City of Goblins

In the System #1

by Petr Zhgulyov, Sofia Gutkin (Translator)

Ivan Susanin, a typical guy and unemployed techie, is initiated by the System and transported, together with a thousand other players, to an unknown location beyond Earth. Ivan has an interface, a spear, and basic weapon skills. All he has to do to return to Earth is complete a simple quest and reach the second level. But experience points are only awarded for kills in this game, and the clock is ticking. Whoever doesn’t score within 24 hours will remain in the location forever.

The game takes places in the ruins of a massive city, where the undead lurk in the central districts and the outskirts are raided by the descendants of past owners. The undead are strong, while the goblins rarely move around alone and aren’t worth much XP. The most valuable prey under these conditions are formal allies, i.e. the other players. If a player is capable of killing a fellow human, of course. Even if they aren’t planning to go against their own nature by murdering innocents, who said that they will have a choice? It’s kill or be killed!

Those who complete the quest will be returned to Earth, where they can rest and prepare for the next attempt. Beyond the local objective is also a global one. In the center of the city stands a temple to a fallen god, and until one of the players captures the Altar, the mission will be repeated again and again. But when all you’re holding is a spear, your allies can’t be trusted, and resurrection is nearly impossible, this isn’t much more than a delayed death sentence…

For the first seven players, who become the Earth Gods, this mission is a chance to rapidly gain power and take charge of a united Pantheon. A chance to escape death and protect our world from invasion. Although there is only one altar and the Gods make others do their work. Ivan must make a choice and decide whose pawn he will become. Or should he take a risk, refuse their patronage and keep his options open?

Genres: Fantasy

644 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 7, 2020

About the author

Although an avid reader from an early age, Petr had never tried to write a book himself until he began his IT studies. This is when he discovered Russia’s biggest online writing community, Samizdat. His first book received a warm welcome from his online readership and Petr even got a letter from a traditional publisher showing interest in his book. But when Petr accepted their proposal, he didn’t receive a reply. He never heard from them again.

A few years later, already an IT professional, Petr wrote another book and sent the manuscript out to publishers. This time, it was rejected. In those days, writers were only considered “proper authors” if they worked with traditional publishers; all others were branded as amateurs.

For the next five years, Petr didn’t write much but did a lot of reading instead. That’s why the arrival of the new genre of LitRPG, followed by RealRPG, immediately piqued his interest. A few more years down the road, and Petr realized it was probably the right moment to get back into writing. If it didn’t work now, then he’d call it a day.

By then, Russia had seen the arrival of online writing portals which allowed authors to sell their books directly to their readers, bypassing traditional publishing houses. Petr quit his day job and started a new book. This time it was RealRPG. Readers immediately noticed his City of Goblins, leaving thousands of comments and positive rankings. The following installments consolidated his success, securing the new series’ place among the leaders of the new genre.

They say that three is a charm – it certainly was for Petr, who can now pursue his passion for writing full time. And now you too have a unique opportunity to read his books in other languages.

Reviews

[NiteHaze · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Um...WTF. The portrayal of women and how they are perceived is extremely worrying. First woman that is described almost becomes a rape victim of a goblin and the second woman says a sentence and hands go to her breast. She is short and busty but hey the MC doesn't ogle her instead he comments that she will either be a corpse or a BREEDER if the goblins catch her. Also he is not interested in having sex with her Yikes"

"I can't imagine someone giving this a 5 and not commenting on the fact this shit is...YIKES. I hate to make generalizations but Russian litRPGs have amazing world building and interesting game rules but the MCs are usually shit and their portrayal/how they perceive women is gross, sexist, and misogynistic. When women are mentioned in this book they are seen as objects. Things are done to them (RAPE) have no agency."

"I am listening to a POV of a person who was captured and he comments that the female captives are REPEATEDLY AND BRUTALLY RAPED! But he is like "We men have our own problems. We are not getting fed. These women get food, water and they get to bathe in between their CLIENTS VISITS so their fate stopped concerning me" I GAGGED! THIS MAN JUST CALLED THESE WOMEN'S RAPISTS CLIENTS! WHO LOOKED AT THIS SHIT AND SAID YES!"

I'm so tired. He gets betrothed to a female goblin and comments that he wishes she had "BIGGER TITS AND A PRETTIER FACE" WHY!? AND THE FEMALE GOBLIN ONLY RECENTLY STARTED TO BLEED? