Rune Seeker #1, by J.M. Clarke / C.J. Thompson

LitRPG is all about progression, characters getting tougher and better over the course of time. Let’s hope this series is like Meta litRPg – in other words: let’s hope the plot will progress over time, too.

The MC is Hiral, a guy known as the Everfail because he keeps failing at his magical test every year. This makes this story a kind of underdog story, at least at the start. He learns to trust a group of Nomads, and together they learn the truth about dungeons (at least a sliver of it). And of course, Hiral stops failing at everything.

I really liked the characters (most of them), but there were some repetitive descriptions that slowed everything a bit down. Which is the main critique point: the pace. A few plot holes, nothing too serious, but the pace sometimes slowed down to a crawl immediately after some action packed scenes. I think some rigorous trimming would have worked wonders here!

The progression system looks interesting, and seems to integrate well with the world building (at least what we know about the world). The world actually is, like the characters, well written, interesting and gripping. It’s also kind of dark – don’t be lured into a false sense of security by the slow start: There will be – minor spoiler alert – character deaths before you reach the conclusion of this book. The story turns darker and darker, after around the three quarter mark.

I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars, and hope for plot progression in the future!