LitRPG Podcast 200 - The big 200
LitRPG Podcast 200 - The big 200
Nov. 15th, 2019
Hello everyone, welcome to episode 200 of the LitRPG podcast. It’s a special show for us because 200 of anything is just amazing and I wanted to thank everyone that has watched us since we started out. We’ve gone from a single show that was recorded on my phone to with my kitchen in the background to multiple podcasts with many people contributing to the network and the reviews. Thank you everyone that’s watched or listened to the show and anyone that’s listened/watched to every episode, you are extra amazing! Hopefully we’ll continue for another 200 episodes.
For the full show notes visit us at: https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-podcast-200
I’m Ramon Mejia. I’m here to bring you the latest LitRPG news, reviews, and author interviews. We have 10 new reviews just for you.
New Releases and Reviews:
Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon: A LitRPG Adventure (12:00)
Great story if you like horror, and gore mixed with LitRPG
Score: 8 out of 10
Essence: A Divine Dungeon Anthology (20:03)
A good time returning to the Divine Dungeon Universe
Overall Score: 7.3 out of 10
Fresh Blood (Survival World Book 1) (28:53)
Good crafting but kinda slow sometimes
Score: 7.2 out of 10
This Broken Sword: TOL Online Episode 1: A Lit RPG Saga (32:18)
A few flaws but mostly ok
Score: 7.2 out of 10
Ian’s (Eye-Ann) Picks of the Week (34:27)
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New Segment from Ian Mitchell a long time LitRPG community member who reads and reviews as much as me. He was nice enough to agree to join the LitRPG Podcast family as a new reviewer.
Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon: A LitRPG Adventure
Worth it
Score: 8.5 out of 10
Town and Tower adventures
Score: 8.5 out of 10
Tower Of Sol: A GameLit Novella
Well written
Score: 8.0 out of 10
War God's Mantle: Underworld (The War God Saga Book 3)
Satisfying finish to the trilogy
Score: 8.3 out of 10
Mastermind (Titan Online #1) - A Superhero LitRPG Story
Villain's Rule!
Score: 8.6 out of 10
KOJI & THE IMMORTAL PHOENIX: GameLit Cultivation Wuxia Xanxia Novel (THE BONDER LEGACY Book 2)
From blurb: “Because there are numerous explicit scenes, this book is suitable for mature readers only.”
Interesting story
Score: 8.2 out of 10
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LitRPG News
Daniel Schinhofen has let us know that he is putting the Apocalypse Gate series on sale starting next week and running it up toward the launch date of AG5. If you can let people know on the upcoming podcasts please. Just a quick note folks, the Apocalypse Gates series will be going on sale from the 17th to the 29th of November. Each book will be on sale in sequence for 3 days each. With the price climbing back to normal each day the book is on sale. Bonus news the UK versions will also be on sale.
AG1- 17th @0001 to 20th @0001
AG2- 20th @0001 to 23rd @0001
AG3- 23rd @0001 to 26th @0001
AG4- 26th @0001 to 29th@0001
If you haven't picked up the books yet this is a grand time to do it. It's the led up to releasing AG5 on December 5th or sooner.
The System Apocalypse Issue 2: A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG Comic (System Apocalypse Comics) is out now. Just a heads up if you liked the first comic in the series.
A quick message from Marc Carlson author of World Tree Online, who recently published the second audiobook in his series.
“...In news my second book hit audible this week and amazon lost four chapters. Anneliese is working to fix the problem and once its fixed a redownload will be needed."
Erik Rounds was interviewed by the JVJ podcast this week. Go listen to these wonderful guys talk to a wonderful LitRPG author.
http://jvjpodcast.com/?name=2019-11-14_rounds_done.mp3
Robert Bevan, author of the Caverns and Creatures series was also on their podcast last week.
http://jvjpodcast.com/?name=2019-11-07_bevan_edited_11-6-19.mp3
LitRPG narrator and one of the handsomest Canadians I know and a few of his friends have started a podcast called 'Dice Shame'.
His description of the audio podcast: “It's a DnD play podcast where we get into our roles and shame dice that don't serve us well. (Chronic Natural 1ers are the worst...) We do our best to explain certain rules as we go so if you're new to DnD we hope you learn a bit about how it's done but mainly hope you have fun listening!
