Sacrifice by RinoZ
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Continuing this slow-burn of a necromantic LitRPG is satisfying. It's a straight progression from the previous, diving head-first into moral quandaries and improving skills while trying to limit undeserving casualties.

Deserving being anyone who tries to murder him, of course.

What is somewhat surprising in a good way is this poor kid's parents. I'm usually used to a funny trope with this whole class of literature where we get a slow progression of both power and wisdom and control over one's destiny with a single short, sharp shock of a reveal about the MC having been a massive victim of some kind of massive injustice just dropped in out of nowhere.

This particular series is the exact reverse. The entire setup IS a massive injustice dropped on him from the whole damn world and was none of his making. He's just reacting. But his parents? They love him and did all they could to protect him. Which is usually NOT the case in these kinds of novels. A good childhood, if not a perfect one.

It's actually kinda sweet.

But as is usually the case, no good deed is ever unpunished.

Fun stuff.

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Awakening by RinoZ
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After being amazed with others in this LitRPG vein (Bagwell) and already loving the centipede crap out of RonoZ's FOR THE COLONY series, I was very interested to see how this turned out.

I mean, who doesn't love to level up a necromancy class? Skeleton armies are all the rage these days.

Well, it turns out, I don't have any major bones to pick with this introduction. I'm enjoying it's deadly gaze, but it's NOT nearly as quick to escalate as I might have guessed. Indeed, the slow burn is rather impressive. Mostly a focus on survival and evading detection and wanting to genuinely help people out, as opposed to total edge-lord territory, but above that, the dangers are genuine and oppressive from multiple sources, be it an outsider incursion, the magical elites who care more for their power than the people they're supposed to help, or the fact that this poor isolated kid is almost entirely up shit creek in the worst possible areas.

I have to root for him, no matter what skills he uses. And it doesn't hurt that he has a pretty awesome moral compass.

It's a great setup. A slow burn, but a great setup. I'm going to love diving into it more.

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The Infinite State by Richard Swan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Definitely worth hunting down and reading if:

A: You have a deep and abiding hunger for rich and deep SF with fully-fleshed worldbuilding with a space-opera base but full of political intrigue, colony building against all odds, and even action.

B: Tolerate, or indeed, revel in complexity.

C: Miss vast, impressive scope in SF combined with interesting, excellent characters in unusual circumstances.


I should mention that this kind of SF is becoming quite rare these days. It used to be rather common, and often done with a half-hearted manner. But this one isn't half-hearted. It reminded me quite a bit of Palmer's Too Like the Lightning and Hamilton's far-reaching works.

If that doesn't get you excited, I don't know what will. :)

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Adventures in Godok by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Strangely enough, this one was only slightly less impressive than the ones before it, but that's mostly because it wandered and explored fairly aimlessly, although still interestingly, in several locations. One being the enormous city of Godok, with a distinctive Arabic flavor with tones of Chinese fighting schools.

Fun, familiar, and fascinating, but without the deep thread of impetus, be it survival or quest, that usually graced the previous books.

But make no mistake, I'm still fully invested and can't put these books down.


Unfortunately, I now need to wait months for the next book. SIGH.

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The Boutan Caliphate by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had a great time escaping the empire and seeing the Elves and the Goblin empire. It's been pretty refreshing to see yet more relatively civilized goblin races in fiction. But damn, they do play some nasty Honor games.

All across the board, I loved the storytelling. No drop in quality from the rest of the series.

Of course, we're heading into main MC OP issue territory by now, but there's still plenty of snags (damn those titans) to keep it interesting. And there are a few great worldbuilding reveals.

It's hard to believe where we began in the series to how far we've gone. Travel the world, meet and kill new people. Alas. But this is far from a murderhobo series, thank goodness.



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The Hounds by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So good. Good writing always feels different than simple workmanlike writing. Any normal subject can become sublime in the right hands.

This LitRPG is reaching one of those heights. Epic fantasy with tons of LitRPG elements, but the weight of the storytelling is ON the storytelling.

In this case, the noose is coming to a close and while I absolutely loved the time in the capitol working as a personal guard for the Chancellor, needing to join the Hounds to escape the noose only made the noose lock in place. Great storytelling.

And what happens later? Peak. We knew it was on the horizon. We didn't know that it would happen so brutally, so quick, so final.

The fact is, normal average fiction probably would have milked a lot of this for two or three books, but this just came like a storm.

This is one of the best LitRPGs out there. Or fantasies, period.

