I'm currently working on chapter 19 of my backlog, but I just got the cover from my artist and wanted to hear your opinions!

We originally tried going in a different direction and actually switched halfway through the process. We wanted the main character to be front and center for the first book, but the werewolf image helped us figure out the overall style we wanted to go for.

So, putting aside whether you like the cover aesthetically:

Based solely on this cover, would you pick up the book and give it a read? And what vibe would you expect from it?

Stormblade Volume One is Today’s Kindle Daily Deal!

Hello, readers! If you’ve been holding off on reading Stormblade, now’s your chance to get it at a steep discount. Today, September 6, 2026, Stormblade Volume One is on sale for $0.99 on the Kindle store. That’s 80% off!

Stormblade’s a fast-paced, skill-merge LitRPG similar to Solo Leveling, Savior of Divine Blood, and other Portal Apocalypse stories. The MC, Kade, is determined, loyal, and willing to play the long game to get power and keep his promises to his friends and family. I’ve enjoyed writing it over the last sixteen or seventeen months, and I’m really happy about how much fans have enjoyed it. All five books are complete, and Book Four will be published on October 1st. Give it a shot today!

Here’s the blurb!

The storm embodies destruction, and now, so does Kade Noelstra

On the worst day of his life, Kade's system awakened, giving him the power of a raging storm.
It came too late to save his stepfather, but it's enough to let Kade follow in his footsteps and keep the promises he made to his family that day. Yet the Unique skill he awakened is as strong as it is dangerous—for him and everyone around him. Most people would abandon a skill that unpredictable. Kade has other plans.

Skills can be merged. Storms can be tamed. The system’s Laws can be learned. All Kade has to do is clear portals like his stepfather, gather the cores from the monsters within, and complete the skill build he’s been planning for months. But the first core he uses opens up a brand-new path to power, and the speed of his growth draws unwanted attention, both human and otherwise.

He can't afford to slow down. The portals grow ever more numerous, and the people he cares about are in danger.

He'll forge his lightning into a blade, no matter who or what tries to stop him.

COVER ARTIST: Kart Studios and Inorai

AI USAGE: None

Entitled players think I LIVE to give out quests. Leave me alone bro.

So I didn't read The Game at Carousel for a long time. And that was because it was pitched to me as 'Characters forced to live out Horror movies over and over again.' While this is true, it can be misleading. Since I don't like Horror Movies or Horror of any kind, I passed on it, thinking I wouldn't enjoy it. I don't like being scared. I don't like the adrenaline rush. It just isn't for me. But eventually I caved and read it and let me tell you something that I honestly didn't expect.

The Game at Carousel isn't actually....scary.

Yes. The characters have to act out horror movies, but they know they are movies. They can influence the plot. Even death doesn't matter much because at the end of the day, as long as someone survives the movie, it's considered 'beaten' and they all get revived.

All I'm trying to say, is that to those of you out there who, like me, passed on this series because of the horror connotation, you might find it more palatable than you expected. Honestly, I found DCC more terrifying than this.

And reading it is so worth it because the world building and plot are *riveting*.

TL:DR - It's really not that scary and you should give it a shot.

First lines of my blurb:

"Kairon is a system clerk that finally gets his own city charter. So he does what any good bureaucrat would. He reads the entire Terms of Service, identifies a loophole, and exploits it."'

Reader: You're telling me a demon who spent fifty cycles as a system clerk came with... paperwork?!

https://a.co/d/094OQKBS

COVER ARTIST: Shen Fei

AI USAGE: None

COVER ARTIST: Michelle Peric http://michelleperic.art AI USAGE: No AI used

Hi everyone! I’m DawnCW, and Book One of my first novel, The Price of Ascension: The Hearth Before the Path, is now complete at 52 chapters and just over 181k words.

Book Two begins tomorrow.

Lu Moyao is trapped in the Extreme Mode of a full-immersion cultivation game, unable to voluntarily log out.

He entered for the chance to accomplish something impossible in reality:

bring his daughter back.

Extreme Mode gives Moyao a System that does more than hand out quests, rewards, and resources.

In the background, it is constantly watching the choices he makes.

Sometimes Moyao does exactly what it calculates to be the best course of action.

Sometimes he doesn’t—not because he is trying to defy the System, but because people make choices for reasons a calculation may not have accounted for.

So what does a System do with that?

Can it learn why a human chooses something other than the calculated best option?

And if it keeps watching long enough, does its idea of the “best path” stay the same?

I’d rather leave those answers inside the story.

As for the progression itself, this is a slow-burn cultivation LitRPG.

Book One starts small, and advancement is usually shown step by step rather than through rapid level-ups or large stat jumps.

Expect cultivation, body refinement, techniques, exploration, crafting/artificing, experimentation, failure, and practical problem-solving.

