A baker who wants a quiet life, a summoner thrown into a realm where even the bugs can kill him, and a survivor whose class breaks every time he reaches a threshold. These are some of the setups that stood out when I looked back at the LitRPG books in my Goodreads reading history. Each one makes the rules of the game matter in a different way.
If you want one place to start, I’d pick Ultimate Level 1: Shattered Dreams. Max has a simple goal and a dangerous secret, which gives every new ability some weight. If you’d rather watch someone pick apart a hostile game, start with The Grand Game. And if the thought of a protagonist having to die to get better at surviving sounds like your kind of fantasy, pick Die. Respawn. Repeat.
I went back to my Goodreads reading challenge recap and my reviews for these picks. Every book below opens its series, so you can choose the kind of progression you like and start with Book 1.
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Which LitRPG book should you read next?
| If you want… | Start with… | What drives the progression |
|---|---|---|
| An underdog with a life he wants to get back to | Ultimate Level 1: Shattered Dreamsby Shawn Wilson | A dangerous hidden skill |
| A dungeon survivor who has to read the room | The Grand Game by Tom Elliot | Experience, abilities, and decisions about whom to trust |
| An apocalypse protagonist who actually wants the challenge | Nightmare Realm Summoner by Actus | A summoner class that draws power from its monsters |
| A time loop with an underlying mystery | Die. Respawn. Repeat. by Silver Linings | Repeated deaths that yield power and information |
| A darker story about rebuilding a character from scratch | Loop Bound: The Mirror by Alex Keys | Class resets that preserve some skills and stats |
1. Ultimate Level 1: Shattered Dreams by Shawn Wilson
Max wants to be a baker. When he gets the class he hoped for, it comes with a rare skill that makes him a target. He goes on the run and has to learn to survive as an adventurer, even as he keeps the ability that could save him hidden from the people traveling with him.
This was one of my favorites because I understood what Max was fighting for before I knew how his skill worked. There’s something funny about a baker getting dragged into the kind of adventure most LitRPG protagonists would volunteer for. There’s also something sad about how quickly a modest ambition can become out of reach. Every step toward becoming capable enough to go home makes him better at a job he never wanted.
That tension holds up beyond the opening gimmick. A new ability has obvious appeal when someone is hunting Max. It also raises the question of how he’ll explain it when he has to use it in front of the wrong people. If you like the genre’s combat and leveling but need a character to care about before you care about the build, this is my first pick.
Read this if you like reluctant adventurers, hidden powers, and an underdog with a home worth getting back to. My Shattered Dreams review · Kindle edition on Amazon
2. The Grand Game by Tom Elliot
Michael wakes up in a monster-filled dungeon in the Forever Kingdom with no memory of who he is or how he arrived. He has to earn experience and find out how the Game works while other players and competing powers pursue agendas of their own. Surviving an encounter buys him time to figure out a little more about the next one.
The Grand Game felt like a breath of fresh air when I read it. I liked seeing Michael make decisions with incomplete information. In some LitRPGs, you can understand a skill’s value as soon as it appears on the page. Here, an ability can look useful and still leave a bigger question unanswered. Who benefits if Michael uses it? What does another player know about the dungeon that he doesn’t? Those questions make it satisfying to watch him piece together the situation.
The opening is a good fit if you enjoy watching one person improvise under pressure. Start here if your favorite part of a dungeon story is the moment a character spots a way through that everyone else has missed.
Read this if you want dungeon survival, tactical choices, and a world where knowing whom to trust matters as much as choosing a skill. My Grand Game review · Kindle edition on Amazon
3. Nightmare Realm Summoner by Actus
Alex is excited when the System gives Earth advance warning that it’s coming. He’s already imagining what he can do with a world full of magic when his friend shoves him through a portal at the start of the apocalypse. The monsters on the other side are much stronger than he is, and his Summoner class can gain powers from the creatures it summons.
The summoning is the reason I’d point readers here. In a straightforward survival story, a monster is usually something you want to get past. For Alex, what lives in this realm can also shape what he’s able to do later. That gives the creatures more to contribute than a higher difficulty setting. You can read an encounter and start wondering what Alex might eventually take from it.
Alex also makes for a fun comparison with Max. Max’s abilities complicate the quiet future he pictured for himself. Alex has been waiting for his old life to change, and the disastrous way it happens gives him a chance to find out how much he meant it. If you want the protagonist to be as curious about the new rules as you are, Alex is the one to follow.
Read this if you want a hostile starting zone, monster-based abilities, and a protagonist eager to see what the apocalypse lets him do. Publisher’s book page · Kindle edition on Amazon
4. Die. Respawn. Repeat. by Silver Linings
Ethan Hill gets caught in a time loop on an alien planet during Earth’s Integration. Dying gives him a chance to try again and make progress. It also gives him more opportunities to find out what the people behind the System want from Earth.
This was one of the books that got me hooked on LitRPG. The combination of a protagonist I wanted to follow and a system I wanted to understand kept me reading. I like a time loop best when returning to a familiar situation changes how I see it. In Ethan’s case, there’s a reason to pay attention to both the immediate danger and whatever he overlooked on the last attempt. Getting through a fight is satisfying. Seeing him go into the next version with a better question can be just as good.
If you’re choosing between this and The Mirror, think about which part of starting over appeals to you. Ethan gets to revisit events with more knowledge. Logan, in The Mirror, has to figure out what he can build from the abilities a reset leaves behind.
Read this if you want a time-loop LitRPG where a failed attempt can uncover part of the larger mystery. My Die. Respawn. Repeat. review · Kindle edition on Amazon
5. Loop Bound: The Mirror by Alex Keys
Logan Hale survives Earth’s transformation and lands in a hostile tutorial. His unusual Fractal Self trait breaks his current class when he reaches a threshold and sends his level back to one. Some of what he earned survives the reset, including stats and abilities he can carry into a different kind of build.
The idea I singled out in my review was how much fun there is in imagining what you’d keep. A skill that seemed minor in one class might become the piece that makes the next build work. A class that helped Logan survive up to that point might break right when he’d prefer to rely on it. That makes the cost of getting stronger easy to see, especially in a world that gives him very little room to experiment safely.
This is the darkest pick on the list. If you like thinking through character builds and want a book that makes losing a class as interesting as gaining one, The Mirror is worth a look.
Read this if you like grim system-apocalypse stories, unconventional builds, and progression that forces the main character to start over. My Mirror review · Kindle edition on Amazon
If you’re new to LitRPG terminology, our LitRPG vs. progression fantasy guide explains how classes, levels, and skills fit into the genre. For more picks organized around Carl and Donut’s particular brand of chaos, see our books like Dungeon Crawler Carl.
What LitRPG book got you thinking about what you’d do with the main character’s abilities?
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