This has been on my TBR for a while now. I got thrown into the LitRPG scene I think about a year ago with Will Wight’s Cradle Series. I remember devouring those 9 books (at the time) over a period of 3 weeks. I’ll upload a review of that sometime in the future. I followed that up with Tao Wong’s A Thousand Li series which is a wuxia and xianxia type novel. While these terms may seem new and confusing, here’s a quick breakdown.

LitRPG is essentially any novel that follows the trope of a character who finds themself in a role playing game (RPG) environment wherein they would have to increase their abilities and strengths to survive. Sort of a literary RPG if you will. Wuxia, which literally means “martial heroes”, is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China, and Xianxia is a genre of Chinese fantasy involving ‘cultivation’ where characters seek to become immortal beings called xian. Along the way, they attain eternal life, supernatural powers, and incredible levels of strength.

Ok, with that out of the way back to the review. He who fights with monsters is originially, and continues to be, a webnovel. Shirtaloon regularly uploads chapters on Royal Road for anyone to read, and has been doing so for a while now. There are over 625 chapters in total with around 200 or so available online. The first 400 chapters correspond to the 5 books that have been released.

The series follows Jason Asano, our australian protagonist as he wakes up to find himself stark naked in an unfamiliar place with a prompt in his head informing him of his stats and abilities like he’s seen in any game. Confused and disoriented he soon finds himself attacked by monsters, kidnapped and soon to be sacrificed, all while being utterly confused as to what the hell is going on. While the story isn’t polished it is very very entertaining. The plot is so fast paced I found myself having zoned out for hours just reading this. The audiobook further helped to nail down some of the voices which made for an even more entertaining experience. There’s monsters, dungeons, camaraderie, love, loss, political machinations and a whole lot more.

I have read the 5 books that have been published and, I think, enough online that may cover the 6th book when it does come out. While entertaining, the author does take several liberties with the main protagonist. I’m all for someone picking up skills and getting stronger to defeat a foe (cue Rocky training montage), but the protagonist seems to get the better of a lot of people who have been doing their job for a lot longer than him. It gets a bit tiring and repetitive after book 3 but I pushed on because there were some plots I wanted to see through, and I was in too deep anyway. For anyone familiar with LitRPGs these points aren’t anything new as they seem to be common amongst most books in the genre. There are always recurring themes and aspects that are found everywhere. There will be monsters, there will be a dungeon or tower of some sort, there will be mosnters in said dungoen / tower, there will be rewards in these dungeons and towers, and so on and so forth.

That being said, I find myself drawn to these books. I cant seem to get enough of them. These books aren’t for everybody as they can come across as very silly and nonsensical, but I guess that’s what I needed in my life right now. What I would suggest is to go in with a blank mind and not to think too much. Just try and enjoy the ride. I’d recommend the audiobooks for this series as the voice actor does add a bit more to the story.

Rating: 4/5

Links:

1. LitRPG
2. r/LitRPG wiki
3. wuxia
4. xianxia
5. goodreads: Will Wight’s Cradle Series
6. goodreads: Tao Wong’s A Thousand Li Series
7. royal road