I just wanted to find a place to read my book and escape the boredom of my IT job. Then I stumbled upon a hidden floor at the top of my office building, and my life changed completely.
Behind the door on the 13th floor is a stormy world filled with magic, mayhem, and really, really rich monsters. But there’s also tons of beautiful, exotic women being hunted for the most elite monsters to hoard.
There’s just too much loot and too many gorgeous monster girls to save, so it looks like I’ve gotta fit some seriously dangerous and totally heroic adventures into my 9 to 5.
And then get rich selling all the treasure back on Earth.
The original idea is good, it's not great. Great would have been to rent/lease buy the 13Th floor gateway/office space ASAP (As Soon As Possible.). Both the author and main character, Liam, lack vision, higher education and ambition. I think there should have been a portal (rules of engagement/other world rules) so that things wouldn't be so easy for a weak, under-achiever and not that bright main character. The sex parts closer to the end could have been completely omitted and the story would have still been good. I do not understand why bad authors truly believe that to have a fantasy novel series, you need to have a "harem-retinue" without knowing anything about persuasion, charm, seduction or the reasons and conditions (historic/sociological/economical) that some women will accept to be subordinated into a polyamorous, harem-like relationship. Yes! Liam, main character here, saved them from being captured, enslaved or killed, but does that mean that Liam is their new slave master? What author can really think in this way? If the author had ethical values or any amount of honor, he would have saved the beast-spirit-girls just for the justice of it, not to extract personal benefit or sexually harass them later on. Is there a difference with what Liam is doing to what the others do? Another ethical and logical problem with this novel: Liam steals from the corrupt and depraved of that other world, but does that justify his personal enrichment? Robin Hood, stole from the evil rich and gave it out the the needy and vulnerable poor, but in what mind is "stealing from the rich, so that I can be as rich, corrupted and depraved as they are" a good, noble and logical argument? The author should have placed limits to the tech advances that could be taken into the other world (at least to make it more fair for the rich and depraved of the other world to defend themselves). Otherwise Liam is as bad as the people he kills and steals from. Much worse than the "slaver" boss that he has (had) at the accounting company. The potential of this novel series is limited by the lack of vision, education and ambition of the author and derivatively then, of the main character. If main character was smart, capable, ambitious and just, he would use the "loot" to free more people from the other world, or hire mercenaries to help him free and protect more people from the other world. Only total idiots/losers, would use the money/loot for "nouveau riche/easy money" goals (like if he has earned that loot honestly)... There is no difference between the bag-snatcher that was trying to steal from Cleo, than Liam and his retinue. They are both criminals.
The book was pretty fun. It's nothing that hasn't been done before, but the author has done a decent job of distinguishing it from other, similar books.
The reason for 4 instead of 5 stars is almost entirely due to the setting and realism aspect. When you make a book like this, where the main character finds a portal to another world and freely hops back and forth, a big portion of the book becomes about how they navigate between the real and fantasy world. That's well and good, but that also brings a burden of a much decreased ability for suspension of disbelief from the reader, about the 'real' world.
While I'm reading this book about mountains of gold and money being transferred to Liam's account, what's on my mind isn't new apartments, it's tax fraud. Having to explain to the FBI why he's suddenly insanely rich. The FBI coming a knocking and having to explain his wealth and illegal AR15s. My point is, in a real world, he'd be arrested for drug trafficking, because that's exactly what it all looks like.
This is certainly not the real world, but it's proclaiming to be with the descriptions of monotonous office jobs and slimy bosses and such. Therefore, these types of concerns need to be addressed in the text.
Some of the action was suspect in this regard as well. For instance, the main character is firing a glock in a cave and the group of nearby pirates barely if at all hear it? This type of non-realistic response to the main characters actions by other antagonistic forces is unfortunately very common in the book. I hope it gets ironed out in the next volume, as other than this persistent issue, I enjoyed the book.
“Looting the 13th Floor” by Eric Vall is a super fun reverse-isekai story full of likable characters and well-paced action with monster girls and pirates. I, for one, could not ask for more.
Our hero Liam is your average I.T. professional working for the man in a soul-sucking, dead-end job full of creeps and a-holes. Which is fairly typical for the haremlit genre. But unlike his brethren, Liam doesn’t get a reprieve when he’s whisked away to a magical alternate world. Because the alternate world in this story, as you may have guessed from the title, is hidden on a mysterious thirteenth floor on his twelve-story-tall office building.
This alternate world is full of hot girls who need rescuing from the disgusting creatures who keep them as trophies. And when Liam starts slaughtering the captors, he ends up with a whole lot of riches to,well… loot (again, not a surprise if you’ve read the title). So in order to maintain his access to this fantastic world, Liam needs to keep his job. And keep his new girlfriends out of trouble as they explore our world. And that’s a handful…
A lot of reviewers compare “Looting the 13th Floor” to “Backyard Dungeon” by Logan Jacobs. Which is totally fair. Both stories involve regular guys finding a world of maidens and treasure and bringing them back to his own reality. But this is a great example of how two authors can start with the same concept and each execute it differently enough to make it their own. Both of these stories have their own merits and unique qualities.
