If you want erotic books here are a few: Any of Eden's Lewd Saga series are right up there. Alpha World does have harem elements, it isn't explicit though, it goes fade to black. My other new book Apocalypse Gates, if you get the Author's Cut, doesn't fade to black. The PG-16 editions fades to black though. Wild Wastes by Randi Darren. Daniel Black by William Brown Alara Branwen has a couple of books out I believe, just can't name them right now.
Yeah I'm pretty much looking for books exactly like Apocalypse Gates. I read it in 1 sitting and really loved it. Big fan of all of your books so far.
Definitely try Wild Wastes, because it was written by the same guy who did Super Sales, using a pseudonym. It’s not litrpg, though. If you don’t mind non litrpg recs, try Good Intentions by Elliott Kay. A college student becomes soul bound to a smart, sophisticated succubus and a foul mouthed angel. Wacky and sexy hijinks ensue.
Another non-litrpg book that comes to mind with mature(*) themes is The Wizard’s Daughters by Michael Dalton. It’s about a mercenary who is hired to protect a wizard and his gorgeous twin daughters on a journey through dangerous territory. For litrpg with sexy and/or harem elements, try Scottie Futch. I’ve only read a few of his, but they seem to fit the bill. * - I’ll never understand how “Woohoo! Boobies!” came to be labeled “mature.”
Concerning Aleron, he's a smart guy. He knows how to market himself and position himself as a "brand leader". As an author, his books have huge, glaring weaknesses and moments of brilliance intermixed. As a person, he's a complete coward. He bans anyone who criticizes his novels, (after proclaiming that "we don't ban anyone around here"), either locks down or deletes threads that question him, refuses to answer questions when asked about them point blank, and only communicates via friendly channels when dealing with any controversy. I think the hyper machismo and penile braggadocio in his novels is the result of massive overcompensation. Anyway, if someone who has never read a LitRPG book asked me what to read: 1.) Sci-fi: Feedback Loop, Perimeter Defense, Phantom Server. 2.) Traditional: Awaken Online, Ascend Online, Viridian Gates, Afterlife, Life Reset, Lion's Quest. 3.) Humor: Caverns and Creatures. 4.) Not LitRPG but similar enough introductions: Second-Hand Curses, NPCs, Orconomics
Definitely looking forward to Apocalypse Gates, DJ. Agreed on Wild Wastes. Great book. The audio version is excellent, too. I'm also enjoying Jan Stryvant's Valens series. I've only read the first two, Black Friday and Perfect Strangers, but they are fast-paced and tons of fun. I'm a third of the way into a crazy, funny, fast-paced book called The Pen is Mightier by Cipriano that seems to fit the bill, too. Just realized that none of my suggestions are exactly LitRPG, but they're in the same groove.
i AM a new reader and i got started with fayroll. i'm an american living in moscow and this series was recommended to me by so many russian kids. i thought "y not" and found the english versions. the best part is that there are 13 books so hopefully i can spread them out evenly (might not actually be the case tho)
Back when Aleron was first getting started, Amazon still had author forums for each author. He went around posting threads in anyone's forum that wrote anything with remotely LitRPG elements to invite people to join his facebook group, which at the time was SUPPOSEDLY a pure generic LitRPG group. As far as I can tell he has since deleted that original group. I was told that some people were talking about my book up there so I tried to join, and he blocked my request. So I posted into the thread he created in my forum that I was sorry to anyone trying to get information because Aleron was blocking me from his thread. He had zero control over content on the Amazon forums at the time so he couldn't do anything about. About 3 months later, he approved my membership in his group. According what I was told by someone in the group, I think word got around and there were people actually questioning on group why I was being blocked, but I'm not certain. So, yeah, my view of Little Aleron is that he is a coward that wants to be king.
