Tropes of Doom

Isekai Terry #1

by Eric Dontigney

Destiny called… and Terry hung upIntroverted computer programmer Terry Williams’ life is not exciting. It never has been, and he is A-OK with that. So, the last thing he expects on a hiking trail at the park is for Truck-kun to roar up and vehicular homicide him straight into
another world.

When he wakes up with a head stuffed full of new information and people calling him the hero, he has to accept that his old world is lost to him. Of course, that doesn’t mean he needs to buy into this whole hero gig. Terry’s read enough isekai to know that’s a job best reserved for the most masochistic of suckers.

Promptly fleeing destiny, Terry finds himself dodging noble plots, avoiding a vengeful church, and being stalked by a monster with the heart of a coward and the stomach of a glutton. But he has an edge. While sometimes the victim of xianxia, manga, and anime tropes, he also sees them for what they are. The only question is, can he manipulate them well enough to survive and keep from getting sucked into a war he wants no part of?

Genres: Fantasy

372 pages, Paperback

Published January 18, 2026

About the author

Raised in Western New York, Eric Dontigney has lived in New Mexico, Florida, Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. He currently resides near Dayton, OH. He is a fan of photo-realism paintings, coffee and well-made food. He has a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy.

Reviews

[Roberto Flores · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you have read any of his work and liked it, you will like this. It's just more of what I expect from the author. Five starts, no question about it.

[Tony Hinde · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read, mostly because the humour clicked for me. The author didn't do enough with the titular premise... I failed to recognise half the "tropes" he alluded to. Why not just name them?

There are so many unresolved threads in this story that I'm absolutely going to read book two. I particularly want to find out what big-bad is behind the butt-hurt church.

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy LitRPG books and Eric Dontigney's style of writing, and this first book in a new series is a real blast, and so much fun to read. Terry Willams is an introverted computer programmer, with not much of a life going for him, however when he gets hit by a truck in the middle of a park, and wakes up in another world, he sure starts missing his comfort zone. It appears he is seen as a hero, one the people who summoned him plan to send to war, but Terry has other ideas and waging war is not one of them. He escapes and travels South, aiming to keep out of the limelight, but he ends up killing monsters, evading nobles and the pretty people, who he later finds out are cultivators, and the clutches of the church whose priests are looking for him because he had killed one of their own. He ends up befriending and looking out for a cockatrice who he named drumstick, and a kitten who he called dusk. He does his best to keep away from cities and people in general but he meets up with Haresh, Jaban and Ekori and for some reason they seem to click. During their travels together there is a lot of banter which he has no time for, but by time he finds he is enjoying the ranking up, even making 'friends' and looking out for his new found family. Seems that this new life just might grow on him, even though he really had no choice when he ended up in what he called Chinese Peroid Drama Hell. The battle with the pack of dire wolves was a real trial for Terry, but the challenge he might soon be facing if he wants to save his family will surely be much worse. This book ends on a bit of a cliff hanger and I cannot wait for the next book in the isekai series.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I nearly gave up as soon as ‘Truck-kun’ was mentioned, but I have enjoyed the author’s ’Unintended Cultivator’, so I kept going. The author has a tendency to ‘over-write’, especially the interminable internal debates that went on for pages and pages. I also wasn’t sure if Terry was meant to be amusing, but at times he was definitely an idiot and quite annoying.
Also the idea of the taking over another body while someone/thing still occupied it, didn’t really work for me.

Having had a bit of a moan, I should also add that either Terry improved or I just got used to him, because  there were a couple of times latter in the book when I found myself enjoying the story, but it still wasn’t great.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book that exceeded my expectations. The main character is expressive and fun to listen to rant to himself. The side characters are mostly just there but have been hinted to have a lot deeper backstorys.

The world is somewhat standard cultivation/isekai. There are a few things happening in it but we don't really get that much information about those things. You don't really know the kingdoms or what's going on in them.

I think the ending of this book felt a little out of place just due to the abrupt shift it took. I'm really interested to see where this goes and look forward to the next book.

[John E · Rating 5 out of 5]

New body, new world, new skills and some unusual pets

I know nothing about Isekai and just a little about manga and anime. I read this book because the Unintended Cultivator has become one of my favorite series. This book's MC (Terry) has some similarities -- a powerful fighter who only wants to be left alone. This story has a nice blend of pseudo medieval tropes that Terry tries his best to avoid while falling into somewhat comedic circumstances. The story was interesting enough that i read it in one day. The bad news, having to wait a year for the next book.

