Book picks similar to
Initialization (Paths of Power #1) by Sean Barber
apocalypse
cultivation
abandoned
dnf
Reincarnation: A Wuxia/Xianxia Cultivation Novel (Path of Lazy Immortal Book 1)
A.P. Gore - 2021
SLIME: Call of Tuatha
Outspan Foster - 2018
He finds himself in the body of a slime, inheriting odd abilities and an overwhelming circumstance. His only drive for survival is revenge. As a slime, the weakest monster in the world, he must discover a way to gain enough power and get his humanity back. (A GameLit story)
Black Dawn
Nathan Ameye - 2021
But when a solar storm reconnects Earth to the Fae Nexus, the world is engulfed in magical energy, altering the laws of nature… violently. Fuel, ammunition, and electronics explode, leaving the world in a dark apocalypse.As the flames die down, demons emerge through the Fae Nexus, swarming Gage’s hometown and enslaving the survivors.To fight back, Gage and his reunited friends harness Fae powers, becoming the Wizard, Ranger, and Fighter they’ve always played in their favorite roleplaying game.With the help of a pair of moonshiners turned Alchemists and the ghost of a long-dead gunslinger, Gage and his friends have to level up fast to free their families and defend their home against the demonic horde.He may have walked away once, but this time the only thing Gage is leaving behind are his regrets and a pile of dead demons.
Greenways Goblins
Daniel Schinhofen - 2019
When freakish storms envelope the Earth, people start disappearing without a trace. Wild theories abound; is it aliens, spontaneous combustion, or perhaps quantum entanglement? The only ones who might know are those who have vanished. An average group of gamers is setting up to start a new campaign. The storms rage across the world, but they only care about the game they are about to start. Little do they know that they would be next to disappear from the face of the Earth. Shifted to a different world, the group of friends find that the gamer’s dream they had always harbored has come true, but not in the way they would have hoped. They are not there as themselves, but as the level one characters they had been preparing to play. Standing on a road with smoke rising in the distance, they would soon be given their first quest— but not the one they would have chosen. (This series contains dark themes, including but not limited to: suicide, torture, slavery, and worse.)
Beyond The Wall
Pwyll Duggan - 2019
Like one moment you’re drinking your coffee and the next you are naked in what looks like a medieval village. And worse, the coffee is gone. Must be a Monday. Paul Walsh really didn’t need this. Divorced, Wrong side of 40 and not exactly what you would call fit. Now some mystical force has set him up as today’s hope to save a village. Kill Monsters, Harvest their Souls and Power their Wall. A magical wall of black energy that stretches further than the horizon and up higher than the clouds. It keeps the monsters out and lets those selected thru. And he’s one of a thousand that have been selected to go forth in the last 3 years. New ones get selected only if the previous never returns by nightfall. No pressure. No pressure at all. Paul’s definitely too old for this sh.. At least there’s Orcs, Centaurs, Elves, Lamia, Harpies and the odd Spider. He also runs into the Dead, Night Ones, Dryads, Driders and Troublesome Nobles. To comfort him there are Fair Maidens, Noodles and yummy Rice Balls. Warnings and Minor Spoilers: This is an Isekai (Portal Fantasy) novel with Adult themes, Swearing and Graphic Violence in its many forms, set in a Medieval style Society, with cultural values to match. Adult relationships with Societal Harem themes that slowly disappear as the story progresses. Please Read with that in consideration. And watch out for the Snotters, they bite.
The Gilded Path: A Cultivation Portal Fantasy
S.A. Archer - 2021
Alpha Zero
Arthur Stone - 2020
Those who cannot grow stronger, die. No empty child has ever reached a year of age, yet I am now thirteen.It has been a long and miserable thirteen years, where the best I can manage to do is walk with difficulty. Sometimes, I cannot even manage that.My clan has paid dearly for every minute of my life. And money is not so easy to obtain, here at the edge of civilization.Perhaps I might have lived in this state for many years. A cripple, strong in mind but feeble in body. But when some unexpected guests came to our estate, everything changed. I would die at last – or, I would learn to survive on my own.
The SyStem: Multiverse
Jon Svenson - 2020
He escaped Boston, with help from his mother, to head to the west coast and create a new life in Seattle. All that changes when he attends a party to celebrate his friend's new physics invention: a device that connects two universes together.Events quickly spiral out of control as Brett, and his best friend's ex-girlfriend, find themselves pulled by the device and end up in a different version of Earth, one that has been stripped of it's resources and population by an alien race. Will the Earth they came from share a similar fate? Can they escape the dimension they've been sent to and find a way back home? And do they want to escape after learning more about the universe they find themselves in? More importantly, can they change the SyStem that controls everything in that universe and many more?The SyStem: Multiverse is the first book in a series of the same name, where they fight monsters with psychic powers, deal with betrayal, survive on a barren world, and decide whether they will let things remain the same or take action to change their circumstances.Jon Svenson is the author of Biomedical Self-Engineering and other novels yet to be released.
The Dead Rising: The Beginning
Albert Yates - 2015
His neighbour seems to be acting strange, no one is working at the radio station, and the 911 operator rushed him off the phone when he called. What happened to his town while he was sleeping and will Henry be able to survive the dangers that lie outside of his house?
