LitRPG Podcast 226 - Bio Dungeon, Force Cultivation, Cryo Knight, The Mechanical Crafter
LitRPG Podcast 226 - Bio Dungeon, Force Cultivation, Cryo Knight, The Mechanical Crafter
May 15th, 2020
Hello everyone, welcome to episode 226 of the LitRPG podcast. I’m Ramon Mejia. This is week 7 of the quarantine mustache experiment and it’s finally filling out.
I’m here to bring you the latest LitRPG news, reviews, and author interviews. We have 4 new reviews just for you.
For the full show notes visit us at: https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-podcast-226
New Releases and Reviews:
Bio Dungeon: Symbiote (The Body's Dungeon Book 1) (10:57)
Lots of biology
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Force Cultivation (The Heavenly Throne Book 1): A LitRPG Wuxia Series (15:49)
Not as much RPG as I’d wanted
Score: 6 out of 10
Cryo Knight - A Fantasy LitRPG (Lords of Valeria Book 1) (19:41)
Breaks the ice
Score: 7.2 out of 10
Guest Review - Charles Dean
The Mechanical Crafter - Book 1 (A LitRPG series) (The Mechanical Crafter series) (23:47)
Solid 7.6/10
https://geni.us/MechanicalCrafterBk1
(Play Music 2)
LitRPG News
S.L. Rowland has combined the first 3 books in his popular LitRPG series, Sentenced to Troll, into a book set. Right now, it’s $0.99, but that sweet deal won’t last forever. So, go get a good LitRPG series while it's available.
Book 4 in the series was just published and to promote it, the author is putting book 1 on sale for FREE.
Ascend: A World of Ga'em Saga (The Chaos Emperor Book 1)
S.L. Rowland has merch for you to buy.
"Thanks to the fine folks at @shirtkong you can pick up this bad boy for the next 30 days. Go to my website or Facebook for the link.
These guys have been awesome in supporting local businesses during Covid-19, offering free designs and $10 from every shirt sold to the businesses without any upfront cost. I was a little late to the party, but they still managed to fit me in. "
https://stores.inksoft.com/slrowland/shop/product-detail/1000293
Shemer Kuznits asks his fans for help.
Clarification about Earth Force #1 audiobook on Audible:
Sound Booth Theatre (the guys who did Life Reset books) will re-record Earth Force #1 and then do book #2.
In order for them to do that, I had to stop Audible exclusivity write for that book, and go 'wide distribution'. That procedure makes it looks like the audiobook on their site went through a re-launch, but it's the exact same audiobook as before (new link below).
Anyone who purchased the original book should still have it available.
The re-recording of book #1 is estimated to be released at around August, and will only be available on SBTL's audiobook platform.
P.s.
Because of that shift, all the reviews were deleted, so I'd appreciate it if you can repost a quick one to bring up the rating
https://www.audible.com/pd/Earth-Force-Audiobook/1799909972
Remember authors and aspiring authors, the next dungeon anthology due date is May 20th. Good luck! - Jeffrey Falcon Logue
Writing types accepted: 1 shots, chapter, short story.
Word count: 2000 - 20,000.
-This can talked about if you have a story that doesn't mean criteria but is well written.
-File type: Word Doc only. No google docs please.
Email to: dungeonanthology@gmail.com
For more details see the original post
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Dungeonstories/permalink/650263592198308/
Tao Wong, Jay Boyce, Charles Dean, and Apollos Thorne talk about writing LitRPG/ Gamelit for an online panel for BrableCon.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/616236820
Out Now!