I am playing Craeloth the Grave Cleric who by episode 4 has already nearly died twice... He's not dead yet tho.”
https://www.diceshamepodcast.com/
LitRPG Podcast went to 20booksto50k convention this last week. (Show pics). It was a great experience. The content there was geared towards the business side of writing with some lesser writer craft stuff. But for me it was just great to hangout with the LitRPG authors that I saw there.
Out Now!
Delvers LLC: Surviving Ludus (Artifice Universe Collection Book 1)
The Realm Between: The Evil Within: A LitRPG Saga (Book 5)
Dodge (EvoBorne - A LitRPG Saga Book 3)
New LitRPG Audiobooks
Sky Realms Online: Silverpeak - A LitRPG Adventure
The Duchess of Hammers: 2nd Dive Begins: World Tree Online Series, Book 2
The Idle System - A LitRPG series: 1-4 Box Set
Vault of the Magi - Stonehaven League, Book 5
Primeval - Guardian Craft, Book 1
Kaiju for Dummies: A LitRPG Kaiju Thriller (Kaiju Wars Offline, Book 2)
A Dark Path (Grimdark LitRPG) - Forsaken Talents, Book 1
Upcoming LitRPG:
Stranger Among Strangers. (Realm of Arkon) (Dark Covenant Book 1) (Nov. 17th, 2019)
Arcane Kingdom Online: Death Match (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 4) (Nov. 19th, 2109)
Hard Mode: A LitRPG and GameLit Fantasy Series (Chronicles of Ethan Book 2) (Nov. 22nd, 2019)
Axiom: A Divine Dungeon Series (Artorian's Archives Book 1) (Nov. 29th, 2019)
Darkness Conquered (dARkness: Online Book 3) (Nov. 30th, 2019)
Rebel Star: A LitRPG Post-Apocalyptic Space Opera (System Apocalypse Book 8) (Dec. 1st, 2019)
Lost in the Game (Dream State Saga Book 4) (Dec. 3rd, 2020)
Downtime and Death (Apocalypse Gates - Book 5) (Dec. 5th, 2019)
Level Up: Update (The Knockout Book #2): LitRPG Series
(Dec. 9th. 2019)
The Last Time Loop, Book #1: LitRPG Series (Dec. 10th, 2019)
Quest for Justice: A LitRPG Saga (Hero Online Book 3) (Dec. 13th, 2019)
The Bare Hunt: A LitRPG/GameLit Novel (The Good Guys Book 7) (Dec. 14th, 2019)
Path of Darkness: BlackFlame Online Litrpg/Gamelit Universe (Glory of Formation Emperor Book 1) (Dec. 15th, 2019)
Karma's Touch: A LitRPG and GameLit Fantasy Series (Chronicles of Ethan Book 3) (Dec. 20th, 2019)
The Wastes (Underdog Book #2): LitRPG Series (Dec. 23rd, 2019)
No Mistakes (World of the Changed Book #1): LitRPG Series (Jan. 6th, 2020)
The Destroying Plague (Disgardium Book #3): LitRPG Series (Jan. 9th, 2020)
Dragon Heart: Sea of Sands. LitRPG Wuxia Series: Book 4 (Jan. 22nd, 2020)
Quest for Dominion: A LitRPG Saga (Hero Online Book 4) (Jan. 24th, 2020)
Skull and Thrones: A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (The Bad Guys Book 3) (Feb. 6th, 2020)
An Equation with One Unknown (Invasion Book #2): LitRPG Series (Feb. 10th, 2020)
Gods of Ash and Amber: A Gamelit Novel (Seeds of Chaos Book 4) (Feb. 29th, 2020)
The Incarnator (Project Stellar Book 1): LitRPG Series (March 9th, 2020)
Onto New Releases and Reviews
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New Releases and Reviews
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Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon: A LitRPG Adventure
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Fantasy meets horror in this gore-soaked, standalone LitRPG adventure!
It had seemed like a dream offer. Paint a mural. $15,000. How could Duke not jump at the chance?
But it came with a catch, as these things often do. He had to first see what his client wanted him to paint.