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The Shimmering Labyrinth by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazingly strong series. These truly live or die on their stomachs and pacing, and damn, it's damn overflowing with the meat and potatoes of great storytelling.

Every plot choice is tied to massive amounts of plausibility, and better, we're given a whole city of the dead and a truly massive labyrinth/dungeon beneath it, with an insanely powerful summoner hounding these poor soldiers. Survival and sacrifice is everything. And so is secrecy.

It's rare that I get this invested in a story, but when I do, it's making me lose some serious sleep. :)

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Sobral City by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This still has wonderful pacing and I'm thoroughly enjoying the writing as a whole. As a fantasy that resembles High Fantasy while being a thoroughly LitRPG tale, complete with soldierly comradery, gritty action, AND sneaky, if limited, OP magic, it is highly amusing a real page-turner.

It's satisfying me on so many levels. It feels like a long haul that I could read forever, and that's the very best kind of book there is.

It doesn't hurt that this underestimated guy keeps on killing WAY above his pay grade and still doesn't want to attract any more attention than necessary.

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A Soldier's Life by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A lot of people recommended this series, but I was skeptical. I mean, Roman-type LitRPG, with a focus on fighting rather than the normal OP always-magic-leaning types?

Consider this my apology. The writing is excellent and the pacing is fantastic. The plot is wonderfully varied and the directions consistently surprise. And while our MC DOES have the potential for quite a bit, he's extremely limited with MP, so the restraint is actually rather beautiful from a story-view.

And there's the obvious need to keep it all secret or his essence will probably be the Emperor's snack. Details. So, a lowly soldier's life it is.

As I was reading it, I was reminded nicely of the Recluse Saga by Modesitt. A balance of soldier-life and magic and steady progress and remarkably little true angst, just hardship.

It's extremely enjoyable. It caught 100% of my attention. Great escapism.

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A House Reborn by Mark Arrows
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, I wanted to like this more than I did.

What I did like was the tech and magic and a bit of the exploration of it. What I didn't really connect with was the whole clan stuff nor the baddies of the book. It was just okay, but rather generic.

Paradoxically, I miss the deep exploration and the mystery and the machines which took up the majority of the first book. This one was... building a legend that I didn't quite believe? Alas.

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Fearless by Jack Campbell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While this is pretty solid for a MilSF, packaging an old-timer defrosted to deal with the young whipper-snappers who no longer know how to point a gun in the right direction as a space-opera, I'm afraid it's just becoming a bit... dull to me. Especially when another old man (or rather, another young man out-of-time's-waters) comes out to butt-heads with another old man in different clothing.

I mean, what are we trying to say, here? Old ways are best? Okies. New tech is just meant for old hands. Got it. Isn't this supposed to be warfare, though? Innovation... ah well, innovation is only true for the best generation. Right?

At least, that's the lessons I'm learning. And it's... kinda dull.



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BORUTO―ボルト― 8 ―TWO BLUE VORTEX― by Masashi Kishimoto
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's a bit more annoying than usual to have an incomplete story arc for this volume. The action ramps up and the conspiracy is almost blown and now, everything seems hopeless.

Grrrhhh.

Okay. Must wait longer.

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BuyMort: 30,000 Leagues: How I Merged to Become Nu-Earth Affiliated (BuyMort - The Shopocalypse Saga by Joseph Phelps
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I remember the previous book being less good than the first two and I couldn't quite place my finger on it. But now? The fourth helped me figure it out.

It's the scale. I tend to get more and more invested in a series as long as there's a sense of real location no matter how big the scale actually is. In this case, we're all over the Earth because it's all-out consolidation time and the survivors need to prevent further corporate takeovers of the market that is the biomass of our poor planet.

I didn't mind the whole Kraken or Beholder angles, but even those battles need to have decent anchoring and I thought proper emotional anchoring was kinda up in the air. Sure, we have Molls and protecting his massively-expanding community and refugee affiliates (read aliens), but I'm missing the whole WHY does he fight so hard, too.

I want to love this. I really do. It's close enough to Dungeon Crawler Carl to generally be right up all those DCC lover's alleys. But aside from the whole capitalistic nightmare vibe (which is great) I'm just hoping it grounds itself a bit before hightailing it right out of the system to brand new markets.

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The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well now. I guess I had some high hopes for this book or something. I'm not saying it's bad, but it wasn't quite as interesting as I hoped it'd be. It's a throwback to old treasure hunting with mildly ominous magical artifacts as the goal. With a slightly uninteresting villain.

And as a kid, I used to stay up late watching Friday the 13th, the TV series. I loved the hell out of that, and that was definitely as a stupid kid from a stupid kid's PoV, and yet, the memories of THAT was probably two times better than what we get here.

