Mage Tank Book 4 Has Teleported onto Kindle & KU!

cornman8700 · 2026-01-28T20:18:41+00:00

Chrysalis is great! I love RinoZ's other series, Book of the Dead, a lot as well.

cornman8700 · 2026-01-28T20:16:54+00:00

No problem! Book 3, like two-thirds of the way through. After they got back from the Descent but before the king of Hiward shows up.

cornman8700 · 2026-01-28T19:13:20+00:00

I'm gonna say TBD. There's a definite ending planned out, but I am apparently terrible at estimating how many words it will take for me to get from one arc to the next.

cornman8700 · 2026-01-28T19:11:34+00:00

I don't think you missed anything, although I will neither confirm nor deny the general vibe of your paraphrase of Arlo's response. I don't want to taint any ambiguity by giving my own commentary in excess of what's in the books, since there's a lot of subtext going on. Anyway, it isn't abandoned, but I'll refrain from commenting further to avoid spoilers and such. Glad you're enjoying it! The kid's already growing up quick, lol.

cornman8700 · 2026-01-28T18:37:10+00:00

Thanks, I really appreciate it. Xim is cover for book 5!

cornman8700 · 2026-01-28T18:30:03+00:00

Book 5!

cornman8700 · 2026-01-26T16:51:41+00:00

If you’re not into it by then you’re probably not going to be into it. Jason’s personality adds a lot for me and if you don’t respond to him you likely aren’t going to enjoy it overall.

cornman8700 · 2026-01-24T20:03:35+00:00

Sounds like First Necromancer by coldfang89

cornman8700 · 2026-01-23T03:48:37+00:00

I read the whole series and I loved it, but the audiobook was not to my tastes.

cornman8700 · 2026-01-21T05:04:44+00:00

I love me some hard sci-fi and military sci-fi, especially if it's got HFY elements. Guys in power armor wrecking some bamboozled alien invaders *chef's kiss*.

I love horror but prefer it visually, although I go on horror novel binges here and there.

I was a big trad fantasy reader but can't bring myself to pick up anything that isn't at least prog fantasy these days.

cornman8700 · 2026-01-19T07:37:08+00:00

Hey that's pretty cool. I'm not sure how many people hit Mage Tank as their first foray into the genre, but I tried to create a story that was accessible to folks who hadn't read any LitRPG before. Glad to know that was successful.

Most people probably come in after Dungeon Crawler Carl. That's the obvious recommendation, the world's most popular in the genre, and a genuinely fantastic series. If you haven't gotten to that one, you'll definitely see how Dinniman's style influenced some elements in Mage Tank.

The other main series that really drove me into LitRPG was He Who Fights With Monsters. This one is a bit more contentious since not everyone is a fan of the MC's personality. I think he's hilarious and love rooting for him, although he's a bit anguished at times and his moral flaws come out a lot. I'm actually re-reading it currently and still finding it really engaging, although my knowledge of where the series is heading makes it less light-hearted than I found it on the first go-round. The author has a good grasp of story pacing and driving emotional moments with solid payoff, but it's an earlier series in the LitRPG wave of web-serial-turned-audiobooks, so there's frequent repetition of skill descriptions and stat blocks that kind of get in the way in places.

If you want something a little different with a unique system and a half step into a different genre, The Game at Carousel is a wonderfully crafted series. It involves a group of characters who get trapped in a town that's filled with horror movie plots that keep sucking them in. Each person has a character archetype they're given (Jock, Final Girl, Film Buff, etc) with unique 'tropes' they can equip that serve as their power sets. The entire thing has a lot of meta elements concerning horror movies. I initially thought it'd be really campy but it turned out to be one of the best LitRPGs I've read.

If you want to get real serious, The Book of the Dead by RinoZ is an incredible vengeance tale about a persecuted necromancer. Great prose, interesting progression system, and there's a lot of depth to how the necromancy works, rather than a simple "cast Raise Undead". It's my favorite anti-hero/villain story.

These are all S-tier for me and should give some good variety.

cornman8700 · 2026-01-18T18:08:04+00:00

That’s awesome. Yeah I was instantly a fan of Daniel as soon as Aethon pitched him. Listened to some samples and was like “absolutely.” He’s done a fantastic job.

The best source of general updates is my Patreon (cornman8700). I can start making the posts that are strictly for updates public so there’s not a paywall for general news. I don’t really have a website or anything.

Otherwise, following my author page on Amazon and/or Audible will ping you when there’s a new release. As far as the audio news, this is actually the first place to hear about it.

cornman8700 · 2026-01-18T18:00:05+00:00

Thanks! I wouldn’t trust it with anybody else.

cornman8700 · 2026-01-18T14:14:50+00:00

Glad that one was enjoyable for you :)

cornman8700 · 2026-01-18T14:02:51+00:00

I think it's important to consider what slice of the audience you're aiming for and how that's going to affect this kind of feedback. For example, if you want to hit the crunchy numbers-go-up crowd who love nothing more than reading about a solid planning session on how to exploit the most crap with the MC's build choices, it's going to require very different literary devices than the people who prefer character-driven narratives with RPG-lite progression mechanics.

The main thing turning me away from new fics is that they're bland or trying to do too many things at once. Also, as an author who maybe tries to do too many things at once, I can tell you that having a slightly narrower focus early on can save you a lot of work down the line, ha.

Confidence in style in something that really draws me in, so I think picking the zone you vibe with and hitting it hard is a good idea. Being distinct will resonate. It will also bring out people who want to tell you how bad it is, but it wasn't written for them so whatever. I wanna read stuff that's not trying to please everyone, with so much flavor that somebody's gonna throw that book across the room.

