Drew and his team are racing to create a system-recognized ‘Habitat’. To make this happen, they must conquer more nodes, deal with an antagonistic superior officer, and possibly worst of all: their own fear.

Freeing the troll’s sacrificial captives was only the beginning. Now the remnants of humanity must find a safe place to call home. But Nat's Park isn't the safe haven he was promised it would be. Not only do internal politics threaten to rip the survivors apart, an unknown danger haunts the stadium.

Drew and his allies will struggle to survive in the changed world after the Advent as fate works to temper them.

My Opinion: 345 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited

Full disclosure: I received an advance copy for review. I purchased a copy when it became available.

This is a good sequel with all the good RPG action from book 1, but with less emphasis on the survival aspects of an apocalypse story. There’s still an RPG apocalypse going on but less worry about single person survival or resources. Instead, its focus is more on community building, gathering of survivors, beating dungeon monsters to gain control of nodes, and a smaller intrigue storyline. Good RPG progression from everyone’s powers but nothing bigger than what was in book 1.

Overall, a good book 2 in the series with a bit less tension than was in book 1.

Score: 7.5 out of 10

Temper: An Apocalyptic LitRPG Series (Red Mage Book 2)

https://amzn.to/2OSSQho

Legacy of the Bloodreaver: Crematoria Online Book Two

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

Legacy of the Bloodreaver: Crematoria Online Book Two

https://amzn.to/2I12lHi

GUARD [Web of Worlds: Empire] A LitRPG Series. Book 1

The God of Light fell.

The Demon Lord rules the world.

Sentient beings were forbidden to develop technology, and people were never able to shift from the steam era to the age of electricity and the internal combustion engine.

But as long as you are the Light host, you can hope for the best. Even if your house is burned to the ground, even if you lose your family, even if your overlord sends you to your death, the Black Guard never gives up and continues on his way.

Every word here is true.

And every word here is a lie.

Where is the truth? You can’t guess...

Choose what you want...

*******************

The WWE series (Web of Worlds: Empire) was the first project in which most of the main character’s decisions were made by the dice roll and readers' votes (at the end of each chapter).

As a result, the plot often developed contrary to the author’s plan and plenty of quite funny characters appeared.

Dice rolls make the story unexpected—not only for readers, but also for the author who didn’t even know about the end of each fight.

The plot of the book developed thanks to the four-sided dice rolls. In addition to dice rolls, there were Basic characteristics remaining the same and a Bonus depending on the opponent, conditions, or luck.

Read and play the new game Web of Worlds: Empire (Rules inside!)

My Opinion: 547 pages, $0.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited

Honestly, the cover art and novel description weren't big sellers for me. Even the 1st 5% felt more like portal fantasy. Then the author explains in an interlude that all the major story decisions and whether an action succeeds, were determined by dice rolls and reader polls when the story was originally written. It gives the novel a real 'choose your own story' vibe. Especially since the author shows the dice rolls, bonuses or penalties, and DCs for success. Some of the most interesting moments in the story were definitely when there was a critical failure and the author had to figure out the consequence.

On the game mechanic side of things, this is LitRPG. There's a trapped in a game aspect but the MC doesn't remember thing going on. But practically, the story feels like a RPG fantasy world. The system messages are part of the culture as is choosing a class, crafting, levels, and combat notifications. There's some less common classes in the story and a whole trial/dialogue system I liked.

On the story side of things it feels like a serial or a slice of life story. Especially since many story decisions where made by dice roll or early reader polls. There's still fantasy RPG action-adventure but the story takes some odd twists sometimes.

Overall, a good story if you can appreciate the 'choose your own story' style. The author also has a tabletop system based on his story world that he has a link to at the back of his book.

Score: 7.2 out of 10

GUARD [Web of Worlds: Empire] A LitRPG Series. Book 1

https://amzn.to/2I196sU

Ian’s (Eye-Ann) Picks of the Week

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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.

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Tree Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Epic (Divine Seed Book 1)

Tree stories

Not the usual dungeon core story. No stats. No levels. It has all the activities as other dungeon core tales without the game aspect. I liked the story of the tree that made a dungeon inside itself. It treated with the gods of the world as it was divine but not a god. First person and good reading, it was unique in the world with no sidekick for it to interact with.

Score: 7.3 out if 10

Tree Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Epic (Divine Seed Book 1)

https://amzn.to/2vaGXgf

Tusk and Blade (Exodus Online) Book One: A LitRPG Novel

campy with extra gore

Fun and amusing. Light. Thag smash. Thag smash real hard. Impress orc babes. I can't say it was sophisticated. It was brutal in a visceral satisfying way. I felt a bit askew when the guy who failed at suicide turned into a very confident bruiser. Once past that, well it's a fantasy. Go for it, big guy. There were stats and things. I enjoyed it.

Score: 7.7 out of 10

Tusk and Blade (Exodus Online) Book One: A LitRPG Novel

https://amzn.to/32vPTJ7

Spells for Sale: Magik Volume I (Magik Online Book 1)

Big story

Dragons conquered the earth. Our standard of living is better, we just are a defeated species. Given magical abilities by the Administrator a series of adventures follow.Will the hero protect his friends and family or will they be killed or shipped of to jail. Some challenging tests and choices await. A great read.

Score: 8.1 out of 10

Spells for Sale: Magik Volume I (Magik Online Book 1)

https://amzn.to/3854xbm

The Destroying Plague (Disgardium Book #3): LitRPG Series

Power gaming

Wow! That was awesome. I found it very exciting. Levels, grinding, and totally unfair perks. Wonderful. It starts out with some great sneaking around. And ends with becoming the target of a holy war (title of the next book). A great adventure that kept me up late reading. I'm glad the next one comes out soon.

Score: 8.7 out of 10

The Destroying Plague (Disgardium Book #3): LitRPG Series

https://amzn.to/2PtOjlN

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