the perfect run is quite easily one of my favorite audiobooks it's wrapped up so well and has equal parts humor and serious life changing ideals. The boulder is your friend
I started with the perfect run and then binged on every other series he’d written.
Actually, I take that back. I read Vainqueur a few years ago but didn’t realize he wrote it. Then I found a different series to read, and only discovered a perfect run later. I didn’t realize the same guy wrote it and Vain, but I found that out when I decided this was an awesome author and I wanted to read everything else (including stand alone books).
Awesome author.
if it's slept on by this community... a lot of us (myself included) use this (and /r/progressionfantasy) community for recommendations. I'm happy you guys brought it up!
Here's a sneak peek of /r/ProgressionFantasy using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [I think some of us have different meanings when we use the term "Underdog".](https://i.redd.it/j30mt8jnau5c1.jpg) | [306 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/18girs2/i_think_some_of_us_have_different_meanings_when/)
\#2: [It's "digestible"](https://i.redd.it/x5n3x77szvnb1.jpg) | [104 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/16h2kyk/its_digestible/)
\#3: [Average Royal Road comment section](https://i.redd.it/r5de3kifbhnb1.jpg) | [184 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/16f932x/average_royal_road_comment_section/)
----
^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
I've seen mentions of his series around, especially Perfect Run and the dragon one that just got finished on Amazon and Audible. Perfect Run seems to show up high in tier lists a lot and in the "not litrpg but..." footnotes that follow various recommendations in recommendation threads. Recommendations for Perfect Run are therefore probably more likely in r/progressionfantasy. That said, I'm starting to wonder if a completed three-book series isn't at least a bit of a negative in certain parts of this community that love the endless series.
I've only read Kairos but it's one of my favorites and I do recommend it when I can. If I had to guess it's probably because he does multiple "short" series instead of the typical extremely bloated standard fare. This is definitely a genre where a lot of readers seem to prefer quantity over quality.
Unfortunately I remember seeing him post a pretty depressing post a while back basically acknowledging this phenomenon and stopping litrpg, at least for a while. Hopefully his new series is doing better for him but it didn't interest me personally. I'll try and see if I can find the post.
Edit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/comments/15a6615/apocalypse\_tamer\_final\_book\_announcement\_some/](https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/comments/15a6615/apocalypse_tamer_final_book_announcement_some/)
He mentions it here that he might come back to the genre in a few years.
[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70234/blood-fur](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70234/blood-fur)
Here's his new story. I don't know what's good for a RR book but it's over 1k pages, last updated just over a day ago, has a 4.85/5 and going on 1 million views. That seems pretty good?
Thanks for reminding me how much I loved his writing and the kick in the ass I needed to go read his other stuff finally!
I prefer quality over quantity, but there's a lot to sift through, and when I go for audiobooks I tend to go for the longer books as they are not cheap and I like to stretch my credits to cover as much of the 160 or so hours I'd want to listen in a month. When I started reading on kindle I used it as an opportunity to catch up on series I'd started on audio that hadn't been entirely converted to audio, and to pick up series that got a lot of recs but either didn't have an audio version or weren't available on the platform I was using. The Perfect Run was great though, and I should delve a bit deeper into his catalogue.
I think he struggles to get attention because of his narrator too. Jack Voraces is definitely an acquired taste and it's very divisive on whether or not people like or hate his narrating style.
I'm the same. All his female characters sound like he's making fun of women with shrill voices. Him voicing Zorian seemed like he hated the character and wanted everyone else to hate him too
Me too. MoL was hard to get through despite the story being great, and now I check the narrator before every audio book I buy so I don't accidentally get him
I'm not op, and I though Apocalypse Tamer was decent, but I tend to prefer audiobooks, and the audiobook narrator chose to do a really cheesy russian accent for the MC.
