Yes! Purgatory in audiobook form with good narration. I read this book in a sea of LitRPG on Kindle Unlimited and it stood out as one of the few books where I felt appreciable character growth in a MC not just stat growth. Also it gave me what we LitRPG fans love above all else novelty, it has a couple excellent twists.
How does Purgatory compare to other LitRPGs?
Let’s get to brass tacks here. Purgatory is a great LitRPG, around top 10% if I had to ballpark it. It isn’t as expansive, funny, and all around entertaining as something like Dungeon Crawler Carl nor is it as rote, recycled or meh as system apocalypse book #104. You might still read #104, the main character would have a unique class, he would be responsible for building some new town, and on and on. Purgatory is better than that but it doesn’t have the scope (yet) to reach the best in genre.
I know I know at this point you are probably rolling you eyes saying “I get it the book is good, just tell me about it already!”. Screw you, read the description buddy! Just kidding.
Purgatory is mostly a solo leveling adventure through you guessed it purgatory 2.0 with a trusty guide companion. Think Shadeslinger although not quite the full Frank. Frankly though (get it), the beginning and setup to the story kind of sucks. It treats Christianity with a kind of casualness that authors often treat other religions. As Ramon from the LitRPG podcast says in the Amazon reviews it also has a hill to climb because people typically don’t like angels/devils books (me included). Purgatory is good enough that is proven my expectations wrong, if you can suspend your disbelief (or skip) the setup it is more than worth it.
TWISTS! It is all about those twists, full M. Night Shyamalan baby. Ok it isn’t just all twists but in this story wow are they powerful. One of the best things an author can do to us long time LitRPG readers/listeners is surprise us. Subverting expectations is getting harder and harder. Purgatory did that in a way that will crack the hardened exterior of even the most jaded 10x speed listener.
Overall well worth the credit, can’t wait for book 2.
Disclaimer: I read this book on Kindle Unlimited and got a free copy of the audio version from a giveaway because I remembered it was awesome and hoped it would come to audio.