[John Stonebraker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Promising new series
Content Ratings: Language – R; Violence – PG13; Other – R

For those familiar with the Unintended Cultivator series (which is overall a 5 star series for me 7 books in), this series has a decidedly different feel. Terry is very cynical and not at all like Sen. That's neither good nor bad - just something to be aware of for fans of the UC series. This isn't the "same but different". Other than it also being a 5 star read.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foliasaur, Really?!

This was a fun, funny, cheeky, and overall very enjoyable trope/cultivation/fantasy parody. The second most disappointing thing about the book was that the second book won't be published for a year. The biggest disappointment was the name of the plant dinosaur. Foliasaur? I get it, foliage and dinosaur, but florasaur was right there! 0/10!

But seriously, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was exactly what I was looking for.

[Robert Baucom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely funny great world building

Humor seems very hard to do when you are writing a book. Your usually writing to one person, and we (people) seem to enjoy humor when we are in a group. I loved how mentally Terry thought about the world and tropes! I was disappointed that book two was not out. Looking forward to reading the other books of the author. The rice hat and the action not happening if he didn't move was hilarious!

[Devan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suprisingly awesome

I expected this to be an ok story where the author tries too hard to be funny. It was the opposite. He is a normal IT nerd who happens to be a fan of isekai and cultivation novels that gets Truck Kun’d into an isekai story.

He is not thrilled and does everything he possibly can to avoid, escape, and dodge any possible trope that comes his way. It was great. The humor flies smoothly and isn’t forced and the tropes being mocked were spot on. Great story.

[Dantegideon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The joke that he was a tedious, whiny narcissist who sucked the fun out of everything and blamed everyone else for it grew stale about a paragraph in. I persevered for a few chapters but he remained a miserable git. He just drips with disdain for everything and it's not enjoyable to read. Two stars because you know, the prose was fine. Just written about a git.

[Corrin Waller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this. so much

This is such a fantastic book. The MC just wants to be a normal guy, and while at the start he’s a bit hard to appreciate as the story goes on he keeps getting better and better. OP without being stupid. I highly recommend and I can barely wait till the next one is out.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome twist on the usual Isekai

This is a very entertaining and well written comedy that turns all the usual themes upside down and has a lot of fun doing it. A lot of fun to read.

[Christine Antonson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tropetastic

If you’re looking for a fun light hearted story where a man spends his time running from tropes straight into more tropes. Well you get the picture. Follow Terry and the strays he picks up on the way to a hilarious good time.

[Zack Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fanfreakingtastic!

What an amazing book! I absolutely loved this book and such wonderful characters! I can not wait for the next book to come out!

[Erick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a hyper self aware take on Isekai. It follows a reluctant hero who rejects the primary plotline "Go defeat the army of evil!" to instead go do his own thing. But the world conspires to force him to become a hero. It's an extremely self aware book, and has a lot of humor stemming from you, the author, and the main character being in on a joke. The joke usually is that something that is happening in the story is a trope the character is aware of. This kind of story can work but it didn't quite click for me.

Some of my gripes are:
- Protagonist has an internal second personality which becomes carte blanche for the author to have very long internal monologues that have very little information, and don't progress the story. Instead, they're humor that didn't work for me.
- The main character is very self aware about tropes, but still finds himself stuck in every single one. He is an Isekai character with two animal companions by the end of book one. With a forced companionship plot with another set of humans which will setup for another plotline in book 2 or 3. And is determined to stand, and fight to the death after staying in a town for a bit under a week. For all he claims to not want to be a hero, he has a habit of making other people's problems his own.
- There is a heavy tone clash between the main character's internal dialogue, and claimed motivations when compared to the actions he ends up taking. I don't think the actions he takes are bad, he just doesn't do them out of an internal wellspring of resolve. The result is a main character who complains non-stop, who is stuck in bad situation, after bad situation the whole book.

Overall, I think it was a good story plotline but it didn't work well for me. However, I don't think this is a bad novel, it might be more appealing for you.

[Tiuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious take on someone who is all too aware of the isekai tropes and tries his utmost to avoid them to the best of his abilities. Terry doesn't always success in avoiding the tropes of DOOM, but his attempts are very fun to read.