Crematoria Online: A dark fantasy LitRPG series from Matthew J. Barbeler! For fans of Diablo, Bloodborne, Devil May Cry, and The Elder Scrolls.
Making friends has never been Lucas Hutchins' strong suit, but now he has no choice in the matter. He has a promise to keep, but he's not strong enough to do it alone.
Lucas forges friendships and alliances with a bunch of ragtag player characters: a purple-haired Apothecary with a passion for baking, a mysterious Occultist who takes role-playing way too seriously, and a Hellkin who just wants everyone to get along.
Meanwhile, the armies of the Crimson Queen are gathering in the realm of Sanguinaria. They mean to invade the Four Kingdoms and bend every man, woman and child to the Crimson Queen's will.
Lucas must use his wits and his Investigator abilities to find out what the Crimson Queen is up to before it's too late to fight back.
My Opinion: 455 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
This has a good recap that explains the main game main characters powers and what happened in book 1. It really helped me get right back into the story and recall who everyone was and the major plotlines.
The story starts in the real world and does a good job of establishing some IRL stakes and does some decent fleshing out of why people would be willing to be stuck in an MMO.
I actually liked this 2nd book quite a bit more than book 1. It felt more...settled. Book 1 felt like the author wasn't 100% sure what kind of story it was going to be. Trapped in the game? Detective? Magical fantasy? What game mechanics were going to be there? What's this romance going to develop as? The detective game mechanics felt like a way to lead the MC through the story. In book 2 a lot of that is settled so the story is much clearer and it's easier to do world building and character development.
Overall still a good story with a use of some unusual classes. Good action adventure but also a better fleshed out game world.
Score: 7.5 out of 10