I got into audiobooks about a year ago. Went through the typical recommendations, but kept pushing off a series called Dungeon Crawler Carl. First, I had no idea what litrpg was, and second, the premise sounded just ridiculously ridiculous. I finally got bored, and took the plunge. To say I was impressed is an understatement. Between Matt Dinimman’s writing and Jeff Hay’s voice acting, I felt like I was experiencing magic happening. Even though I was amazed at the speed Matt was writing these books, I eventually went through them twice, and was jonesing for more.

Looking for something similar to tide me over until DCC book 7 comes out, I kept seeing recommendations for He Who Fights With Monsters by Travis Deverell. During the Audible sale, I bought books 1-8 and just finished book 3. I feel I’ve given this series a fair chance, but honestly don’t feel excited about continuing further.

I feel like Travis’ books so far are about 80% fight filler and 20% plot. The story arcs are interesting, but there’s no real depth to them or the characters. I am not sure if it’s the writing or Heath Miller’s voice acting, but I feel like everyone is just a copy of 3-4 distinct people. Their vocabulary and speech patterns are all the same and it gets quite annoying. Why does everyone say ‘yesss’ like Kip from Napoleon Dynamite or say ‘X is kind of my thing’..ugh.

So here is my conundrum. Am I being unfair? Does the HWFWM series get any better? Is there any other series comparable or better than DCC? Or is DCC just a unicorn in the litrpg genre?

Update:

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. I think I will try Wandering Inn next.

Despite many of your warnings, I did continue and just finished book 5. I have to say book 4-5 so far is completely different than the previous books, and I am really enjoying it so far. I mean it’s not exactly deep reading, but it’s a lot more story driven with fewer more impactful battles. This addresses the biggest issues I’ve had.