A private server. A digital playground. An alliance of the world’s most sadistic, most depraved minds. A place to bring their prey, to hone their skills.
Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon. Survival horror. One of the most brutal, most terrifying full-immersion games ever made. A place where fantasy characters such as elves and dwarves clash with technology, where giant monsters roam the hills, entrusted with protecting the gates of heaven from the demons who would tear it all down.
A game where one plays the last of the battlefield surgeons: a healer tasked with keeping the behemoths alive at all costs.
But on this server, they don’t care about the game. That’s not why they’re here. They’ve come because of the game’s most unique feature: Full pain. Realistic anatomy. The ability to bring their victims well beyond the body’s normal breaking point. And most importantly, the ability to bring them back and do it all over again.
Trapped in a bloody, merciless nightmare, Duke only has one goal. To survive. And in order to survive, he must play the game. He must win the game. And to do that, he must become the most cruel, most ruthless monster of them all.
My Opinion: 844 pages, $4.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
OMG, this is such a weird, dark, gory, mind messing story. There are some parts that feel like more normal XP grinding and quests. But there are other parts that just stand out as either weird, gory, or a messing with your mind. I was cool with the biological gore, where the main character was exploring the inside of the Kaiju, fighting gross parasites, or traveling through organs. Though that scene in the testicles was a bit much. Other scenes, like that one with the 50 points of amplification, was too graphic and I skipped over that part. On the other hand there were scenes that brought me to tears, they were so sad. And that end, what a weird disturbing twist. I cared and emphasized with the main character, even as I was appalled by some of the dark decisions he made. There are no heroes in this story, though there are heroic moments, just like there are terrible dark ones.
On the game mechanic side l, I was really happy. The idea of an RPG where your task is to help heal Kaiju monsters by killing their parasites and diseases is just cool. I really liked the game storyline and the themes of revenge, redemption, and desire for forgiveness where touching. Good stuff that kept the game quests interesting once they got tied together.
Overall, this novel isn't for everyone. It's weird, dark, sad, and sometimes gross. It's not for the squeamish. But it has some great pieces that stuck with me for hours after I'd finished reading.
Score: 8 out of 10
Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon: A LitRPG Adventure
Essence: A Divine Dungeon Anthology
Infernal or celestial. Young or old. Each has their own path to power.
Delve into the world of the Divine Dungeon with new and old cultivators alike. Discover the Lion Kingdom’s beginning, learn the origin of Odin and his ravens, and take a philosophical approach to cultivation. These stories and more are included in the first short story anthology set in Dakota Krout’s Divine Dungeon universe.
Eight incredible new tales told by eight amazing authors.
Check out this LitRPG and GameLit fantasy anthology today!
Lion Start by Rohan Hublikar
Join Garron and Andros as they flee an oppressive Noble house and begin learning the secrets of cultivation while evading capture. Perhaps their methods will even create a legacy of its own?
Legacy of Thunder by Steven Willden
Learn the origin of Odin and his ravens, back when they were all simple cultivators in Azguardia. How did a child eventually become one of the most powerful and well-known lightning users of all time?
Flight of the Glitterflit by Ryan Ball
Test both the dangers and joys of surpassing your personal limits with Jack, as he learns what it really means to determine your own destiny. A person’s fate is never what you would suspect.
Splat! by Raymond Johnson
A simple Dungeon Goblin has been killed in the same way over and over, constantly revived by the dungeon it has bound itself to. Is there more to the deaths than simply fighting adventurers?
The Spirit Dungeon by Alexis Keane
An infernal cultivator is driven from his home by true necromancers. During his escape, he finds a secret that could allow him to live nearly forever. Will he be able to control it?
Hidden Lantern by James Auwaerter
The Inquisition has arrived. At least, one of the members has. It is up to him to determine if this area is worth saving… or should be purged by fire.
Butcher Boy by Dakota Krout
Follow the saga of Ramset as he learns what it means to be a cultivator in a city where men are only allowed to be mere mortals.
Axiom by Dennis Vanderkerken
What is cultivation? How is it possible? Philosophy to the rescue! When an old man loses everything, he decides that age is not going to be what stops him from rescuing the young ones that have been ‘recruited’ by the raiders that took them.