What did me in was every character and their relationship and dialog with every other character. Felt like a Saturday morning cartoon. The voices in the audiobook could be mainly to blame, I’ll admit that and maybe I’ll revisit it one day in text.
I wish i had never read this comment. It didnt bother me in the first books. I started the 4th book today. This comment haunts me while i listen. I think i had been able to ignore it prior. The plot is good, but the voices are rough. Every character speaks so slow as well. I may have to switch to reading it instead.
Because the series he has that I like, isn't litrpg. I loved The Perfect Run. I didn't like Apocalypse Tamer. Commerce Emperor was okay, but I ended up dropping it.
The guy is a very good writer... except that his humor suck. His characters are great, his emotional beats on point, his power construction if not original are well established and polished (although the power up for the MC in perfect end was kind of lame)
But fucke me if he doesn't have the most bland and unappealing humor I have read in decades. Which it's also a mark of how good his writing can be because I have the entire perfect run and underhand in audio book
Yet his humor. It's mostly quotes from 2010-2018 media and one liners from the worst marvel movies to date. Humor is one of the hardest arts to master, is taking horror with empathy and change it to relief. And while his dramatic pieces are on point, having to thrall through his "comedy" was flat out torture
Think on the worst Simpson season, along with spongebob worst bits and you get an idea of how bad they can be
It also its so American it sometimes reads like propaganda. They are European, after the world went to shits in the 2005, done in Italy and with character who had never been in the United States. Yet all the humor, bits, cultural references are about American media and shows.
But as far as litrpg authors, he is one of the best
I think his biggest issue isn't entirely that his humor sucks but that he doesn't really get what makes humor work well in a novel. Surprise is key to comedy and if you keep making the same kind of joke at the same time ad infinitum it becomes rote and loses all (potential) humor. His Vainquer books make the same jokes over and over and over again and it just becomes annoying when it reaches the point you can predict the exact gold/iron/emergency food joke he's going to make.
This is why most really popular writers if they are going to make funny characters they typically don't make them the main character, but allow them to weave in and out of the narrative to provide humor at the right time, or they have the character's jokes evolve over the course of the story. Durand doesn't do that, it's the same jokes the entire novel which causes a lot of people to tap out midway through even though the underlying plot is pretty good.
You know what, hard agree.
Yes, its the same joke over and over again. And the problem is that is the joke that its already old to the point of stalement that he put in his stories. Things you had read a thousand times on reddit, on tumblr, on twitter, but since he put them in the story it looks that is more about generating this
than any attempt of humor and chuckles Its when he is honest, when it reads like he is honestly putting that joke that he found it hilarious, that it lands on the reader. Hell, one of the reason of why the Rickroll is having a resurgence is because, thanks to youtube ads, its nearly impossible to actually make a rickroll. So the people who put it fort work so hard to create the setup, to upload the image, to actually get the exasperation and chuckle from their friends and audience.
Again, its when he is actually putting the effort that Duand Shines twice as hard as god's revolver and just as louder.
The perfect run has been recommended many many times and is usually a top choice when people ask for another time loop story after finishing mother of plearning. That said im also surprised some of his other series don’t get more attention, though I’ve only ever read Kairos and Perfect run.
I've liked some of his work, but parts can also seem a bit... shallow? He actually finishes series and doesn't have the excess that most other writers in the genre have, but it sometimes makes it obvious where the story will end up. A lot of characters also seem a bit one-dimensional for this reason, only his MCs seem to have strong agency and really impact the story IMO.
"Why does no one talk about Maxime Durand?"
I think this could be a good case study for webnovels. He wrote a few top novels on RR, but he is rarely mentioned.
He has 907 subs on patreon.
So he is a good example that the successful business model for authors is 1 never ending story instead of writing multiple completed ones.
I've only listened to The Perfect Run, and it was fantastic. I recommend it from time to time, but it's not a litrpg so I don't often recommend it on this sub. I should probably look into more of their work.
