Vainglory

Vainglory #1

by Plum Parrot

The cost of survival may be more than he bargained for.
Ward Dyer, a seasoned Port Authority detective, tracks a kidnapper to the eerie, forgotten tunnels of the Seattle underground—a place where shadows whisper and danger lurks.

He disrupts a human sacrifice, but the victory leaves him gravely wounded and teetering on the brink of death. He’s approached by a mysterious young woman with an offer he can’t refuse.

In exchange for a cryptic price, she saves him—sending him to Vainglory, a system of worlds where magic intertwines with the unknown, and mysteries unravel in the darkest corners.

Now, with a devilish presence haunting his thoughts, Ward embarks on the Vainglory Challenges—a perilous quest for power, riches, and the elusive secrets that may hold the key to his salvation—or his undoing.

From Plum Parrot, the bestselling author of Victor of Tucson and Cyber Dreams, comes this new Isekai LitRPG Adventure where the line between hero and villain blurs.

Genres: Litrpg, Fantasy

638 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 15, 2025

About the author

Plum Parrot is the pen name of author MC Gallup, who grew up in Southern Arizona and spent much of his youth wandering around the Sonoran Desert, hunting imaginary monsters and building forts. He studied creative writing at the University of Arizona and, for a number of years, attempted to teach middle schoolers to love literature and write their own stories. If he's not out walking his Airedale Terrier, you can find Gallup writing, reading his favorite authors, or playing D&D with friends and family.

Reviews

[Dantegideon]

Oh I didn’t like Ward, and I didn’t like Grace, and so this book was not for me.

[Danny Moody]

I really enjoyed having a cop as an MC. I felt like his background helped him a lot as he isekai’d. The magic system was interesting. There are not a lot of word base systems that I encounter. I like that the story arc was wrapped up in the end and that there is still plenty of adventure yet to be had.

[Kat S]

It was ok I guess. I thought it was going to be a dungeon crawler, but it turned into a western. I did not connect with the MC, an ex cop on the verge of retirement, maybe. When he goes to the other world it seems he is younger than the 50+ I was imagining him as, and then the spirit he bonded to made him physically younger. He acted like he was in his 20s the rest of the book, making rash decisions, all the women fawning all over him, and only saved by plot armor. Seriously, it was so thick. I will not be reading more.

[J.D. Glasscock]

One of my favorite authors

This one is a slower burn than his others but still the brilliant writing of interconnecting dialogue between characters and still brilliant storytelling
Highly recommend
JD Glasscock
Author of the Series Blood Brothers, Nocturne and Warborn

[Will Knight]

Note to self: not feeling the MC or the companion.

[The Legend]

Is this Grooming?

So this book didn't click for me which is odd since all of Plum Parrot's other novels I quite enjoyed.
This one though? While the worlds and system is good as always the challenges didn't really feel all that difficult? They hype it up like everyone dies and it's super hard but really anyone with just a little sword skill could have beaten what he goes through. Not even someone with magic just any normal person.

As for the reason this book didn't click for me? I think it was mainly the relationships. All the women wanting him but all the women except one he's not interested in being young enough to be his daughter. Sure he looks early 30s no but he is still nearly 50. Yet flirting with girls who some are barely college age. It's like the whole Twilight argument that it's not creepy for the hundreds of year old vampire with tons of life experience to date the highschool girl. When it very VERY much is.

I read a series once that due to long lives of such cultivators it was highly illegal to date anyone under 50 years of age when you're over 100 because the life experience one gathered would naturally make impressionable younger people gravitate to their maturity and want to develop to suit their partner in natural grooming and training. That they didn't have time to develop their own personality and maturity.
That's what this felt like. Some 40 year old man flirting with some barely 20 something child who he literally calls 'kid' and 'girl'. Who he saved the life of so has a hero complex and white knight idolizing him. It was just sick feeling. Like taking advantage of her grief and gratitude for his life saving to developed some twisted romantic feelings.
So no just because he looks 30 doesn't mean he should be dating 20 year olds. The fact that before this he hadn't wanted to be with a woman for 15 years since his wife and suddenly is getting all flirty with girls who are children in his eyes. It's very creepy and seems like grooming.

So yes. This was a fail there. Might been a great series if it was just Grace and the MC off on their own but the romance and flirting thrown in just fell flat. Which was surprising because Plum Parrot's Victor of Tuscon was some of the more realistic and well developed romantic relationships I've read. With some relationships not working out or feeling more like sister, with ones slowly developing. With him having feelings for someone yet falling for someone else ect.. It all had a more real feel while this just felt...Yay I'm young again let's hit on girls I see as children.

[Bradley]

This is definitely a different kind of LitRPG from the others. It may still have a much milder skill system even if it's still very much there, but the FEEL is very much a western. Cop in our modern world just about to retire get's isekai'd, a demon riding him as he's thrown into another world. And if that isn't bad enough, it's all just choices, worse choices, and gaslighting, throwing him into more darkness.

Of course, it FEELS like a buddy-buddy novel. It FEELS like the good guys are winning. But yeah... yeah.

In that respect, it's VERY much a western.

[Horty]

DNF 48%

Honestly it is well written, but a bit hard to get into and cultivation is usually not for me anyways. I feel like it is really starting now, but apparently didn't sell well and will not be continued after the third book.
That kills my interest to read the rest.
Giving it a bad rating would be unfair, as it is written well, so I'm not rating it at all.

[Enzo]

So Ward our main character is a Police Detective and he finds himself transported to another world after saving a woman from becoming a deadly sacrifice. But things don't get easy after this because he is now carrying an additional friend with him and dealing with another world. He turns to what he knows, to look after people. I like it that he has the experience and its a good story.

[Lisa]

Suffers a little

I really wanted to like this one as much as the authors other series but it doesn't quite click for me. Lots of interesting bones but they never really seem to get any meat on them. I might pick up the second one in the future but not feeling rushed to do so.

[Peter]

Great book

Stellar work once again from Plum Parrot! Lots of action and adventure, magic and dungeons. Looking forward to the next one!

[Josh H]

Okay, first book for the series. I like Ward, but I feel like there could be so much more that he could do in the world as a character.

[Joseph Panepinto]

Decent mix of spaghetti western with issekai.

[ConciseAlan]

Well written, but I’m not big on long-term suffering. I don’t plan to continue but will look for other series by this author.

[Dale Rosso]

Not a bad beginning to a new series, I grabbed it because it started in Seattle. I enjoyed the character and look forward to the next book in the series.