My Opinion: 248 pages, $4.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
Like many short story collections there are going to be some stories you love and others you don’t. But I’m always a sucker for a good anthology and over all this is one. It has a few great gems and it really nice to spend more time in the Divine Dungeon universe.
Overall Score: 7.3 out of 10
Individual short story reviews:
Lion Start By: Rohan Hublikar
This is a story about a little dungeon dive to save a friend and clean his core. It’s not a bad dungeon dive and has some likable characters. I especially liked the relationship between the teen characters.
Score: 7.3 out of 10
Legacy of Thunder By: Steven Willden
This is a norse and lightning god themed short story with the cultivating nation of Azguardia having a special festival and competition that gives lightning essence. It’s a cute story but kind of predictable based on the names used for characters.
Score: 7.2 out of 10
Flight of the Glitterflit by Ryan Ball
What happens when a cleric keeps adding fire to his healing? You get many crispy and annoyed people. In this story the main character must rescue a kidnapped Glitterflit and try to fix his essence problem. It's not a bad story but the kind of wand wavy end didn't work for me.
Score: 6 out of 10
Splat! By: Raymond Johnson
Splat is the name of the dungeon goblin that keeps dying by being splatted. It’s a funny story, with a cute funny main character.
Score: 7.6 out of 10
The Spirit Dungeon By: Alexis Keane
I liked the idea of an alcohol producing dungeon but the story had issues. The story itself was just ok but had over long cultivation details for a short story. Where it lost me was with the characters. I never really cared about them, so I never cared if they survived the dungeon or got in trouble and the end was just a bit abrupt to satisfy me.
Score: 6 out of 10
Hidden Lantern By: James Auwaerter
This is a cameo story. It's set in Mountaindale, and lots of the main series characters make brief appearances. The story adds some details to events you've read about before or just little interactions with characters or groups you know. But not much more than that.
Score: 6 out of 10
Butcher Boy By: Dakota Krout
This is a story about a street urchin that gets a chance to better himself, just not the way he expects to. It’s such a good story. It ends way too soon though. I wanted a dozen more chapters.
Score: 8 out of 10
Axiom By: Dennis Vanderkerken
The story starts off with a group of kids get their names in particular ceremony and feels more like a fantasy coming of age story. However, It eventually connects to the Divine Dungeon series, explaining the lore behind the first half. It becomes enjoyable and may be a direct link to an upcoming Divine Dungeon side series.
Score: 7.3 out of 10
Overall there are some good stories here and it was really nice to spend more time in the Divine Dungeon universe
Overall Score: 7.3 out of 10
Essence: A Divine Dungeon Anthology
Fresh Blood (Survival World Book 1)
He was climbing the corporate ladder, now he's climbing the food chain.
Felix used to be a traveling salesman, drifting through the galaxy and hawking his wares. Used to be, that is, until a freak accident in an out of the way system. One rough landing later and Felix finds himself stranded on a wild, alien planet-- front and center in a deadly role he never auditioned for to entertain a secret audience.
The upside? A fellow passenger made it to the escape pod with Felix. With this reptilian stranger at his side, he’s not totally alone.
The downside? They don’t share a language. Worse, there’s not one scrap of survival know-how between them, and an ominous clawing is coming from outside the escape pod.
As if the struggle to avoid becoming lunch and finding some of their own wasn’t enough, an autonomous implant from an unknown source seeks to integrate them into the system.
My Opinion: 271 pages, $2.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
A survival and crafting story with a few Gamelit elements and some relatively sparse combat. I liked the crafting and gradual development of technology, base building, and resource gathering. There are other game elements like respawns and an inventory system but the big ones are the crafting which was well done. If you’re looking for an action packed story, this isn’t it. There is some action but there are long stretches of story where it’s just survival, some funny dialogue, and resource gathering.
Score: 7.2 out of 10
Fresh Blood (Survival World Book 1)
This Broken Sword: TOL Online Episode 1: A Lit RPG Saga
My name is Dahlia Otou, and I’m 16 years old. I left everything behind to join Tol Online, the world’s most popular VRMMORPG.
