Alvin and his wives had been busy over the last few weeks. They’d gone out of their way to visit settlements they’d helped in the past, all while killing a string of mini-bosses across what had been the American west. Life looked good for Team Asshole… until the devs made a mistake.

Without any warning, Sammi stopped showing up. At first, they brushed it off as her being too busy, or maybe in trouble. That changed when a new dev showed up and tried to assert his dominance. That man was killed twice— first by Alvin blowing his head off his shoulders, then by Mousie running him through with both of her swords.

With the gloves off, Team Asshole started breaking things they’d left alone. They circumvented rules left and right, cheated fast travel, and did everything else they could. A third dev appeared and pleaded for a chance to explain.

Sammi hadn’t been fired, they were told. Instead, there was an unexpected development— Sammi was the first alpha tester. Now that they knew their friend was fine— and might even join them soon— Alvin and his wives backed off their shenanigans to give the new dev, Renato, a chance.

It wasn’t long after that that they received a message from Sammi. She was in New Orleans, stuck in the Superdome with a Loa named Erzulie, and she needed their help. With no hesitation, they loaded up their helicopter, Sky Blade, and set off to rescue Sammi and those with her.

After barely pulling off the rescue of Sammi and half a dozen other women, Team Asshole returned to their base. In the aftermath, Sammi joined Team Asshole fully, accepted as another wife by Alvin and with Gothy’s enthusiastic approval.

My Opinion: 811 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited

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

The last book in the Apocalypse Gate series is as good as the ones that came before it. It has action, adventure, and it ties up as many storylines as it can before it ends. It’s been a slice of life adventure for a while but at least with this book there’s some revelations about the purpose of the entire thing. You could tell that a few storylines were a little rushed, but I’d prefer that to never getting any kind of resolution. It’s been a good series.

As normal, there’s sex in the story, a bit more I think than previously just because several new characters were introduced that would have normally been spread out over a couple books. But relative to the entire story, it’s still not more than 10%.

Score: 7.5 out of 10

One Nation, Under... (Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut Book 8)

https://amzn.to/3GENgYq

Cleaver's Edge: A LitRPG Fantasy Cooking Adventure (Morcster Chef Book 1)

Adventurers seek dungeons for riches. Heroes storm great fortresses. Gods clash far above.

Arek cooks lasagna and tops it with a dash of finely chopped basil.

An orc who has seen more than his fair amount of fighting, Arek wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his days cooking and away from the chaos of combat.

However, when Ming and her group of adventurers hire him as their full-time chef, his plans of avoiding violence crumble. He longs to leave his blood-soaked mistakes in his past, but old friends and foes have different ideas.

Cleaver's Edge is the first book in a Fantasy / LitRPG lite series with a cooking element that's perfect for the Holiday Season. It contains status windows and other RPG elements, but it is not set within a videogame. It will appeal to anyone that enjoys reading a slice-of-life fantasy about a group of adventurers as well as fans of Food Wars!.

This novel also contains real recipes, and we highly recommend you give them a taste if you’re hungry!

My Opinion: 436 pages, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited

This is a story that combines cooking with general fantasy adventuring. There are a couple of story threads about the main character (MC) and his group going through dungeons, taking ranking tests, and doing other fairly mundane tasks. The adventuring, fights, were all pretty average. Nothing bad, nothing outstanding. The characters were fine, each with their own flaws that they made progress on, there was good dialogue, and monster fighting.

The thing that is supposed to make the story stand out the most is the cooking aspects. That part is only ok for me. It wasn’t bad. The cooking scenes could be followed along well, the recipes were real and could even be followed as the author gave ingredient lists and instructions. But the cooking stuff lacked any kind of tension or importance. It didn’t impact the rest of the story in any way shape or form. I felt like the author was trying to bring in a Food Wars vibe with contests between chefs as a kind of conflict, but the contests never felt like the MC was ever going to lose so there wasn’t any tension. The other cooking scenes were just the MC cooking dishes for his team and they enjoyed eating. The only part I thought had more potential was when the MC actually took time to learn about a new recipe, research ingredients, and test his work. There was some actual growth there for him as a chef. But other than that small part of the story there wasn’t really any kind of growth, RPG or otherwise for the MC. I wished there was more of a journey of discovery and learning for the cooking element or at least some loss for the MC if he’s in a cooking competition that he could learn from.

