This is my first litRPG title. I like books, and I like RPGs. But I’m afraid to say I’m so disappointed it may have turned me off the genre completely. At first, I was encouraged by the fact that the protagonist is an older man with a disability, not an author insert Mary Sue character that permeates the genre. But a few chapters in, it became painfully clear that the author is a power-gaming geek that is incapable of writing from any perspective other than his own, and without reliance on most of the tropes that make the genre unable to be taken seriously by wider literacy fans.
The writing reads like an immature, edgy teenager in an old/middle-aged man’s body that is almost impossible for “normies” to empathize with. He is incapable of letting go of his dead wife after a decade, willingly mutilated his body, and alienated his surviving family, which the book frames as a good thing; he is a distrustful jerk to everyone around him for no reason other than he thinks they are NPCs and made enemies at every turn because “I’m not like other players LoL,” hence creating every obstacle he had to face. However, the book still frames him as “the chosen” hero and the one the audience is supposed to root for.
I was retrospectively low-key shocked at the foreword that the author is married – I have a hard time believing this is what a function human being in a marriage thinks of love. It is more like what a neckbeard virgin white knight thinks love is.
2/10 will not recommend to anyone who isn’t already a fan of litRPGs.