize? A single wish.With it, I can protect my family, fix everything that's broken, and save the whole damn world.I just have to destroy it first.

Dungeons of Strata


G.D. Penman - 2020
    Strata Online is a hundred floor mega-dungeon, filled with an ever-shifting ecosystem of monsters. Martin's team soon find themselves in a race against the world’s strongest guilds, all competing to be the first to reach the unbeatable game's lowest depths. Stranger still, they must now contend with Sin, a twisted morality meter which can transform a players’ class into its dark counterpart. With eternal fame and prizes on the line, Martin risks playing as a rarely chosen race; a Murovan rat-man, combined with the unusual exorcist class. But unlike other games, he will need as much courage as skill to progress. Because the deeper he goes, the darker Strata gets.

Valhalla Online


Kevin O. McLaughlin - 2017
    McLaughlin! More than just a game, Valhalla Online was designed as a permanent repository for the uploaded minds of mortals afraid of death. An artificial afterlife.Samantha’s world is turned upside-down when she arrives in Valhalla - because as far as she knows, she isn’t like the other people uploaded there.She isn’t dead. At least...she hopes she isn’t.Now Sam must solve the mystery of her own abduction - or murder! - while trapped inside a virtual world, cut off from communication with the outside. To do this she must do more than simply survive Valhalla - she needs to win the game! ˃˃˃ Excerpt from the book: The battle raged only a dozen feet ahead. Men with green bandanas tied to their arms, or with green paint on their shields, were holding a position on the wall facing off against a squad of blue-bearing troops.The bad news was that the green troops - whom Sam assumed were the enemy - had ladders up against the outside of the wall. More troops were climbing into the fort every moment. The good news was that most of them were facing the blue troops on the other side of the rampart. Their backs were to Harald and Sam.Harald didn’t pause for more than a moment to let his eyes adjust before rushing in. He gave a terrific scream, bashing the one green warrior with his shield as he was trying to climb onto the wall. The man lost his balance and fell backwards outside the fort. There was a long cry as he fell, which cut off suddenly. It sounded like the drop on the other side of the wall was at least as far as the one on this side.An arrow flashed upward from somewhere outside the fort. Acting entirely on instinct, Sam raised her shield just in time to ward the shot. It stuck into the wood with a resounding thunk. The impact stung her fingers and left them buzzing. How the hell had she found herself in this crazy situation? Scroll up and grab a copy today.

Dead Man Gaming


A.J. Markam - 2018
    to a dead man gaming. New LitRPG! Ex-safecracker Jimmy Stanislavsky was just trying to help an old friend stay alive when the FBI framed him. But rather than send Jimmy to prison, the Feds have an interesting offer: play the world's largest virtual reality video game MMORPG as an Undead Rogue. Infiltrate the Russian mafia, who have set up an in-game crime empire while masquerading as orcs. And do it all within three weeks. Now Jimmy is racing against the clock - and the FBI's threats to put him behind bars for life. With the help of an elf, a druid, and a goblin he befriends in the game, he might just have a shot at completing the quest... or get killed by the Russian mob in real life. He got framed to play the game. For fans of litrpg, mmorpg, fantasy, and sword and sorcery.

Dungeon of Envy


Drake O'Keef - 2021
    Now, dungeons dot the landscape, releasing Demons that terrorize and destroy everything in their path. If they aren’t stopped soon, humans won’t be the only endangered species.In an attempt to preserve life and win the war against Demons, Protectors from different species all over the world have downloaded level-up programs to help them fight. Jason Jonosan doesn’t want to be a part of that world, though his dad created the original tech. His dad’s latest work has made him a target, and Jason finds himself running for his life.When he’s accidentally injected with an accelerated prototype, it’s level up or die. But as he goes through dungeons with his best friend and new Party members, they realize the situation isn’t as simple as they always believed, and the race to save Jason’s life turns into a quest to save the world.

Wrath


Alex Raizman - 2021
    After being executed for crimes forgotten in death, Tira is given the chance to make that choice. Tira chose Acekorah, the Primeval Terror, a being so dangerous few cores will risk trying to contain it.The danger wasn’t important. Tira remembers dying. If containing Acekorah means Tira will face greater danger, that’s a risk worth taking, because the Primeval Terror walked the world long before the races of Man roamed the earth, and Cores bound to him are able to summon beings from beyond the veil of time.Now, forged in the fires of Tira's wrath, the dinosaurs will walk the world anew.

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.

Resurgence


Joshua W. Nelson - 2016
    Since the beginning of online gaming this has always been the norm; you paid the company and they let you play their game. So it's no surprise that Alex Stanton was living every gamer's dream. It was the opposite for him. He was getting payed to play. The latest generation of virtual reality gaming, in both appearance and hardware, was being beta tested by the largest retailer of online gaming, AltCon. Never before seen graphical detail, joined with a first-time, fully functional, whole body immersion system was likely to put AltCon entirely out of reach of their competitors. But before they could go live, they wanted Beta testers. Serious Beta testers. So serious, AltCon was willing to pay a salary to each tester, ensuring their lives revolved around the Beta, and the Beta only. Beta testers join for one reason, to experience new content never seen by another player. Alex, along with his group mates Dan, Jason, and Wayne will experience every nuance the game has to offer, and all before the rest of the world. The entire scenario is unreal; from the tests to be selected as a Beta candidate, to the six month wait to qualify, to the almost life-like quality of the game itself. The company pulled out all the stops. If there was a heaven for gamers, it would look exactly like this game: Resurgence. But odd things start happening from the outset. Things Alex can't explain. But like every hard-core gamer, Alex has no problem ignoring the little things to focus on the grander design; winning the game. Whether that be discovering new content, finishing epic quests, or finding the rarest of items. In time, even the littlest of things can pile up, and Alex is forced to ask himself, “What’s really going on in Resurgence?”

The Bathrobe Knight


Charles Dean - 2015
    What happens when you find yourself submersed in a fantasy world you've never imagined, and you don't know the rules? How much can one bathrobe and a spoon change the fate of the world? Is there enough ramen to ever sate a gamer's hunger?

The Crystal Heart


Prax Venter - 2017
    However, not everything is as it seems. After Mark realizes he is stuck reliving the same day over and over, he needs to find a way out or become trapped forever.Cover by Jaka Prawira.* Warning: Graphic sexual acts are depicted in this work of fiction.

Menacing Misfits


Robyn Wideman - 2019
     When Jack Vance's grandfather is murdered, his dying words are to get Jack to promise to attend Darkthorn Academy. Jack doesn't like it, but he'll do what is necessary to honor the man who raised him. Surviving Darkthorn Academy won't be easy. Jack will have to make alliances, learn to harness magic and face dangerous enemies, both alive and dead. If he's lucky he might just make it to second year. A coming of age, sword and sorcery fantasy adventure with gamelit aspects, including a slightly overpowered MC, a dragon companion, and a team of adventurers. Inspired by games like Skyrim and Diablo 2 and Fallout.

Level Up


Craig Anderson - 2018
     What would the world be like if video game rules suddenly applied? Marcus is about to find out. After a freak accident he finds himself stuck between a game and the real world. He’ll need to fight his way through football hooligans, carnies and the dreaded RNG to get to the final boss and save the world. Anything less means it’s game over for good. Along the way he’ll learn new skills, chase epic loot and most importantly of all, Level Up! If you love light LitRPG you’ll be sure to enjoy this humourous take on the genre. Grab your copy now!