My Recomendations
Books I’ve read that I would recommend to others. No particular order on these, other than the first one, which I wrote. :P
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 No rating A series must receive 1 user review before a rating is displayed. Break Axiom of Infinity: Souleater
"They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. What then are we to think of it when the gods themselves steal our ideas on how the universe should work? Can we complain when they turn reality into a game? Can we get a refund on life itself? The gods claim they answered our prayers. That they built this world with us in mind. That they brought us here for our own sake. Maybe they did. Personally I think they have their own reasons. We're not the players in this game, we're the pieces on the board. Still... What if it's fun?" Axiom of Infinity follows the story of several travelers from Earth as they attempt to make new lives for themselves in a world with monsters and dungeons, where RPG mechanics are as innate as the laws of physics, and where the gods themselves seem to be playing a very different game–one with unknown stakes and strange alliances. Blessed by two gods and cursed by another, one man finds himself at the center of their machinations, a pawn destined to become a queen. This is a LitRPG Novel built on a hard system with a lot of depth and customization, but which tries not to beat you over the head with numbers constantly. In this world finding and reporting bugs and exploits is both encouraged and rewarded, and the gods have found the most qualified testers in the multiverse: Us. Now the unsuspecting natives of Astra are going to have to learn to live with a bunch of min-maxing, power-gaming, spreadsheet slinging nerds and gamers of all shapes and sizes as we do what we do best... break things.
| No rating A series must receive 1 user review before a rating is displayed. |
 Arcane Ascension is part of the same world as Andrew Rowe’s other series, and there is significant overlap between each series, so I highly recommend looking up the author’s suggested reading order before diving in. Starting with Sufficiently Advanced Magic won’t hurt your enjoyment of the overarching plot, but I wouldn’t proceed further than book 2 of this series before taking a step back and looking at the others. There is a lot to love about this series. An interesting magic system, magical towers filled with puzzling death-traps, characters that demonstrate intelligent problem solving skills, godlike figures with inscrutable motives, a magic school plotline, and an overarching mystery linking everything together. The writing is excellent, and each new revelation leaves you wanting to know more about the world. Corin, the MC, is a soft-spoken and awkward guy raised by a physically and emotionally abusive father who values his particular form of magical strength above all else. In many ways their relationship mirrors the classic story of a father trying to force his son to be the man the father believes himself to be, no matter what the son desires for his life. It is very relatable and true to life - I have known more than one Magnus Cadence in my life, and their relationships with their sons are just as toxic as this one. Corin starts the story defined by the trauma of his childhood, and much of his character growth over time is him coming to terms with his family and the wounds they have left on his spirit, intentionally or not. At the same time, his experiences have tempered him and left him surprisingly strong of mind and body, and driven to prove himself in his own right. If you’re wondering about the LGBT tag on this, it’s because Corin is probably best described as biromantic demisexual. Part of his character development is him trying to figure out how he feels about other people, and dealing with his discomfort for physical displays of affection (or even being touched by others). It is very well done, but may not be relatable to all readers. It’s also a pretty light touch, so the vast majority of readers should have no issues with it even if romance in general is not something you enjoy. Ongoing Arcane Ascension
Five years ago, Corin Cadence’s brother entered the Serpent Spire — a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire’s trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire’s goddess.He never returned.Now, it’s Corin’s turn. He’s headed to the top floor, on a mission to meet the goddess.If he can survive the trials, Corin will earn an attunement, but that won’t be sufficient to survive the dangers on the upper levels. For that, he’s going to need training, allies, and a lot of ingenuity.The journey won’t be easy, but Corin won’t stop until he gets his brother back.
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 Completed The War of Broken Mirrors
Some say that in the city of Orlyn, godhood is on sale to the highest bidder. Thousands flock to the city each year, hoping for a chance at immortality.Lydia Hastings is a knowledge sorcerer, capable of extracting information from anything she touches. When she travels to Orlyn to validate the claims of the local faith, she discovers a conspiracy that could lead to a war between the world's three greatest powers. At the focal point is a prisoner who bears a striking resemblance to the long-missing leader of the pantheon she worships.Rescuing the prisoner would require risking her carefully cultivated cover - but his execution could mean the end of everything Lydia holds dear.
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 Completed The Perfect Run
Ryan "Quicksave" Romano is an eccentric adventurer with a strange power: he can create a save-point in time and redo his life whenever he dies. Arriving in New Rome, the glitzy capital of sin of a rebuilding Europe, he finds the city torn between mega-corporations, sponsored heroes, superpowered criminals, and true monsters. It's a time of chaos, where potions can grant the power to rule the world and dangers lurk everywhere. Ryan only sees different routes; and from Hero to Villain, he has to try them all. Only then will he achieve his perfect ending... no matter how many loops it takes.
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 Completed Jake's Magical Market
Meddling gods. A magical card system. An apocalypse no one could have predicted. Jake is working at the neighborhood market under his apartment when the world ends. He expected nuclear war, a computer virus, or even climate change burning everyone to a crisp to bring about the downfall of civilization. But cruel and arbitrary gods from another world? Who would have guessed that? When these cruel gods shuffled Earth like a deck of cards, nothing was in the same place anymore. Monsters, dungeons, and magical items appear scattered across the globe. And suddenly, everyone has access to a new, strange magical card system that gives them magical powers. Jake, wasting his day slacking off in the cooler, as he usually did, found himself alone in a completely new and very dangerous world. Can he learn to survive? Can he collect enough cards and create a good enough deck to fight back against the monsters that have overtaken his former home? And why are these strange people that look a lot like elves knocking on the door of the market he is hiding in and asking to buy some of his goods? The gods may have stacked the deck against him, but Jake just might have a few cards up his sleeve that will help him survive.