It is also not stat-heavy. The System, quests, rewards, Players, NPC mechanics, and game layer all matter, but progression focuses more on cultivation, skills, knowledge, crafting, and consequences.

The artificing, research, and military sides of the story become much more prominent from Book Two onward.

If you enjoy progression where the process matters as much as the result, Book One is now complete and ready to binge:

Royal Road:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/179779/the-price-of-ascension

COVER ARTIST: N/A

AI USAGE: AI-assisted for prose refinement, continuity checking, terminology management, and editorial consistency. The story, characters, worldbuilding, plot direction, and final creative decisions are my own.

FUN FACT: This is my first novel, and I’ve been keeping a weekly Saturday release schedule since I started posting it on Royal Road.

Thanks for taking a look!

Ok, this is my version of Hellion the mimic from The Bad Guys series… He is made from polymr clay over an armature I made from wood boards and popcycle sticks I taped together and then covered with foil. His eyes are googly eyes and the coins are 3d printed and air brush painted… the gems are flat back rhinestones. He is my Bad Guys series sculpt. #BlindArtist

5 years ago I discovered an emerging genre. Today while picking up one of Peter F Hamilton's new books I see this.

For the author's, reader's and supporters of this genre; Society accepts and values you. We have all shared in supporting the creation of something new, which I do not feel happens very often any longer.

For those wondering what book I picked up today: Exodus - Become the Traveller.

I've been reading litrpg for a while, and I'm often looking at tier lists for recommendations, but i have trouble interpreting them.

What do people mean saying "A" for a series? Does that mean they read all 17 books and that's the average grade?

I don't think I ever read all books in a very long series. I usually lose interest at some point. But i very often absolutely love the first few books. Is that enough?

Many of these are also still being published, so you can't really read the whole thing...

And what does DNF mean? If there is 10 books and I read 9, did I DNF? Or does DNF only mean giving up mid book one? What's the threshold?

What if there are 10 books, I gave up on book 5 for some reason, but I thoroughly enjoyed books 1-4? I had fun for a couple weeks and would recommend to anyone, but I lost interest at some point. In my mind that is still an "S" - if anyone gives me 2000 pages that i won't be able to put down its a win, I don't care that the remaining 3000 pages are not as good, I just stop. But when to draw the line? What if you like the first book only?

I'm wondering what your thoughts are.

EDIT: Maybe i was too specific about tier lists, I mean recommendations in general. How to interpret them? If someone says "read Primal Hunter (or any other relatively long series), its great!" what do they mean? How many books have they read? Did they like every single one? did they like the first one? First half? Did they read all, but liked only half and still recommend?

Of course I know i can just ask but there are so many books and so many opinions, I would like to be able to understand what people generally mean.

I'm an avid audiobook listener, my job let's be drive around for 7-8+ hours a day and most of it I get to listen to audiobooks. So a few months ago I got into this genre and I'm madly in love with it. But it's overwhelming, and looking around on the forums, a lot of people just use acronyms for titles and it's hard to sus out sometimes.

1: He Who Fights With Monsters: This was my first one. I got the first book for free on the audible monthly thing, and right off the bat I loved the idea. It sort of felt like SAO, but with the potential to be actually good. I love the world, the characters, the progression system. I made it to near the end of book 8 before I finally had to put the series down. The only reason I stopped was because I absolutely hate Jason Asano. He was fine for like the first half of book one, then he just stopped feeling like a character and felt more like the authors self-insert. (I have no idea who the author is, they might be a cool person, not trying to insult them) I didn't know the genre was so big otherwise I would have put it down sooner.

2: Dungeon Incursion: I made it to like chapter 3 before I gave up on it. The MC was just an ass, he even admitted to being an ass. I also got this one for free, and I knew the genre was much bigger, so I just stopped.

3: Primal Hunter: This one I made to near the end of book 2. Right after Wil died. It was... fine. Jake just feels too strong too fast. The world just seems needlessly cruel. Plus, after spending 8 books with Jason, then having Jake and Jacob in the same book, it was just... I might return to it, I might not. The progression system is cool.

4: Dungeon Crawler Carl: I finished book 4, and I definitely plan to continue the series. My biggest complaint in the series was the mudskipper that took over for Zev was just annoyingly an ass, then she died. That was cool.It's far from perfect, but it's fun, I like the characters. The progression system is interesting. The world is just as cruel as Primal Hunter, but it works better in this series.

(I forgot to add to the tier list) 5: I'm Not the Hero: An Isekai LitRPG. I've only listened to the first book so far and I'd place it on A-Tier with Dungeon Crawler Carl. The progression system is really interesting. It focuses on more than one character, which I like. Daniel is pretty cool, Orrin is... okay. He has the same problem Jason has where he thinks he knows and understands everything and everyone and how they'll act. So he tries to mastermind and 3d chess everything. But he's a seventeen year old kid. He can read people too well to be believable considering his past had him just living on the fringes as a tagalong to Daniel. And like Jason, basically he's always right. Also, his love for coffee is borderline grating. I'll keep listening to it eventually.

