/lit/ - Literature

>>22089190
>I'm holding you personally accountable for the quality of Dungeon Diving 101 however, got it?
You can take choose Dungeon Diving if you want a decent harem with litrpg elements and decent story, but I personally recommend Fostering Faust. It's just more interesting book, even if overall the trillogy falls off. Otherwise consider System Overclocked, by the same author as Fostering Faust. But if you want light, somewhat pulpy harem take Dungeon Diving, it's at the very least not bad (I admit to skimming some battles, but I do that in a lot of books these days).

>>21985959
Bruce Sentar is fun. Genuinely entertaining and decently written stories, especially his Saving Supervillains is good, both as harem erotica and a story. I was actually more interested in the story than the erotica parts when I started reading it, it was just that compeling.

If you want decent harems go straight to Bruce Sentar. Dragon's Justice is solid, Saving Supervillains almost great, Dungeon Diving 101 is a soft-litrpg and his recent hit. I've seen some Dante King stuff and trust me, Eric Vall or Dante King are scrubs compared to Sentar. Their trash levle of writing doesn't compare at all. Still, the best harem writer is still Randi Darren / WIlliam D. Arrand, especially his Fostering Faust. You can also try his recent 'System Overclocked,' although harem and erotica elements are barely existant in it. The book itself is decent, though, as it's a sci-fi with humans acting as pets and toys for strange advanced aliens that travel through space in a giant space ship.

Mind you, all of these writers have problems with harem numbers rising way too fucking fast, but it's a common flaw among all harem writers.

>>21813316
>>21813338
>>21813362
Harem reviewer here, I've noticed four different types of harem fiction:

1. The protagonist is a relatively normal dude but gets powered up in extreme ways, typical power fantasy in that regard, except in the majority of cases upgrades include looks. Thus hot women are very attracted to the protagonist while he, due to being powered up, can service them all sexually without an issue. Emotional stuff has mild importance, people just 'love' each other. Women don't feel jealousy, just accept that they share a man.

2. The world-building supports harems for whatever reason, either because there are fewer males than females, or some males can grant special powers to their women, making it logical to have more than one and give them a solid reason to stay at the man's side, or maybe it's just cultural for a given society.

3. Similar to 1, except while the protagonist is powerful for whatever reason, everything is more or less run by women. Adding women to the Harem functions as resource acquisition, with some women performing certain roles others cannot, i.e., combat, management, emotional support, etc. The protagonist functions more as a cornerstone of the harem's existence rather than some giga-chad who runs everything; more often than not this type of harem paints women as hyper-competent agents that manage stuff while man is just stud and fighter.

4. High-literature wannabes, love sharers, polyamory proselytizers. Harem is still centered around a man and multiple females (there aren't any cuck harems as far as I know, readers absolutely hate that). Characters talk a lot about boundaries, feeling, how their relationship works, and how being able to love multiple people simultaneously is great and wonderful, that kind of stuff. Women love not only the man but also each other.
Qualitatively different from other types, most confident in its opinions and philosophy and treats itself seriously, not as just dumb entertainment with porn. High correlation with high-quality writing, even if you disagree with the author's worldview.


The first three tend to share each other's traits, more or less. The fourth stands apart as a rule.

>>21806704
>>Blue Core
>>no Paranoid Mage
>List really does specialize toward sex-shit and I'm not giving it a You.
Assuming you are not trolling...Paranoid Mage isn't LitRPG. Can be classified as Progression Fantasy, but that's not the focus of this list. Also, it gets kinda bad later on. I assume you know Blue Core and Paranoid Mage were written by the same author.

>>21806715
>Wait, all of it is stuff you've read? That's simultaneously impressive and sad.
>Which of these you'd recommend for someone looking for smut? Erogamer?
I've read way more of the genre than this, but many of the stories were too casual, bad or in a state that I wouldn't want to consider for people unfamiliar with the genre.

As for smut, Erogamer is the BEST erotica work you will find, but it's as close to high literature as you will come on the internet, unless you are at least somewhat into current philosophy, rationality concepts and enjoy a lot of discussion about sexuality, you might find it tedious. Sexuality is the focus, but it's not porn.

Smut recommendation depend on what you need, if you want LitRPG erotica then Blue Core and Inferna (the entire Prism Academy series) might be a decent read, but if someone's looking for a decent erotica I'd look outside LitRPG genre. Fostering Faust, Saving Supervillains, Ex-Superheroes, Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black series) etc. would be a better choice. I'll probably do a erotica/harem chart at some point.

>>21686501
>I'm close to 40 and currently reading CivCEO. It's about a retired CEO who gets transferred to a world where he's basically tasked with building up a tiny settlement. It uses 4x strategy mechanics and for some reason, it's pretty fun.
>Sometimes, I'm just in the mood for something lighthearted and easy. I usually switch between something more serious and some trash.
Strategy genre LitRPGs are untapped potential. Very few stories attempt it, as it requires more planning and insight than just brainles 'Strength +100' and writing social dynamics necessary in making a kingdom. It's funny how uncreative are authors, they all copy each other instead of ruthlessly copying one of hundreds, any, thousands of diverse gaming systems, especially the older ones from 90s and 00s when developers were still trying new things all the time.

Kingdom-building genre doesn't count because it's focused on the main character being extremely powerful and by the sheer momentum gaining followers, it's a different beast.

