Incursion

A LitRPG Adventure

By: Dennis Vanderkerken

Narrated by: John Pirhalla

Malefic snowmen. Eldritch trains. Fanatical bovines.

Dii Van Damme was having a bad week when the universe decided to sneeze, and accidentally uncovered some of its secrets. When the reality he knew turned out to be a lie, he reacted like any proper human would: improvise, adapt, and kill an evil snowman with a can of beans. Now, armed with a stolen cosmic power and an unhealthy amount of spite, he’s ready to power-play his way out of this nightmare.

But the deeper he digs, the bigger the conspiracy. Every puzzle piece uncovered sheds light on an ever grander design—a design meant to keep humanity under a boot, and the powers that be relegated to the service of entertainment.

Intelligent Systems see all of creation as their playground and entire realms battle for control. The game is rigged—but Dii has the ultimate cheat code: human ingenuity, defiance, and the sheer refusal to quit.

One insignificant human against cosmic tyranny? Sounds like a fair fight.

©2025 Dennis Vanderkerken (P)2025 Dennis Vanderkerken

ADHD

the main character feels real in the sense I relate to his space case and the steps he uses to keep on task

I'm already hooked!

I might feel uneasy next time I see a train (and for the rest of my life), but this story is great. It's so great to have an MC as scatterbrained as I am. Dee's methodology to control his focus and his interpretation of the world and his own brain is written so well. Julius deserves his own spin-off prequel. I want to know all about the little fluff, where he came from, and how he got to be where Dee found him.

TL;DR I am absolutely going to buy the next one.

Alternative title: What if Dennis Vanderkerken experience isekai?
What I know of the author Dennis Vanderkerken I only know from his books and from Dakota Krout's origin story about how they met. It's probably all mixed up in my memory but I think that Dakota Krout was contacted by this guy who told him that he was missing all of these amazing details about the Divine Dungeon world Krout had created and gave him all of the spreadsheets and logical deductions evidence to prove it. And Krout said well write it all then. And thus the wild excrutiatingly detailed 19 books of the Artorian's Archives. It's full of love, brutality, comfy pillows and insanity, not to mention wild insane geese, ever-altering realities, dread gazebos and secret cow levels.

I think this new series is the story of the author himself going through a similar journey without the limits set by an existing series. The beginning is a fast dunking in a lake, but if you learn how to swim it is worth it in the end, even if in some spots you wonder what is making the water warm or cold right there.

The main character is a detailed obsessed ADHD laden man who loves gaming and hidden exploits and just wants to get along with everyone, except those who opose him and must be destroyed. At least that's how he plays his games. And if the world he finds himself in thanks to a door that appears in his ouse is guided by gaming rules, then his course is clear: figure out everything, find every exploit, reward those who help you, crush those who like crushing others.

The cover immediately reminded me of a Stargate and as the next book in the series has the second symbol lit up on the cover, I suspect there will be 12 books in this series and each will focus on a new world or system. This echos the set up of Artorian's Archives, and with a reasonable number of books in the series. I stepped away from the AA series when I wasn't sure if any progress was being made to a conclusion. This series has a set size and is a known investment.

If the next book were out on audiobook, I'd have started it immediately.

great story and performance

Wonderful new series that I am happy to pick up and enjoy. Had a slight slow start, but once everything got going. it was an astounding adventure and looking forward to the next in the series.

Spaz Brained

when it first started I really didn't know what to think. it was hard to follow. After I got into it a bit I quite enjoyed the story! the way the main characters brain works makes it a little hard to focus sometimes, but I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next!