Shattered Sword: A LitRPG Adventure (Eternal Online Book 1)
The Emissary Bard (World Of Chains Book 3)
Warstruck: A World of Ga'em Saga (The Chaos Emperor Book 4)
Nothing but bones: The wasteland
Into the Storm: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Axe Druid Book 5)
Janus and The Prince: A LitRPG Saga (The Nightmares of Alamir Book 2)
New LitRPG Audiobooks
The Puppet Master (A LitRPG Series) - The Idle System, Book 5
A Dungeon Core Experience - Dungeon World, Book 5
Arcane Kingdom Online: Death Match- Arcane Kingdom Online Series, Book 4
Tusk and Blade: A LitRPG Novel - Exodus Online Book 1
Pearl of the South - World of the Changed Series, Book 2
Varnoth - A LitRPG Story: The Black Blade, Book 2
The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel
Endless Fantasy Online: The Elk Kingdom Book II
The Way of Deception - World of Karik, Book 2
Resurrection of Murdock - Undone, Book 1
Upcoming LitRPG:
Gloominess +4: The Cradle of Gods. A LitRPG series: Book 4 (May 17th, 2020)
Biomedical Self-Engineering: Book 1 (May 17th, 2020)
False Skies (Challenger's Call Book 5) (May 20th, 2020)
City of the Dead (The Alchemist Book #1): LitRPG Series (May 20th, 2020)
Spring Mutiny: A LitRPG Sci-Fi Adventure (Space Seasons Book 2) (May 22nd, 2020)
Poor Cultivation (The Slayer of Heaven Book 1): A LitRPG Wuxia Series (May 26th, 2020)
Legendary Dungeon Seed (May 28th, 2020)
Path of Alchemy: BlackFlame Online Litrpg/Gamelit Universe (Glory of Formation Emperor Book 4) (May 31st, 2020)
Fugitivity (The Fairy’s Tale - Book 2) (June 3rd, 2020)
Four Beheadings and a Funeral: A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (The Good Guys Book 9) (June 4th, 2020)
Aces High (Reality Benders Book #6): LitRPG Series (June 9th, 2020)
Silverspear (Rise to Omniscience Book 6) (June 12th, 2020)
Summer Friction: A LitRPG Sci-Fi Adventure (Space Seasons Book 3) (June 26th, 2020)
A Cat and His Human (League of Losers Book #1): LitRPG Series (June 30th, 2020)
Stars Asunder: Book 9 in The System Apocalypse (July 1st, 2020)
The Enchanter (Project Stellar Book 2): LitRPG Series (July 8th, 2020)
Dragon Seekers: A LitRPG Journey (Legends Online Book 6) (July 9th, 2020)
The Ruined Temple: A LitRPG Adventure (Eternal Online Book 2) (July 14th, 2020)
Watcher's Question: A LitRPG Saga (Life in Exile Book 2) (July 14th, 2020)
Arrow of Justice - A LitRPG Novel: (Book 1 of the Vindication 2.0 LitRPG Universe) (July 31st, 2020)
War of the Posers (The Bad Guys Book 4) (Aug. 8th, 2020)
Intellectum [RealRPG series] Book 1 (Aug. 18th, 2020)
Onto New Releases and Reviews
(Play Music 3)
New Releases and Reviews
(Picture 1)
Bio Dungeon: Symbiote (The Body's Dungeon Book 1)
In the icy north exists a young orphan, and a war on a microscopic scale.
Marstin Hardgrove was orphaned at a young age, forced to live on the streets, and needed to turn to thievery to survive. When a special job assigned to him by the Thieves’ Guild went awry, the guild leadership punished him with a beating, compelled him to eat dirt and rocks to soothe his hunger, and left him to die in an abandoned mine. Unbeknownst to the young thief, when he was forced to eat that handful of dirt and rocks…he also ended up swallowing a tiny dungeon crystal.
Thrown into a highly unusual world filled with cells, bacteria, and other dangerous pathogens, the tiny dungeon crystal is, at first, confused by his surroundings. After seeing how the different complex systems of the body work together, the crystal is quickly fascinated; it isn’t long before he decides that, instead of trying to escape, he wants the body for himself. He wants to possess the living being for his own use as a crystal, wholly unlike anything the world has ever seen before.
To get to that point, however, the fledgling dungeon crystal has to learn how to survive against the different enemies trying to destroy him. Not only will he have to defeat the hostile pathogens standing in the way of his complete domination; but also, as a foreign invader to the body, himself, Marstin’s natural immune system sees the crystal as a threat. The only way to survive is to create his own immune cell defenders, and to place traps to prevent anything from reaching his dungeon crystal. In short: He has to turn the body into a dungeon.
