With Cooper facing a public execution, his friends pull a Hail Mary stunt to rescue him. When they inevitably bungle that, their chances for survival don't amount to a fart in the wind.

But the wind has never met a fart like this before.

Join Cooper, Tim, Julian, Dave, and Ravenus on another crazy Caverns & Creatures adventure!

My Opinion: 30 pages?, $2.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited

Another fun and highly curse-wile adventure with the C&C gang. This time it starts with Copper getting ready to be hung and the results of the group trying to free him. It’s an interesting exploration of the evil uses of diplomacy and bardic tricks. As usual, the story has lots of cursing, potty humor, and very funny dialogue.

Score: 7.4 out of 10

The Winds of Cooper (Caverns and Creatures)

https://amzn.to/3x1Oc3X

Initialization: A LitRPG Adventure (Master Hunter K, Book 1)

Without so much as a warning, humanity in its entirety was suddenly moved to another dimension. Every person without exception.

But this new world with all its opportunities and gifts of wondrous abilities, was a stadium. A deadly arena of an unimaginable scale. And Humanity were to be its latest gladiators. Every man, woman and child was given a weapon and ordered to fight. Stuck in this dimension without a way out, only two options existed for the would be hunters: Fight with monsters to complete the many trials ahead, or perish.

Faced with hordes of powerful monsters, thrown into battle with complete strangers at random, the unfair game of survival began. And from the very beginning, billions of lives were extinguished in mere moments. But even within this abyss of despair was a small ray of hope: If even one person were to complete every raid, then humanity would be redeemed and restored back to its former glory.

No save points, no revives, no retries. Everyone had just one life to make their way through the gauntlet of raids prepared to test their mettle. Within this marathon of death, one man becomes aware of an exception to the rules of the game.

My Opinion: 394 pages, $3.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited

This is a fairly straightforward regressor serial where the main character (MC) is the last surviving human after a series of life or death tests in the future. His reward? He’s sent back to the start of the tests with all his future knowledge. He uses that knowledge to gain an advantage during each of the tests and becomes super OP because he knows all the little tricks and equipment pieces, and hidden aspects of the tests. That’s the story, on repeat, each chapter. There’s no real character development, but it's still an entertaining story that emphasizes action, a variety of different monsters to be fought, and a realistic percentage of terrible people that would try to betray their teammates during the tests to gain an advantage for survival.

Game mechanics. Pretty straightforward with the people that survive each test or chapter gaining stats and currency based on how much they contributed to the completion of the test scenario. Hit hidden objectives? Get bonus points and currency and rare items and weapons. After the 3rd chapter, the stat gains for the MC doesn’t really have a real impact. It’s just a way to keep showing that he’s getting more and more powerful. But the system is consistent and of more importance are all the rare items, titles, and abilities the MC gets as he already knows about hidden objectives in the tests and special items he can purchase.

Overall, a good action focused story that is easy to pick up and put down as each chapter is almost self contained.

Score: 7.7 out of 10

Initialization: A LitRPG Adventure (Master Hunter K, Book 1)

https://amzn.to/3iQdb4X

Awakening: A LitRPG/GameLit Series (World of Magic Book 1)

The future lies within our minds...

Paralyzed in a workplace accident, Lox’s life is looking bleak. He can't even use the cutting-edge hardware that would allow him to play in the full-immersion-games that have become so popular. This all changes when he hears from New Universal Frontiers, the company with the best game out there: World of Magic.

They offer him the ability to use their hardware despite his injuries, but at a cost... he can never leave the game.

Once in the game world, Lox quickly realizes that there is a lot more to this new realm than just a game. Given a class that everyone thinks is useless due its inherent dangers, Lox begins a long and painful series of trials, some of them explosive, almost all of them dangerous as he masters his magical abilities.

As Lox explores the depths of this world's magic system, he soon discovers there is a lot more going on here than anyone ever expected.

My Opinion: 371 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited

This is a mix of dungeon diving and lots of magical theory. I mean lots of it too. The main character (MC) is uploaded to an RPG fantasy MMO world. He gets the class Magical Engineer because he was an engineer on earth. He spends quite a bit of time playing with the fundamentals of his class, the combining and organizing of magical aspects, to create new spells with near endless combinations of effects. He experiments, fights monsters, and when his spells blow up or just aren’t effective enough to kill his enemies, he dies and is resurrected at a chosen altar he is bound to. He also has a mindscape where he can practice and go to learn fundamental truths about himself. There are some interesting aspects to this part of the story but not much is done with it. The story is supposed to shift to the MMO setting after the 25% where the MC meets two other players and goes on adventures with them. Though I’ll also note that for an MMO, there aren’t many players the characters interact with and not much of the stuff you’d expect from an MMO.

