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Heretical Fishing #3

Heretical Fishing 3

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In a world where godhood is within reach for those willing to claw their way to the top, only one man has the resolve to reject power and go . . . fishing? Again?

Try as he might, Fischer still can’t catch a break. Tropica’s forces have just perpetrated the fantasyland equivalent of crashing the king’s party, kicking over the punch bowl, and making a series of rude gestures on their way out. Unfortunately, they’re about to learn firsthand that when you take a bully down to the mat, it’s best to make sure they don’t get back up.

Because their enemies are unearthing long-forgotten powers, and if those dabbling in the resulting destructive chi succeed, they could become even more annoying than the time Corporal Claws hid all of Fischer’s pants.

Still, as troublesome as existential annihilation might be, the hurdles in one’s own mind are a lot worse—and Fischer has more than a little debris that needs to be swept off his mental doorstep. With the help of his friends, it might just be time to take out the trash once and for all.

The third volume of the laugh-out-loud LitRPG adventure series—a #1 Rising Star on Royal Road with more than three million views—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

408 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2024

649 people are currently reading
574 people want to read

About the author

Haylock Jobson

6 books179 followers

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5 stars
1,431 (54%)
4 stars
834 (31%)
3 stars
304 (11%)
2 stars
62 (2%)
1 star
14 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 128 reviews
Profile Image for Tony Hinde.
2,167 reviews79 followers
March 7, 2025
This third novel essentially wraps up the series. All the story arcs are closed, and everyone we care about is accounted for.

I've complained, in prior Cosy novels, about the lack of plot... this one got the balance just right. There were the usual feel-good moments as well as an action-packed conclusion. While the story never fully grabbed my attention, that's not what is expected from this sub-genre. All in all, it was a pleasant read.
Profile Image for GaiusPrimus.
870 reviews97 followers
November 18, 2024
There's a lot being said about this series, and I'm not traying to add to it all.

But if you enjoy a low-risk, well crated story, where you know everything will end up fine but it's really more about the journey than the destination, this is a great series.
Profile Image for Kevin.
1,765 reviews31 followers
January 16, 2025
I hope this is closer to book one, with the building a house with running water out of nothing. I didn't enjoy book two as much as book one, and if this continues like book two, I might drop the series.

I think this will be the last book I read in the series. I am halfway through, and a majority of what I read is cooking fish, catching fish, and everyone eating fish. I know the protag is a fisherman, and this is supposed to be a "cozy" book, meaning low stakes... but compared to book one, it lost itself somewhere.

Book one had something going, book three feels like an anime, where they show the animals being cute and doing cute things as the plot. I know the author took inspiration from Beware of Chicken, but did he realise that the animals were part of the Chinese Zodiac? It had a deeper meaning.
What does the Crab, Otter, Seagull, etc represent? Not the Star constellations.

It could be my current mood affecting me, but this book feels like a slog and I want it to end now.

I finished the book, it didn't feel like a slog, it was a slog. This was like a Kindergartner book about a guy and his magical animal friends, and how they all loved each other.

I will not be reading the sequel, nor anything else of the author.

2/5 Stars
Profile Image for Lara R..
394 reviews11 followers
June 15, 2025
Great characters, detailed world building, total coziness, but also action and battles.

One of my new favorite LitRPG series. Can't wait to listen to the next book on Audible - the narrator does an amazing job.
4 reviews
July 4, 2025
The third book in this series was still great! I love the quips from all of the characters and the relaxing slice of life that this book brings. I do feel as though it was possibly a little too much slice of life however but the events that took place still pushed the story along. I am excited for the next book in the series!
Profile Image for Crissy Moss.
Author 36 books42 followers
December 29, 2024
I think this is my favorite of the set so far. While it continues the cozy fishing and cultivating lifestyle there are also forces awakening in the world to come against Fisher and his growing congregation. There are magical scenes, heart warming scenes and a huge battle, so a little if everything. The ending left me satisfied, and yet craving more.
Profile Image for Sugarpop.
794 reviews1 follower
July 20, 2025
Relaxing as the parts before and still a lot of fun!
I also really love every moment George happens to be in.
422 reviews1 follower
August 12, 2025
3 stars

I understand why there had to be an introduction of angst in this series, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Profile Image for Rudhrein.
141 reviews
August 7, 2025
I’ve lost interest in the series. I think the animal characters are super cute but the overall plot is getting boring.
Profile Image for Devan.
624 reviews19 followers
December 1, 2024
Loved this! I liked the focus on group crafting projects in this book as well as the big battle royale at the end.