But will his new Bio Dungeon be enough to keep him – and the body he wants to possess – alive?
Contains LitRPG/GameLit elements, such as character progression, statistics, and resource management. Also contains an in-depth, science-based portrayal of how the immune system responds to foreign pathogens via different white blood cells and other microscopic protectors. No harems, sexual content, or foul language.
My Opinion: 364 pages, $3.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
Lots of Biology
There are two narratives: 1) One from a human thief on a job that goes wrong. He gets thrown into a mine and accidentally ingests a dungeon core. He's just trying to survive his punishment and figure out the mystery of who murdered his family and how he can survive the terrible disease that racks his body. There’s a bit of normal dungeon diving and plot setup in this narrative. 2) A dungeon core story where the core inadvertently gets swallowed by a thief and tries to take over the body as his dungeon. It reminded me a bit of that Magic School Bus episode where they explore the body. There's lots of descriptions and explanations about various biological functions, types of cells, and other parts. But there's also a dungeon core story where the core expands his influence, fights off the body's defenses, and fights off various problems like viruses and bacterial infections by upgrading his ability to create his own immune cells, and biological traps.
Overall, it's an interesting take on this kind of story, written by two big names in the genre.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Bio Dungeon: Symbiote (The Body's Dungeon Book 1)
Force Cultivation (The Heavenly Throne Book 1): A LitRPG Wuxia Series
Learn the true nature of the Force. It's more complicated than you think.
He was the champion of underground fighting in his world. He was young, handsome, and rich. Recognized world champions were no match for him. He had her, the love of his life...
He lived for her and for battle...
However, in a moment, it was all gone.
He lost his life and his name. His dreams were taken away from him. The one he had been in love with since childhood had betrayed him and plunged a knife into his heart...
In another world, very different and distant, a boy lying in a muddy ditch suddenly opens his eyes. A new life has been awakened in his empty body.
What will he do with an offer for a second chance at life?
What path will Kai follow in a world where power and skill reign supreme?
In a world where your worth is determined by your martial arts.
Rebirth. Ascension. Revenge.
As one of the hit novels of the new wave of Russian LitRPG novels, Heavenly Throne follows one of the greatest underground fighters of the 2010s, who has found himself in a world much different than his own. He had thought that he had nothing more to lose, but fate is a fickle and cruel mistress.
Now, he must fight for his place in this new world as he advances on the path of martial arts and force cultivation.
The winner of the Russian National Wuxia Contest, Heavenly Throne provides readers with a refreshing take on cultivation stories.
My Opinion: 260 pages, $3.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
This is a cultivation story with minor progression elements. It features a main character (MC) that reincarnated into a world that uses cultivation and where martial prowess equals power. The early to mid story is mostly training as the genius MC grows in power until he enters a tournament. Late story is the final revenge against those in the city that wronged the MC, world building, and setting up future storylines.
This story has a small amount of RPG elements. It has stats, classes of cultivation, and notifications. But it's mostly a cultivation story with an overpowered MC.
While technically LitRPG, for me there just weren't enough RPG elements to be interesting or to quantifiably justify the huge jumps in power. Not that there isn't power progression, it's just more cultivation based. With huge leaps in power after compressed training and cultivation sections.
While the action is good, overall it didn't work for me. However, if you're more of a cultivation or wuxia fan. You might enjoy the story more than me.
Score: 6 out of 10
Force Cultivation (The Heavenly Throne Book 1): A LitRPG Wuxia Series
Cryo Knight - A Fantasy LitRPG (Lords of Valeria Book 1)
Bailed from cryo jail under mysterious circumstances, Christian Lawson is drawn into the game world of Valeria – only to be enslaved by the world's power-mad tyrant.
Forced to fight and level to serve the tyrant’s will, Christian fights back to gain his freedom. He finds hope in another player from earth, the poison-wielding ranger Alexia; a powerful but eccentric witch, and the new abilities awakening inside him. Long held bound in darkness and cold, he learns to unleash the powers of ice against his enemies.