It's probably just a me thing. I guess I wanted to be more than minorly, just slightly entertained.

And perhaps I am just expecting a bit too much out of magical realism. The realism should ground it, but the magic should massively elevate it. In this case, the realism is just a bit aggravating and the magic is rather ho-hum.

Sorry. It's me, not you.

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Friday by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I waffle between 4 and 5 stars on this one, but probably not for the usual reasons.

This 1982 book is RATHER fascinating in that it feels almost like a homage to PKD and it could ABSOLUTELY live comfortably in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 while also being a solid SF exploring the nature of humanity and isolation and belonging while Friday is a literal Courier who is happy to do a little or a lot of wetwork as she travels the Earth and several times off-planet.

It's a true SF in that it's a fiction of ideas as well as a techie adventure, and it's obvious as hell that Heinlein was giving a massive nod to all his SF peers and their wives in his dedication. But beyond that, it's a careful and glorious cyberpunk novel right at the cusp of the true cyberpunk revolution.

So why would I waffle on stars? Because the old man Heinlein is super sexed up, and while that's not a problem in general, and indeed, it's true for ALL the later works, there IS one single point of fact that's just... shit, man. Friday, herself doesn't define rape in a normal way. As in, violence. She just lets it roll off her as a part of doing business, which, to be fair, is usually deadly. I can understand it her position, but it just irks the hell out of me. I guess my morals and ethics are getting the better of me. If I were Friday, I would never be so forgiving after being raped, or be so philosophical. It's not just a variation on swinging, after all.

But this IS a character choice, after all, and probably a position of Ginny's mindset (RAH's red-headed wife) that he was happy to incorporate. But without that kind of context, a cold read of the text could seem a bit weird.

Or perhaps it's all just me. Most femme fatale characters are truly flexible when it comes to these kinds of things, and my girl Friday is absolutely one of those.

Great novel, either way.

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The Primal Hunter 15 by Zogarth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Everything I wanted at this particular moment. Done with the mini-arc of the locked-off universe? Clear winners? Clear losers? Check. Now, let's knock on some doors and start up some of that other unfinished business with a certain god of hunters.

Hell, yes.

Diplomatic mission, tons of powerful peeps with good-will and an unhealthy obsession in other's sex lives? Hell, yes.

And as icing on that particular cake, we get what this series is really known for, hunts and battles and even more battles, skill-ups, levels, and monsters well above Jake's pay grade? All in a private hunting reserve of the very god of Life, itself? For fun?

Again, hell, yes.

It doesn't promise anything more than it gives, and it keeps on giving exactly what we want. Power fantasy. Friendships. Being on an equal footing, or at least the beginnings of an equal footing, with primordial gods?

Yes, please. Fun stuff.

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The Frozen Realm by Mark Arrows
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm gonna be honest. The first 3/4 was somewhat annoying because I expected a LitRPG that was mostly SF with some F elements set in a vastly changed frozen Earth with even more vast underground areas.

And we DO see some of that setting, of course, and it's good.

But the grand majority that I read comes off as a hardscrabble deep post-apoc survival SF with ancient relic knights and one kid with serious daddy issues. Most of which he works out WITH his daddy in the text.

Let me be clear that this isn't a deal breaker, but being billed as an adventure and especially as a LitRPG, there are a few elements we tend to expect, such as one overwhelming advantage that actually lets our poor MC survive in a unique way against all odds. And this, unfortunately, doesn't really show up until MUCH later. Just being saved by his dad and wishing he could be allowed to study the ruins and parse out the engineering didn't quite satisfy me.

Later, it all gets some of that, and I'm happy to continue on, but my complaint is the lack of a real heroic hook until FAR into the novel.

But it did get there eventually. And the backstory is now pretty cool. It made me work for it. But damn, I'm glad that bit's done. :)


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Carpet Diem by Justin Lee Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Missing that old Good Omens vibe? A little tongue-in-cheek comedy-adventure?

This ain't bad for that itch. Different kind of story, absolutely, with lots of rhymes, sexy humor, and a likable recluse-turned-hero.

Light fun.

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The Dragon Has Some Complaints by John Wiswell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this one was a winner. It's not often you see a crafty disabled dragon learning to trust a human to bring him back to health, join the army, learn some secrets, and help his human get some action. All while having snarky conversations with yourself, or at least your other personalities living in your multiple heads.

It's billed as a cozy fantasy and it definitely is, but it also gears up in the second half of the novel to fighting and dealing with some rather big issues. (Plotwise, if not character-wise.)