it depends on who you're recommending to I personally prefer 'town-building' types where it's more a whole community instead of just one person for the newbie, probably the 'safest' is Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko if they're not afraid of some gore: Life Reset by Shemer Kuznits (fantastic but there's a pretty intense torture scene plus the whole 'sacrifice people on altars to help unleash a dark god' thing) Dungeon Born by Dakota Krout (best dungeon story but the whole 'protagonist killing people without remorse' thing) if they're ok with it being geeky with tons and tons of skills and attributes and everything The Land- Founding by Aleron Kong
Definitely agree with those ;-) To Scifi - Mahanenko's "Galactogon," Cosimo Yap's "The Gam3" & Livadny's Phantom Server I've found Kong's series (of audiobooks) to be the most broadly satisfying...an oasis in a desert of 1-dimensional roleplayporn. Have to say tho I don't really get that "mechanics are geeky" thing though, half the fun of litrpg's for me is to second guess the protagonists choices re: character build and approach to gameplay...otherwise I would just be reading Salvatore through again.
IF we're putting on lists then I would suggest Tao Wong's System Apocalypse series: Life in the North: An Apocalyptic LitRPG (The System Apocalypse Book 1) https://www.amazon.com/Life-North-A...ts=p_n_feature_nineteen_browse-bin:9045887011 It's set in Canada, but still in the modern world. I would say fantasy with light sci/fi. anyway, I loved the series myself.
I'm glad Forum Game Master Paul directed me to this thread. Some good looking recs. After reading about Aleron Kong's bad behavior, I'm gonna opt out of reading his series. It looks like there's plenty of other folks doing things that are interesting and I can't rock with that kind of punk-assedness. I have to say as a newbie he's marketing the holy hell out of his series with the whole "Father of LitRPG" thing... building a brand that essentially says "you gotta start here if you wanna know what this is all about" in much the same way it almost feels like you can't really say you love fantasy and have never read Lord of the Rings.
I’m a little surprised that it took this long to mention Life Reset. It and its sequel are fantastic and there’s a third book in the works. The audio version of the second should be out soon, too.
I think Awaken Online: Catharsis is the best book I've read followed by The Land: Founding. The only other stuff I've read so far though is Eden's Gate, Spetsnaz, and about 2/3rds of Paul Bellow's Hack. I know Aleron Kong is a controversial author on this forum, but I do have to give him credit. The Land is a very good book. The cavalier borderline arrogant attitude with which Gunner is written is truly entertaining. I stopped with the series after book 3 though since it was just more of the same, there was no innovation occurring and it got boring.
I'm gonna change my ranking a bit.I finished our forum masters book, Hack. I like the premise and story but the writing style was far too simplistic for my taste. It was definetly geared at a younger audience. I'm a few chapters into Domino Finn's Reboot and holy hell it is heads and shoulders above Awaken online so far.
Came here from Google looking for reccs, and glad to hear some mentioned repeatedly/mentioned in good company. Think my best addition to the discussion would be "Dream Drive" by overred on literotica. Erotic elements, but very story driven. Author has one published work, Contractors, that's got some RPG elements but is not litRPG -- and Dream Drive is better. Looks like it will be a while before it is continued, but the first story arc is very good. For me: 1st tier - Awaken Online, Dream Drive, The Land 2nd tier - Eden's Gate, Viridian Gate, Ascend Online Probably Dream Drive/Ascend Online best reccomendations for someone unfamiliar with genre.
Okie dokie, I don't think these were mentioned yet. Anything by Arthur Stone: The Weirdest Noob, Styx Humanhive, and Respawn The Crystal Shards Online series by Rick Scott The Level Up series by Dan Sugralinov. The Accidental Traveler series by Jamie Davis The Character Development series by Aaron Jay The Twenty-Sided Eye series by Kip Terrington The Emerilia series and Ten realms series by Michael Chatfield The Reality Benders series by Michael Atamanov Red Mage: Advent by Xander Boyce The War Aeternus series by Charles Dean That is all I can think of for now. Happy reading.
