Hide and Seek by Erin Ampersand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Either I'm relaxing into this series or I'm finally happy to see a wider range of abilities and opportunities to use them in overwhelming fashion. You know, power fantasy. The kind of thing that makes LitRPG rather shine.

The whole post-apoc feel is dampened a bit with so many people finally learning to work together, but it's probably a bit more interesting that our favorite mommy is truly getting the kind of props that she deserves, even if she wants none of it. Yet another reason why this is considered a fantasy, no? :)

More than everything, though, I'm just happy that the kids are a bit more powerful now, less likely to get killed off. The tension from before was kinda unwelcome when I just wanted some light fluff. But, of course, that's a personal issue, lol.


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Making Friends by Erin Ampersand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's decent, but I need to stress one little fact: these are more like post-apocalypse novels than LitRPGs. The few chosen abilities as you gain experience are absolutely LitRPG, but the total feel of this is a lot more Walking Dead than DCC, and none of this is even close to my initial thought that this would be a bit more humorous, with the whole idea of super powerful young kids saving their mom or something along those lines.

Making Friends, as a title, is more about getting along in a new, angry community. Not quite the tongue-in-cheek I wanted. Alas.

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Azarinth Healer Book Seven: A LitRPG Adventure by Rhaegar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Exploration and alliances, one adventure at a time.

This is pretty much a cozy adventure that just happens to feature a lot of bodily damage quickly regenerated and a bunch of hidden god-like powers among unsuspecting strangers. But the cozy bit is what makes it really nice. After all, it's the friends you make after beating the shit out of them that really matter. :)

Still a fun series. Relaxing, strangely enough, with a friendly elder god tree, a pissed nature dragon, insane pixie Shadows, mech-loving dwarves, shy 4* arch lichs, and a god-like brawler with truly easygoing nature.

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It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I consider this an intellectual exercise. A conceptual, sometimes emotional reflection on loss and self-sacrifice to an idea wrapped up in post-zombie-apocalypse wrapping paper.

It's a poem. It's an epigraph.

It's also like a last gasp nod to traditional literary fiction and all its pretentiousness and deep depression as seen through a literal embodied zombie metaphor.



Of course, I could be taking it way too seriously.
This novella could ACTUALLY be a tongue-in-cheek metaphor for literary fiction, itself, as a zombie falling apart because its own center cannot hold.

You know what? I like that take even better.

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Time to Play by Erin Ampersand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a LitRPG, it's middle of the road solid for strict game mechanics interposed over a newly overturned life.

When I picked it up, I had the irrational idea that it was going to be hilarious as a mom slowly becoming unhinged as her kids of 9, 6, and 3 pick up powers in the attempt to survive the apocalypse. It just HAS that feel, or so I thought. Like Adventures in Babysitting. Or something similar.

But, alas, it isn't one for humor. Aside for the plushie AI, it's almost entirely a realistic-build with all the family-oriented stakes and normal neighborhood BS along with the up-scaling of threats and running out of resources.

Not bad, but I feel like it could have been brilliant... and wasn't. Alas. I'll still continue on for at least one more book, however, because who knows? It might get unhinged yet.

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Taipei Story by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Place this story where it truly belongs: an examination of culture and growing up with an attempt to show Taipei (In Taiwan, for those who wonder,) in as real a light as can be attempted in a work of fiction.

It's very earnest. It's also full of educational woes as an American trying to learn Chinese and having a hard time of it, getting into very normal drama with friends there, feeling isolated and depressed, and just trying to survive as a fish out of water... all the while highlighting culture.

And it does a pretty good job as a cultural piece.

But overall? My enjoyment was fairly lacking. This, in particular, was all pretty universal, but this kind of traditional fiction character piece with an agenda is generally not my cup of tea. I can respect it from a remove, but alas, that's all I can do.



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Judicator Jane 8: A LitRPG Adventure by Brian Rouleau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm almost done with this. In general it had a few smirk-worthy plays on the LitRPG genre and I admit I enjoyed the whole luck exploit and over the top stuff, but after the last book, I was getting tired of the whole steamroller aspect. And then this one was more than a little meandering and without real stakes... with just a handful of interesting ideas I would have loved to see developed, including the system-related stuff.

But it was just a bit too little, with not enough to keep my full interest. Alas.

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