All in all, it reads a little annoyingly in the beginning, but once we get into human society, I found it awfully comfortable and amusing. It flows well. And when the jig is up, it's interesting how the changes keep coming.

Definitely worth the read if you want some cozy dragon fiction.

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Ascension by Nicholas Binge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I want to love this novel simply because it tries to do so damn much. All at once, it tries to be a mystery a-la Vandermeer's Area X, a hard SF a-la Bear's Tangents, a big-scope mind exercise like Reynolds is wont to do, and, interestingly, a thin-air experiment in mountain climbing and time dilation.

It has ALL the elements that I'd classify as a rip-roaring good time. And, for the most part, it pulls it off.

Where I stumbled a little was in the characters' pathos. It should have been fine, honestly, but I was perhaps a bit annoyed with the length of time spend on the past when I just wasn't feeling it. Maybe that's just a me thing, but I found myself wanting more and more of the present and a progression of the plot, or perhaps something really surprising to come along and jar everything loose once again.

It does happen. And I really did enjoy this book, but it still kept it from truly flowing well for me. It was close, however.


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Andy in the Apocalypse 2: A LitRPG Adventure by Plum Parrot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pretty standard LitRPG, with the focus on settlement building and early-days threats before a full invasion of Earth.

For all that, it's still enjoyable and an easy read, but I don't expect anything else from Plum Parrot. I'm almost always very satisfied, and this is no different.

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Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is also pretty funny, especially in the growing situation of her afterlife and the meaning behind it. It moves away from the whole "Hey Satan, it's me, Margaret," Bloom meets Dante reference and goes all fate-and-ghost-and-family drama in this one.

And while it isn't all heavily focused on individual zingers like the first, it DOES have some killer situational humor. Real dookies of situational humor. So much so that it's almost Palahniukian in its power.

Oh, wait.

Yep, this is absolutely a Palahniuk. Deliciously dark and evil while being almost or even completely innocent and relatable.

And those rites of the dead? Muahahahahaha



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ONE PIECE 115 by Eiichiro Oda
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Finally getting to the semi-conclusion of the battle of the giants (not just Rocks, but the fantastic viking island of giants, themselves) was just as great as all the spoilers promised.

And the end? Damn it. Imu. Too many questions, never enough answers. And more questions on top of that.

Chopper? Super cola? Loki himself? All of it is just too cool.

I hate having to wait for another volume. ; ;


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Damned by Chuck Palahniuk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm generally a huge fan of Palahniuk's dark humor, and this book is absolutely in that category.

As for WHAT this is, it kinda subverted my expectations in a great way.

Thirteen year old girl dies of pot overdose. Goes to hell. Yep. Now, if you think that's f**king dumb, just hold my beer. Hell is absolutely overflowing with dumb shit. And wait! For a limited time, you'll get to see what Earth is up to!

Yep. THAT is where your expectations should be. Oh, the great ironies. And great writing, too!

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Omelet Endgame by Dakota Krout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It feels like a big conclusion because it HAS a huge conclusion.

I mean, by the illustration right on the book, we have it all! The utter and complete defeat of another race of people trying to wipe us out, total annihilation, by the tasting and eating of an omelet.

I personally thought that the illustration was a funny example of just a funny scene in the story, but nooooooooo. It's super important and life-changing. Indeed it is.


The rest of the novel is a decent LitRPG, level-ups by purchases, and making a new soda queen friend. Pretty standard fare. Peanut butter balls or sad doughnuts aside.

Not bad. Sometimes very funny.

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Sewer Skewers by Dakota Krout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is not your momma's relaxing cooking Isekai. This is a grimdark crappy cooking slog in a hellworld that fortunately has a group of good kids working together to make their hero cook the best cook he can possibly be.

Spoiler: he's not a good cook.

But they NEED him. Bad.

Ah, the days of OP characters in murderhobo worlds... turned on its skillet.



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Local Heavens by K.M. Fajardo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think I wanted to love this much more than I actually did.

But then, I blame my love of the original Gatsby for my somewhat lagging enjoyment of this.

Don't get me wrong. It's got a neat hacker subplot and it has standard SF trappings for this brave new world, so I should have just fallen straight in love with it. Perhaps. But this might just be a case of just enjoying the idea of the juxtaposition of two genres and not an actual "oh my god I just got torn apart by the conversation" like I was with Fitzgerald.

Instead, it's mostly all about sex and genteel betrayal. And not so much about class, new money, crime, or obsession. Although all those aspects are here.