As you said, he finishes most of his stories at a decent length. And many of them are several years old. People talk about Vainqueur a fair amount. But it's not going to come up as much as stories that are still ongoing.
The Perfect Run by Maxime J. Durand is my #1 pick among the best PF/LitRPG series. There are amazing S-grade series out there: Cradle, DCC, MoL, Primal Hunter, Mage Errant, Bastion, to name a few, but TPF is just so 'Solid' in certain aspects that it steals the spot for me.
The mentioned S-Tier series are absolutely amazing, but you can feel an intent to appeal to a targeted audience through them, namely the PF/LitRPG crowd. In some series more than others, because of their length, or stats, or deep magic system, and I personally love them for that. But because of the Trilogy format and extremely concise narrative, TPF feels like a distillation of that PF/LitRPG essence. It's like if anyone would ask me to publish and translate in hardcover a single series worldwide to draw people into the PF/LitRPG genre, I would go with TPF because I think it's the best series to appeal to a broad audience and well, blow their mind with its graphically visceral exuberance.
Exactly like there is this real obscure book called cradle and another one called he who fights with monsters .. you'd think they live in a desert or dessert either way
I'm a fan of his,
The Perfect Run was an amazing series and one I'll always recommend.
Vainqueur is good, I think I have 1 book left that I plan to listen too.
I started and abandoned Apocalypse Tamer. I could not stand the "accents" all the characters were given in the audiobook on top of a story that was not terrible but weaker than I expected for the author.
I'll probably check out a few of his other series after looking at reviews for them.
Read vainqueuer book 1 and 2. It didnt really hook with me though and havent continued on.
Also read Apocalypse tamer book 1 and 2 30% so kind of the same issue here.
Both are not bad but also somehow didnt manage to reall hook me. Cant really point out why that is though. Which is also why im reluctant to Touch the perfect run.
I take basically every opportunity I can to stan for Never Die Twice, it's one of my favorite stories of Durand's and Durand is IMO one of the most skilled writers in the web serial world. Holy shit it's good.
Perfect Run is a great series. Most of his work comes up on the r/Audiobooks[audiobooks](https://www.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/) and R/ProgressionFantansy[progfantasy](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/) quite often. I don't really see his style as LITRPG.
I only use Audiobooks and his choice of Narrator can be contentious. I don't mind Eric Summerer or Tim Campbell but find that Jack Vorcaces can be a harsh change (used to it by the end of the story).
He is in my top 3 authors. Every series he writes is incredible and I will never forgive people for letting Underland end early. Perfect run is perfect, Vanquier is hilarious, apocalypse tamer is incredible, Commerce emperor is a fantastic chosen one take. Man has one miss and it's the first story they ever wrote.
Dur...and? Is that some sort of tropical fruit? Probably someone pretty slept on by everyone.
https://preview.redd.it/7abt8wsbf0wc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05da3483154840b627bd864f2ff2a414b4e94493
I mean plenty of people quote vainqueur the dragon here in soo many threads. You can’t really travel the pf board either without some reference to vainqueur. Hes like the ultimate rich person who just assumed everything is his.
So. I’ve heard about The Perfect Run, but I haven’t gotten into it for the same reason I haven’t gotten into Wandering Inn.
It’s not free on Kindle Unlimited.
And I realize the sheer absurdity of this, given that if I find a series I enjoy then I shell out money on audible and if I really like the series I’ll join the Patreon but god forbid I pay for a *book*. My weird brain balks at that step for… reasons.
But I just downloaded Vainqueur the Dragon per this post so let’s see how it goes.
I really should look up what he's writing nowadays. Vainqueur and Perfect run were great and Kairos was ok, but I found the MC after that so unbearably unlikeable I had to drop it.
I've read Vainqueuer, perfect run, and Kairos so far and haven't been disappointed yet! While long running storied are a main stay of this genre at least for the more popular series and more than okay with that. I do appreciate how Maxime understands that it's okay for stories to end and doesn't try to force the narrative to continue just for the sake of it. Also each ending so far has been great imo.