On the game mechanics side of things, it's almost non-existent. The novel description says LitRPG lit, but it all really amounted to the MC or another character looking through a special tool to estimate someone’s abilities based on that person’s subconscious belief about themselves. It didn’t use levels or any other hard form of progression, just percentiles based on who that person had subconsciously compared themselves to. The aspect could have really been eliminated from the story with no consequence. There was some power progression for the other members of the MCs team as he helped them train their magic and fighting skills. However, it just felt forced that the teammates raised their percentile in magic or defense or whatever since it’s based on self belief, and as a system it always felt a bit loose. Even in the story it was noted that the information could be fooled/altered by magic or self delusion.

Overall, the story was still good. A bit lower on the scale, but it’s fine. I’d hoped for something a bit more outstanding on the cooking side, but there’s nothing done poorly in any element, just not particularly outstanding either.

Score: 7.4 out of 10

Cleaver's Edge: A LitRPG Fantasy Cooking Adventure (Morcster Chef Book 1)

https://amzn.to/3phlefC

An Outcast in Another World: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Book 1 - Human Insanity)

Rob didn't think of himself as anyone special, but when a pitch-black portal tried to wrap his best friend in chains, he stepped up without thinking and found himself ensnared instead. His moment of heroism results in being torn away from everyone he knew and loved, kidnapped by an unknown force that leaves him with a note in his pocket stating: "Good luck."

After being thrown into the wilderness of Elatra, a hostile fantasy world ruled by levels, stats, progression, and bizarre video game logic, he finds himself entirely out of his depth. Armed with nothing but a sword and the clothes on his back, he sets out on his the first day, and almost dies. On the second day, he almost dies again. On the third, he began to notice a worrying trend. And almost dies.

It doesn't get any easier from there.

Overcoming the wilds is just the first step in his journey; the society of Elatra is incredibly hostile to humans, having just come off of a devastating war that left over half the population dead, and getting the locals to kindle their faith and trust the last human in existence is a struggle in and of itself. Between being powerless in a world that hates him and suffering under a System that is altering his mind in unwanted ways, Rob quickly finds that monsters aren't nearly the biggest thing to worry about.

As far as LitRPG Isekai adventures go, Rob drew the short straw in many ways. But that's okay - all the bullshit in the world won't keep him down. He'll carve out a place in this world with his bare hands if necessary. He'll survive, and then he'll thrive.

Whether anyone wants him to or not.

My Opinion: 696 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited

This is a fairly good transported to a fantasy LitRPG world story. The main character (MC) has a certain sense of humor that will either land or not for a reader. The story itself is adventure focused with some world building that puts humans on the evil side with an innate characteristic that makes quick leveling addictive to the point they just have to kill like it was a drug, which pushes for wars with other races to feed this need. It's honestly a bit of a stretch, one that felt like it would have led to the destruction of the species, but it’s a unique twist on why humans level grind.

The MC gets lots of new powers, levels, and abilities to help him survive in the rough world and eventually gets in touch with one of the races that hates humans and has to earn their trust despite the wars they lost against humanity. The RPG is very regular and there are lots and lots of notifications, levels, and skill and ability descriptions. Some of the powers are kinda neat but you could tell some existed to get the MC out of an upcoming situation.

Overall, the story was good. Good character interactions once the MC reached the elves, lots of social development there, regular action-adventure. There were some lulls in the story pacing here and there, but still a fine read.

Score: 7.3 out of 10

An Outcast in Another World: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Book 1 - Human Insanity)

https://amzn.to/3HllRuV

Player Who Can't Level Up (Webcomic)

Kim Gi-Gyu awakened as a player at the age of 18. He thought his life was on track towards success, climbing the tower and closing the gates... But, even after clearing the tutorial, he was level 1.

He killed a goblin a day, and he was still level 1.

Even after 5 years, he was still level 1.

"Who would have thought that this kind of player would exist."

No one knew.

My Opinion: 51 chapters, FREE, No English Publisher

This is a webcomic about a society where dungeons exist in a modern world and players/awakened delve them for fame and profit. The main character (MC) was thought to have great potential when he first awakened to his power but five years later he’s still level 1 and is considered the greatest failure of society. He has to work as a guide in the dungeon because he’s not allowed to delve further. Then one day everything changes when he finally figures out his unique power. From there the story is mostly a dungeon dive combined with some story development for new antagonists, unique XP gaining methods, and the MC just becoming more and more powerful. Overall fun stuff with a unique path to power for the MC.

Score: 7.6 out of 10

Player Who Can't Level Up

https://readmanganato.com/manga-kw988331

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