Path of Conquest: An Apocalypse LitRPG

Ruthless, Book 1

By: D. J. Rintoul

Narrated by: Chris Monteiro

The end of the world affords a restless everyman the chance to be a fearless warrior in this exciting apocalyptic adventure filled with magic and monsters.

James Robard was a risk-taking con artist and thief before he turned over a new leaf as a loving husband and a dull suit in a law firm. He's never felt so unadventurous. That is, until the System descends upon Earth and he's initiated into a thrilling game world of magic and mayhem, training for exhilarating challenges that make him feel alive again.

With much of the Earth's population already wiped out, James's first mission is to survive. But the System sees much more in him—like his potential as a warrior. After all, it's judging him by his nefarious past. It knows he'd kill to outlast the dangers ahead and be reunited with his family. In fact, it's counting on it. It seems the System has found its game villain.

Forging a path of escalating stamina, mana, and skills, James is tossed into violent combat with ravenous monsters, treacherous humans, diabolical cults, and gods of less-than-divine intervention. The life-and-death risks and total abandon are giving James a rush. He's been given free rein to be ruthless. But being a pioneer of chaos has its consequences.

Torn between his power-hungry impulses and better instincts, James embarks on a journey of self-discovery through a cataclysmic new realm. And along with a band of fellow survivors, he's about to find out his true purpose in the System's apocalyptic endgame.

The first volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series—with more than 700,000 views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2024 D. J. Rintoul (P)2024 Podium Audio

Edgelord Fantasy

While the performance was solid and the writing better than most in this genre, the story overall is still cringy.

It's full of convient skill acquisition, a main character who is overpowered 1/3 of the way into the book and incredibly wooden supporting characters.

A great Fantasy title can immerse you immediately through world building and the ability of some authors create protagonists who we connect with in someway... unfortunately this book does neither.

Has potential

The MC has all kinds of cool powers that could give him good tactics but just runs in blind, gets messed up and then explodes. A lot of lost potential. Like a subpar version of Primal Hunter with the MC not as appealing.

fun read

was fun. first litrpg listen. kinda got bogged down with reading the updated character sheet at times but I expect that's less common when he progresses and levels up less. op mc but still gets his butt kicked occasionally.

Different , but good

I am a fan of the MC. He is not OP but his skills certainly are. He has a skill stealing abilitiy. The MC is more like a anti hero than a hero which is cool.

I think his desire to be a leader is overshadowing his goal and limiting himself, but it's still good.

Enjoyable listen

A great start to a awesome adventure the MC was reasonable for his character not making uncharacteristic mistakes and a fresh breath from the typical “young MC” a worth while listen

One thing I would suggest is making a longer term goal for the next book :) don’t worry it’s a good goal right now but every story needs direction

Anyways left off on a good “cliffhanger” would recommend.

A bit disorienting.

I just couldnt follow along any longer than a few chapters. The jumping from on character to the next was just too disorienting i would always wonder what just happened. Story wasnt all that interesting.

edge lord

the super special boy has super special powers yatta yatta. every comes easy, no real challenge, no character growth.

DNF due to cannibalism

The book was good halfway through until the mc started trying to justify eating human flesh. Not only that to thank the gun happy austistic kid with a bowlcut that saved his life he was going to serve him human flesh without telling him. Not sure if he did or not I decided I didn’t want to listen anymore. The book had potential but the cannibal stuff ruined it.

The title lies

MC gets stuck with a party that he has to babysit. Picks up more people that slow his progression so there can be some interpersonal conflict. It is also used as justification for taking away his autonomy. He has to justify going and fight something himself. After the first few chapters, they add pretty much nothing but unnecessary commentary. Such a lazy, overdone time filler for hack writers. He tells them too much and uses his abilities like a 8yr old button mashing.

Help out and then leave like every decent MC in a story like this. The MC is kind of a waste of an awesome power. One he doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut about.


Tiny Spoiler-ish detail below: Doesn’t change much

There is also some sexist BS regarding adding someone to the party who literally just tried to kill him cause they are ‘a girl in need’. Just a full idiot.