The author continues to add more and more pet friends. It feels like this might be getting out of hand with so many beast pets running around. On the other hand we get to laugh at the horribly epic pet names chosen each time!
Profile Image for John-Torleif  Harris.
2,725 reviews13 followers
November 22, 2024
More delightful silliness

So what is going to happen to everything outside of Tropica now? How are the effects of this book going to echo throughout the world?

I have to wonder why this society is so concerned about the will of gods who abandoned them long ago. Maybe if the gods had only recently left, I could understand a desire to avoid heresy in the hope of them returning, but that ship has long since sailed, and yet, these people cling to taboos that no longer apply.

I’m excited to learn more about this world’s history, and I’m glad that the System has enough power to actually give us a quest to find out more about that very thing.
Profile Image for Travis Bryant.
961 reviews8 followers
November 15, 2024
My least favorite of the 3 books so far, but still a tremendous series. The corrupted king and his minions storyline wasn't nearly as compelling as the antagonists from the first two, but the story itself all came together and made sense and kept things moving along. Also, this is how you do a recap, no need to refresh the entire series to readers, but recapping the book before feels like a must. If that doesn't sufficiently remind readers, that's on them.👍🏽👍🏽
Profile Image for Kelly.
12 reviews1 follower
November 19, 2024
Lovely vacation to enlightenment

Lovely, lovely, lovely! I'm a follower of the Church of Fischer! Join us!

Well paced and plotted. A balance of pure relaxation and action. Like a vacation to another world, all you must do is trust your guide to show you the next adventure, while eating and drinking lush metaphorical cuisine. And the true adventure, the true feast lies deep within, seeking the truth of one's own being and transcending. I wish our world had a Fischer.
16 reviews
November 17, 2024
Love everything about it

It's not the deepest or most complicated plot. But this entire series is awesome. Great mix of action and humor and just a completely enjoyable read and listen.
2 reviews
December 25, 2024
A waste of book. I thought the repeated use of of “super unseeable enhanced human feats” of speed or strength was going to be a theme of the series of being one of the few cultivators in existence living in a world of normal people. Nope! Just an annoying writing style from the author. The antagonists are mostly not a real threat and cunning turn around secret plans just feel like the enemies are incompetent. Fischer’s relationships remain stagnate while my favorite animal’s personality is changed for the worse. I’m uncomfortable with the tone of cultivation suddenly causing physical transformations of certain characters as I feel like the ending of this book could have been added onto the end of the previous book and not much would have been effected.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Danielle Robertson  Robertson.
Author 1 book14 followers
January 13, 2026
It was nice to see our heroes struggle and lose a bit - it brought more gravitas to this epic adventure. Fisher finally meets his match. That said, I laughed out loud at several parts of this book. It's charming and grounding, presenting both humor and some mindfulness throughout.
81 reviews
October 31, 2025
Now that there's less of a focus on the king, I found myself scanning some pages unconsciously due to a lack of progression. I don't mean that in the power sense, just that our group has stalled a bit at the village and I'm not sure what the future will hold unless they decide to open their borders and straight up develop a new country.

I'm starting to get a little frustrated with some of the characters. Don't get me wrong, there's still some really great moments between the cast. The new members being added are great as well, but I guess some of the personalities are just too strong? I don't like seeing Rocky on screen. His 'funny' moments are just acting like an asshole and getting launched. The getting-thrown thing was funny the first few times but the novelty has more than worn off by now.

Claws is starting to be another one. I get that she's always been a mischievous, cunning animal but her "pranks" are getting to be annoying. Her behavior is actively hindering the progress of others and I'm finding it difficult to appreciate any of the good or wholesome moments when I'm concerned she's going to be pretending to be sweet just to get one over on Fischer or something.

"Sharing the wealth" has been a big factor in these books and I'm glad to see this continue to be the case. The village is expanding rapidly and I was worried the characters would choose to hunker down rather than accept new faces, but I'm glad I was wrong about this. Maybe my guess of them developing a new country wasn't baseless?
Profile Image for Rob.
634 reviews20 followers
November 19, 2024
Enjoyable read. A page-turner, and an improvement over book 2 in several ways.

First, the volume of "food p0rn" including "mouth watering" and such was toned down. Don't get me wrong, it's still there, the phrase "Mouth water" is probably used at least a couple dozen times in the book. But it's a tolerable volume.

