I remember why I loved LitRPG

About Death Has Joined the Party

Welcome, sentient races one and all, to the centennial season of the greatest collaboration between mortals and gods! The most thrilling, most deadly, most watched spectacle ever put on in any realm…Mana Runners!

The infinite dungeon below Whitepeak, the famous City of Wizards, has reset itself once again, bringing new traps, new monsters, and new, never-before-seen challenges to this historic event. All of your favorite champions from Season Ninety-Nine are back and ready to face what is sure to be the most difficult season of Mana Runners ever attempted. From the lowest Copper Tier to the Platinums who shine at the top, every Runner is ready to lay down their lives defending you from the monsters that lurk beneath the mountain.

All of their sacrifices shall be recorded in the pages of history, but only those blessed with unique powers from the gods can reach the deepest floors. It’s the event that brings sentient races from all over the world together! The spectacle no one can afford to miss! And you can watch it all live thanks to Whitepeak College of Wizardry’s revolutionary sendernet: the only Sending spell network that broadcasts the can’t-be-missed action of Mana Runners straight into your home!

(The Mana Runners Centennial Season is produced by the Whitepeak Dungeon Committee and the Coalition of Rightfully Aligned Gods. Remember, the gods are always listening, so be sure to pray for your favorite Mana Runner to earn them blessings as they battle the unthinkable dangers of the Endless Dungeon!)

Review of Mana Runners, book 1

When I first found LitRPG, the pandemic had either just started or was just about to start. My husband told me I’d like the book he was listening to (one of Eric Ugland’s The Good Guys), but I resisted because I am “oppositional defiant”. I wouldn’t listen to Eric Ugland, not yet anyway. I started with Dakota Krout’s Completionist Chronicles. They were funny, the stats didn’t get in the way, and it was different enough from my daily life in grad school that it was a wonderful break. I quickly started to devour LitRPG after LitRPG. It became a kind of obsession. A fixation.

Then, suddenly, I was uninterested in LitRPG. I think it was a combination of too much too quick and depression. The pandemic was in full swing and there were few things that I kept doing, even things I loved. Long story short, I was tired. All the time.

This last year I’ve had a bit of a break through. I enjoyed The Longwinded One’s first two books in The Four Treasures Saga (which are more epic fantasy than LitRPG) and Get Trucked. Then Rachel reached out and asked if I would like a review copy of Death Has Joined the Party. I was hesitant, not sure if I had enough time or if I was ready to really jump back in to LitRPG. But I liked the idea of the book….and the mimic on the cover. So, I emailed her back and said I’d love to read it. I didn’t realize just how much I’d love it.

Now on to the actual reveiw.

Death Has Joined the Party is a book about someone who has spent their whole life inside trying to figure out and fix whatever was wrong with them. I may have related a little too much to him. When, suddenly, he is offered a deal too good to be true. And, alas, it was not straight forward. His illness was cured, kind of, but he also had an old lich in his head. Now here is where Tavin and I diverge in personality. I would have been content to go about normal life, but not Tavin. He was obsessed with Mana Runners, a reality TV show where the magical people of his world entered dungeons and kept the monster populations at bay.

Rachel and Travis drew on many different things for this book. There is the obvious dungeons and dragons free rule set and monsters. Dungeon Crawler Carl might also be an inspiration, but only in the sense of the reality TV show in a dungeon crawl. There is a feel of manga and anime. I’m thinking particularly of the wildly over powered main character. None of those are bad. I also don’t think Rachel and Travis copied anyone. Let’s just set that straight. Influences are rife throughout all books, and in my opinion, build on something I already know and love.

Death Has Joined the Party reminded me why I love LitRPG. I love the snark, the monsters, the magic systems, the character sheets, and the sidekicks. This book feels like getting back to basics. This is likely because Rachel set the constraint on her own writing that she had to follow the free dnd rule set. Travis was there to keep her on track and build the dungeon experiences. I felt like I would if I was watching a real reality tv show of a fun dnd campaign.

If you enjoy LitRPG, you’ll love this. If you ‘ve never read LitRPG, I’m not sure how you got here, but welcome. You might also like this book. At least try it. Don’t be “oppositional defiant” like me.