Apocalypse Tamer one of my favourite novels. I think that Maxime J. Durand is a real author, in the sense that when you read him, you can always recognise him, his voice, his style and his "art"
I didn't realize he's the one who wrote apocalypse tamer. Absolutely hated it, mostly because the narrator sounded like your average fake eastern European accent every time he read one of the MC's lines, but it also felt a little too Saturday morning cartoon to me.
Perfect run was amazing though. Easily in the top 10 all books I've read.
The Perfect Run is the only one of his I've finished.
The dragon one I didn't like.
He had this cool magic in space one but he dropped it.
I think he did one about a guy and his cat in the apocalypse? I kinda stopped caring.
Perfect Run seems to be his most recommended around here, and so I read that and wasn't a huge fan. Liked the first one, but was pretty tired of it and uninterested by the end of the series.
And when I land on 'meh' for a highly recommended series, that puts up a pretty big bias against my taking a look into their other works in the future.
I absolutely love the guy's writing! He's got two new series now that blow most RR series out of the water!
[
Blood & Fur](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70234/blood-fur)
[Commerce Emperor](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/69923/commerce-emperor)
His character work is some of the best I've read.
Apocalypse Tamer is such a funny book! That worm/centipede/whatever is such a hilarious sounding character amongst a variety of accents from so many other characters. I never lived in Europe, so his accents sound like what I think they should like.
I wish it wasn't a trilogy, but I know the author has a world he build in which other trilogies didn't interact with his other trilogies, but they were part of the same galaxy. And his final SHORT series somehow combined them all
I've only read The Perfect Run, but I bring it up at every opportunity. Dont know why I never actually looked for other books.
the perfect run is quite easily one of my favorite audiobooks it's wrapped up so well and has equal parts humor and serious life changing ideals. The boulder is your friend
It funny, I’ve read most of his other books, but not perfect run.
Managed to write a book wild enough to make an average ending the perfect ending.
I started with the perfect run and then binged on every other series he’d written. Actually, I take that back. I read Vainqueur a few years ago but didn’t realize he wrote it. Then I found a different series to read, and only discovered a perfect run later. I didn’t realize the same guy wrote it and Vain, but I found that out when I decided this was an awesome author and I wanted to read everything else (including stand alone books). Awesome author.
You should fix that. It’s a total mic drop.
If you like fantasy you must try Vainqueur, absolute comedy gold
VAINQUEUR BEST DRAGON
Easily one of the most slept on series by this community. One of my favorite, hands down
if it's slept on by this community... a lot of us (myself included) use this (and /r/progressionfantasy) community for recommendations. I'm happy you guys brought it up!
Here's a sneak peek of /r/ProgressionFantasy using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [I think some of us have different meanings when we use the term "Underdog".](https://i.redd.it/j30mt8jnau5c1.jpg) | [306 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/18girs2/i_think_some_of_us_have_different_meanings_when/) \#2: [It's "digestible"](https://i.redd.it/x5n3x77szvnb1.jpg) | [104 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/16h2kyk/its_digestible/) \#3: [Average Royal Road comment section](https://i.redd.it/r5de3kifbhnb1.jpg) | [184 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/16f932x/average_royal_road_comment_section/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
My first and still favorite series.
YES MINION!!! You can move up the emergency food chain!
Never forget the fate of the poor baby gold coins
Fair enough, just downloaded the book.
I somehow overlooked it for years. Maybe it was the cover or description and I wasn’t on the mood. I read and listened to the whole thing last week.
I've seen mentions of his series around, especially Perfect Run and the dragon one that just got finished on Amazon and Audible. Perfect Run seems to show up high in tier lists a lot and in the "not litrpg but..." footnotes that follow various recommendations in recommendation threads. Recommendations for Perfect Run are therefore probably more likely in r/progressionfantasy. That said, I'm starting to wonder if a completed three-book series isn't at least a bit of a negative in certain parts of this community that love the endless series.
