Blood Knife: An Urban Fantasy LitRPG

by Joost Lassche, Osirium Writes

Interdimensional portals unleash alien monstrosities to feed on humanity—and transform survivors into superhumans—in this urban fantasy adventure. The Age of Rifts began thirteen years ago when the first black sphere appeared on Earth, teleporting everyone within its radius to an alien realm where they fell prey to otherworldly creatures. Those who survived and returned home found white crystal shards grafted onto their chests. Imbued with energy, these Riftshards grant people supernatural abilities. Known as Rifters, they have become Earth’s first line of defense against this unpredictable invasion, able to enter the spheres and fight the monsters and evolving with greater powers after every battle.Lance Turner and Thomas Walker are nurses in London, England, when a Rift swallows their hospital and the hundreds of souls inside, including two battle-hardened Rifters. Across a toxic landscape as dangerous as the monsters who live there, the warriors do their best to protect the patients and physicians and lead them to safety. For Lance and Thomas, it is a trial by fire. Trained as healers, they risk their lives as combatants amidst unrelenting slaughter, emerging from the Rift with their white shards intact.Now Lance and Thomas are rookie Rifters, earning their stripes as porters for R.A.M., or Rift-based Advanced Metallurgy, a company that sponsors expeditions into open spheres to mine for resources. But when they’re betrayed on a mission and left for dead, Lance manipulates his own uncontrollable powers to save his best friend, becoming something unnatural even among a Death Smith, capable of reanimating corpses—and controlling them as deadly weapons . . .The first volume of the hit LitRPG fantasy series—with more than 350,000 views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

Genres: Fantasy

Kindle Edition

Published October 31, 2023

Reviews

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book one

This book ended at 92% so it is a good thing that it continues over on Royalroad.
I found three mistakes and will post them on Goodreads.

I liked this book for a couple of reasons,
1: Great build up. The characters start out as just normal people.
2: They have to survive their first rift just to gain a level.
3: No powers till they reach level ten.
4: A good explanation for why the government can't just roll in with tanks and handle things.
5: The randomness of the rifts.
All of these reasons make for a good story.

Dislikes: Not many really. Lance's need for revenge is understandable, but he seems like the kind of guy that would report everything before deciding to get revenge with his own two hands.

8/10 I'm off to read more about this story.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark RPG-like fantasy. In this futuristic world, Rifts, spheres of darkness that spontaneously form and transport those inside to a monster filled world, are a fairly common occurrence. If you happen to survive your first experience inside a Rift, you level up and get the chance to become a Rifter, someone who travels in and out of Rifts to fight the various monsters inside and to mine these strange lands for resources. Blood Knife focuses on Lance and his best friend Thomas, two nurses whose lives are upended when they are thrown into a Rift and unexpectedly survive. Despite the danger, they decide to become Rifters. Each Rift is a new experience, and as the danger mounts, it's unclear what the future will hold, or if they will even make it out alive.

This was an engaging story. From the prologue, you know that something is going to go wrong for the main characters, and you just have to follow along as events lead up to that conclusion. What a hook. The world is interesting. I can't wait to see what the explanation is for why the Rifts started forming. Is some corrupt agency behind it? I enjoyed the friendship between Lance and Thomas. The majority of the story is from Lance's perspective, but you get occasional looks into other supporting characters' views as well. The ending is emotional and left me wanting to see what happens next.

I received a free copy of this book via Podium Team and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had this book for so long, and didn't read it because a friend dropped it. It's short, so I will clean it off my unread pile.
Seems I'm looking for short books recently, to combat those over padded books I read not too long ago.

This wasn't too bad. I don't mind reading a sequel.

At the start it seemed like a dungeon diving book, where wild dungeons appeared out of nowhere and kidnapped people to feed on. Then you had the protag doing dives, but at the end (which ended on a cliffhanger), it grew on me, and I'm willing to see how this guy will get revenge.

3/5 Stars

[Randy Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a disappointment!

This whole book is just a prologue for the main character and his story. The main character hardly seems to be present in his own story. Then the end of the story really sucked with the main character is having mental breakdown with all sign showing psychotic break. With this book is an example of how this series is going I don’t foresee myself reading anymore of these books.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing start to a new series! This took the time to establish our characters, their relationships, and the world. Excited for more to happen in the next book.