After doing mini-reviews for all the SPSFC3 contestants’ books I read, I felt like I was remiss to not be doing any for my own genre! This list includes only series that I started reading in 2023. So yes, of course I read the next Dungeon Crawler Carl and the conclusion of the Cradle series, but focusing on stories that were new to me A) gave a more interesting mix of books and B) let me review stuff that was a little fresher in my mind.
Since I’m also an author, I’m not going to give a numeric rating of each series. Instead I’ll give a brief description of what it is and what types of readers I think might enjoy it, and which ought to steer clear. Not every book is for every person! I also listed the squares I think it fills on the R/Fantasy bingo sheet this year, although I’m sure I missed some.
Scroll down, or jump to a review: Haley and Nana’s Cozy Armageddon – Good Guys – Bad Guys – Murder of Crows – Melas – Apocalypse Redux – Mark of the Fool – All the Skills – Apocalypse Tamer – Menocht Loop – Soul Relic – Dragon Sorcerer – Toroth-Gol – Stargazer’s War – The Tower of Somnus – The Whispering Crystals
Haley and Nana’s Cozy Armageddon by MC Hogarth – The title says it all, really. There’s a game-system apocalypse, but the main characters are never in too much peril, and are generally insulated from anything too awful happening. It’s mostly a story of a community coming together.
Good for: Readers looking for cozy books or looking for a first LitRPG to recommend to younger readers
Bad for: Anyone looking for something “gritty” or “dark”
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Young Adult, Self-Published, Novella, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Good Guys by Eric Ugland – This real idiot of a main character gets isekai’d and tries to make a life for himself, but stumbles blindly into a position of power he has to live up to. A good example of how idiot MCs can be fun to read: the other characters know the MC is a moron and give him a hard time for it, and while he gets lucky more often than is statistically probable, his boneheaded moves often cost him.
Good for: People who enjoy community building, lighthearted reads, and overpowered MCs
Bad for: People who want “serious” books or would be too irritated at an idiot MC, even if well-written
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Mythical Beasts, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Bad Guys by Eric Ugland – set in the same world and basic timeframe as “Good Guys,” this could be fairly described as a companion series. I enjoyed it, but not as much as Good Guys… The characters and their decisions just didn’t resonate with me as well.
Good for: People who like the Good Guys series and want more
Bad for: People who want a more serious story
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Mythical Beasts, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Murder of Crows by Chris Tullbane – Boy has super powers in a dystopian world of superheroes, but his are necromantic and will drive him crazy. The MC is very angry at the world and I love it. That said, I do want to throw this out there: the story is told from the viewpoint of a teenage male MC who is… pretty immature. I know the anger at the world and the immature way he views women in the story is too much for some readers. It didn’t bother me personally, but I definitely consider it a fair criticism worth mentioning.
Good for: Fans of dystopias and superheroes
Bad for: People who don’t want to deal with an immature angry teenage boy as narrator
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Superheroes, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Melas Series by Melas Delta – I enjoyed this! One thing I will say is that while the series came to a conclusion, it almost felt like an origin story or prequel trilogy for another series. I’m definitely curious about what happens next in that world and hope Melas shares that eventually.
Good for: People who like character-driven stories, underdog stories
Bad for: People who don’t like setbacks and imperfect solutions
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Apocalypse Redux by Jakob H. Greif – As you might expect from the title, this is a recursion story. The twist, which I really enjoyed, is that the guy who’s come back in time decides that the best way to help isn’t to personally facesmash threats (although he does some of that) but to A) join a research team he knows will be reputable and guide them to making better discoveries earlier and B) release important information anonymously.
Good for: People who like rational fiction
Bad for: People who dislike large casts or want primarily OP solo MC action
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Mythical Beasts, Mundane Jobs, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Mark of the Fool by J.M. Clarke
The main character of this series is divinely marked to fulfill a role, but he’s not the mage or the champion. Nope! He’s the fool, and as such he’s amazing at learning anything unrelated to self-defense or combat, but heavily punished for learning anything combat or magic related, and basically incapable of direct violence toward others. This makes his plans of going to wizard school… tricky.
Good for: People who like reading clever power applications
Bad for: People who want the protagonist to fly solo. He don’t do.
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Mythical Beasts, Angels and Demons (eventually), Sequel (for later books in the series)
All the Skills by Honor Rae
A fun entry in the “swappable skills” subgenre… frequently called deckbuilders, but damnit, the boardgamer in me won’t stand for that. Sorry! The MC lucks into acquisition of a ridiculously powerful skill, so powerful that he can’t let others know what he has if he wants to keep it. At the same time, he needs to use it if he wants to survive, thrive, and help out his family and struggling village.