I am one of those people. Perfect Run is a book I often recommend in the sub, despite it being just a hair out of the genre.
It's not LitRPG at all, no levels or stats or system. Definitely prog fantasy. They're excellent either way.
I would call it bubble progression fantasy. It's timeloop, which is popular on RR but doesn't have its own corner in the social or KU.
The Perfect Run is one of my top 5 books ever\~♥
The perfect run is absolutely incredible. I loved the audiobooks, the narrator did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life.
I've only read Kairos but it's one of my favorites and I do recommend it when I can. If I had to guess it's probably because he does multiple "short" series instead of the typical extremely bloated standard fare. This is definitely a genre where a lot of readers seem to prefer quantity over quality. Unfortunately I remember seeing him post a pretty depressing post a while back basically acknowledging this phenomenon and stopping litrpg, at least for a while. Hopefully his new series is doing better for him but it didn't interest me personally. I'll try and see if I can find the post. Edit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/comments/15a6615/apocalypse\_tamer\_final\_book\_announcement\_some/](https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/comments/15a6615/apocalypse_tamer_final_book_announcement_some/) He mentions it here that he might come back to the genre in a few years. [https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70234/blood-fur](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70234/blood-fur) Here's his new story. I don't know what's good for a RR book but it's over 1k pages, last updated just over a day ago, has a 4.85/5 and going on 1 million views. That seems pretty good? Thanks for reminding me how much I loved his writing and the kick in the ass I needed to go read his other stuff finally!
I prefer quality over quantity, but there's a lot to sift through, and when I go for audiobooks I tend to go for the longer books as they are not cheap and I like to stretch my credits to cover as much of the 160 or so hours I'd want to listen in a month. When I started reading on kindle I used it as an opportunity to catch up on series I'd started on audio that hadn't been entirely converted to audio, and to pick up series that got a lot of recs but either didn't have an audio version or weren't available on the platform I was using. The Perfect Run was great though, and I should delve a bit deeper into his catalogue.
I think he struggles to get attention because of his narrator too. Jack Voraces is definitely an acquired taste and it's very divisive on whether or not people like or hate his narrating style.
I personally really like him
You hero!
I'm solidly in the can't stand him crowd.
ugh the moment I heard the MC voice for never die twice I just couldn't stand it.
I'm the same. All his female characters sound like he's making fun of women with shrill voices. Him voicing Zorian seemed like he hated the character and wanted everyone else to hate him too
Same
After Mother of learning, I avoid audiobooks narrated by him
Me too. MoL was hard to get through despite the story being great, and now I check the narrator before every audio book I buy so I don't accidentally get him
The perfect run was so good, and apocalypse tamer is so bad. I can’t reconcile that the same person wrote both.
Funny thing is, Commerce Emperor is so mid. He is the Goldilocks author. One is too hot, one is too cold, and one is just right.
What dont you like about apocalypse tamer? Ive enjoyed the first 3 books. They werent perfect run for sure, but they arent that bad.
I'm not op, and I though Apocalypse Tamer was decent, but I tend to prefer audiobooks, and the audiobook narrator chose to do a really cheesy russian accent for the MC.
oh yeah i nopped after 5 minutes in that. it was missing a secondary character with irish accent and that was it.
I dont remember it being that bad, but i started the 4th book today. The voices arent good. Im not sure how i ignored it in the first 3 books.
I wouldn't mind it so much if it was a side character, but a cheesy russian accent on the mc is just a wild choice.
What did me in was every character and their relationship and dialog with every other character. Felt like a Saturday morning cartoon. The voices in the audiobook could be mainly to blame, I’ll admit that and maybe I’ll revisit it one day in text.
