Science Fiction Litrpg

Cast into a brutal military camp by his once loving master, Mateo feels like the last six wonderful years of his life have been a lie. With the mysteries surrounding him growing, Mateo knows that his only option is to become one of the supernaturally powerful Duelists and grow in power until he can take his fate into his own hands. That plan is thwarted from the beginning when he gets stuck with the lowest-ranked Root Card against his will, ensuring that his growth as a Duelist will always be excruciatingly slow.

Sylas Runewulf has a busy schedule for a dead man. Since taking up residency in the Underworld town of Ember Hollow, the fallen warrior has become a pub owner, a brewer, and a farmer. Now he's opening a long-awaited market for rare goods.

Before being conscripted to fight in the Total War, Private Hector Park had a shattered family, a collection of old video games, and a promising career as a motorcycle stuntman. Now, he is dying from a virus threatening humankind with extinction. He has three days to live. When Hector’s brother contacts him after years of hostile silence, Hector goes to try and make peace. But his brother offers him something even better: the chance to cheat death by joining him in Archemi, a full-immersion fantasy VR-RPG video game.

Adventurers seek dungeons for riches. Heroes storm great fortresses. Gods clash far above. Arek cooks lasagna and tops it with a dash of finely chopped basil. An orc who has seen more than his fair amount of fighting, Arek wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his days cooking and away from the chaos of combat. However, when Ming and her group of adventurers hire him as their full-time chef, his plans of avoiding violence crumble. He longs to leave his blood-soaked mistakes in his past, but old friends and foes have different ideas.

Strap in for the third installment of Sofia's Skeletal Symphony, with more bones, more explosions, and more Dragons?! Will numbers go up? Yes. Will Sofia fight for dear unlife in places you never expected her to reach? Definitely. Will the moon explode? Maybe. Will Saria be found? Come find out.

When Kers is reborn as a dungeon core, he finds himself stuck in the most improbable of places: a cloud. High in the sky and far away from the usual solid resources, Kers must face the obvious question: How is a dungeon to build itself without wood or stone? Luckily, Kers has the sarcastic (and sometimes helpful) fairy Selena to help him get his bearings. Together, the pair delight in exploring Kers’ weird existence, creating novel mobs, and enticing adventures to plumb the lofty heights of his floors.

The battle of Hammon's Bog is over. The town is free, the undead destroyed, the Witches slain, and the surviving villagers are picking up the remains of their lives. Despite his scars and constant nightmares, Brin is doing his best to move on from the battle against the undead. He's looking to the future, but his past might not be done with him yet. Soon Brin will learn that not every Witch who tormented him is gone for good, and he won't be able to depend on Hogg and Lumina to protect him in places they cannot reach.

In the magic lands of the Fae Wild, the Goblin King's virility is the lifeblood of the realm. But an insidious curse has put the kingdom on the precipice of a population panic. Enter Thomas Stone: architect, engineer, and unknowing half-blood heir to the goblin throne. Whisked away to a world where baby-making makes the world go round, Thomas finds himself in a pickle thicker than goblin stew. Birth rates are dropping faster than a fairy on a bad flight path, and it’s up to Thomas to save the fae from themselves.

Continued to do list for the post apocalypse: 4. Fall in love with the girl ordered to kill you. 5. Cash out the absolute FORTUNE you're holding so tightly that even the wrong thought could cause you to explode. 6. Keep a VERY low profile and do NOT piss off the cutthroat goblin bankers who secretly rule Freetown. 7. Especially don't piss off all your enemies with a COMPETING BANK! 8. Ignore your own advice and see what happens before unlocking perilous secrets that could reshape an entire world!

When Gunnar Long is transported into the first fully-immersive virtual MMORPG, he finds himself in a new world filled with magic, mystery, and adventure. No more 9-to-5 job. No more studio apartment. No more reality TV. Finally, he's in a place where he can call home, a place with people he can call friends. But as more people want to trade their real world lives to get inside Eden's Gate, the government of the outside world wants the "game" shut down at all costs.