Good for: People who like a good internal conflict and an MC with loyalties and attachments
Bad for: People who don’t like it when the MC lies. Because he kind of hast to. Like. All the time. And sometimes he does it when he doesn’t have to. Look, it’s working for him, alright?
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Mythical Beasts, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Apocalypse Tamer by Maxime J. Durand
Eyyy, gamesystem apocalypse! Obviously a genre near and dear to my heart. The relationship between the MC and his technical-pets-but-sometimes-romantic-interests-and-mostly-equal-party-members is odd, but doesn’t truly cross into squicky territory. I really enjoyed the way the MC’s berserking fits were portrayed.
Good for: People looking for a pet/tamer story
Bad for: People who can’t tolerate crude humor
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Title with a Title, Self-Published, Mythical Beasts, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Menocht Loop by Lorne Ryburn and Silas Sontag
Finally got around to checking out this famous recursion story! It. Is. Brutal. The time-loop aspects are well-written and make sense – never a given with time travel stories – and the powersets are unique and make for interesting dilemmas.
Good for: People who like weird powers and weird stories
Bad for: People looking for something lighthearted
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Soul Relic by Samuel Hinton
The MC is born in a society where magic is omnipresent and required for any sort of career, but she has zero mana regeneration. Can she find a way to fix her issues and find a place in the world?
Good for: People who like personal stakes and didn’t think book one of Cradle was too slow
Bad for: People who want high stakes and a fast-paced story
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Mythical Beasts, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Dragon Sorcerer by Sean Oswald and Dutch Palmer
A young dragon is driven from his home by adventurers, then uses his shapeshifting ability to pretend to be human when his life is in danger again. One thing leads to another, and he finds himself keeping up the masquerade as a human as he tries to figure out what’s going on in the world. Why do people believe dragons are little more than animals? And why are the dragons dying out?
Good for: People who like unusual MCs. Even if the MC is usually in human form, he’s always a dragon in his heart and keeps his draconic priorities and mindset
Bad for: People who get frustrated when the direction of a story isn’t clear
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Mythical Beasts, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Toroth-Gol by Kenny Gould
Sportsball star in a world where technology is at war with magic is accused of treason and dumped in a magical dungeon that is apparently the major source of magic near his kingdom. If he retrieves the MacGuffin at the end of the dungeon, he’ll be pardoned, but his death is almost certain. Plus, his kingdom seems kind of shady. Do they really deserve this MacGuffin anyhow? The fact that the protagonist uses a sentient potato to fight made me expect a lot more slapstick humor than there really is. There’s silliness, but quite a bit of seriousness as well. I had fun reading it.
Good for: People who want Dungeon Crawler Carl vibes, but more silly and less bleak
Bad for: People who don’t enjoy humor elements in dramatic stories
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Stargazer’s War by J.P. Valentine
A western sci-fi cultivation story, with a main character who starts out as a vac welder and never expected to be able to cultivate. Probably why he’s going about it so strangely… Hopefully he can get the help he needs to survive growing his new skills without getting taken apart to see how he works!
Good for: People who enjoy a slight subversion of typical cultivation tropes, people who enjoy a strong MC “voice”
Bad for: People who hate cultivation in all its forms, or hate westernized cultivation
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Mundane Jobs, Sequel (for later books in the series)
Tower of Somnus by Cale Plamann
Aliens think humanity sucks too much to join the space cool kids club, which is kind of fair because in the future this world is set in, corporations control the world and keep everyone in near-slavery. Humanity allowed into the Tower of Somnus, a sort of shared gamelike dream that grants powers in real life… but very few people have access, and if you die in Somnus, you lose access. Our protagonist lucks into access, makes some alien friends, and starts powering up, while using her daylight hours to run dangerous corporate espionage missions.
Very different and enjoyable, in spite of some apparent plot holes. (Why do the crime lords with access not spend the majority of their time in-game getting more of their flunkeys into Somnus? It seems doable, if irritating.)
Good for: People who want an MC with friends and family
Bad for: People who don’t like the idea of a story that takes place in both a “real” world and a “game” world, even if there’s crossover between them
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Mundane Jobs, Multiverse and Alternate Realities, Sequel (for later books in the series)
The Whispering Crystals by H. C. Mills
Woo, this series is a trip. The protagonist is swiftly whisked to an alternate plane of reality and is “lucky” enough to survive the initial transition. Of course, that’s only the start of her troubles. Good thing someone removed one of her eyes and smacked a crystal into the socket that a helpful guide can use to communicate with her, right?
Good for: People who like new settings and unique alien races
Bad for: People who don’t like a story that changes or adds rulesets and settings
R/Fantasy Bingo squares: Self-Published, Multiverse and Alternate Realities, Sequel (for later books in the series)
And hey, if you don’t like the sound of any of those… check out Apocalypse Parenting!
