LitRPG is almost entirely unreadable. Incredibly cringe dialogue, amateur writing, etc.
It’s never, ever great. But, sometimes it’s just a lot of stupid fun. I feel deep shame at how much time I’ve spent on Eric Ugland’s Good Guys and Bad Guys series.
and J.R. Mathews did a good job with his book Jake’s Magical Market.
Seriously, this stuff has no literary value. For each of these series I went in with the attitude that the moment I get bored, I’m out … And with all of the ones I’ve mentioned, they sucked me in very effectively.
Note: they all almost universally suffer from really rushed and stupid beginnings… there’s no subtle or elegant way to start a story in this genre.
Ahhh, I get it. I read fanfiction for the exact same reason. Sometimes I feel lazy and I want to read but turn my brain off, so I’ll open up AO3
Also (back in my sad cringe era) I did read a couple “gamer” fics which are like the fanfiction version of LitRPGs but worse. The problem with those was (other than the terrible writing and the sexism) the lack of a clear ending, so they go on forever and eventually fizzle out