About the Series
A man at the end of a ruined life accepts an odd offer from his last friend and is pulled into iNcarn8, a game that claims to offer a whole new life. As Montana, a larger-than-life tank warrior, he proceeds to hit things until they stop moving, accumulating power through straightforward combat. The progression is transparent: fight, level up, allocate stats, get stronger, fight harder things.
The appeal is pure book crack. The Good Guys doesn’t try to be deep, literary, or innovative. It delivers the Number Go Up dopamine loop at maximum frequency across sixteen books. Montana’s simple approach to problems (can I hit it? then I will hit it) creates a readable momentum that carries through the entire series. There’s humor in his self-awareness about not being the smartest person in the room.
This is for readers who want high-volume, fast-paced progression without complexity. Sixteen books of consistent output, and the series is still ongoing. The tradeoff: the writing is repetitive. The combat descriptions blur together across books. Montana doesn’t develop much as a character beyond getting bigger numbers. If you need sophisticated prose, deep characters, or innovative system design, this isn’t it. If you want the literary equivalent of comfort food (predictable, satisfying, and available in large quantities), this is one of the best options in the genre, with a long backlist already published.
Reading Order
- One More Last Time (2018)
- Heir Today, Pawn Tomorrow (2018)
- Dungeon Mauling (2018)
- Four: The Loot (2019)
- Dukes and Ladders (2019)
- Home, Siege Home (2019)
- The Bare Hunt (2019)
- Eastbound and Town (2020)
- Four Beheadings and a Funeral (2020)
- Eat, Slay, Love (2021)
- Killing Them Awfully (2021)
- Wild Wild Quest (2021)
- Flex in the City (2022)
- Of Slicing Men (2023)
- Bad to the Throne (2024)
- One Man’s Laughter (2025)
Related series:
- The Bad Guys (11 books). Same world, villain-class protagonist. Can be read independently or alongside.
If You Like This Series
- The Bad Guys by Eric Ugland. Same world, same pace, different class and moral alignment
- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. Better writing with similar fast pace; darker humor, ongoing
- Azarinth Healer by Rhaegar. Same “fight everything constantly” loop; female MC, even longer
- Life Reset by Shemer Kuznits. LitRPG with base-building; completed, similar “simple pleasures” appeal
- System Apocalypse by Tao Wong. If you want the system progression in a more plot-driven framework; completed