What if you drop out of reality into a video game? One of those horror video games where Cthulhu comes squirming out of dark corners. And what if once you were in the game, it started playing tricks on you? And what if then you couldn't get out? Set in 1920s Arkham.

My Opinion: 52 pages, $0.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited

A delightfully creepy Cthulhu LitRPG short story that does something different with the genre. Not a long read but an entertaining one.

Score: 7.8 out of 10

Arkham Interlude: A Cthulhu LitRPG Short Story (Darkworlds Book 0)

https://amzn.to/2HsbxoO

Great Balls on Fire (Caverns and Creatures)

Dave and the C&C gang are a bunch of immigrants stealing jobs from the honest hardworking people of Cardinia.

My Opinion: 41 pages, $3.04, Available on Kindle Unlimited

A fun little side adventure for the C&C group who get in trouble just trying to earn a little extra coin. Not my favorite short story but still fun. Reminder, lots of cursing and potty humor.

Score: 7.2 out of 10

Great Balls on Fire (Caverns and Creatures)

https://amzn.to/2QlX6oU

Stellar Survival Quest: 0.5 - A Sci-fi LITRPG

5 years ago an unknown, game company came from nowhere to release a first generation virtual reality pod and their bundled game Stellar Survival Quest. The Technology was 20 years ahead of anything else currently out, sending shockwaves through the entertainment industry.

“Now a new game system is not normally world shattering. Especially when players reported not being able to recall their time playing. The company made claims; of keeping the game world pure and not allowing micro gaming.

However, when that first generation of gamers left the gaming pods they knew things they did not before. Skills learned in game translated to real life skills! Overnight the world was thrown on its heels. A new player could log into the game be given a job in some way decided by the game and come out an ivy league educated scientist, or special ops level soldier.

Nathan Tyrone Rogers or Bubba to his friends and family awoke on a small transport freshly landed on an ancient space station. As the first Human to be spawned outside the Sol System, Nathan is vastly unprepared and overwhelmed for the task at hand. With a cryptic message that he needs to claim the solar system of Epsilon Endi before one of the other 12 species; also spawned in system can. Some of which will supposedly be hostile to humanity. He attempts to survival in the completely hostile environment of space. All the while trying to choose a path for himself, avoid being eaten by monstrous alien women and growing more and more annoyed with his “real self” still back on Earth.

This is the first Sci-Fi LitRPG novella in the Stellar Survival Quest series set in Jalf Whitemages Total Expanse Universe. This book contains adult themes, mild harem themes, base building, and real time strategy elements. It is not recommended for those new to the Lit Genre, and definitely not anyone who is easily offended by … well anything. You have been warned!!!

My Opinion: 229 pages, $0.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited

The story starts out good, but loses me a bit near the end. The novel begins with the main character (MC) finding himself without memory of his personal life or history but a recording of himself saying he's playing a game that's not really a game. It’s honestly a longer intro than is needed but it sets up some of the mechanics and survival elements. Basically this is a space survival LitRPG story. There are lots of deaths and respawns as the MC tries to survive even the 1st few moments on an abandoned space station that is open to the void of space. He figures it out and then it's about figuring out the game system, crafting/repairing the station to survive, and using the game mechanics to accomplish his goals. There is also a minor story thread about the things he and other players are doing in game impacting real world earth, but it wasn’t too interesting.

There are a few of these kinds of stories: Universe Online, Planet Bound, Histaff. So if you like those, you might also like this one.

I should note that there is this out of left field sex scene at about the 72% mark, and the story takes this harem twist towards the end. While that definitely lessened my enjoyment, it’s a skippable scene, and after it returns to the space survival RPG stuff.

Score: 7.3 out of 10

Stellar Survival Quest: 0.5 - A Sci-fi LITRPG

https://amzn.to/2JVbGm7

Scurfifer (Alfarome. Book 2) LitRPG Series

Volper finds this game too complicated and he decides to find the answers to some of the questions. Not for him, he simply doesn’t care about it, it’s important to find out everything at least for the sake of the guys who he decided to take care of. Also, he wants to unravel the mystery – connected with this strange profession - "Scurfifer". These are his plans for now. But will he be able to solve all the mysteries around him, and will he find someone who can answer at least some of his questions?

My Opinion: 388 pages, $4.77, Available On Kindle Unlimited

This is a challenging read due to the severe translation issues. I could not get through much of this at all. The author has noted in the beginning of the book that he’s contracted another translation team and should have a better version in a month. Until then, I can’t recommend this for even casual LitRPG reading.

Score: 4 out of 10

Scurfifer (Alfarome. Book 2) LitRPG Series

https://amzn.to/2UM4ApZ

The Labyrinth (The Gods' Game, Volume II): A LitRPG novel

His life on earth was over. Myelad was his world now. And there he had power. Power to change the Game. But would he? And how?

Accidentally summoned to Myelad, Kyran has earned the ire of the Gods and been banished to the subterranean world of Crota – to die. Yet Kyran has proved tough to kill, and despite the odds, has survived his first few days in the new world.

But his plans for escape have gone awry... Defeated and captured, what will become of him?

Join Kyran, as he battles his way through the labyrinth, gathering allies, overcoming foes, growing into a player, and finding purpose…

My Opinion: 446 pages, $5.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited

In book 1, the main character (MC) finds himself drawn into a game of some alien gods, he’s sent to a random location on a RPG planet and he spends book 1 leveling up in a solo XP grind. Book 2 expands from single player to group dungeon crawl. There is still a good action adventure with an expanded experience with multiple groups looking and hunting the MC. There's also a little town building. Overall, a good dungeon crawl.

Score: 7.5 out of 10

The Labyrinth (The Gods' Game, Volume II): A LitRPG novel

https://amzn.to/2vRByap

Dungeon Eternium (The Divine Dungeon Book 5)

Unlikely allies uniting across the world. Blood feuds that span centuries. A single chance at life.

The world watches the sky with trepidation. The insanity of Xenocide knew no bounds, and all will soon suffer the effects he had planned for a millennium. Though none know what is to come, they all know it isn’t going to be easy to survive.

The Master has a plan, one that can give the world at large a way to escape the onrushing desolation. It may be on the bleeding edge of morality and what he needs might prove too difficult to secure, but The Master asks for trust.

Cal and Dale both have their role to play as the world hurtles toward destruction. One needs to bring the races of the world together while the other simply needs to survive. Surrounded by supposed allies, the duo will do all that they can to succeed—but with every new arrival comes rising tensions and faltering trust.

The apocalypse is coming. Will honor or greed stand the test of time?

My Opinion: 272 pages, $4.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited

Full disclosure: I got an advanced copy for review, but purchased the novel when it became available.

A good ending to the series. I’ll be honest, there were several times I put the novel down and took a break from reading it, not because it was a bad story, but because I just didn’t want the series to end. I know that the publishers plan to have other stories in the same universe, but I’ll miss this series. It was among the first dungeon core novels that I’d read and it has been among the best. It was interesting to see how the Cal got around the planet being bombarded by parts of the moon. It’s a good ending to a great series.

Score: 7.6 out of 10

Dungeon Eternium (The Divine Dungeon Book 5) (May 31st, 2018)

https://amzn.to/2LMeTas

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