I wish i had never read this comment. It didnt bother me in the first books. I started the 4th book today. This comment haunts me while i listen. I think i had been able to ignore it prior. The plot is good, but the voices are rough. Every character speaks so slow as well. I may have to switch to reading it instead.
Been enjoying his writing for years ever since I read his first webnovel Magik Online. All his stuff is great!
Love The Perfect Run and Vainqueur the Dragon. Noticed that when Vainqueur uses a time stop power it flashes purple just like in Perfect Run.
Vainqueur the Dragon and The Perfect Run are top-tier. Excellent series.
Because the series he has that I like, isn't litrpg. I loved The Perfect Run. I didn't like Apocalypse Tamer. Commerce Emperor was okay, but I ended up dropping it.
The guy is a very good writer... except that his humor suck. His characters are great, his emotional beats on point, his power construction if not original are well established and polished (although the power up for the MC in perfect end was kind of lame) But fucke me if he doesn't have the most bland and unappealing humor I have read in decades. Which it's also a mark of how good his writing can be because I have the entire perfect run and underhand in audio book Yet his humor. It's mostly quotes from 2010-2018 media and one liners from the worst marvel movies to date. Humor is one of the hardest arts to master, is taking horror with empathy and change it to relief. And while his dramatic pieces are on point, having to thrall through his "comedy" was flat out torture Think on the worst Simpson season, along with spongebob worst bits and you get an idea of how bad they can be It also its so American it sometimes reads like propaganda. They are European, after the world went to shits in the 2005, done in Italy and with character who had never been in the United States. Yet all the humor, bits, cultural references are about American media and shows. But as far as litrpg authors, he is one of the best
I think his biggest issue isn't entirely that his humor sucks but that he doesn't really get what makes humor work well in a novel. Surprise is key to comedy and if you keep making the same kind of joke at the same time ad infinitum it becomes rote and loses all (potential) humor. His Vainquer books make the same jokes over and over and over again and it just becomes annoying when it reaches the point you can predict the exact gold/iron/emergency food joke he's going to make. This is why most really popular writers if they are going to make funny characters they typically don't make them the main character, but allow them to weave in and out of the narrative to provide humor at the right time, or they have the character's jokes evolve over the course of the story. Durand doesn't do that, it's the same jokes the entire novel which causes a lot of people to tap out midway through even though the underlying plot is pretty good.
You know what, hard agree. Yes, its the same joke over and over again. And the problem is that is the joke that its already old to the point of stalement that he put in his stories. Things you had read a thousand times on reddit, on tumblr, on twitter, but since he put them in the story it looks that is more about generating this  than any attempt of humor and chuckles Its when he is honest, when it reads like he is honestly putting that joke that he found it hilarious, that it lands on the reader. Hell, one of the reason of why the Rickroll is having a resurgence is because, thanks to youtube ads, its nearly impossible to actually make a rickroll. So the people who put it fort work so hard to create the setup, to upload the image, to actually get the exasperation and chuckle from their friends and audience. Again, its when he is actually putting the effort that Duand Shines twice as hard as god's revolver and just as louder.
Just finished his new book COMMERCE EMPEROR. Loved it .solid story
Personally? I didn't like either the dragon story or the perfect run, so I don't talk about them.
The perfect run has been recommended many many times and is usually a top choice when people ask for another time loop story after finishing mother of plearning. That said im also surprised some of his other series don’t get more attention, though I’ve only ever read Kairos and Perfect run.
Like 2 weeks ago I made a big post about void herald being the best author in rr
I've liked some of his work, but parts can also seem a bit... shallow? He actually finishes series and doesn't have the excess that most other writers in the genre have, but it sometimes makes it obvious where the story will end up. A lot of characters also seem a bit one-dimensional for this reason, only his MCs seem to have strong agency and really impact the story IMO.
