Apollos Thorne's latest Underworld book is out!

I was expecting someone more official to make this announcement, but I guess they won't.

The year is 2017. The Land is still big, but Aleron Kong has recently tried to trademark litRPG and caught a big backlash. The Gam3 book 2 (still of only 3) just appeared. Pirateaba started mirroring the fledgling story The Wandering Inn to Royal Road at the start of the year, where it would remain until late 2021. An apocalypse serial starring the ridiculously-named Randidly Ghosthound just started on that site. Azarinth Healer is still a year away from its first post, with Defiance of the Fall, He Who Fights with Monsters, and pretty much every other story you're currently looking at two or more years from launch.

All that's to say, the Underworld series launched (Level Up or Die came to Amazon Nov. 2017 after its own RR run) in what feels like the stone age of litRPG. You can tell Thorne is getting his feet under him in the first few books, and because he's not trying to follow well-trod story beats, the plot wanders to and fro over the course of the series. But the latter is also a strength, especially as Thorne's writing improves from release to release, because the relative openendedness of the setup and the still-fairly-marginal role the MC has in big events allows for an ongoing feeling of adventure and discovery that doesn't seem to be a priority these days. That plus Thorne's continuous delivery of numbers-go-up with a Blue Mage protagonist makes for a great read.

The latest volume - proof that Thorne does seem to be rotating between this, his other early-RR story Codename: Freedom (which IMO hasn't aged as well), and his cultivation series Heaven's Laws - just dropped this week with little fanfare.

https://www.amazon.com/Underworld-Sanctuary-LitRPG-Apollos-Thorne-ebook/dp/B0D7WFDDP4/

Personally, I'm going to reread the whole series now.