My parents are dead, and I only have one option left: join Tol’s most dangerous realm and fight for survival. But my plan goes haywire when my greatest asset is nerfed by the game’s AI.
Now, I have to recover the pieces of a powerful family heirloom, cleave through bloodthirsty baddies, and trade every scrap of loot I can find before I am arrested and forced to pay off my father’s debt.
Easy, right?
My Opinion: 98 pages, $2.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
Ok. Right off the bat there are a couple things that bothered me about this series. 1) It’s LitRPG not Lit RPG. I know it’s a small thing, but it’s like writing out Fan tasy. 2) Reading the novel on PC was challenging for me because of a weird formatting issue where there were no paragraph indentations nor was there extra spacing after a paragraph. This made each page look like one long block of text with some extra spaces for RPG stuff. It just made it hard for me to read. It was easier to read on my phone though, so this may have been an Amazon issue.
Other than that, the story is nice. It does a good job setting up why the main character has to go into the game and give her plenty of things to do. It is a slice of life story that is meant to be a serial story. So do not expect a complete plot in any one novella. Instead, you get a good bit of setup in this episode and then a big pause on the story at the end. Still, fairly decent action, better dialogue and world building both in-game and out.
Score: 7.1 out of 10
This Broken Sword: TOL Online Episode 1: A Lit RPG Saga
Ian’s (Eye-Ann) Picks of the Week - New Segment
New Segment from Ian Mitchell a long time LitRPG community member who reads and reviews as much as me. He was nice enough to agree to join the LitRPG Podcast family as a new reviewer.
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Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon: A LitRPG Adventure
Worth it
It's a long read. I have no idea how the author came up with this. Spelunking through the innards of a Kaiju. It really stretches the gross factor. I never imagined I could get attached to Banksy, the internal parasite familiar. If you can stand some horror, this is a great read.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
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Town and Tower adventures
I like the simplified "game" system. What really made the story live for me were the characters. Jack, Lex, Art and the people of the town in this world that may or may not exist beyond the border of the town. A good continuation.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
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Tower Of Sol: A GameLit Novella
Well written
I like the author's voice. The story is interesting. The characters are good. Although not the focus here destructive uploading of human minds creeps me out. But I keep coming back and reading Kris Schnee's books anyway. This one's an AR dungeon tower. Good reading.
Score: 8.0 out of 10
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War God's Mantle: Underworld (The War God Saga Book 3)
Satisfying finish to the trilogy
Stayed pretty consistent with the previous 2 books. The final battle in the underworld did strain my credulity a bit, but it was fun. I enjoyed the book and the series. A few cultural references eluded me. Was well worth reading.
Score: 8.3 out of 10
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Mastermind (Titan Online #1) - A Superhero LitRPG Story
Villain's Rule!
I thought this was very well done. Good editing, nice pacing. Nice complete story. After revenge, what to do? It's a great read.
Score: 8.6 out of 10
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KOJI & THE IMMORTAL PHOENIX: GameLit Cultivation Wuxia Xanxia Novel (THE BONDER LEGACY Book 2)
From blurb: “Because there are numerous explicit scenes, this book is suitable for mature readers only.”
Interesting story
I reviewed the first one and said it felt like easy mode. Same here. I'm cool with that. I like Koji and his wives and other love interests. He's a heroic character that pretty well stomps all the bad guys. Saves the Kingdom. Pretty nice thoughtful guy. Hard not to like him. Loved by the people of the Country. The gameLit parts are lite, the wuxia/xianxia is a bit simplified. A bit like a cartoon/comic book in a wuxia/xianxia setting with harem and gameLit elements. It's well put together. It's not edgy. It works well. Kind of nice not to have to put up with a bunch of emo stuff. I would like a bit more dramatic tension. Has a light novel feel to it. So highest marks for Koji for being itself very well. Reminds me just a bit of A. J. Chaudhury's storys (which I like very much)
Score: 8.2 out of 10
That’s it everyone!
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Thanks for hanging out with me today. Until we can hangout again, remember to go read some LitRPG!
(Music 4)
Music Credits
"Blip Stream" "Mighty Like Us" "Big Shift" "Vivacity"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/