Together they must escape the clutches of their captors and find Christian’s lost uncle; the leader of a desperate rebellion to save not only Valeria but earth itself.
My Opinion: 319 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
This is a transported to a game world story where the main character (MC) gets a class that specializes in heavy armor and ice magic, a cryo knight. He has to escape the bad people trying to use Travelers, people from other worlds that respawn after death, like himself to gain power and territory.
After about the 20% mark, there are lots of game mechanics that are used to describe the power progression for the MC and the other Travelers. Though I’ll note that there is sometimes a distinct lack of detail for some elements, like actual XP gained from killing monsters or completing quests. Additionally, the MCs class wasn’t something he got to choose, but was something that was awakened. Which made some of the progression feel story driven rather than game mechanic driven. Beyond those points there are plenty of notifications, levels, powers, and gamer mentalities with characters.
On the whole, the story is good. Good action adventure, and interesting use of powers. But you could tell there was a deliberate decision to minimize numerical details sometimes. It may have been done so that those details didn’t have to be tracked and the character’s progression could occur according to the needs of the story and not some system. The story is still good, but that decision took something away from the novel for me. Especially considering how detailed the world was described.
Score: 7.2 out of 10
Cryo Knight - A Fantasy LitRPG (Lords of Valeria Book 1)
Guest Review - Charles Dean
The Mechanical Crafter - Book 1 (A LitRPG series) (The Mechanical Crafter series)
He was given another chance at life and from the infinite possibilities available he chose to come back as a mechanical man, a Metalman, named Repair. Now he has to contend with a research lab full of gnomes who say he owes them for bringing him back from death, a strange city that is going through a magical industrial revolution, and adversaries that want to see him broken into pieces.
Full of action, adventure, and of course crafting. Join Repair on his adventure through this strange fantasy world where magic and technology meet. He’ll dive into the city’s dungeon to kill monsters for XP, and gather resources to figure out the solutions to his problems. Because if he doesn’t become more powerful, he’ll not only lose his freedom but the life of his friend.
The Mechanical Crafter is a LitRPG adventure.
My Opinion: 336 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
Review written by Charles Dean
So, I'm going to review this book right now... Mechanical Crafter by R.A. Mejia.
I want to be upfront and honest with you guys going into this. I freaking love my brown brother Ramon, he's an amazing guy, and I consider him one of my closest friends. This review may be biased. That said, I have a ton of friends, and you probably don't see me doing any if many reviews at all.
So, let me first talk about Repair. This story is going to center around the 'backbone growth' type arc that I think most of us really enjoy. The payoff is there, and the development is there. If you are reading this not as a litrpg fan, but just for the MC story, you can probably glaze over the parts I love most and still have a good time. It is, after all, at its heart a good buddy buddy story that has us watch a doormat kind of morph into a bit more of a statue of confidence.
That said, if you're reading this for the good buddy story part, you're kinda missing out. This is a crafting book after all. I want to break down exactly how and what the crafting does in this review, but... I think that would ultimately take a lot of the fun out of hte book. Instead, I'm going to say that the crafting system as a whole was interesting, and a bit novel in many ways I wasn't expecting. There was also a ton of it in the book. You literally can't seem to go more than a chapter without running into it. It's not the type of crafting I would normally find in books either, because the main character himself is a machine, and a lot of his class quests are built around the system. I want to say more, but I don't. You should really read this. I would definitely recommend it for the type, like me, who enjoy the growth set in dungeon core books, not just crafting books, as the combination of the MC's methodology and use of crafting + how he really advances in power did to me, at least, feel a bit dungeon core ish. It's hard to explain.
Anyways. I hope you enjoy the book. Solid 7.6/10 [This rating is just a joke at Ramon. I loved the book. Go read it.]
The Mechanical Crafter - Book 1 (A LitRPG series) (The Mechanical Crafter series)
https://geni.us/MechanicalCrafterBk1
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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/