That said, its frequency was replaced by characters saying "you goose" to each other, as in, "you silly goose" and such. Like, all the time. This wasn't a thing the first couple books, and, man, was it a thing this book. It wasn't as annoying to me as the food scenes, though. I don't know that Jobson listens to his own books or not, but the phrase repetition is a weak spot of his writing style.

Second, there were more bad guy scenes, and scenes from other characters. He's got a bit of an ensemble cast going, and the world is richer when he spends time away from Fischer. Book 2 did not have enough bad guy stuff going on.

Third, he managed to do world building and increase the stakes a bit without going all "the world depends on this" like so many authors do. It's a gradual build, like Beware of Chicken. There is more action and violence in this one than the last one, more at risk, but it's still primarily a cozy vibe. The villains still more characature.

The end of the book teases more world building and adventure to come. I hope he continues to keep the vibe going.
Profile Image for Tyler.
315 reviews2 followers
January 16, 2025
Another great piece by Haylock Jobson. (still an awesome name)

TL; DR: The saga of Fischer and friends continues, full of the same humor, growth, and fishing that have become a staple of one of the best litRPGs ever written.

Dang but I loved this. Heretical Fishing 3 has the same heart and heat of the original, plus the style of the second and we find ourselves once again locked in to the tale of Fischer and company.

Characters: Fantastic; I hated a certain one that I think everyone else will agree with, but he redeemed himself at the end and with the reasoning. Otherwise, it’s the same tale of growth, heart, and character you’ve gotten used to; what more can I say?

Setting: Between the jungle, Tropica, and various other (unspoiled) locations, this story takes off. I was wondering how some locations would play in, but nothing ever felt forced. It was a great couple of pieces I enjoyed.

Story: Pretty standard for the series, but not in a bad way. It’s interesting though, every time I started to get disappointed by someone’s behavior or attitude, it was fixed, like something would happen that would drag them back into appropriate behavior. I liked it.

Writing: Much better than I think most would give it credit for. I was very pleased with how much came full circle and the wrap-ups, though I look infinitely forward to whatever happens next.

August is so far away man…I’m dying for part 4 already, ‘nuff said.

5 🌟
2,374 reviews
November 16, 2024
Best book evarrr!!! Oops I said that in my last review, but it's totally true both books are best... each in their own way! But this happens to be a cozy litRPG and that's one of my favorite genre's. A lot of people have been having breakthroughs, gaining a core, leveling up, even the spirit beast's because of friendship and being close to The Heretical Fischer, and the church of Fischer! Yes, even the major of Tropica gained a core. But well Fischer has to go fishing and that's all there is to it... well there is the cooking and sharing the meal with all his new friends, and yeah crafting fishing rods for everyone... Magical fishing rods even work better!!! But before Fischer has his own breakthrough on his path to Ascension he has'ta conquer his own inner demons... to find out you're gonna hafta treat yourself to this absodamnlutely fabulous book! But get the audiobook for the cherry on top!

Here's a couple of quotes:


“You don’t have pineapples?” “Nope.” “Huh. I guess that settles the pineapple-on-pizza debate.”

“Yep. Let’s get it over with, then we can come back here and …” She leaned in close and bit her lip, staring up at me as she whispered in a husky voice, “ … go fishing.”

"Borks was there a moment later, giving the brothers a drive-by lick on the cheek..."
202 reviews1 follower
November 21, 2024
Excellent book!

