LitRPG
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Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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It's funny how common this is. After the first book the stats are basically meaningless. Kind of sort of like real games if you aren't getting too sweaty.
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Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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I listened to the first book in Solo Leveling, I enjoyed it but there's quite a bit lost in translation (It was written as a comic) and the narrator isn't ambitious about giving life to the voices so I stopped at book 1. It also
. I might read the comic at some point.
I started listening to Life Reset and am enjoying it immensely. It's narrated by Jeff Hays, who narrated a series I recently finished (Chrysalis) and have been listening to for years from Dungeon Crawler Carl. Despite having spent so much time listening to him, the voices he came up with so far in Life Reset are all unique, which is pretty impressive. Other great voice actors I've listened to, like Travis Baldree, generally have the same narration voice and the same cast of voices they pull out and re-use. The writing itself is great and while the plot isn't totally novel, is fresh enough to be engaging for someone who has read too many of these books.
seems a bit generic for someone who has read so many litrpg books. I'm sure I would've loved it if it was my first one.
I started listening to Life Reset and am enjoying it immensely. It's narrated by Jeff Hays, who narrated a series I recently finished (Chrysalis) and have been listening to for years from Dungeon Crawler Carl. Despite having spent so much time listening to him, the voices he came up with so far in Life Reset are all unique, which is pretty impressive. Other great voice actors I've listened to, like Travis Baldree, generally have the same narration voice and the same cast of voices they pull out and re-use. The writing itself is great and while the plot isn't totally novel, is fresh enough to be engaging for someone who has read too many of these books.
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Hateyou
Not Great, Not Terrible
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I think it’s the constant dopamine hitting like video games. “Oh a new achievement! Oh new items! Oh new skills! Oh new quests! Oh a new mechanic!” whereas a traditional novel is just long stretches of dialogue, world building, character arcs, etc. They aren’t constantly introducing new things, just building on established stuff. That’s my theory anyways, it’s the only way I can rationalize some of the successful ones like Primal Hunter that just don’t really have a story other than the video game stuff. It’s gotta be the dopamine hits.
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fris
Vyemm Raider
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I enjoy both Jeff and Travis. Honestly, i'm probably enjoying Primal Hunter more than DCC. I'm currently listening to the Dresdon Files and I just can't get into it. The narrator just sounds like he can't be bothered, constantly breathing into the mic etc. maybe he's trying to channel the character, but just isn't grasping me.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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That's interesting because to me, Marstars puts more emotion than just about any other narrator. He channels harry Dresden in the narration who, is definitely somber and will appear apathetic during a grueling fifty hour weekend of training and fighting.
Furry
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Done book two of he who fights monsters. How the hell does this guy choose to end books? The ending felt so damn random its almost like he hit his word quota and just stopped mid sentence. I can't even give this the benefit of the doubt and say it was a cliffhanger of some sort.
Series is alright. I definitely still have super strong vibe of guy with dad jokes dropped into humorless universe. The fact that nobody has fought back effectively against his milquetoast millenial shittalking is rather weird at this point. I mean, at some point for the 100th time where he makes a joke about fucking someones mom, someone has to have a response other than "I KILL YOU" or "What does he mean?"
Series is alright. I definitely still have super strong vibe of guy with dad jokes dropped into humorless universe. The fact that nobody has fought back effectively against his milquetoast millenial shittalking is rather weird at this point. I mean, at some point for the 100th time where he makes a joke about fucking someones mom, someone has to have a response other than "I KILL YOU" or "What does he mean?"
Void
Doin' Too Much
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Just read the first book of this after seeing you mention it, and I like it so far. I realize it could take a turn at some point, but so far it has hooked me well enough that I want to keep reading.
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You actually pretty much nailed the method used - publisher says X words, cut and paste appropriate number of RR chapters.
Most RR -> Kindle Unlimited stories will have a similar issue given the episodic stream of consciousness style of the original stories. Some authors put more work into editing it into a reasonable arc for book form, but it's probably a safe assumption that any given set of books are going to be like chapters of one huge book.
Void
Doin' Too Much
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Tons of us have talked about it either here or in other threads. It is wonderful, and one of the best series I can remember reading in a long time, with an actually satisfying ending to boot.
Personally I wouldn't call it litrpg at all though, I'd call it Progression Fantasy. They can overlap, but to me litrpg requires some roleplaying elements like a System, or stats/skills etc. that are enumerated specifically instead of something like an anime where they might level up their abilities as well, but it is more of a "it got bigger" thing than a "it reached level 2" thing. To me, Cradle is basically an anime in book form. Again, can be sort of ambiguous, but unless I'm misremembering there were never any specific numbers for anything in Cradle, and that (or a system implying numbers) is sort of a requirement for me to consider something litrpg. Others may disagree.
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fris
Vyemm Raider
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I like the fantasy and progression characters go through in litrpg. I don't mind the numbers part of it, but i don't need it. Knowing Jake went from 9000hp to 10,000hp isn't interesting aside from Knowing he progressed.
What would the genre be for something less focused on the raw numbers but the characters develop continuously. I'm thinking back as a kid reading dragon Lance novels and trying to remember if that's what im looking for.
A lot of the recent litrpg books I bought on audibles last sale are shit. Teeny girl drama crap that a Facebook group recommended, etc.
Vuuxo
Scaphism
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Similar thing with me but Forgotten Realms. From what I can tell, literally the only thing separating "fantasy" from LitRPG is the game mechanics and the "system". Fantasy has progression, but it's X character becomes stronger and faster/expert in weapons/magic. While LitRPG is Level 5, 6 ,7. Skill upgrade and system fuckery.
I thoroughly enjoy both so I'm going to go e Cradle a shot later today after I finish the last book of The Ripple System. Have an hour and 45min left.
Void
Doin' Too Much
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Honestly, if anyone finds a good answer to this, I'd love to hear it as well. The problem is (I think), it is way too easy for authors to fall back onto a "system" and numbers instead of just trying to give us a feeling for what happened, and because it eliminates the need for like 99% of the back story. I think that a lot of people are tired of the endless stat pages too, so most series tend to ease up a LOT on them over time. And a lot of the newer litrpg series are going really light on them.
Stuff like Quest Academy is pretty light on it, because it does have skill descriptions but I don't remember there being any stats or levels really. Of course, if you don't like the concept of becoming OP via crafting instead of punching things and/or navel gazing, you won't like Quest Academy at all, but I thoroughly enjoy it for some reason.
Larry Correia (Monster Hunter International fame) started a new series that literally called itself a progression fantasy on the cover, but it was boring and kinda crappy so I won't ever read any more. And it didn't have one iota of actual progression, so I'm not sure wtf he was thinking calling it that. So outside of Cradle, I'm not sure there is much to fill this need we obviously have.
Progression fantasy, canonical example being Cradle.
The line can get pretty blurry though - Calamitous Bob, for example, is technically a litrpg but has less mention of stats in the entire series than some litrpg have in the first chapter.