Best LitRPG Books
This isn't a list of 50 books we scraped from Amazon with affiliate links (although what is LitRPG? if you're completely new). These are books we've read, have opinions about, and think are worth your time. Organised by subgenre so you can skip to what you're actually in the mood for.
The ones everyone reads first
When someone says "I've never read LitRPG, what do I start with?" — it's usually one of these.
An alien race destroys civilisation, turns the planet into a dungeon, and broadcasts the survivors as reality TV. Carl, wearing nothing but boxer shorts and Crocs, has to navigate the whole thing with his ex-girlfriend's cat, who the System decided to make sentient. It sounds ridiculous because it is. It's also one of the best-written things in the genre. Princess Donut alone is worth the read. Read on Kindle →
Jason is Australian. This matters because his entire approach to being transported to a fantasy world is to be aggressively Australian about it. The magic system is one of the genre's best — essence-based, combinatorial, with real depth — but honestly you're here for a protagonist who treats gods the same way he'd treat a bouncer at a Melbourne pub. Long series. The first three books are the peak. Read on Kindle →
The System arrives. Zac ends up alone on an island. He fights things until he's strong enough to fight bigger things. That's reductive but also kind of the point — this is pure progression momentum, 10+ books of it, and it barely stops to breathe. What makes it work is that it blends LitRPG stat mechanics with cultivation in a way that really shouldn't cohere but does. Started on Royal Road, now one of KDP's biggest series. Read on Kindle →
Jake is good at killing things. Unreasonably good. The fun here isn't whether he'll survive — it's watching the system try to keep up with him. The alchemy crafting system is surprisingly deep and becomes a major subplot. Fifteen published volumes at this point and it's still going. If you like your MCs overpowered and unapologetic about it, Jake's your guy. Read on Kindle →
Dungeon Core
You are the dungeon. You build floors, grow monsters, digest adventurers. If that doesn't immediately appeal to you, skip this section. If it does — welcome, you're one of us.
Cal is a dungeon core learning the basics — absorbing mana, creating monsters, designing rooms. Dale is an adventurer who keeps coming back. The alternating perspectives between builder and delver is what gives it a shape most dungeon core stories don't have. It's one of the first in the subgenre and still one of the best entry points. Read on Kindle →
What happens if the dungeon core is an ethical person who doesn't actually want to kill adventurers? Turns out, quite a lot. Blue Core takes the subgenre's premise and asks genuinely interesting questions about sapience, consent, and power. The worldbuilding goes deeper than expected. It has some mature content — fair warning if that's not your thing, but it's not gratuitous. Read on Kindle →
System Apocalypse
Earth wakes up one morning with hit points and skill trees. Society immediately collapses. Someone has to grind fast enough to keep everyone alive.
The series that literally named the subgenre. John is in the Yukon when it happens and has to deal with monsters, collapsing infrastructure, and other humans who are also figuring out the new rules. Less power-fantasy than most entries on this list — people die, the MC makes bad calls, and the geopolitics of a System-integrated Earth are taken more seriously than you'd expect. Read on Kindle →
You get reincarnated as an ant. A regular ant, in a dungeon, with a System. You have to evolve, find food, and protect your colony. Anthony (he named himself) is hilarious, the colony-building loop is addictive, and somehow the emotional beats hit harder than stories with human protagonists. Eight KDP volumes, massive Royal Road following, consistently one of the most-loved stories in the genre. Read on Kindle →
VR & Isekai
The classic setup — entering a game world one way or another. Where LitRPG started.
Erin ends up in a fantasy world and opens an inn. That's really all there is to the pitch, and it's approximately 12 million words long, making it the longest published English-language work of fiction. It's less crunchy LitRPG and more 'what does a world that runs on classes and levels actually feel like to live in?' Very character-driven, very slow, extremely beloved by the people who get into it. You'll know within two chapters whether this is for you. Read on Kindle →
Jin gets isekai'd into a cultivation world, decides the whole 'fight everyone and ascend to godhood' thing is not for him, and goes farming instead. His animals start cultivating. The rooster becomes a martial arts master. It won a Stabby Award. It's a loving parody of cultivation fiction that's somehow also a really good cultivation story in its own right. Read on Kindle →
We also have a progression fantasy recommendations list if you want stuff without the game mechanics. Or get picks like these every week:
The Loot Drop
A free weekly email for people who read too much LitRPG. Stories worth your time, genre news, community stuff.