Reddit reviews Threadbare Volume 1: Stuff and Nonsense
We found 11 Reddit comments about Threadbare Volume 1: Stuff and Nonsense. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Reddit reviews Threadbare Volume 1: Stuff and NonsenseWe found 11 Reddit comments about Threadbare Volume 1: Stuff and Nonsense. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
The Erogamer on QQ is probably the best story in that genre that I've read.
Something that borrows some of the elements is Threadbare, by Andrew Seiple, which was first posted as a web serial on SV. Not exactly rationalist, but still a fun read.
Some LitRPG recommendations:
In terms of published Western LitRPGs, I'd say Ascend Online is my favorite. The central protagonist isn't a complete psychopath like a lot of LitRPG protagonists, and he immediately starts treating the highly intelligent AI NPCs as people. That's a huge selling point for me, since it's so rare to see LitRPG protagonists that are friendly to NPCs.
Also, rather than immediately jumping into save the world stuff, it's reasonably paced. The main character doesn't start out with any crazy game breaking abilities, and the setting itself feels largely realistic - it feels very similar to a futuristic version of Everquest.
My other favorite Western LitRPG is Threadbare, which focuses on a bunch of teddy bear (golem) gradually learning about the world around it, and undertaking a determined quest to protect his little girl “owner”. It’s both heartwarming and surprisingly insightful.
In terms of non-Western LitRPGs, Log Horizon is my favorite. The author has clearly played MMORPGs, and the tactics used in there - both by the main character and other characters - feel like the types of things real people would do in a MMO setting. Once again, the main character also takes NPCs seriously and treats them well, which is a big plus for me. Shiroe for Log Horizon is probably the closest character I've seen to someone with my own background in a book.
I also love So I'm a Spider, So What?, which is a hilarious story about a girl who gets reincarnated into an RPG setting as a tiny spider monster. Fortunately, she can grind to get stronger! It's a bit of a strange one, but tons of fun. Note that this one is not strictly going into a VR game - they're just reincarnated in a world with RPG stats. It's a little different, but similar.
If you like the idea of a protagonist exploiting a bunch of bugs, check out Kono Sekai ga Game da to Ore dake ga Shitteiru. I enjoyed the first book a ton. The second book started getting into tropes I didn’t enjoy quite as much.
One of my other recent favorites is The Tutorial is Too Hard, which focuses on a main character transported into a dungeon on “Hell” difficulty that needs to make his way through to the top floor. We see a lot of his analytical process, which makes the story much more enjoyable to someone like me. This is probably my favorite ongoing story.
Here are a few that I find myself recommending often, which also seem to fit what I think you're looking for:
I typically read, not listen, so I can't speak to the quality of the audiobooks, but I enjoyed all of these a lot.
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Edit: Cleaned up links
I've bought a fair amount of ebooks on Amazon recently and I think most of them are books that a lot of people here would enjoy (heck I heard about most of them through here!).
The Preorders:
Underlord - The sixth book in the Cradle series which is described as a Western Xianxia series. A lot of people here don't really like the Xianxia genre and I agree with their criticisms of how many main characters are very villainous, under-developed enemies and female characters, the economies of cultivation aren't logical, poor scaling in conflict as you go from one city to interstellar in scope, and awkward prose. But I bring up all of these flaws to say that the Cradle series completely avoids all of the typical flaws in Xianxia and has a very smart character who sets out to cultivate smartly instead of bullheadedly.
And the sixth book is coming out in March! (Get the box set. It has the first three books and is cheaper!)
Exhalation - Who here hasn't heard of Ted Chiang, the master of short stories that perfectly appeal to the r/rational crowd? The same guy that we literally use as an introduction to rational fiction. Well, if you enjoyed his first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, you'll love hearing that the second collection is coming out in....May! (Ugh....really May? I don't think I can wait that long!)
The books you can read right now!:
The Beginner's Guide to Magical Licensing - Has a similar start to Unsong where a magical college-graduate, minimum-wage, sweat-shop worker stumbles on a powerful spell and sets out to start his own business competing with the powerful. The parts of the story that follows afterward makes a whole lot more logical sense than Unsong however. (Used to be online for free, but now you'll have to pay the price for your ignorance if you want to read it! (Nah, I lied.))
Six Sacred Swords - If you liked the Arcane Ascension series, but wished there was more dungeonnering and less of school shenanigans, then look no further! In some ways it's a lot like reading a very good DnD session played by really savvy players who never follow the 'standard' way to solve problems.
The author of Six Sacred Swords made a recommendation for The Ruin of Kings. He said that it reads like a Locke Lamora-esque rogue protagonist, telling the story in a style similar to Kvothe, in a setting similar to Game of Thrones. I haven't bought the book yet, but the review was interesting enough that I wanted to include it in my list of recommendations.
Senlin Ascends - I haven't read this yet either, but skimming through it, I see some fair bit of social manipulation/combat that I think people here would like. Plus the Tower of Babel setting is something that appeals very strongly to me.
Polyglot: NPC REVOLUTION - A lot of people here seem to really like LitRPG and Artificial Intelligence, but almost no one seem to ever question the implications of the NPCs in LitRPG stories having human-level intelligence.
