Spellfletcher: A LitRPG Adventure

War of the Gods Saga #1

by System Lad

In an instant the world changed, and the Earth became the battlefield of the gods in their Great Game…

Thomas Grimshaw thought the hardest part of his day was going to be scaling a sheer wall in Yosemite on his climbing trip, but the inscrutable gods had other plans. In a flash they terraformed the planet and imposed the rules of the Great Game.

Why Earth? Why do the gods compete against each other? Do the human ‘players’ have free will, or are they mere pawns? Why was he given a special class option to select from? Thomas will discover these mysteries in time, but for now simply surviving is critical. Luckily, the Spellfletcher class, an arcane arrowsmith, is built for survival in a harsh world.

With great danger comes great rewards, and surviving can become thriving in this new world. Thomas might just discover that the Great Game is one that he can win…

Genres: Fantasy

412 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 13, 2025

Reviews

[Andy L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good straightforward dungeon adventure

A capable dude gets Isekai’d sort of, as Earth is transformed into an adventure world. The gamification is a little odd sometimes, but it’s well written and fun.

[Will Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note to self: great start.

I appreciate the author took the time to write up full classes, even though they were clearly not the ones the character would choose (name of the book).

Most authors usually say "there were dozens, hundreds of class choices. Thousands even. So many... but here's the one I wrote because its the one the character would pick and I don't want to write the rest."

And the classes are all viable, they make sense and synergize no half-assing in sight.

As a side note, I think the class is Spell Fletcher rather than Arcane Archer, because if it was Jake would step through books and kick this MC's ass.

This feels like a speedrun/abridged story, in a way. Suddenly, at barely level 8, the MC outgrows the town and is ready to move on... it's been two days. The two people he's talked to more than once, talk to him like their son or best friend is leaving... after two days. Not a huge deal, but it sticks out.

It’s a fun quick read, interesting class and combat, but overly sped up to the point it didn’t feel like a full book.

[Logan Horsford · Rating 1 out of 5]

After a fairly short bit, the first HALF AN HOUR of the book is going through all of the classes available. Did the author think I was going to actually be playing this (lame level based) system? WTF. A short summary would have been just fine rather than 'let's go through each spell they can cast and ability they can use in classes the MC will NOT be choosing.

That is a whole lot of WTF, tuning out and skipping ahead. OMFG it seemed to go on for a WHOLE FUCKING HOUR. I'm wondering how people got through this.

The tedium continued. In combat, he was getting charged by a troll. Rather than selecting a spell and giving us the description on that - we got the description on all of them.

On top of that, the MC seems to be a bit of a tosser.

Gave up two and a half hours in. Not sure how this got other good ratings.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m glad I pushed through the rocky opening section. It begins with the MC acting like a dickhead for no good reason beyond “I am a lone wolf, too cool for human interaction.” Then we get to a section of nothing but page after page after page of detailed class and ability information there’s no way he’s going to take. It’s in the title, my dude. We know he’s going to take Spellfletcher. You can add those full descriptions later when we meet characters with the class.

Luckily, it’s easy to skip those. No regrets.

Once it got going, I had fun. I liked the wisps and the variety of action.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good first book

I enjoyed the story, and I enjoyed all the characters. .The MC is a good person, perhaps too good. There aren't a lot of secondary characters. What few there are are well done. My biggest complaint is that the world or universe that he is in is very simplistic. In terms of litRPG, it is certainly not very crunchy, and the whole system is rather Flat. However, I enjoyed it enough. I'll probably read the second book to see where it goes.

[Jake · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lazy, self indulgent 13 year old philosophising.

The review title says it.

The book is lazy. The ‘system’ that was created was lazy. The main characters repeated pontificating on various issues was tired, cliche, and boring.

Add in that it wasn’t even that intriguing of a premise as to the overall plot, the cardboard cutout of a main character was just bad.

Nothing redeeming in thus one, just skip it all together.

[David Harriss · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sloppy

I want to be nice to this book, but that wouldn't be honest.
The premise is sudden, the MC is over hyped, the relationships are onion-paper thin, the mechanics are unbalanced, the numbers are lies, the emotions have no development, and the writing is too stilted to enjoy the rich descriptions.
The author has some technical skill, a vivid imagination, and genuine passion. I wish them good things.
I cannot recommend this book.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat unique story here folks. The introduction of spells via arrows isn't new in LitRPG, there's several stories where users can add affects to arrows, but this is the first time I've seen that ability be the whole basis of a class. It makes for interesting reading, and I'll be keeping an eye out for the next one in the series.

[James Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well. Since Amazon is being Amazon, my review will be only on here. If you like LitRPG, you'll probably like this book. It is pretty standard for the genre. For the most part the MC is pretty likeable. Well, it least his is not so unlikable that you want to launch your Kindle (or Nook, or Kobo, or whatever) across the room in frustration.

Highly recommended.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Action Packed!!!

I was starting to get a little bored with my reading choices lately. Then I got lucky and picked this book to read. Perfect for the freezing, windy weather that's chased me inside for the moment. Excellent!

[robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

just standard

Was an ok read, however nothing stood out to me as unique or Interesting either with this book.

Will say pass if you have something else to read but if you need a book it isn’t the worst thing written.

[Michael Marciano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really ?

So right off the table I meant I only made it to about 10%.

Reason being the author felt it was necessary to list every ability of every class that they upfront had no intention of taking. It was just pages and pages of information that was a waste of space.

[Yousef Taqi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh sure, list all the classes—that makes sense. But please, by all means, drown us in pages of abilities and skills for classes the main character will never touch. Because nothing says “good pacing” like forcing readers to read information that literally does not matter.

DNF.

[Donald Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quirky and enjoyable different. LitRPG stats are greatly simplified and do not detract from the literary flow as is so often the case. I'll definitely be giving the next volume a read as well.

[Dantegideon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t really like Thomas. The hanging lampshade stuff where the other characters talk about how over-the-top cool he is didn’t balance out his faux-nonchalant over-the-top coolness. He felt like a poser to me.

[Phil X. Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

System Lad is the Real Deal!

I've read several of these LitRPG series and this looks to be among the best.
Now I have to keep reading!

[Paul Alcantara · Rating 5 out of 5]

the epic return of system lad

Love this book with a smart Mc who recognizes their limitations and is conscious of how bad things can go. Cool magic system and fun characters.

[Rusty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Both the character and the author make decisions that seem insane to me. Hard to take seriously a melee character with a bow primary.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read

This story had an M C that had reasonable realistic progress. Lots of action great world building. Can't wait for the next addition

[Tedric · Rating 1 out of 5]

meh

18% in and the MC has killed a level one troll
Nine eight seven six five four three two one