I just read Reaper, by Janet Edwards. I didn't come across it as I searched for LitRPG. In fact, I was taking a lil break from this genre, and I thought I'd try one of her books because I love her Earth Girl series so much. (Seriously, it's a YA teen romance set 8 centuries in the future where the heroes are ancient earth archaeologists digging up things from 400 years in the future. And there's social revolutions and aliens all in one nice, neat trilogy). Anyway, I decided to try Reaper. It's the first book set in her Game future - I have no idea if there will be others. I haven't ever seen any discussion anywhere on whether or not Reaper is LitRPG. I mean, there's a game world (actually, there is a game with 1000 worlds - although it's more like dimensions than planets. You can go be a werewolf or a mermaid or a centaur if you want. Or live on Jupiter's moons. Or anything). There is some very limited levelling (bronze - after a year you go to silver - no indication of how to progress to gold, but I think it involves paying your lifetime subscription). Only the first 923 users were granted diamond level. There aren't stats, but I would say it is definitely light LitRPG. And yet, it is completely different to anything else out there, for one very simple reason: the first 2/3rds of the book are set IRL. And Janet Edwards has done an absolutely fantastic job of wordbuilding what real life would be like when most of the world's population lives permanently in a virtual game, with their IRL bodies cryogenically frozen in morbidly named bodystacks. In the one area where most authors spend the least amount of time and give the least amount of detail (and let's be honest, probably put in the least amount of thought), she has built an entire novel. The story is a YA romance, but the romance is basically a sub-plot. There is a mad man bombing server farms, causing huge losses of life. One of the legendary Founder players has been asked by the gaming population to overlook the investigation, but he has been in-game for 400 years and has no idea how the world works now. So he finds two assistants, the POV female heroine of the story, and a guy she knows. And then they oversee the investigation. Honestly, if you're an author (especially if you're an author who thinks everyone perma-living in a VR world would have no real effect on earth society except maybe an increase in suicides) you should read this. It might get your creative juices flowing. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reaper-End...01461750&sr=8-1&keywords=reaper+janet+edwards
But it's YA and I just can't take those novels.... Then again if it's character driven, I might look at it. I do love a character I can feel for.