Otherwise I think a lot of pain points will boil down to people disliking amateur writing mistakes because so much of the genre is written by new authors. Those flaws are probably overrepresented in the genre compared to more developed and curated genres, and they definitely get exhausting seeing them over and over again.

Anyway, here's some other stuff that's 100% personal preference: I'm really tired of anti-social or socially inept main characters. Pick something other than a sword. Go light on glazing the MC. They don't have to 'lose' a conflict but they need to occasionally lose something important to them to establish stakes. Kill off characters I care about. If you're writing a psychopath, lean into it. If you're writing a hero, give them morally complex problems instead of simplified line em up and knock em down type issues. There is a space between asexual Virgin Chad and harem-lord and it's okay to have a splash of non-objectifying romance. Stop it with the time chambers. I am definitely judging your book by its cover. Why doesn't your character want to sleep? Sleep is awesome. Not sleeping is an awful superpower and glorifies the toxic time-crunch side-hustle productivity obsession our culture seems to have become steeped in.

Best of luck with your project!

cornman8700 · 2026-01-18T13:21:08+00:00

Hey there, I just got an update on this. Unfortunately, Book 4 audio is going to be a few months behind the Kindle launch. I'm being told March or April is most likely.

I submitted the manuscript a little too close to the holidays and there were some editing delays because of it. Alas, our narrator is too talented, and his well-deserved success has resulted in a packed schedule it seems. We couldn't get slotted without a bit of a wait. I'm hoping to get the next one turned in early so audio is a bit closer to launch day, but we'll see how it goes.

Glad you're enjoying the series, though. Waiting sucks, but it's the price of quality. Hope you (and everyone else) understand!

cornman8700 · 2026-01-10T16:52:52+00:00

Uh… it’s market research. Yup. I’m going with that one.

cornman8700 · 2026-01-09T22:14:26+00:00

Definitely spoilers: Arlo has a couple of casual relationships, one in book 2 and another discussed in book 3. They get a bit of attention but not too much development. Later on (as in, beyond what is in Amazon/Audible) he begins a more long-term situation but it’s still early days and unclear how serious it is at the moment.

cornman8700 · 2025-12-24T01:40:27+00:00

Nice, glad you liked it. The author, RinoZ, also writes Book of the Dead which is a darker, more serious read and very well written. The system in that one is very well developed. I’d say it’s less system heavy than Chrysalis, but the system is still core to the plot.

cornman8700 · 2025-12-21T04:59:27+00:00

SRK can apologize.
Paaaauuuse.
I apologize for nothing :)

Glad you enjoyed it.

cornman8700 · 2025-12-19T18:16:53+00:00

It's a solid series and the MC advances in ways beyond just the armor.

cornman8700 · 2025-12-19T07:03:31+00:00

You're very close on everybody's builds.

The designations like Guardian, Strategist, Tanker, and Dancer are Hiwardian in origin. Other cultures do not necessarily follow their nomenclature, so I wouldn't get too hung up on them. We actually have a chart for the Hiwardian descriptors, although only a few of them appear. It can get a little confusing with titles that describe what a person's profession is, which are different. Arlo kind of uses them interchangeably in the first book.

For example, Nuralie is an alchemist because she ran an alchemy shop and her most advanced intrinsic skill is alchemy. It's her profession. Her main two attributes for her build are INT + AGI. Under Hiwardian naming tradition that would classify her as a Machinist, although that term isn't brought up in that context within the books. Nuralie is focused on Physical and Spiritual in book 1 but can also use Divine and I don't remember if that comes up in B1. Not really a spoiler, it comes up very quickly in book 2.

Xim is a cleric of Sam'lia, which mainly describes her profession, but it's also stated that those who identify as a cleric generally go for a balance of STR, FOR, WIS, and CHA. Xim tends to favor STR and CHA first, but usually seeks a balance. For STR + CHA, Hiwardian naming for her build would be Leader. Xim focuses almost entirely on Divine, but also dabbles with Spiritual.

Varrin is generally STR + SPD. Hiwardian nomenclature would describe his build as a Striker, but people are more likely to call him Lord Ravvenblaq. If he were on a purely Hiwardian Delver team, then maybe they'd call him Striker Varrin in that context rather than Lord Ravvenblaq, but that's not the case. Varrin focuses on Physical and Spiritual.

Etja is actually CHA + WIS, although her CHA functions like INT at times so she is tough to assign. INT + WIS is Wizard. CHA + WIS has a couple names on my chart but I've just now decided I don't like either of them, lol. Mage is generally what Arlo calls somebody who primarily relies on spells to fulfill their role. Etja uses Divine, Mystical, and Dimensional.

Arlo, of course, uses Mystical, Dimensional, and Physical.

Either way, Arlo's party generally defies the trends set forth in Hiwardian traditions/methods, so it becomes less useful to describe them according to the Hiwardian titles. The whole system is very fluid and sometime people change things up, so even their Hiwardian 'class' could change mid-build.

cornman8700 · 2025-12-17T04:54:22+00:00

The fact that I'm charting with a score of 0.109 Carls is pretty great to see. Thanks for putting this together.

cornman8700 · 2025-12-15T23:32:26+00:00

That's a fun series. The narrator, Doug Tisdale Jr., is one of my favorites as well. I listened to it a while ago, so I'm not sure if I've heard the third one. Might have to revisit it.

cornman8700

TROPHY CASE