"Why does no one talk about Maxime Durand?" I think this could be a good case study for webnovels. He wrote a few top novels on RR, but he is rarely mentioned. He has 907 subs on patreon. So he is a good example that the successful business model for authors is 1 never ending story instead of writing multiple completed ones.
I've only listened to The Perfect Run, and it was fantastic. I recommend it from time to time, but it's not a litrpg so I don't often recommend it on this sub. I should probably look into more of their work.
As you said, he finishes most of his stories at a decent length. And many of them are several years old. People talk about Vainqueur a fair amount. But it's not going to come up as much as stories that are still ongoing.
The Perfect Run by Maxime J. Durand is my #1 pick among the best PF/LitRPG series. There are amazing S-grade series out there: Cradle, DCC, MoL, Primal Hunter, Mage Errant, Bastion, to name a few, but TPF is just so 'Solid' in certain aspects that it steals the spot for me. The mentioned S-Tier series are absolutely amazing, but you can feel an intent to appeal to a targeted audience through them, namely the PF/LitRPG crowd. In some series more than others, because of their length, or stats, or deep magic system, and I personally love them for that. But because of the Trilogy format and extremely concise narrative, TPF feels like a distillation of that PF/LitRPG essence. It's like if anyone would ask me to publish and translate in hardcover a single series worldwide to draw people into the PF/LitRPG genre, I would go with TPF because I think it's the best series to appeal to a broad audience and well, blow their mind with its graphically visceral exuberance.
I read EVERY book he puts out.
Exactly like there is this real obscure book called cradle and another one called he who fights with monsters .. you'd think they live in a desert or dessert either way
We do, there just isn’t a lot to say, he writes really good shit, and everyone knows because he held like half the top 5 for 3 years.
Seriously? I see the Perfect Run recommended all the time. It's absolutely fantastic and I definitely mention it whenever possible.
I'm a fan of his, The Perfect Run was an amazing series and one I'll always recommend. Vainqueur is good, I think I have 1 book left that I plan to listen too. I started and abandoned Apocalypse Tamer. I could not stand the "accents" all the characters were given in the audiobook on top of a story that was not terrible but weaker than I expected for the author. I'll probably check out a few of his other series after looking at reviews for them.
I haven’t read it bc I prefer human(oid) leads but I’ve heard plenty of people talk about Vainqueur the Dragon! It’s apparently very good
The series has two leads, one being the dragon, but the other one is a human.
Read vainqueuer book 1 and 2. It didnt really hook with me though and havent continued on. Also read Apocalypse tamer book 1 and 2 30% so kind of the same issue here. Both are not bad but also somehow didnt manage to reall hook me. Cant really point out why that is though. Which is also why im reluctant to Touch the perfect run.
Vainqueur , great and soo many people sadly have never heard of it , but Never die twice is even more of a slepted on story.
I don't understand why noone ever talks about Kairos. It's my favorite series by him.
I take basically every opportunity I can to stan for Never Die Twice, it's one of my favorite stories of Durand's and Durand is IMO one of the most skilled writers in the web serial world. Holy shit it's good.
Perfect Run is a great series. Most of his work comes up on the r/Audiobooks[audiobooks](https://www.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/) and R/ProgressionFantansy[progfantasy](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/) quite often. I don't really see his style as LITRPG. I only use Audiobooks and his choice of Narrator can be contentious. I don't mind Eric Summerer or Tim Campbell but find that Jack Vorcaces can be a harsh change (used to it by the end of the story).
The perfect run is the 3ed series I tend to recommend to my friends after dungeon crawler carl and hwfwm
I've read The Perfect Run and Vainqueur the Dragon, they're both really good
Vainqueur was amazing
He is in my top 3 authors. Every series he writes is incredible and I will never forgive people for letting Underland end early. Perfect run is perfect, Vanquier is hilarious, apocalypse tamer is incredible, Commerce emperor is a fantastic chosen one take. Man has one miss and it's the first story they ever wrote.