For the most part this is a slice of life story with a big emphasis on magic and class theory with some regular action and questing. It’s good if you like magical theory and spell casting. But there’s no real character development. The MC is the same person at the end of the story as he was at the start. By the end of the novel, it felt more like a DnD game with a small group of players instead of the MMO world that the characters were supposed to be in. There was little to no interaction with other players, no PvP, no guilds, or other things you’d expect to see in an MMO. Though there were vague threats about high level players that took delight in torturing people that had been uploaded permanently to the world or issues resulting from streaming their adventures, none of that amounted to anything. In fact, it seemed like a lost opportunity for some interesting conflicts.

There are some sub-plots about the MC fully integrating into the world and losing all the game stuff, but that’s backtracked fairly quickly. Also a small bit about the MC awakening NPCs into realizing they can actually be real beings. Again, not much done here with either potentially interesting story thread.

Overall, it's an ok story. The biggest draw is likely the magic and class developments for the MC. The actual adventures are fairly linear with no real repercussions for failure but there was a decent variety and semi-regular action.

Score: 7.1 out of 10

Awakening: A LitRPG/GameLit Series (World of Magic Book 1)

https://amzn.to/2VfNRgR

The Grand Game, Book 1: A LitRPG Adventure

One man. Assassin. Caster. A new world. And a Game that is as brutal as it is complex.

Michael finds himself in the realm of the Forever Kingdom, with no memory of how he got there and who he is. Even so, he must participate in the Grand Game and forge a new destiny for himself.

Dropped into a dungeon of monsters, and strange magics, would you survive in a Game where to lose means death?

Alone, and with little more than his wits to aid him, Michael must advance as a player, slay his foes, and gain experience. All while navigating the intrigues around him and discovering his purpose.

A world of Powers, Forces, and mysterious factions. A Game with endless opportunities for advancement and power.

Join Michael on his epic adventure as he deals with the Game’s challenges, the machinations of the Powers, and the ambitions of his fellow players.

The start of an exciting new portal fantasy epic!

My Opinion: 434 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited

This is a rather good story that gets better as it goes on. The first half is mostly a solo journey through caves with the main character (MC) choosing a stealth class to avoid the dangers of going with less savory players in a forced dungeon dive. There’s enough setup to get the dive started pretty quickly but the good stuff doesn’t really happen till you get to about halfway through the novel. At that point the MC hits a point where he’s figured out his build and gotten some decent equipment and skills. The story expands to include other players and a faction plot line between several groups of kidnapped players. It was surprisingly good with enough hints given about betrayer and hidden agendas that it felt good to follow through on the results.

Game mechanics - This is rather well done and though the fundamentals of the system aren’t new with levels, classes, skills, pools of resources (mana, stamina, mental points, etc), and other similar LitRPG mechanics. The story has a smart MC who uses stealth and the system gives players three class slots, so the eventual combinations of chosen classes gives lots of room for customization and unique builds. There’s plenty of detail about stats, class building, synergizing abilities, equipment and ability notifications, etc. for those that really like that. But the thing I appreciated was that the MC was never too overpowered and used his skills intelligently so that the growth that eventually happens felt earned.

Overall, the story has a good bit of action and adventure with some mid story shifts to larger group/faction stuff. It was never tedious and I finished the story in just a couple of sittings.

Score: 7.7 out of 10

The Grand Game, Book 1: A LitRPG Adventure

https://amzn.to/3l1XCtM

Great Doctor Ling Ran

Ling Ran, whose goal is to become the world's greatest doctor, suddenly obtained the golden finger system! And this is a system with a high degree of medical expertise! With the help of the system, what medical height can the intern Ling Ran reach?

My Opinion: 47 chapters, Free Online Manga, No English Publisher for Online Manga, English Publisher for the Webnovel

This is a review for the manga version online. There’s a webnovel version that has an official english publisher that you may or may not like more. But for me, the manga version was surprisingly fun and interesting. I wasn’t sure just how the RPG mechanics were going to work with a rookie doctor training in a hospital but they come through pretty well. The system gives rewards to the main character (MC) as he completes medical related quests. The rewards range from energy serums, that help him get through long shifts, to specialist surgical techniques. The big boosts in skills don’t go unnoticed by the other doctors and there are pretty logical consequences for him becoming such a good doctor suddenly. There are of course some forced scenarios so he can continue to be challenged, but it's still an interesting manga that combines the interest of a medical drama with game mechanics.

Score: 7.6 out of 10

Online Manga: https://readmanganato.com/manga-ki988265

Webnovel: https://www.webnovel.com/book/great-doctor-ling-ran_11912235406605505

That’s it everyone! Thank you for watching/listening.

You can follow us on

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/litrpgpodcast/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LitRPGPodcast

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3-eBvpm-g7IkjfVktObGAA

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/geekbytespodcast

Our Webpage: www.litrpgpodcast.com

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0rbgdut7cghvVBy572lG6o

Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/LitRPG-Podcast-Podcast/B08JJPS6S5