A Small Town in Southern Illvaria: An Isekai LitRPG

A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World, Book 1

By: Acaswell

Narrated by: Alexandra Ryan

Length: 27 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

A young woman must navigate the dangers of a strange new world filled with magic and mystery in this imaginative and highly detailed LitRPG adventure.

When Alice Verianna went to sleep, she was just another teen from the Denver suburbs. She definitely didn't expect to be transported to a magical alternate dimension, inhabited by monsters and presided over by a mysterious System. Here, people resemble RPG characters and everyone has access to their own status screens.

Grappling with the mechanics of the elusive System isn't the only challenge Alice faces. It seems an underground organization known as the Society of Starry Eyes has taken a particular interest in other dimensions. If they find out about Alice, they will stop at nothing to hunt her down and forcibly extract from her the secrets of her world.

Now, in addition to pursuing her own scientific endeavors, as well as learning to harness the magic that surrounds her, Alice must determine the Society's ultimate intention—and how she ended up here in first place. Before it's too late . . .

The first volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series—with almost two million views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2023 Acaswell (P)2023 Podium Audio

Surprisingly Good

A Small Town in Southern Illvaria is similar to Mother of Learning Arc 1 written in a traditional LitRPG format. Like The Wandering Inn series, it does not follow a traditional LitRPG hack and slash, I'm OP. Instead you have a girl who goes to bed and wakes up in a new world in the middle of nowhere and must navigate everything. She studies the magic system, and you start to learn the underpinning of magic. I enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to book 2.

What IS magic?

What is magic?

Could the System be a God?

Let’s use the scientific method to find out.

Very Entertaining

I did enjoy the the MC is consistent with the scientific mentality. its always frustrating when you have a MC thats supposed to be smart but is portrayed as otherwise.

I am interested in finding out more about this series. Am hoping this first book is just setting the foundation for the books to follow.

From the perspective of a dedicated researcher

I will keep this short, the MC isn't a monster hunter, adventurer or murder hobo. She is a researcher in mind and spirit. Originally from Earth, she finds herself on a new world and struggling for survival. In these Isekai stories we normally get MC's that either whine about what's not fare and become OP due to extreme plot armor or we get MC's that decide to get stronger as fast as possible so they don't have to worry so much about old monsters bullying them in their new "might makes right" world. With some crafting thrown into the mix of course. But that is not this story. This is a story about a girl that will defend herself but will not go looking for danger. She doesn't level to get stronger, she levels for other reasons. It's a completely different perspective and I really enjoyed it. Well done!

I love the slower pace and in depth look into the system this novel takes.

I love the slower pace and focus on the system. It’s one of my favorite parts of this genre so having it be a huge focus with a scientific lens is amazing.

However!

Start off was great. World building and uncover progresses together with main character learn about it. interactions are nice. Main character growing is visible. Even though you can see her actually be a hard working girl, the way the story flows sounds more like she has a hidden Luck stat perk that helps her a lot.
My biggest issue for the author is the use of word "however". In the 2nd half of the book it was like every other sentence started off or used "however". It was present so much that by the time I was in last 5 hours of the book, every time I heard the word, I had issue focusing on the story.

A good slice of life

This a good slice of life fantasy story. I will be getting the book. The narrator was excellent and very expressive.

solid book

overall pretty good and I will be continuing the series. two main complaints one being the repetitive information (not nearly as bad as some books I've read but it annoys me) and I wish that status sheets where at the end of chapters so they were more easily skipped in txt format I love them but I don't want to listen to 5 minutes of them every hour or so. otherwise like the world charters are good and I'm looking forward to seeing where the series goes

a few errors in knowledge but acceptable from a 15 year old kid

fun, and a slow burn, if you want fast passed action, go elsewhere, but fir the type of thing this is, it is perfect.

Slice of life litrpg

If you like slice of life stories with a little litrpg you’re going to like it. I’m excited to see book 2. I hope a little bit more action.