He Who Fights with Monsters: A LitRPG Adventure Paperback – February 23, 2021

Yah do not understand how many times I've finished Peakaloon's newest book and couldn't wait for his next book so I reread the series just to distract myself until the next one drops because no one does a magic system as good as this, constantly looking for books that compare but they only come close to scratching that itch for more Berts.

Picked up this series because I kept seeing it at the top of "best of" lists across various LitRPG communities and now I know why. The author delivers a very entertaining take on the genre. Book starts off the same as most others like it with a regular guy suddenly finding himself in a fantasy realm with levels and magic and various sentient species but everything is made interesting through some great writing. Loads of humor.

To start I knocked off a star because of the politics in this book. This was not the normal author going off on political rants but the MC just being very political with the supporting characters pointing out when he was wrong. Usually. But the pros and cons.Pros:Fantastic storyExtremely well writtenAmazing progression system (very unique compared to most other authors)MC is hilariousMC toys with everyone, using manipulation and control like a scalpel. This behavior creates a lot of humor for the story.Supporting characters usually point out the hypocrisies in MC’s belief system. Usually.Cons:The MC is very political as in everything in his perspective revolves around his political and religious beliefs. He routinely whines about things because they aren’t perfect.Because the MC is so dead left, extremist left of center Marxist, he of course is very hypocriticalMC toys with everyone, using manipulation and control like a scalpel. This can get old and more often than not the MC just comes across as an immature little kid.The MC is in his early 20s and his political and religious beliefs aptly portray his lack of experience.Below is a more thorough breakdown of the MC/Author’s political and religious beliefs.Politics:From a macro perspective it looks like the author tried to paint a picture with the MC spouting off nonsense while the supporting characters called him out when he was blatantly wrong. However, the author was ultimately inconsistent with this portrayal and if you read the whole book and then look back on all of the political rants and conversations it is fairly obvious that the MC’s opinions are most likely the authors. And to be descriptive, the MC is a full on, extremist left of center, died in the wool Marxist. He goes on dozens of class warfare rants where he wails against the woes of anyone with “privilege” or “authority”. The saving grace for me was he never engaged in any capitalism vs socialism debates. Those are just nauseating. Back on track, the MC is of course, completely blind to his own hypocrisies concerning his own position in the hierarchy of his new world. He justifies all of this hypocrisy by, at times, trying to “do the right thing”. Of course, while he is “doing the right thing” he assumes he is the only one who is doing the right thing and everybody else that has a smidge of “privilege” or “authority” are absolutely evil incarnate and cannot be trusted to be in charge of anything, and therefore he has the right to completely disregard and disrespect anyone of any privilege or authority. It’s Marxism 101. Label any system that you disagree with as wrong and then attack at will, all while disregarding any actual facts that the system you are attacking might not be bad, just flawed. Which of course brings up the fact that every political, economic and judicial system is flawed, Marxism, Communism and Socialism included. Back on track, the MC is portrayed as a person in his young 20s who grew up in a Socialist system (Australia). And he acts like he is in his young 20s. His class warfare rants are ridiculous to say the least. His railing against any sort of organized religion is understandable in the confines of the story but of course it is obvious this was another attempt by the author to sprinkle in his own religious beliefs against Real Life religion. All of this is evidence that if you look at the MC as a stand-alone character and ignore the fact that an author is puppeteering the entire story the MC is ultimately just a dumb 20-year-old, who has no real belief system, IE one he came up with himself and everything he regurgitates out of his mouth concerning politics and religion are the conditioned opinions of his parents/grandparents/teachers/role models/etc. I’m in my mid-forties and I’ve spent my entire life working and going to school with 18–20-year-olds. There are a few who are extremely self-aware but they are the outliers. This MC tries to pretend, or more explicitly the author tries to paint the picture that the MC is self-aware but there are too many completely flawed arguments spewing out of the MC’s mouth during his rants for him to be given the credit that he critically thought all of his arguments through. Remember hypocrisy. The MC is hypocritical to the extreme. Also, I need to point out that the author blatantly painted situations to try to make the MC’s opinions truthful concerning politics and religion. There’s the evil god (lower g) who tries to force the MC to worship her and then gets angry when he refuses. Almost all of the ruling nobility in the city/area he is stationed are complete dunces who are completely self-serving and do nothing to help anyone but themselves, and of course none of the nobility in the city do any sort of community outreach. The author goes out of his way to paint anyone with any sort of “privilege”, such as wealth, as evil and any person with any authority as strictly concerned with the welfare of the “privileged” all while the poor flounder in suffering. The one saving grace I can say about the authors political rants where he did stay away from Critical Theory for the most part and especially race. If he had included race, I probably would have burned the book lol.In summary, it is easy to see why so many people were offended when they read this book. If you believe anything other than hardcore, far left extremist Marxism then you will most likely disagree completely with the author’s opinions. Add in that the opinions are not very well thought out and it is very easy to get disgruntled by the authors political and religious rants, especially since this is a fantasy fiction book and probably should not include them to begin with. But I could be wrong. Maybe the readers in Australia love it when an author talks politics in the middle of a fantasy fiction story. I will however point out my own opinion that if you cannot listen to another person’s opinions regarding just about anything quietly and sincerely then you are probably the problem and not the person you disagree with. We all have our own beliefs and opinions. We are allowed to. While I adamantly disagreed with the author’s viewpoints regarding politics and religion it his book and he assumes all risk for putting politics and religion into a fiction story. I don’t have to read it if I don’t want to and neither does anybody else.Manipulation and control:The MC is famous in the story for manipulating people. He manipulates and controls everyone, from base characters who have no real place in the story, to nobility, to high-ranking adventurers and everyone in between. He gets off on it and says as much. He said he had no friends growing up but of course it wasn’t his fault so he just defaulted to treating people like tools. And he treats 99% of the people he encounters as tools. Especially if they have any sort of perceived “privilege” or “authority”. These people are fair game to the MC and he has the absolute right to treat these people any way he wants with no fear of any retribution. And of course, the author paints all of these people as incompetents, villains or anything in between. At times the MC is humorous, especially when he is making a villain look stupid or pointing out blatant incompetency but after awhile his routine just gets old. It comes across as very immature, once the humor wears off, and the MC obviously has deep character flaws, which he notices but refuses to address. I’m sincerely hoping the author moves on from the manipulations and starts showing some growth and maturity with the MC.Summary:Ultimately the overall story is amazing. It has a great plot, well thought out supporting characters with depth of character and the MC’s power set is very novel compared to other stories in the genre. The author’s political and religious rants do drag the story down a bit and the immaturity of the MC is not fun to read for a forty-year-old. However, this is one of the best-selling series in the genre for a reason and I’m looking forward to see what else the author has in store.

Really cool concept, and something I wouldn’t normally read. But so well written, vibrant cities, and characters have unique personalities. The main character is a little too unstoppable for my taste, but really solid overall.

It's an engaging story with enough details to draw readers to be part of the narrative. We bought the audible version too. Listening and reading concurrently enhanced the experience immensely.

He's just like me fr frExcept smarter, probably. Definitely. And good at people. It's kind of insane how much happens in just this first volume, but I'm hoping things stay relatively grounded through the series. Too many stories in this genre turn their MCs into interdimensional god-beings. Jason's at his best when facing overwhelming odds. Strong but not OP is the way to go. Maybe with a trump card or two for safety.

Fun and entertaining! Highly recommend this book and all the other ones in the series. Fill with 80’s and 90’s pop-culture references…

This book series is awesome with a bit of snarky comments here and there from the MC and a lot of action! If you like isekai you’ll love this!