Merchant of Death
Jared Mandani - 2019
He needs to go into hiding until he can afford the surgery to get a new face. All the cash he had left, he invested to buy a hacked virtual reality collar off the black market. For a wanted man such as himself, this is the only way to make any kind of money without further jeopardizing his location and identity. There’s a problem though. When he first logs into Eternal War Online and chooses his faction, the network detects his unauthorized device and generates a bunch of critical errors. Immediately, there’s a hotfix that is applied and which erases all his selections. John is sent into the Eternal Battlefield, the highest level PvP area of the game—obviously, with no chance of survival. Limited to one character by collar, John finds himself in a dire situation. With no faction to back him up, he’s a free target for everyone. And with no fighting skills and no gear (except for a pair of cotton briefs), he’s no match for any of the players. John will keep dying and respawning in that impossible location. But as he tries to keep to the shadows and stay alive, he will soon find that his strange predicament is not without benefits. For one, his lack of ties to any faction allows him to loot every corpse—which will lead him to unlock secret classes, like: Salvager and Smuggler. Secondly, while every faction has its own language that prevents players from different groups from talking to each other, he’s not restricted by that constraint and can understand everyone. Unable to join the fight, as every blow sustained results in his instadeath, John will discover that his only chance to start earning some cash will be to partner up with the criminal underworld in the game and set up a salvaging operation. For a fee, he will loot you and return your soul-bound items—allowing you to skip the 6 hour waiting period before they materialize back in your inventory. Also, he will experiment with crafting and creating weapons and enchantments that will start to shake things up in the game. Obviously, not everyone will take kindly to his bold moves and John will attract the wrath of a few powerful players. But then, you can’t expect to please everyone when you’re making a name for yourself as a Merchant of Death!
The Cheater's Return
Brian McGoldrick - 2018
In the chaos following World War III, the Patriarch of the Church of the Resurrection rebuilt Earth's society into a collection of over 500 independent city-states. With alien technology that gave him complete control over the Earth's orbital space, the Patriarch outlawed war, and introduced the Constructed Reality MMORPG Primacy Online. He only allowed the city-states to engage in military conflicts with one another inside of the game. City-state leaders that attempted to ignore Church Canon were destroyed, along with their armies, by the Church's orbital particle cannons. For more than a thousand years, there have been no wars fought on the Earth's soil. The release of Primacy Online VI: Legacy of Balor signals the beginning of World War IX. Each city-state will lock 50,000 draftees into cryogenic capsules and upload their minds into a character sheathe in the game. Until the armistice conditions have been reached, they will play Primacy Online in War Mode, with the death of the character sheathes meaning their real deaths, but this time there is a twist to the World War. Every still living perma-banned cheater from Primacy Online will be a special draftee for World War IX. They will be organized into a special contingent in the service of the Church of the Resurrection. Patrick Armagh is terminally ill. Like a large number of other Primacy Online players, he is afflicted with an incurable nervous system disorder. He has less than five years to live and should be exempted from the draft, but five years ago, he was given a permanent ban from Primacy Online for cheating. Along with the other perma-banned cheaters, he will be forced to play Primacy Online VI: Legacy of Balor in War Mode, but Patrick's actual method of cheating was never discovered. Morgan Danan, Speaker of the City of Mann, and the acknowledged number one player of Primacy Online has deal for Patrick. With her help and his undiscovered cheat, he has the chance to become a virtual God within Primacy Online. When you are already as good as dead, there is nothing better than the chance to spend your last days as a living god. What could possibly go wrong?
Fate Revealed
M.E. Robinson - 2018
After all, with millions of dollars on the line, aiming for the top is a given, right? However, Fate is not the ordinary game that Eric and his friends think it is. Fighting enormous wolves, being yelled at by crotchety old militia captains, and becoming embroiled in a deadly feud with other players are all considered part of a normal day in Fate. Can Eric survive? How will Eric’s choices shape Fate and those who inhabit it? Can Eric truly treat Fate as a game and fight his way to the top when the very game itself seems bent on killing him? Warning: This Book Contains Mild Profanity
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.
An Old Man's Journey
Gregory Allanther - 2021
He'd lived a good life, been a decent man, but now that his wife was gone he was... Lonely.Until his old friend Bert introduced him to Crossroads, the new VR sensation. In this virtual world he can move without pain, explore new lands, and most importantly - see his family again. For as long as he can hold their interest, in this fast-paced modern world of instant gratification and VR thrills.The solution: Build a place his family wants to visit. Armed only with a magic stick with game-breaking powers that should be nerfed, Charles sets out on a journey to find a place to call his own. Along the way, he will be mistaken for an NPC quest giver, become the antagonist in epic questlines, and attempt to teach the next generation proper behavior - even if he has to beat it into them.This is the story of one man's search for belonging in his second virtual life. A search for a place to belong, and what it takes to get there. It's also a hilarious romp through online fantasy cliches that will appeal to fans of Ready Player One, The Wandering Inn, and slice-of-life comedies.Because at the end of a man's life: What's more important than family?"Hilarious!" "Amazing!" "Few things better!" - Royal Road readers.