I blame LitRPG

Early this year, I resolved to read 100 books. Similar to last year, but this time a bit more ambitious. I'd make sure I didn't read anything below 200 pages this time, and I'd actually read things on non-fiction and interesting topics like dopamine and history.

Getting sucked into the world of LitRPG

More than that, I also resolved to write more this year - and what better way to hit two birds with one stone than by doing a book review post for every book?

And I was in such a great groove too. I easily got to 20 books by March, and had 5 blog posts and reviews to go along with it. It felt like it was inevitable more than a slog - I'd reach my goals and get to where I wanted to be.

Then I picked up Dungeon Crawler Carl. Followed it up with The Wandering Inn. And I haven't written a single book review since.

It's really more of a credit to LitRPG than anything - DCC and The Wandering Inn are such vividly imagined worlds, perfect for their millennial audience, tackling old tropes in fresh ways with characters as human as a Dostoevsky heroine. I didn't anticipate these series not just making me a fan but completely hijacking my fictional reading appetite. The lore consumed me so much that I don't think I've read any other fantasy since discovering these two series.

This post is not a review. I resolve to create massive reviews for both series soon. If you know The Wandering Inn, it feels like anything below 2,000 words is doing it a disservice.

I've been procrastinating about DCC for some time now, not because I'm lazy, but because it's really hard to describe without sounding absurd. The premise itself is absurd - the world is ending, and Carl, wearing just his boxers, and his cat get sucked into a game where they need to complete challenges for each level to survive. Along the way, they have to kill monsters, lead a rebellion, kill a big penis god, murder so many people, destroy a nursery with goblin babies, and a lot more absurd stuff that's just hard to explain. If there's anything that qualifies as a "trust me, this shit is really great" - DCC is it.

The Wandering Inn is a little easier to explain - it's a LitRPG, which means it's filled with the familiar tropes of leveling, isekai, and finding your place in a world that isn't yours. But its real power is just how immersive it is. It's a slice-of-life novel set in one of the most vividly imagined worlds you'll ever be part of, with a cast of characters and races I'm not sure you'd see anywhere else. There's the Stitch-folk, the Antinium, the Drakes, the Selphids. Famously, The Wandering Inn now qualifies as one of the longest works ever written - and it's not yet finished. Each volume is massive - we're talking the equivalent of the thickest Harry Potter book or the longest LOTR book. But I cherish every word and page of it, and it never feels boring.

I owe these books proper reviews soon. The worlds, the sheer vitality of them, make me so happy that they exist - they're worlds I can lose myself in from time to time. And maybe that's worth blowing up my reading goals for.