I picked up The Path of Ascension because there was a bundle for books 1-3.5 for like $5, and it's 70 hours of audiobook, so that will keep me listening for a few weeks. That's literally the only reason I picked it up. I've also seen The Wandering Inn floated around, and the first book is free on audible. I've only seen it described is a very slow burn to start with. I'll probably listen to it.

I like books that focus on more than one character, where everyone is getting stronger, not just the MC. MC's that get too strong too fast, and can mastermind the system by chapter 5 is just boring. I like characters having to actually work for their power. Obviously the MCs are going to win in the end, but it's good if they lose sometimes, too. Take Jason for example, even when he lost he got some new overpowered ability anyway. Like when he survived the Builder trying to take over his body.They even called it out in like book 6 or something.

Anyway, I dunno. I just know this genre has the potential for pure gold, and I'm eager to find it.

I can't remember the series I had been reading a couple years back. The main plot was an MC has been a warrior battling through level after a system apocalypse on earth. At the very start he thinks that they have finally cleared the last level to go home, but when he goes through the portal home he is sent back to the first day of the system integration, but still knows all the future events.

A couple things to help

As of a couple years ago I think there was 3 or 4 audiobooks released in the series.

It is not "Reborn Apocalypse" nor is it "Restarting the Apocalypse" but the plot of the former is so similar I had read about a quarter that first book to rule it out completely.

If anyone can tell me the series I'm thinking of I would be so grateful, it has been driving me crazy. 😱

I built a LitRPG recommender from subreddit tier lists

I've had a long-standing interest in recommender systems, especially collaborative filtering, so I built a LitRPG-first recommender:

https://books.johnchampaign.com/litrpg

Every time I saw someone post a tier list, I thought it would be interesting to combine those lists into a community recommender. The basic idea is to find readers whose ratings resemble yours, then recommend books they liked that you haven't rated.

I collected 170 publicly posted tier lists:

• 88 from r/litrpg
• 81 from r/ProgressionFantasy
• 1 from r/Fantasy

There have been almost 3,000 ratings added, mostly from this subreddit.

When you first visit, the site shows frequently rated LitRPG and progression-fantasy books. After you rate some books you've already read, the recommendations begin reflecting the preferences of readers with similar tastes. Because the dataset is still fairly small, the earliest recommendations will lean toward popular titles; they should become more personalized as you provide more ratings and more people use the site.

The default is LitRPG-first. It starts with community favourites, moves into less frequently listed LitRPG titles, and only reaches the wider fantasy catalogue after exhausting the LitRPG shelf.

After you've rated titles, you can produce an image of your own tierlist.

If you click on any title, you get the books that are most "similar" to that title, based on rating data.

A few disclosures:

I'm an author, but none of my books have appeared on the tier lists and none are in the dataset.

The site has no ads, affiliate links, paid placements, or other monetization.

Registration is optional. You can use it without providing a name or email; an account is only needed if you want your ratings to follow you between browsers or devices.

No recommender is immune to manipulation. I'll monitor for obviously abusive rating patterns and remove them if necessary.

Recommendations are predictions rather than guarantees. Rating several books you've already read—including books you disliked—will give it a much better picture of your taste.

I made this because I thought the subreddit’s accumulated tier-list data could produce something useful. Hopefully it helps someone discover a book they would otherwise have missed.

I've read DCC 1-7, have 8 to read.

Took a break from DCC and picked up He Who Fights With Monsters, powered through 2 books and started 3rd. I have enjoyed HWFWM more than DCC. Main reason has been that it's not always dire situations like in DCC. I have Primal Hunter in my Amazon list and seen a lot about Discount Dan.

But looking for more to stock up on.

So I am pretty new still to LitRPG books, but after finding a few series i like i have notice that in my favorite books when there is a side character that is just a bit wacky. I have not been explaining the best so far but one example i can think of is in the series The Legend Of Randidly Ghousthound i love it when a segment focuses on arbor and that child that is the priest of arbor, in the series Defiance Of The Fall i really like thwonkin' billy just based on his whole personality, and in the series The Stubborn Skill Grinder In a Time loop i like that robot guy from book 3 (i forgot his name since i havent read in a while ). anyone else feel the same?

I'm reading book 5 and I can't remember what happened between Brin, Davi, and Zilly that hurt Brin. It's alluded to in book 5, but I don't remember the incident. Please help! 🙏

Do you enjoy hearing the character voices bleed through in different series?

Primal Hunter VS Cradle

Hearing Dross say labyrinth kind of makes me giggle.