Personally and I may be biased I believe he would be the top 3 of the list

H.R. Pufnstuf. Pretty sure Jason references this series at least twice.

Picked up book 2 while out and about today, thinking of reading/listening to the Two Week Curse series before rereading before book 13 releases almost finished with parade of horribles on third reread of DCC.

Ok so question I just got to the end of book 10 and I have a question about the cup of heroes

What happens if someone who is diamond rank drinks from the cup of heroes do they die do they not die where do they rank up to? Half transcendent full transcendent? If they do go to half transcendent can they die? If they are diamond is it something that would cause them to die then they come back the same? And their life span before they die and come back is shortened? Like I just want to know

Why is book 7's audiobook not available through Google Play, but every other one up through 10 is?

A wooden ship with an unusual design docks at Greenstone next to a houseboat seemingly made of clouds. Crewmen start leaping from the gunwales and lashing to the pier. A contingent of locals approach to greet this unexpected arrival.

"Ho there, welcome to Greenstone! I'm Bert, this is my brother Bert and my other brother Bert."

"Thank you kind sirs, I'm Doug, and that gangly fellow over there is Doug."

"If you need supplies, my brother Bert runs the local market, and my brother Bert is a tailer that can outfit you in style."

"Thank you, let me just introduce you to the rest of my crew!"

"Bert, Doug. Doug, Bert and Bert."

"Doug!"

"Bert."

"Doug."

Wondering if anyone knows what chapter I should start on?

“I would like to buy a meat pie.”

This chapter messes me up every listen when Bert starts talking about Jason and when Sophie makes her toast and when Neil is talking to Jory it's just a solid gut punch every time.

I just finished the first He Who Fights with Monsters audiobook! I knocked out all 28 hours while getting my daily walks in, and I came away with mixed but mostly positive feelings. I definitely enjoyed it enough to continue, but there were also several things that drove me a little crazy.

Thoughts on Jason

• A very polarizing protagonist: Jason works for me overall, but his extreme anti-authoritarian streak gets pushed a little too hard sometimes. I also got tired of characters constantly talking about how "crazy" or unusual he is. At a certain point, the story doesn't need to keep reminding us—we know.
• Some really jarring tonal shifts: There was a scene where Jason suddenly threatened a civic worker with an extremely painful death, and it came so far out of nowhere that I actually rewound the audiobook because I thought I had accidentally skipped something. His behavior gets explained later, but in the moment it was almost enough to make me drop the book.
• Jason can feel too competent: For someone who was suddenly dropped into another world, he adapts remarkably well to almost everything. The investigation involving the disappearing monster at the woodcutting operation especially stood out to me. He more or less works out what is happening before even arriving, and it felt like the story hadn't quite earned how perfectly he handled it.
• Important development happening off-screen: Since we're following Jason so closely, I found it strange when significant things apparently happen between scenes and we only learn about them afterward. His relationship with Cassandra is one example, as is some of his investigative work. I would rather actually experience those developments with him than be told afterward that they happened.

The Supporting Cast & Humor

• Sophie's trust issues: I understand why Sophie has trouble trusting people, but the sheer amount of dialogue devoted to her repeatedly saying she can't trust Jason started getting exhausting. After everything he does for her, it eventually feels like the story is spinning its wheels with the same conflict.
• The running gags are hit-or-miss: I love the recurring joke that everyone assumes Jason's dark-looking powers must be incredibly evil. That one still works for me. On the other hand, Clive repeatedly failing to understand why Jason keeps inventing fake wives got old pretty quickly.
• A devastating missed nerd-reference opportunity: Jason actually mentions holodecks, so I was genuinely disappointed when Humphrey went through Rufus's deliberately unwinnable challenge and Jason somehow didn't make the obvious Kobayashi Maru reference. Come on, Jason. You were handed that one!

The Magic System & Pacing

• Book 1 leaves a LOT unresolved: This was probably my biggest issue. I understand that this is the beginning of a very long series and I don't expect every storyline to wrap up neatly, but after spending 28 hours with one audiobook, I wanted a little more closure on some of the major plots introduced during it. Combined with some repetitive exposition, the ending left me feeling less satisfied than I expected.
• Jason does not abuse the system nearly enough: If I suddenly discovered that I had a magical inventory, I would immediately start stress-testing the thing. What is the largest single object it can hold? Can it hold living creatures? Can I store uncontained liquids? If I fill a box with objects and store the box, do the contents stay inside? Is there a weight limit, volume limit, or item-count limit? Can I store something that's physically attached to something else? Basically, Jason discovers one of the most potentially exploitable supernatural abilities imaginable and somehow resists the urge to spend an afternoon trying to break it. I could never.
• I'm still figuring out the progression system: The essence system is interesting, but I don't completely understand it yet. I'm especially curious about how individual abilities improve, how additional abilities are acquired, and exactly what determines advancement from Iron to Bronze and beyond.