“Looting the 13th Floor” is a fun, popcorn-movie of a book, with minimal spice and lots of heart.
No Serious Obstacles Conceptually a cool story, discovering a secret hidden passageway to another world that only you know about. Being a hero, rescuing damsels, and all the rest, great. But no conflict is every faced, no matter how dire sounding, that really provides any set back.
Liam is an IT worker, the only one, at a small company. Somehow despite having a controlling, micro-managing boss, he literally can go days without doing an iota of work without anyone noticing (freeing him up for exploration beyond the door.)
No matter how ludicrous the excuse, or implausible the cover story, he manages to get away with everything.
He meets Kali, the cat girl, befriends her, and she agrees to come back through the door with him to Earth, and never looks back or has a single doubt about completely abandoning her home world and all that she's known (for better or worse). Of course she is perfect physically, and immediately falls in love with Liam and the become intimate.
Liam manages to loot from a few of the dominant species of overlords beyond the door, and discovers years of salary from a single visit. Conveniently he has a friend whose dad owns a jewelry story and is happy to fence all of his stolen goods, no questions asked. Guns would make further heists better and more efficient, so of course he has an uncle who is happy to give him unlimited guns and ammo for free. Money comes in to his bank account, wihtout a single worry for taxes, legality, etc.
The gun related descriptions are highly inaccurate and the book could have benefited from a small amount of research. For instance, creatures don't explode when you shoot them fatally.
Towards the end of the book Liam rescues another beautiful fantasy species, a nymph named Cleo, who also immediately agrees to take up with him permanently.
The MC comes across a magic door on the 13th floor of the building where he works that allows him to enter another world. He befriends a humanoid feline woman there who was fleeing capture from grotesque, bejeweled flying intelligent creatures. The MC is forced to kill the creature to protect the woman, and brings her and some jewels back to our world. When discovering the value of the jewels, he decides to go back to the magical world and loot the hell out of it.
The plot and writing are average, and the story is a quick read. What really brought down my rating is that there is no one to like or get behind. The MC goes from an average IT techie one minute to a gun-tooting, knife wielding action star the next, killing the grotesque but intelligent creatures without any care. He actually revels in it in a few scenes. And the woman joins in on the carnage.
The writer attempts to make these creatures so despicable and ugly (in more ways than one) that you don't care what happens to them, but it didn't work for me, and only made me wonder what the point was with the whole thing.
Usually like this author’s work. A lot. But after reading this book, I’m scratching my head. It feels like this is what ‘throw it against the wall and see if it sticks’ means. Saw the author commenting that his editor said volume 3 of this series is the best one yet. I’m honestly surprised it got that far, but hurrah?
The whole thing felt flat and empty, like there was just no part of this story or it’s characters to pique one’s interest or imagination. The illusory ‘floor that shouldn’t exist with a portal to another world’ thing is fine, but sneaking in bigger and bigger weapons past the lobby security in order to more efficiently kill and rob the otherworld denizens for the stated purpose of ‘getting rich and getting an apartment with a balcony and a fridge that makes ice’? Whew, boy, that’s a real hook. To be fair, there’s a car and clothes on the wish list too. Oh, and the beginnings of the harem, but that’s almost an afterthought in this introductory volume.
I’ll have a go at volume 2, just because it’s there, and hope it’s a LOT better than this first installment.
Typical tropes of the genre(Other-worlders speak english. MC has extremely convenient connections. Women fall in love near instantly. etc.) Poor pacing and inconsistent levels of self-awareness from the MC pulls down an otherwise average book.
Eric Vall wrote better stuff, like the summoner series. This one had too many inconsistencies.
A strange, hidden 13th floor in an office building had a stable doorway portal to another world. The metal door was locked but he happened to have his lock pick with him on his lunch break (he worked in the buillding). He killed mini- monsters with a hardcover book. Gargoyles and other monsters were flying around festooned with gold and jewelry, while oppressing other species. While being chased by a monster posse, the MC and a catgirl uprooted a boulder and rolled it upon some of their pursuers before escaping back to the portal doorway. Sadly it went dowhill from there.
There are too many other good stories out there to waste time reading this nonsence.
Liam is your typical portal series hero. Young, talented, underpaid, and frustrated with his dead-end job. He discovers an unknown 13th floor at his office building and steps into a parallel world full of monsters, beautiful humanoid women, and endless treasure to loot.
Although it's not a terribly original scenario, writer Eric Vail's skill at crafting action and dialogue saves the prefabricated portal saga from falking into predictable melodrama.
The occasional scenes of sexual intimacy are tastefully written and don't stretch on endlessly. This is a spicy harem portal series not merely an erotica tale full of characters looking for excuses to get it on.
