u/BirthdayConsistent

Wish this continued...

I read Victor of Tucson (Pit Fighter is 1st novel) and REALLY enjoyed it. More than most litrpg. Up there with DCC, Bog Standard Isekai, HWFWM, etc.

I liked it better than Cradle, A Soldiers Life, & Primal Hunter (I just didn't like the Main Characters in these popular series all that much. They all kind of seemed like sociopaths to me - paranoid, socially awkward, and feeling like 12 year olds trapped in grown ass men's bodies).

I like well written books with complex characters - where it's not ALL about progression, systems, and power leveling. I like a well written story with character arcs where the main character grows, evolves, and learns alongside of just their loot progression.

Anywho, while waiting for the next He Who Fights with Monsters, Dungeon Crawler Carl and Victor of Tucson books to come out, I decided to check out another of Plum Parrot's (Pen name of MC Gallup) series, Vainglory. And it's freaking AWESOME 😎 Ward (Main Character) is one of my favorite MC's ever. Its better written than Victor of Tucson and seems to have so much potential. Ward is not a whiny teenager, but a mature detective who is basically isekai'd and isn't some bitch ass whiny kid. So refreshing. He knows how to talk to real women. And just maturely deals with situations . Loot and progression aren't easy, but hard fought (think more A Soldiers Life style - I did like that part of that series).

I actually find myself wanting to follow Ward more than Victor!!

Reason for this post is I read that Vainglory just didn't catch on with the Litrpg community like Victor of Tucson/Pitfighter did, and so the author decided to conclude the Vainglory series after 3 books, which is honestly a crying shame. I LOOOOVE this series. So much better than so many other well known litRPG s out there. So let's give Vainglory a go, and see if we (the litRPG community) can't get Vainglory extended!!!

Fyi the audiobook format is amazing

I've been avidly consuming LitRPG/Progression fantasy for about a year now and after starting with DCC and HWFWM -and thoroughly enjoying both - I then moved on to many other burgeoning authors and found myself generally disappointed. A lot of series feel action heavy but rarely seem to have stories or characters that I genuinely care about. I found myself almost quitting the genre simply because of the overall poor writing quality. Then I was recommended to give Phil Tucker a shot.

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Can I just say that Phil rocks?! His characters feel real. Phil seems to understand the human experience and that translates well onto the page. He also writes different types of series and seems broad in his scope.

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So, thank you for being awesome, Phil Tucker. And restoring my hope in the genre.