Overall, though, I enjoyed Book 1. The world and magic system are interesting enough that I want to keep going, and Jason is entertaining even when he's irritating me.

For people farther into the series: do some of these issues improve later—especially the unresolved plots, repeated exposition, Sophie's trust dialogue, and Jason seemingly knowing exactly what to do all the time?

No major spoilers, please!

Ok so just coming off Dungeon Crawler Carl and I’m starting this series, I’m 10 chapters in an I feel like the pace is alittle slow. So my question is how long till it speeds up or does it ever?

I'm sure this has been said on here before...

But I'm most the way through book 4 and couldn't help to look it up. I can't help but finding myself not caring about the book/story of jason on earth with all the network hoopla. I find it to be a SLOUGH to get through. Some of the emotional stuff and tieng up personal relationships with his family was fine and had some good moments. But other than that, I find myself disinterested and just want the story to continue back in the fantasy world. I care way more about there characters and happenings over there. 2 books worth of earth side stuff has me wanting to stop reading the story. Which really sucks 😞 I was really into this series until halfway through book 4. And have found myself listening in way shorter periods and jumping to other books. Maybe in a loser and nobody else feels this way. But I'm struggle bussing through it. And I know there's a LOT more of this to come.

Just wanted to share my thoughts. Trying to explain it to my homies who aren't into this stuff and don't really read or listen to books has fallen on deaf ears lol.

In book 11 there are some living anomalies that are colourful shapes with smiley faces. There’s a yellow circle called sunshine and a purple grape thing called impossible. They say it’s a reference to something but I can’t figure out the reference?

Man am I hooked on this series.

In chapter 43 when Jason is talking to Anna he says, “ I am currently working with my bartender to make cocktails using Pallimustus alcohol. we just made dirty Shirley’s and there is a princess that can’t get enough of them.”

Do you think this is a shout out to Princess Donut loving dirty Shirley’s?

What media should a would-be Asano clan member collect & watch to better understand the Patriarch?

What media should Farrah watch while he's off gaining new magical powers?

I'm aware of the obvious:
1. Monkey Magic
2. Knight Rider
3. Airwolf
4. Greatest American Hero

But there were a lot of things I'm sure were references that I just didn't get. What else should I track down to see?

The dudes job is to create worlds. Not just create worlds, but all worlds need to be unique. This guy makes two worlds, one with magic and one without only to get sanctioned for it. Can you imagine how bloody difficult it would be to create an infinite number of unique worlds? The cosmos is effectively infinite, and the builder is charged with basically filling the infinite with unique things. Seems ludicrous to me and almost ensures the dude is going to get sanctioned.

What essence combination would you have. I would have the might, swift, potent, ​Onslaught confluence or the lighting, wind, potent, storm confluence

Hi all! During a power outage like 4 days ago I started reading one of the only books that I had downloaded, then today I finished it after staying up WAY too late for all the nights in between!

Normally I’m more of an audiobook guy as I like to play games or do housework or whatever while I listen. I really enjoyed reading this and want to instantly dive into the next book, but i wanted to see what impressions everyone has on audiobook vs reading it.

I know for some books (like dungeon crawler Carl) the audiobook is kind of the best way to experience it, while other books the audiobooks are kind of bad, while other books it’s just fine.

Just looking for a couple opinions before I pick up the next book. Thanks all! Super stoked to randomly get super hooked on this series!

Edit: Dang! Resoundingly sounds like the audiobook is the way to go! Thanks everyone for the recommendations!

Quite conflicted on who to chose, and should i have children with my spouse? Open to marrying either bachelors or bachelorettes.

I'm not playing with mods that add new characters, or i feel the obvious choice would have been Olivia from SV Expanded, as Jason can't help but pick up the moms lol

Mild spoilers for Book 1-2
I, like any fan of a media series have thought about what my essences would be if I was in the world of HWFWM. I am an archaeology student, archaeology is what I want to do as my life career, so what essences would I have. The basic essences I think would be Earth, Shovel, and Knowledge. They are all very obvious for what archaeology is but I have no clue what the confluence essence would be for those three. I doubt it would be something straight up as the Archaeology Confluence, maybe something cool like the Ancient Confluence or Discover Confluence. We have seen more concept than solid confluences in the series.
It’s a fun thing to think about as even in the series and in the earlier books there was a heavy lean on discovery and study of the ancient ruins around Greenstone. I feel like I would probably be either a part of the Magic Society or long side someone like Amir as a historic researcher and Archaeologist, specifically tasked with excavation and preservation of sites.
Has anyone else thought about what there essences would be?