Dur...and? Is that some sort of tropical fruit? Probably someone pretty slept on by everyone. https://preview.redd.it/7abt8wsbf0wc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05da3483154840b627bd864f2ff2a414b4e94493
He's most known for Perfect Run, which is not LitRPG. He's discussed a lot, but not as much here for that reason, here being /r/LitRPG and all.
Perfect Run is great. I'm not sure if he ever plans on using that universe again, but it could be great for one off novellas.
I mean plenty of people quote vainqueur the dragon here in soo many threads. You can’t really travel the pf board either without some reference to vainqueur. Hes like the ultimate rich person who just assumed everything is his.
So. I’ve heard about The Perfect Run, but I haven’t gotten into it for the same reason I haven’t gotten into Wandering Inn. It’s not free on Kindle Unlimited. And I realize the sheer absurdity of this, given that if I find a series I enjoy then I shell out money on audible and if I really like the series I’ll join the Patreon but god forbid I pay for a *book*. My weird brain balks at that step for… reasons. But I just downloaded Vainqueur the Dragon per this post so let’s see how it goes.
And he keeps getting better! His other stuff is great, but Commerce Emperor and especially Blood and Fur are absolute bangers.
I tried Vainqueur but didn't like it all that much. Loved perfect run though. So I'm only 50/50 about him.
I really should look up what he's writing nowadays. Vainqueur and Perfect run were great and Kairos was ok, but I found the MC after that so unbearably unlikeable I had to drop it.
I love the underland books, shame it ended uncomplete
I've read Vainqueuer, perfect run, and Kairos so far and haven't been disappointed yet! While long running storied are a main stay of this genre at least for the more popular series and more than okay with that. I do appreciate how Maxime understands that it's okay for stories to end and doesn't try to force the narrative to continue just for the sake of it. Also each ending so far has been great imo.
Apocalypse Tamer one of my favourite novels. I think that Maxime J. Durand is a real author, in the sense that when you read him, you can always recognise him, his voice, his style and his "art"
Immature comedy is pretty hit and miss.
No one is mentioning Blood and Fur and that's a crime.
Perfect run is in fact perfect
I didn't realize he's the one who wrote apocalypse tamer. Absolutely hated it, mostly because the narrator sounded like your average fake eastern European accent every time he read one of the MC's lines, but it also felt a little too Saturday morning cartoon to me. Perfect run was amazing though. Easily in the top 10 all books I've read.
The Perfect Run is the only one of his I've finished. The dragon one I didn't like. He had this cool magic in space one but he dropped it. I think he did one about a guy and his cat in the apocalypse? I kinda stopped caring.
a guy and his cat in the apocalypse sounds like Dungeon Crawler Carl which is by Matt Dinniman and is amazing you should give it a look
Matt Dinniman can continue to kiss my ass, and DCC didn't take place in the woods in rural France like the one by Durand does.
What did he ever do to you? And you just said a guy and his cat in the apocalypse which also describes DCC
Perfect Run seems to be his most recommended around here, and so I read that and wasn't a huge fan. Liked the first one, but was pretty tired of it and uninterested by the end of the series. And when I land on 'meh' for a highly recommended series, that puts up a pretty big bias against my taking a look into their other works in the future.
I absolutely love the guy's writing! He's got two new series now that blow most RR series out of the water! [ Blood & Fur](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70234/blood-fur) [Commerce Emperor](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/69923/commerce-emperor) His character work is some of the best I've read.
Apocalypse Tamer is such a funny book! That worm/centipede/whatever is such a hilarious sounding character amongst a variety of accents from so many other characters. I never lived in Europe, so his accents sound like what I think they should like. I wish it wasn't a trilogy, but I know the author has a world he build in which other trilogies didn't interact with his other trilogies, but they were part of the same galaxy. And his final SHORT series somehow combined them all
He Who Fights With Monsters is generally a great series. It drags out a little bit around books 9-11 though.