Fischer has finally [redacted]. He also manages to [redacted, also]. Oh, for pity's sake! What can I say that isn't a spoiler yet conveys how the story progresses?!
Let's try again. Here are a few non-spoiler highlights:
Fischer and critter friends take part in a "crafting ritual" and create a dish for their group that has Cosmic importance. Also, after the climatic battle, the System finally gets enough power to really say something. (Remember all those error messages from book 1?) The sleeping creature ... nevermind, it's too close to a spoiler.
Anyway, this is a fun book, full of laughter, love, and family - both born and found. People, I use that term loosely, use their powers to grow to unprecedented heights. They are very good at taking the "bad" energy thrown at them and using it to fuel this growth. Good job!!!
I think readers of all ages would love to read it. Great addition to the series, solves some issues, but brings up even more. 9/10 unicorns 🦄 🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄
Profile Image for Shannon.
88 reviews
November 27, 2024
Probably the best book so far in this series although still not completely comfortable with half the book being food porn. You can bloody eat something without it being an existential event for god's sake. And yet again besides some veggies all they eat is seafood pastry and coffee it's not a proper bloody diet. I don't care how much you love seafood if you ate it for every meal of everyday you'd get sick of it. Another crime against humanity is the main character is Australian and yet hasn't mentioned beer or pies once. He has a bloody BBQ and still hasn't even cooked up sausages what the hell is wrong with this guy? That aside the overall story is pretty good although it can be a bit slow at times. You read one scene about fishing you've read them all and yet there are about 20 of them in this book anyway so yeah...
74 reviews1 follower
December 16, 2024
19 hours worth of audio book, barely 4 hours worth of content, it went from slice of life mixed with cultivation, to too much sweetness and barely any cultivation , when it should be the opposite, so much feet draging and so much useless things, it just sad that such an awesome series went down the drain, and yes there is a chance that it will recover , but that is in August 2025, and I am not sure I would even remember it by that time.

And yes this is a common thing in most series, and we all expect it and it gets better latter on, but for it to happen so early, yeah, means the writer is out of ideas and feels like what they have needs to be extended, unfortunately for it to happen before book 5 is like a sad demise, and then even the writer abandons the series, feels bad for both the book and the writer.
But all the best to the writer and hope to see another in 2 years or so.
Profile Image for Bradley.
Author 9 books4,887 followers
April 29, 2025
Wholesome fantasy.

I mean, sure, there's all this massive corruption and personal growth challenges to keep it hopping, for the most part, it's a fantasy purely devoted to the good life and trusting your friends and yourself.

Hence--truly wholesome fantasy.

Piscomancy. Of course, it's not divination related, but straight power-sourcing. Maybe it's nectomancy? It definitely wouldn't be aquamancy because the power isn't in the water, itself. Any way you look at it tho, just drive all those pesky complications out of your brain and GO FISH.

Synesthesia for this one is oddly just the warm glow of hot lemony tea and a fire for roasting.


Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.

Arctunn.com
Profile Image for David Phipps.
922 reviews1 follower
December 23, 2024
This is the third book in a fantasy and light progression/cultivation series with some portal/isekai, system, and slice of life elements. Fishing, cooking, sentient animal pals are all prevalent themes in this series. The progression and cultivation parts of this series continue to be super light. I came very close to giving up on this book at the halfway point. I just wasn't feeling it anymore. It felt slow and repetitive. I missed the light-hearted situational humor of the first couple books. I stuck with it and finished it out but even if another book was available I think I'd rather stop here.
6 reviews
February 26, 2025
A pleasant enough read. I'm not usually a fan of cultivator books and that aspect of this one was its weakest point for me. The humor and characters are the best part of the story. Not wanting to spoil anything, I can say that Jobson does a good job using misunderstanding to add levity to his story. The pace is good but the story lacks for any tension or stakes.
This series offers a nice break from what one usually encounters in the LitRPG genre. I like it enough that I'll certainly read the next book, but I hope that we eventually get away from self-reflection turning into new powers every few chapters.
Profile Image for Jeff Nerdo.
27 reviews
December 18, 2024
I think what I do love about this series has been how low stakes it is. Without giving too much much away, I like how the conflicts never seem as serious as some situations could be and it seems to work nicely when reading. There’s no one needing to die off from the main characters to create the passion and joy of the story. Idk, if you like litRPG and want an easy listen that isn’t the main character constantly on the brink of death and features the simple joy of fishing then read these books.
Profile Image for Mistress OP.
733 reviews12 followers
January 9, 2026
The least favable part about this book is the MC. Which makes it hard as the story seems to be curving back into him even harder. While at the same time he's like no no I don't want to. It's annoying and cowardly. It's a crap or get off the pot. Those are the two non coward option. This SORTA disrespects both options for the cowardly road. Personally, the second he accidentally made dood a magic user he should have took responsibility for his actions. More so when he figured out the awful things they do to magic users. Because of that the story is giving me the icks.
Profile Image for Tyrannosaurus regina.
1,199 reviews26 followers
November 30, 2024
So unfortunately this has kind of doubled down on all the things that I didn’t particularly enjoy about the second book and moved even further away from what I liked about the first. I guess maybe it was inevitable, as the stakes need to keep escalating, but it’s lacking the charm it once had for me and doesn’t really have as much of the progression angle to it anymore either (breakthroughs notwithstanding).
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