I think I'll just say it's pretty faithful to the original even while it expands on it.

But to me, less really was more. Alas.

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Grilled Armageddon by Dakota Krout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This feels like a grimdark LitRPG to me. The system is totally out to get everyone. Systematically. By the very rules of getting fed.

So, of course, cooking and having the ability to make clean food rather than resorting to cannibalism is really the only source of real power in this world. By design.

That being said, it IS pretty damn grimdark, despite the great puns and some of the other humor. Let's just call it an existential dark-humor book, shall we? With level-ups.

It is NOT a particularly feel-good book although I do like the characters. The fairly neutral and neutral evil characters. That cook. :)



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Navvy Dreams by H.M.H. Murray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good, sprawling space opera filled with hot space pilots, tragedy, intrigue, and all the seedy underbelly of the universe.

Honestly, this has a lot more going on under the hood than I usually see in space opera. Complicated plots, many characters, and even though the blurb is slightly misleading as to my expectations, the end product is, at its core, a big universe full of hard-survival.

It's pretty balanced, too, for storytelling. It's not light on wordbuilding and the characters are fairly fascinating. It makes me think of other long SF adventures, and it's a pretty comforting read because its familiarity.

I definitely recommend this for anyone hankering for a new space opera.

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A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Great mystery. It has all the hallmarks of Watson and Holmes in a very fantasy setting, as usual, but firmly held in a great worldbuilding paradise.

Indeed, the cover for this book gives this particular story completely away, but it's still pretty damn tasteful for all that.

Dead girl, mysterious deaths, family politics, and a truly messed up psychological thriller. No more spoilers. But this was fascinating and quite good.

Bennett is always solid as hell.


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Fated Antagonist by RinoZ
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very long novel that accomplishes much, conquering, destroying, building, but more than anything else, there's a very important aspect that I can't get enough of: The ones who will not be named.

I can't stop chortling.

I can't stop thinking about applying this ... organization ... to our world.

I would eagerly ant-icipate this change. A wonderful cultural contamination. I know a few people I'd love to see get kidnapped. The fear on their faces. The hushed whispers everywhere else. And the tea. The haircuts. Muahahahahahahaha

I'm having a great time with this series.

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Antvance into the Unknown by RinoZ
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Third stratum? Exploration? It's just the demon realm, right? Should be relaxing. A little happy jaunt.

And since it's just Antony the ant with his pets and a rambunctious and curious little hatchling going along, (we're ignoring the silent and invisible honor guard,) there's no real risk to the COLONY if anything goes wrong.

Truly. If anything goes pear-shaped, it's all on the vacationeers. The consequences will all be on them.

No blowback to the COLONY.

Ahem.

By the way, if you're curious, I should point out that the direction of the blame implied here is purely ironical. The story happens to go an entirely different direction. Which makes it funny.

Strange, too, because Antony has NO concern about a queen's thwap.

This time.
Muahahahahaha.

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Enemy A[n]t the Gates by RinoZ
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Want a siege novel? You get a siege novel. A massive siege novel. The colony must defend against those damn armored beefcake humans and rockies.

Impressive prep, industry, of course. Lots of conflict and setbacks and balance in the story.

All told, a fun novel.

Was there much in the way of character development? Maybe a little. But no, not really.

Still, a fun middle-book LitRPG.

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Between a Rock and a Carapace by RinoZ
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What? A LONE ANT in a tournament against his poor wishes?

Yeah, fine, that's fine. Everything's fine. But just wait till the colony finds out. Muahahahahahahahaha

Truly, it's all just a bunch of leveling and training and dealing with crazy cultists and a spot of overwhelming force to even things out, but it's hugely ANTertaining.

For the Colony!

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Antelligent Design by RinoZ
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Evolution! Who doesn't appreciate a total colony transformation now and then? More intelligence? More industry? Endless care to support your colony, at any cost?

What could go wrong?

Nothing! It's perfection! Especially when endless monster hordes are on their way. And hey, even the humans are appreciating the family! Ant-supremacy!

Fun stuff, seriously.

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Upping the Ante by RinoZ
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't believe how much fun I'm having following the family. Or rather, the colony. Sure, it's more Ants and Friends, or pets, or idiot human worshipers, but it's all great fun. Dungeon delving. Eating. Mutating. PROTECTING THE COLONY.

It actually makes neat sense the way it's set up. Human reborn as an ant actually prefers it this way. And with what we learn, I GET IT.

After all this, I'm wondering if it might not be a bit better to want to be an ant. It's fairly antastic.

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