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 Completed Threadbare
Meet Threadbare. He is twelve inches tall, full of fluff, and really, really bad at being a hero. Magically animated and discarded by his maker as a failed experiment, he is saved by a little girl. But she's got problems of her own, and he might not be able to help her. Fortunately for the little golem, he's quick to find allies, learn skills, gain levels, and survive horrible predicaments. Which is good, because his creator has a whole lot of enemies...
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 No rating A series must receive 1 user review before a rating is displayed. Break Small Medium
Chase Berrymore dreams of adventure, excitement, and getting the heck out of her pastoral halven village. But when adventure finds her, she'll be scrambling to save her family and friends from a necromancer's wrath. Outmatched in almost every way, she'll have to use her wits, charisma, and a bit of divine favor to figure out the path to victory.Even worse, she'll have to figure out ways to deal with the weird and nigh-immortal beings that call themselves "playas..." And she'll have to do it with the most powerful weapon she has available: words.Violence is not her forte, but cunning, deception, and careful negotiation with unstable and self-centered sociopaths might just win the day, and save herself and her family from this horrible situation which she is absolutely not to blame for in the slightest.
| No rating A series must receive 1 user review before a rating is displayed. |
| Completed Mage Errant
Hugh of Emblin is, so far as he's concerned, the worst student that the Academy at Skyhold has ever seen. He can barely cast any spells at all, and those he does cast tend to fail explosively. If that wasn't bad enough, he's also managed to attract the ire of the most promising student of his year - who also happens to be the nephew of a king. Hugh has no friends, no talent, and definitely doesn't expect a mage to choose him as an apprentice at all during the upcoming Choosing. When a very unusual mage does choose him as apprentice, however, his life starts to take a sharp turn for the better. Now all he has to worry about is the final test for the first years - being sent into the terrifying labyrinth below Skyhold.
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 Quick Version:
Detailed Review: (Some very mild spoilers) This book has a very interesting magic system with clear progression, and I particularly enjoyed how visual it is. In this series, mana is generated through spiritual "mana gardens" with various elemental/conceptual associations such as Life, Death, Space, Time, Teluric (earth), and Tempest. You might notice some of those are conceptual opposites/pairs - and that's where the series title comes into play, as our MC has an ability that grants him two mana types of his choice, and pairs them with their opposite. This book is called The First Gate because of the structure inherent to the mana gardens, with each level of power literally placed behind a gate in the walls of a person's mana garden. There is a breadth and depth to the system, where people can grow in power by growing their gardens and raising the walls around them higher (seems to help with mana capacity), or they can break through the gates unlocking higher tiers of power. Thee system has a probably D&D inspired nine levels of gates, and people who have unlocked their ninth gate are basically demigods. One of the cool things about this book is that we are almost immediately introduced to multiple people at or near the peak of power, and while the main plotline follows our MC as they learn magic, the subplot regarding these ancient wizards is deeply interesting, and had some of my favorite scenes in the book. The MC apprentices to one of them, and he's basically an affable/civilized monster - I'm eager to see how his story plays out. The tone of the book is rather light, but it's made clear several times that darkness exists in the world, and was perhaps the norm in the not-too-distant past. Possibly this book's biggest weakness is starting fairly slow, but it definitely picks up in the 2nd half. I think this is partially due to the need to explain the magic system, and introduce other worldbuilding elements. The world the book takes place in is very interesting, there's a strange mix of almost modern and fantastical ideas, and it's implied that this has been artificially produced by the powers-that-be. At one point I found myself wondering if there might be external influences on this world (possibly from Earth) - I'm curious to see if that will end up being the case. There's a definite feeling of "we're seeing a small cross section of a much larger picture." I also wanted to call out that this book has one of the only FtM transgender main character's I've ever seen in a this genre, the only other I can think of being from Matt Dinniman's Dominion of Blades. This was handled remarkably well and smoothly, in my opinion. I'm trans myself, but I often feel either beat over the head with a character's trans-ness, or it almost feels slapped on to no real effect except a single painfully awkward conversation. Begley, despite not being trans himself, manages to capture it as simply a part of the character's life in a way that feels natural. For example, one of the character's main goals is to learn the magic required to physically transition, so that comes up occasionally in conversations. It matters to the character, but it's not at all awkward, and their society doesn't make a big deal out of it, so no conflict arises from it. Ongoing Mana Mirror
When Malachi Baker stumbles into an offer of apprenticeship from the esteemed and powerful Occultist Orykson, he's left in shock and jumps at the chance to learn... Even if it means taking out a few loans. Unfortunately, his new teacher sees him more as a tool than a student. He has set Malachi near-impossible goals before he becomes worthy of Orykson's full attention, and Malachi's innate power is only somewhat above average. Worse, it turns out that Orykson has enemies more powerful than Malachi had ever imagined—and now their attention has landed solidly on him. Torn between the mage who can offer him everything, and a strange old woman who offers him the chance to guide his own path, Malachi is left scrambling to find his purpose as a new mage. You can expect slow-burn to power, slice-of-life, and queer content.
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 Completed Reborn: Apocalypse
If you could turn back the clock and fix all the mistakes you ever made, would you?For Micheal Care, a swordsman that could only be considered a middling warrior in Humanity's Last Army, the answer to that question would be quite simple.Yes. A million times yes.Humanity has fallen, wiped out after being warped away to a new reality, the mystical 7 Layers.Humanity's goal had been simple. Make it through all 7 Layers and reach Heaven.Humanity failed.Humanity died.Micheal Care's memories have been transported back into his past self thanks to a magical Artifact he found by chance.He is no chosen savior. He is no divinely picked hero.
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