Jackal Among Snakes: Book 1, A GameLit Adventure Paperback – November 22, 2023

Impressively written, with extremely detailed memorable characters, environments, and developments. Unlike a lot of the Gamelit out there, this series actually uses adjectives and adverbs lol.

One day a college student from Earth wakes up in the body of Argrave, bastard son of the prince of Vasquer in that student's favorite video game.This is not good news for the new Argrave. His magic is good but his body is frail and sickly, and he has a terrible reputation and thus plenty of enemies who want him dead. Worst of all, the world is slated to end in a few years. That's what the video game was about, you see, stopping the apocalypse.Some people would despair, but Argrave decides that he wants to live. To do that, he has got to marshal his wits and apply his encyclopedic knowledge of the video game into defusing old enmities, making new friends, and empowering himself to save the world, just like in the video game but not, because Argrave doesn't want to win the traditional way. He's going to cheat his way to victory instead.Jackal Among Snakes is one of my favorite stories to read on Royal Road, and I was happy to buy it here now that it's been released as an ebook. Argrave is a really funny character, persuading and glibly tricking his way to success and often unleashing witty Earth quips in the manner of the average snarky 21st century 20-something. I love the dialogue.The plot can be thought of an anti-plot. In a video game, one enters into plot lines and quests organically, learns what it's all about, solves the problem if it can be solved, and then claims the reward.Argrave doesn't do most of that. Knowing what he does, he skips straight to solving the problem and claiming the reward, entirely out of its regular schedule, all to further his schemes. Thus he might claim a massive reward meant for a much more powerful character mere days into his new existence, all so he can survive and succeed in a task he deems critical to his and everyone else's survival.Looking forward to buying and reading the next books in the series.

I read this series on RoyalRoad and now I'm buying it in e-book form for a re-read. It has a conceit that usually turns me off, but I don't mind here: "The Main Character is the cleverest of them all." In this book, there are two points that mitigate the conceit. First, other characters are also allowed some cleverness and agency. Second, the MC is a know-it-all because he played the video game.Yes, the video game. The main character is dropped from Earth into the body of a minor villain, in his favorite RPG. Except the RPG world turns out to be real. This man wasn't just any player: He wrote the wiki. We get to follow his adventures as he uses his encyclopedic knowledge to amass unfair advantages, in a race against converging disasters that will eventually culminate in the apocalypse. But the world he inhabits deviates further from his knowledge with every decision he makes and not everything is precisely as he remembered it.I can somewhat enjoy watching the one-eyed man navigate a continent of the blind. But the real draw is in the characters. The characters were neatly drawn and enjoyable, their interactions a treat. Our main character, now named Argrave, adopts a sarcastic and cavalier attitude to paint over a core of anxiety. He knows the awful things that are coming and he's determined to keep racing in opposition to them, so that he doesn't have time to freak out instead. The supporting cast is nearly as good and we get multiple POV snippets from the other characters... but not so many or so long that they distract or irritate.There is also an introduction to a satisfying magic system, court intrigue, and a continent dripping with secrets and side quests. There is nicely-scripted action and self-deprecating wit. It's all done well-to-great, so if any of this sounds good to you ... I recommend you pick this one up.

Okay, this book is so awesome, well written story awesome MC who has all the knowledge and is even able to weasel out of things, luck stat must be maxed as well similar to the anime overlord with things working out. Great range of vocabulary used here definitely worth it to learn some new words. Great job onward to book 2.

I discovered this series when I happened to be browsing on Royal Road and I decided to give it a chance after reading some of the chapters I knew I wanted to purchase it so off to Amazon I went. I know it is a gamelit to me it leans more towards progression it avoids the tropes of pages of numbers and stats and things such as he swings sword for 5 points of damage 1 exp. gained legendary drop received (sock of the stink) and focuses more on what I found to be an excellent story and intriguing world. I enjoyed how the character had negative effects to offset the positive and is not just some powerhouse, and though he has a grasp of the world every change has a chance of an unforeseen dominoe effect. My only gripe was I read beyond where this book ended so I must wait to continue the story so I made sure to pre order the remaining books. So I would recommend this book.

I read a lot of books and ive slowly become picky. "This character is too perfect, the conversations aren't natural. The world and actions are too boring. The MC is too perfect." But this one, this one hits all the spots for me. Classic Fantasy world, but the twist of the MC knowing the world and characters makes the interactions interesting. Very similar to Omniscient Reader's story. Action is good, characters have flaws and actual emotion. MC is both a badass and looks like he's barely hanging on. Very good start. Another please.

I highly, highly recommend this book! It provides a fresh, fascinating plot. The writing is gifted and weaves a world that grabs you to become part of .. from page 1. You’ll have trouble putting this book down.