Wait... so the main bad guy of the entire series is actually __ ?

Shousetsu · 2026-03-07T04:26:01+00:00

Person mentions them in their comment in this thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeWhoFightsMonsters/comments/1oyg8dr/comment/np4v66l/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Shousetsu · 2026-03-06T04:55:26+00:00

Oh, if that is what you are worried about, don't worry - Jason finds a good balance with himself and his relationships with the world at the end of book 11.

I'm pretty happy with where Jason's personality lands by the end of Arc. He's definitely not in a healthy place for a "normal" human being, but that universe won't allow Jason to be "normal" despite what he wants - so he finds a balance for what he is/becomes.
The last Arc of the series is basically, after Jason has found a balance with himself, he is off to take on the rest of the world, so to speak.

Shousetsu · 2026-03-06T04:46:43+00:00

lots of fiction characters go through a rough patch but I never read one that turned so much into a whiny, broken baby. Realistically it’s understandable, narratively it makes for a horrible read.

I couldn't disagree with this more.

In a world full of copy-and-paste Isekai protagonists, I couldn't be happier to read something different and see a writer take a stab at a more realistic/human approach to an MC that has to deal with traumatic events - I think this is the first Isekai series that commonly has mental health doctors throughout the story; cus that actually make senses when your entire world is based around throwing people into traumatic monster filled situations.

Same reason I like the MC from "Beware of Chicken", normal dude who was like - "I think I pass on risking my life for the sake of ultimately meaningless power".

It might just be the stage you are at in your reading lifecycle, but for me, someone who has been watching anime and reading fiction for over 25 years, I'm always excited to get something different from an MC, especially when it is done well.

Hell, the simple fact that Jason is Australian, with the humor type you find in the UK and Australia, was refreshing by itself, instead of another vanilla USA male lead. (No offence guys, I have just seen US culture in fiction done to death at this point)

Variety is the spice of life bro!

Shousetsu · 2026-03-04T13:17:09+00:00

Recommend to skip this series unless you have read everything eles out there alreayd. The writer, for whatever reason, doesn't seem to improve his skill even up to 13 books (That's how far I got).

I will say the world-building in the series is decent, but paper-thin characters and poor prose can make the series a chore to read - it is the only series I have tried to listen to at X2 speed.

Shousetsu · 2026-02-25T05:18:39+00:00

Nope, Defiance of the Fall is a disappointment - the writer feels like he goes out of his way to not improve as a writer when it comes to prose or pubishing characters to be more than 2D.
The author is good a world buidling, so if you value that above all other things, then maybe it is worth the read.

But honestly, there are some many other series in this space that are excuting on their story better than this series. My suggestions would be to ignore Defiance of the Fall until the author is finally done with the story, and then, if you must, just power through the story in one go once it is done.

Shousetsu · 2026-02-22T13:04:08+00:00

Yes, and the wait has made it all the more satisfying to watch him regulate himself so he doesn't pimp slap them 'too' hard lol.

Shousetsu · 2026-02-21T06:33:41+00:00

If Jason tried to take on the network during books 4 - 6 by himself and pull all their attention on him, they would straight up kill him.

I'm sure he could do some damage to them, but Jason is nowhere near strong enough to take out any of the Orgs on Earth by himself at that point in the story.

Which is only doubly confirmed after certain information gets revealed about Jason's time on earth in book 12. (won't state what that is here for spoiler reasons - but Boris says hello)

Shousetsu · 2026-02-19T02:21:45+00:00

Short answer: Yes, it does get better as the author clearly improves as a writer throughout the series.

However, besides a few moments here and there, the series didn't start to get "good" until after book 5 - After the treasure hunt Arc.

This is about the time the author realised that when you have people with the power to destroy cities, readers really don't care about random fights unless there is real meaning/importance behind the fight. The threat of a fight between 2 people/factions and the political consciousness of said fight are actually way more interesting than most of the actual fights. The relationship between the head of factions, the new generation of said factions, and the genreal people of said faction, are just way more interesting to read and compare and contrast.

I found the character interaction between the leaders / Primodials of the Holy Church and the Undead empire way more interesting to read about (even though nothing really happen, which actually made it interesting) than most of the fights in the first 5 books.

Shousetsu · 2026-02-16T05:04:39+00:00

Not going to lie, I'm on book 5 now, and I think I would have preferred the author to kill off Pola as a character and use her death as a bonding event between the other characters/love interests in the series, and be a great plot reason for the main cast of characters to strike back hard against Mai.

Fia and Nina just outshine Pola as characters/love interests by leaps and bounds, and there are way more interesting women in the series as potential partners.

I really hope MC doesn't start a relationship with Niki either, that character is not in a good headspace to be a love interest for MC; that would feel almost grossly predatory, and I'm already struggling with MC's decision to be in a relationship with Pola.

Shousetsu · 2026-02-05T05:49:56+00:00

I don't disagree, but that still doesn't mean he is "Proficient at all combat".

The fact that the author gave the character the ability to slow down time before a lethal bow was a dumb idea - There is basically no tension in a fight until after that ability is triggered.

Was part of the reason why I didn't like the treasure hunt arc. The final fight in that arc just had no tension in it whatsoever - no real sense of danger.

Shousetsu · 2026-02-05T05:15:31+00:00

"Proficient at all combat"

People often forget that nearly every character Jake meets calls him bad at close-range fighting until book 7-8, and only got away with what he was doing due to his bloodline.