Truth Medici has three questions: Can he rescue his siblings from the clutches of the evil Starbrite Corporation? What will it require of him? And where does he need to go next to make it happen? When he meets Justinian Merkovah—a strangely ageless spellcaster, teacher of religious law, and nomadic exorcist—he's one step closer to discovering the answers. With his experience providing security to the rich and terrible, Truth accepts a gig as Merkovah's bodyguard. What better way for Truth to grow as a mage?

Quinn can barely handle her own life. When the Library of Everywhere discovers her compatible magical signature, suddenly, she is the sole existing potential librarian. Now, it's not only the weight of her world on her shoulders—Quinn must connect with the library system before the universe itself disintegrates. Once she's settled, it should be quiet, peaceful work—just as soon as she battles a few engorged bookworms, repairs hundreds of years of damage, and figures out why there's been no librarian for the last several centuries.

A world on the precipice of the apocalypse. A secret forged in the flames of war. A chance to start over. For John Sutton, only one of those three things matters. Retired from a decade of brutal war, he wants nothing more than a quiet pastoral life while he does his best to stem the steady increase of his Doom Points before they hit 100, signaling the start of the end. He’s been given a small farm on the outskirts of the empire as thanks for his service, but no matter how far he travels, it's impossible to escape the war's devastating effects on the world.

Ashlock is now half a step into the Nascent Soul Realm. With the long-spanning battle against Nox drawing to a close and the ex-merchant turning over a new leaf, Ashlock and his sect are on the cusp of becoming a regional powerhouse feared by all. However, before they can dominate the world stage, Ashlock must first form an Inner World to complete his ascension. Ten thousand credits and a variety of Star Cores cannot be sourced locally, so Ashlock must spread his roots to neighboring cities and rival sects.

For John Sutton, rest is just around the corner. Soon it will be time to sit on his porch, kick his feet up, and watch his wheat grow. All he has to do first is fight his way through a cutthroat magic competition held once every thousand years, navigating mage politics and an aggressive dragon empire bent on punishing him for Farroutef’s death.

Jay Luckrun was your typical dorky weirdo. A lover of street dancing, anime, action movies, and comedy. But everything changed when a divine creature chose him to be a dungeon crawler of the Multiverse. He fought monsters in another dimension and returned home to slay hundreds of assassins. He's still a jokester. He tries to look past the consequences of having a System that he bends and breaks. It's fun gaining new levels, stats, skills, loot, and magical powers while teaming up with the most interesting people ever. Why stress over the small details?

When ninety-percent of the Universe's population suddenly turned into monsters, Leo has no time to grieve. He must push forward and find what is left of his family. If that means sacrificing what remains of his humanity and embracing his new reality where a mysterious System is his only true ally, then so be it. After all, in a world where almost everything wants to kill him, he has to decide if he can do what it takes. Adapt or Die. Kill or be killed.

As a C-Tier Lifeblade, Ethan keeps his head down, works hard, and always hits his mark. His skills might not be flashy, but they get the job done—and in SlayerCorp's cutthroat portal acquisitions industry, reliability makes you valuable. He’s built a solid rep as the go-to healer who can hold his own in any situation, with a resume that's earned him the respect and admiration of his peers. But Ethan's biggest challenge isn’t in the dungeons he clears or the creatures he fights. It’s Lily Chen.

A strange cry for help distracts Daniel from his boring study session. Curiosity gets the better of him and he is thrust through a portal where he emerges into a fantasy world of myth, magic, dragons and war. His arrival grants him a special opportunity. After stumbling upon a dying dragon, he discovers an egg that is about to hatch. Daniel knows a grand adventure awaits him and he seizes the moment to become a dragon rider.

The best of the year's science fiction and fantasy stories as selected by the multiple award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan. Distant worlds, time travel, epic adventure, unseen wonders, and much more! The best, most original and brightest science fiction and fantasy stories from around the globe from the past 12 months are brought together in one collection by multiple award winning editor Jonathan Strahan.