Small Medium: Big Trouble - It's by the same author who wrote Threadbare that people here really liked. Similar to Polygot where the NPC is the main character who needs to deal with players, but smaller scale in scope. There's a lot of fast-talking to convince selfish sociopaths to do what you say.
Q is for Quantum - I was going through my older ebook orders when I found this one. It's the single best introduction for quantum mechanics that I have ever read (not that I've read too many of those). It focuses on building an intuition for the subject and once you've read through the book, you will understand on a gut level what superposition means. Note that it's meant as an introduction for the subject, so don't expect it to cover everything, just what's need to get started learning about quantum mechanics. But I'd still recommend it to experts if only for a better way to explain their subject to their peers and laypeople.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/20451/who-says-this-ol-cant-become-a-splendid-slime
Office Lady reincarnated as a slime. A little worried that the author's slowing down is turning into the author stopping this series.
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https://www.amazon.com/That-Reincarnated-Slime-light-novel-ebook/dp/B076H132D2/ref=pd_cp_351_1/131-0686409-1127854?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B076H132D2&pd_rd_r=1040ec8c-2170-481c-b955-6b04dc76527e&pd_rd_w=glHS3&pd_rd_wg=hzJUj&pf_rd_p=ef4dc990-a9ca-4945-ae0b-f8d549198ed6&pf_rd_r=N3XZPC8B5H02AJQ4705Q&psc=1&refRID=N3XZPC8B5H02AJQ4705Q
Office Worker reincarnated as a slime. Really fun series, Eventually City management/politics with big battles.
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https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/20568/tree-of-aeons-an-isekai-story
Guy reincarnates as a sentient tree. Slow paced skill growth into city building/unit management.
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CQMYQT5/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title
Reincarnated as a Lovecraftian horror: Yuri princess edition
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Oh, just noticed you also said born as a monster....
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/8894/everybody-loves-large-chests
MC is a monster, one of the best litrpg monster series I've read, HOWEVER, it does have lots of raunchy NSFW content mixed in there. The Amazon versions (starting with https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076NSQ6JT/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title ) toned down the sex scenes but it does still have a lot of them.
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NNWZT9M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i3
A skeleton from an world set up like an RPG gets teleported in space and begins a Sci-Fi adventure on an abandoned spaceport.
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078KGS4V4?notRedirectToSDP=1&ref_=dbs_pwh_calw_0&storeType=ebooks
Toy Golem leveling up and fighting to rescue his owner.
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071LHHY85/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title
A goblin joins a camp of bandits.
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So, so many reincarnated as a dungeon core novels, but not sure if that fits in with your "monster" request.
The first ebook of Dante's Immortality was recently published, and should fit your criteria. Dante basically distrusts everyone all the time, but because he genuinely doesn't know a lot he ends up committing some believably naive mistakes.
You might also like Threadbare - the main character isn't naive so much as innocent, given that he's a newborn golem for most of the novel. The combat system is all about skills and skill synergies, and the dialog is great (even though the main character can't speak).
There's also Everybody Loves Large Chests. Again the main character starts out a little naive, but that's largely because it starts from more or less zero Int. It doesn't become an asshole so much as a completely amoral monster, because that's what it is.
If you're willing to read serials that aren't published as complete books, you can try out the bifecta of combat LitRPGs on Royal Road: The New World and The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound are both great.
I recommend Threadbare which is a series of three books and about ~320K words. Completed and on Amazon, also available on SpaceBattles and Sufficient Velocity.
The following each only have one book sadly as not many books in the genre have a lot yet, some have second books coming soon.
The Game of Gods by Joshua Kern
The Great Filter by Russell Wilbinski
Advent (Red Mage) by Xander Boyce
Core Punk by Paul Bellow
First Song (Anthem of Infinity) by Blaise Corvin
This next one has three books but it also has a lot of sex, the story is good if you can get past that or enjoy that sort of thing.
Apocalypse Gates by Daniel Schinhofen
This next one is post-apocalyptic but the world ended a long time ago, it has 2 books. I should note that the "system" aspect is new in the book, it didn't happen when the world fell.
Radioactive Evolution by Richard Hummel
Lastly an honorable mention because while you wouldn't think it's post apocalyptic from the description it absolutely is which may be a spoiler but not big one. Again those the world ended a long time ago. It has three books.
Threadbare by Andrew Seiple
Given time i could probably think of a few others but these were just the ones that came to me the quickest and ones I can say having read them are all good. I also avoided the ones you mentioned or other people have already recommended. Hope this helps!
Threadbare is my favorite example of this genre, though some of the violence in that is replaced by humor. If you're n audio book listener then I highly suggest getting these, if not then it's still more than worth it imo.
https://www.amazon.com/Threadbare-Stuff-Nonsense-Andrew-Seiple-ebook/dp/B078KGS4V4
Shameless plug for my own web-serial on Royal Road, it also takes place in its own world with an "RPGs magic system." Can't claim it's as good as Dante's, but it's free and I love hearing feedback!
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/19452/nameless-ascent
This is a book based on that theme
https://www.amazon.com/Threadbare-Stuff-Nonsense-Andrew-Seiple-ebook/dp/B078KGS4V4
My bad, I misspelt the title. Here's the first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Threadbare-Stuff-Nonsense-Andrew-Seiple-ebook/dp/B078KGS4V4