Succubus: A LitRPG Series Kindle Edition

This one is a LitRPG, featuring Ian, a gamer guy beta-testing an immersive VR system as a demon-binding warlock who can’t wait to get his hands on a succubus servant.The warlock class itself is pretty cool. When Ian accumulates enough souls, he can summon increasingly powerful and complex demons to serve him in and out of battle. The importance of that game mechanic falls away once he summons the demon he’s lusting after: a succubus. She is dripping in sexuality, and makes for a very fun character throughout the book.Ian isn’t an alpha male. He’s a good (enough) guy, and he wants to do right by his demon minions, but they keep finding ways to irk him, tease him, and intentionally misinterpret his commands. It adds a lot of levity to this story, and the relationship that he maintains with his imp and his succubus is pretty entertaining.At the same time, the demons Ian controls resent their servitude, and their teasing is tinged with a deeper frustration. Slavery plays a consistent theme throughout the book, and the difficult terrain of lusting after a servant who really has no choice whether to resist her master. [Potential spoiler ahead]. There are a lot of sexy scenes, but nothing cringey on the “slave” front. The story takes its time developing a bond between Ian and the succubus, with a satisfying ending to the book as their relationship builds. [To be clear, Ian isn’t building a harem here — and there’s no hint at building one in his future.]The non-sexy parts of the book’s ending are also wonderful. There’s a big battle scene that’s a lot of fun, although the real end game of this novel kicks off with a single moment that felt hand-wavey. [Potential spoiler: a much-needed item is suddenly super accessible out of seemingly nowhere.] Aside from that one moment though, the ending was a blast, and the LitRPG components are worked into the story without being distracting.Despite the darker theme of slavery that runs throughout the book, it’s a very light read full of humor — with an imp that throws fart-sized fireballs and references to Star Wars, Ninja Turtles, and Monty Python all in the same book.All in all, it’s a fun read that blends LitRPG with a well-detailed sexy monster girl love interest and a lot of puns, references, and funny interactions.

I am writing this review coming off of the most recent book (#4) so there will be a bit about the author's writing progression, but will have no spoilers.LitRPGs run a certain number of gambits that often tailor them to... I hesitate to say more 'restrictive' tropes and cliches, because some of the help define the sub-genre overall but in this case it does ring a bit true, at least to start. The focus on the player protagonist's stats, abilities, and how the game world works can be a substantial contribution to a story's world building, and the balance between representational content for gamer culture versus the actual in-game story and plot development can be a tricky beast for any writer in the genre.A.J Markham takes on this in a fair loose approach in this first installment, and while right away there is promise, there are also some stumbling points. The first person unreliable narrator narration of Ian Hertzfelder as the protagonist does come off well for the in-depth views if gives into his character, the world and the interactions he has, it also severely limits the real understanding we have of how some of the other characters, particularly his succubus Alaria actually react to things and how they think and feel. This particularly harms the book's pacing when it comes to, you guessed it, the sex scenes.I'm no prude by any means, and the sex scenes as they are... well they aren't the most riveting thing but they do hold up as engaging to the characters. Their problem stems from the intensive investment Ian gives into every single detail, and with how often the sex occurs, particularly in later books which stem from the same basic problem as here. The scenes go on and on with every little detail possible, but instead of staying engaging, they begin to get almost tiring with their longevity.The rest of the story has more of the opposite problem as a result: the good bits of character interaction and development are often quick, only given the basemost level of necessary details, and flow by at a rapid pace just to get back to either more RPG stat/ability info-dumping, or more sex related stuff. I understand the draw to both in a Lit-RPG focusing on a guy falling for a succubus, I really do. But for every two or three parts of all that, there's barely one part of genuine character focus and development, but all that is there when its allowed to develop makes the characters more engaging and the reader more curious to follow them.For the latter books this definitely shows more, but they still express a similar problem in tandem with the focus and overload of details on the sex scenes. Overall the book is a fun, enjoyable read that does a lot to snare you on the characters when it isn't all entirely sex focused, but for some that might not be enough to keep them coming back for the rest.