While I hated the characters, hated the interactions, hated the plot whiplash, and the story, the writing was okay and it's a good homage to what people love about MMOs. I wavered between 'I did not like it' (one star) and 'It was okay' (two stars). +10 bonus points for writing a LitRPG debut without the MC swanking about feeling smug about what a cheat he is. Kyle obviously played MMOs competitively, because he knows no matter how smart you think you are theres always someone smarter - and no individual holds a candle to collective teamwork. Most LitRPG authors seem to be primarily D&Derers, and their dramas are mostly resolved by 'brilliant' loophole exploitation which honestly tends to be pretty stupid. I snickered out loud at one point, which is a first for me for LitRPG. There is actual dialogue with personality! The characters are actually entertaining, unlike other litrpg attempts at being funny where it's obvious that all characters are just identical reflections of the author's personal sense of humor. He has some crazy advantages in life, but also the penalties those advantages come with. The EXP and stat system actually make sense, yet he doesn't waste pages of exposition where the MC wanks about fretting about min maxing Let's look at the things the author gets right: Literally my only gripe with this is it's the authors debut novel, and the sequel isn't available to read yet. This is by far the best LitRPG I've read in 2021.

Shadeslinger by Kyle Kirrin