Ironically, Harem books are the closest to the idea of actual Kingdom building. Especially William D. Arrand/Randi Darren books, albeit they are somewhat formulaic.
Fostering Faust series also has ex-CEO in another world that lands in a ruling position with an ability to make binding deals in the name of a Goddess. It's not amazing, but enjoyable.

>>21423985
To this date there has been no evidence that pornography has any negative consequences on your body or mind, as long as you aren't abusing it to take the mind off from other areas in your life. But the same can be said about Video Games and everything else.
As long as you aren't choosing pornography/erotica over thigns you are supposed to be doing at the moment, nothing's wrong.

>>21055008
Fostering Faust
Good Intentions (Don't read book 3 if you are panicked about cuck stuff, otherwise it's fine. It supposedly takes a hit in quality too, so it's fine to not read further than book 2, there's no big over-reaching narrative)
Saving Supervillains
Inferna: Prism Academy

>>20884629
>>20884649
>>20884663
There are some good ones, or at least ones that could be called 'decent.'

For start, I'd recommend reading 'Fostering Faust', a story of a cold and ruthless CEO who's soul had been snatched by an Evil Goddes after his death and thrown into a body of a noble on a medieval world. He's bound to make binding deals with people on Goddess' name to fill his monthly quota, otherwise he's soul will be sent to hell. A bit edgy, but quite a good read, though the first book is the best.

From books set in modern times, definitely try Good Intentions, it's a story of a young man who stumbles upon a strangle ritual in the middle of the night, performed in a graveyard's chapel. He saves two strange women from the cultists, but by accident takes part in the ritual, binding the women to him. After, it turns out one is an angel and the other a succubus. While the premise might sound basic, it's the best erotica/harem book I've read in my life, the characterization of the women is downright incredible and the succubus might the best succubus-type creature I've seen in fiction. The book has its weaker points, especially some side characters, but otherwise it's amazing. And the sex scenes are hot as fuck.


Other than that you can also try:
- Saving Supervillains
- Inferna (Prism Academy)
- Blue Core
- Fimbulwinter
- Incubus Inc.
- Wild Wastes

[Conclusion]
This is one of the best Arrand's book I've read, and yet I quit ~40% into the second book in the Monster's Mercy series. Why? The author is known for destroying his series after first books. While this book was interesting and enjoyable read, the closer to the end the more cracks had appeared. The women became utterly obsessed with the protagonist, even though he didn't even make any moves towards them. The harem just happened on its own, and robbed the girls out of their personalities, or rather flattened them into cardboards. The story while amusing, provides no tension or twists. There isn't any significant villain, moral conflict or interesting concept. The protagonist just bulldozes through every adversity due to overpowered abilities.

If it was a beginning of a story that merely set up the world that way just to introduce actual conflict in later phase, then it wouldn't be a problem, but it's William D. Arrand's, so I know it's not the case. Additionally, there's a harem creep to hounds every book of his. The author always spends sometime in the first book characterizing women and making their relationships with the protagonist interesting, but as soon as second books come along it's obliterated with extreme prejudice, turning harems into myriad of forgettable names. The number of women ALWAYS increases exponentially. Which is a shame. Because Arrand can write good stories, but for some reason his series quickly deteriorate.

To add salt to the injury, William D. Arrand does not write sex scenes. He does under his other name, Randi Darren. A weird choice, especially because harem books with off-screened sex make very little sense to me, as a concept. This is why Fostering Faust, another series of the author (also set in the same world, just 20 years prior to the events of Monster's Mercy) is his best work so far, using harem and sex in great way - even if it also suffers from insane number of women - while also providing a decent story and protagonist (and yet the biggest accomplishment of Fostering Faust is that it's readable past the first book, compared to other series).

There is also this strange thing with the author attempt to connect his books to one another in shared universe. You may ask "how would he connect a superhero story on earth with stories on post-apo earth or fantasy medieval worlds?" Well, all of these worlds are governed by god Runner, the protagonist of the first Arrand's series, Otherlife Stories. Unfortunately, almost every reader agrees it's horrible and they want as little mention of Runner as possible. Surely it grates on the author horribly, but Fostering Faust benefited from lack of Runner extensively, even though one of his Wife has significant presence there.


7.5/10

Part 3/3

>>20686726
I don't think harems are on average worse than LitRPGs in quality, but that's maybe because I read a lot of those as well, mostly on Royalroad. These days I'm more picky with Litrpg stories, but that might be due to familiarity with the genre. Maybe I'm becoming as picky with harems too, now that I more or less know what I like in them. I think Dragon's Justice is one of those that are entertaining to read, but with weak sexual elements. It's good at titilation, though. Saving Supervillains had a good plot and character, Super Sales on Supervillains (not the same series and author) had interesting premise and was a decent enough book, but suffered from having little to none sexual elements. I think the most consistent series would be Fostering Faust, which I recommend to read at least the first one as it's more or less original and doesn't suffer from having yet another young, simply protagonist.

Good Intentions remains the best erotica/harem book in all aspects, despite allegedly going 'cuck'-way in the third book. But the first two compare to the rest of the genre like heaven to earth.

I wanna start exclusivly cooming to literature, where do I begin? I found pic related, has anyone read it?

Get in here and coom.