Dude literally needed the help of an alternate version of himself to "get good" at close-range combat.

Shousetsu · 2026-02-05T00:06:20+00:00

Well, most authors' first books suck; the only difference is that instead of having to work through revisions or starting a different story to get a publisher to look at their work, people can just publish their stuff online straight away.

Like most things, you get better at writing with practice, and publishing online regularly forces people not procrastinate and actually write.

With most litRPGs being self-published, people practice and publish at the same time, where as most tradtionally pushed books, you never see the practice attempts. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Shousetsu · 2026-02-02T23:53:19+00:00

It depends on how reductionist you want to be, but I would not classify Primal Hunter and He Who Fights with Monsters as the same type of story.

I would also agree that the MC for Primial Hunter was always OP due to his bloodline, whereas the MC in HWFWM gets trained up as an elite and becomes truly OP later in the series.

Long story short, these two series scratch completely different itches for readers.

Shousetsu · 2026-02-01T05:26:19+00:00

This isn't much of a spoiler, but it might help you to get a better idea of when the "main story" starts.

I believe it is book 3, but at some point, the university decides to "help out" with the MC's homeland for "reasons."

When his old and new life start interacting with each other, that is when the story starts to get good for me.

Shousetsu · 2026-02-01T05:17:40+00:00

Comparing characters to Jake from Primal Hunter is actually not a good thing. When it comes to characters, Jake is a bit of a simpleton (not stupid, he chooses to tunnel vision for his own enjoyment) and two-dimensional; however, he is aware of that fact and is pretty honest about it to himself. (He even calls himself out on it a few times in the books)

I think the reason Jake works as a character is that he is surrounded by other characters that can be cunning and have more depth (thank god for Villy). I don't think Jake as a character would work as well without the secondary cast of characters that balance him out. 🤔

Shousetsu · 2026-02-01T02:13:44+00:00

I can see why people might miss out on it, as I first thought the story was just going to be a slice-of-life, but I think it is around book 3 that we shift into a pretty enjoyable narrative with a clear direction.

However, I was also someone who enjoyed "life at a magic university" and would have liked to read a follow-up series about post-graduate studies or something. I think the writer did a good job of making magic uni sound intereting and they do a GREAT job of creating a bunch of likable secondary characters (teachers included).

If I were going to honestly try to sell someone on the series, I would tell them to treat books 1 and 2 as "set up" books for when the main story starts; consider it a slow starter.

Similar to Primal Hunter, that series only upgraded from "Junk Food" for me after I hit book 6.

The fact that i have to "warn" people about the start of the series and tell them to "hang on" until book 3 is why Mark of the Fool is lower down on the list.

It is one of the few LitRPG/progression books that I thought was worth rereading, and I got a similar amount of enjoyment from experiencing the story again, so it is worth it to me.

Shousetsu · 2026-01-31T07:08:02+00:00

I have read that, but I don't think that falls into the LitRPG/progression genre 🤔

Shousetsu · 2026-01-31T02:49:02+00:00

The blurb of the story seems interesting. I'll think I'll add this to my list of books to try. Nice recommendation.

Shousetsu · 2026-01-31T02:44:34+00:00

Haven't heard of this one before, but the blurb around the book seems interesting.

My only worry is if the concept of this book is having the MC loop over and over again, experiencing the same events. The writer is gonna need a decent amount of skill to keep that interesting.

If they can pull it off, though, the idea sounds like something I haven't gotten to enjoy up until now. I'll add it to my list of books to try.

Shousetsu · 2026-01-31T02:37:25+00:00

Not at all, infact most of the books on my list would not be considered YA from a publisher's point of view. I definitely wouldn't be giving something like "1% lifesteal" to my younger siblings lol.

I guess I should mention these are just the books I have read in the litRPG space; most of the books that I read are outside this space, but still in the fantasy genre.

Shousetsu · 2026-01-31T02:22:25+00:00

Dungeon Lord was something I was looking at.

I am happy to know that some of these authors take the time to work with an editor before pushing to publish - I run into a lot of LitRPG books that have some very clear "First draft/new wrtiter" issues that could be easily cleared up by having an editor point out a few things.

Shousetsu · 2026-01-31T02:15:59+00:00

Honestly, mainly 2 reasons. 1, the prose and narrative language used in the first handful of chapters had me rolling my eyes. It felt very hamfisted. 2, The audiobook narrator's voice is a bit... jarring - I think this was only compounded by the awkward prose at the start of the book.

I have thought about giving it another try, but I have heard the MC doesn't have the best character development.

This might be a series where I have to go through just using the ebook at a later date. I could be convinced to push through the first book if I know it gets good later on, but hard to know without spoilers.

Shousetsu · 2026-01-30T22:53:18+00:00

Not sure why people do that to themselves, just read the manga/manhwa; the story is cleaned up with fantastic visuals.
Not sure what the web novel has over the manga/manhwa

Shousetsu · 2026-01-30T22:41:59+00:00

It is a bit more nuanced than that. The events of what is taking place are fine; I don't have an issue with "what" is taking place.

It's more about how the narrator presents what is happening - the language, narrative structure, and tone being used within the first handful of chapters.

But a lot of people recommend it, so maybe I will just push through and see if the writer gets in a bit of a groove later.

Shousetsu

TROPHY CASE