A fun pulpy read but cartoonish bad guys and trope based coworkers let’s it down
I enjoyed the story, but Eric lost a review point from me due to the fact that the bad guys were so one dimensional they could have been cardboard cut outs. I’m not sure the door is sustainable, the bad guys can’t be so dumb that they can’t eventually think to place guards in the area he tends to disappear from, but seemingly so at least so far that’s the case. I liked the main characters and the fish out of water moments that happen. I would read another book in the series if he writes one, but unless he clears out all the bad guys in the area of the door I don’t see a long series in this.
A great story written by a great author. But did anyone find the puns in the story? Here's a few: The MC is an IT tech. Bear with me now... His idiot boss is Robert's. As in Tim Robert's the driver programmer for windows. His first girl is cleo. A command in Linux His second girl is Kali, a Linux platform. His best friend is Elijah, as in Elijah manor a senior software engineer at Microsoft. The security guard is Stan, a program for data analysis and statistics.
So I predict the next girl will be Ubuntu or a redhead (red hat lol) And the main villain of the whole story will be Mike Rosoft Haha 😂
Just a average IT guy working a 9 to 5 job stumbles on a door leading to a different world .
A average IT guy working a thankless job grumpy meanfull boss privileged sniveling bosses son an over worked computer tasks loaned out to other companies in the building endless cycle . The only pleasure getting to read adventure novels during lunch break . Until discovering an extra floor that shouldn't exist the 13th floor an a doorway to a different world . recommend reading excellent book .
Loot is always the bonus in D&D, but to find a "locked" door to another realm with monsters and loads of gold, well it's heaven. Then add in sexy monster girls in need of rescue, oh boy! Leim is an IT guy in a deadend job until he decides to take his work building's elevator to the 13th floor under construction and finds a strange locked door he has to pick to open. When he steps through he finds himself is another world...
This is a very easy book to read. But it reminds me of the "Backyard Dungeon" series. But I think that Eric has got a new spin on the main character, he is a lot more materialistic then other guys who have fallen into this situation. I also like that interpersonal relationships are less of an in your face as in other series. Please the monsters are very well thought through and well put together.
This book is cute. It's incredibly exaggerated (shooting someone with a rifle doesn't make them explode), and the fantasy world is almost Saturday Morning Cartoon levels of simplistic and eeeevil, with goofy villainry. Yet the slice-of-life elements, the "showing the marvels of the modern world to abused and neglected fantasy girls" is warming. It's an easy, lazy read. But that's okay. It's not trying to be more.
A very solid popcorn read. I didn’t really care too much about the MC, and the relationships and characters are kinda shallow, but it is fun for what it is. MC isn’t a Chad, and it is not a meet and f. Would recommend if your looking for a light fun read.
I love the genre of the hidden dungeon in the real world this is a very interesting and new take on this genre as he also starts up a harem and rescues damsels in distress and I'm very interested to see how it all plays out this is just the first part of many I hope to see the next part soon
A new take on the transporting some poor shmuck to another wotld!
Our everyman working at a job he hates isn't suddenly thrown into an alien world where gorgeous monster women fall over into his lap, he discovers a portal to said other world! His first trip finds him trying to defend himself with a book! Five it a try, its pretty entertaining!
Im a sucker for this kind of thing, so not everyone may love this as much as me. This novel has a great, wacky list of characters that all legitimately resinate with someone I know in life.
I great combination or world building, humor, sex and violence, this was a welcome introduction to what I hope will last.
Really liked this one. The issue is that I always like Vall series first books. They just kinda fall off or get strange by the third one. Hope this one keeps being fun. I will definitely be getting the second.
I like where it's going but not as strong of a start as the author's past series. Main character is relatable to most people, just funny that it's the 3 series where he starts with the cat girl
Wow, just wow! What a great story filled with action adventure and spice with a smoking hot catgirl! This story will keep you turning pages late into the night! I hope he does another book!!!!
Great job on the new series. Can't wait to see what happens next. They do need the the 12th floor for continuing adventures. Also silencers smoke and flash bangs. Ready for the next book
I started the book thinking it will be the same, I was wrong it’s really a good read. It holds your attention and the good guy gets to keep the loot! Plus the beautiful woman. Take a bit of time and read it yourself.
Another book to say dreams come true. An island with good people held back by bad flying gargoyles and frogs. Our hero saves the, gets the women and the treasure.
Another great series added to Mr. Vall's catalog. I love the character building of MC, Chleo , and Kali. It is a lot like Backyard Dungeon another series that I love!
Frolicking enjoyable read, if I could live a story I have read this would be it. From the cat girl to being poor then having the enjoyment of suddenly having money to spend this book was great!
I found this book to be very enjoyable to read. I loved how the pace kept the story moving forward and exciting. The main character shows an intelligence that I rarely see in other books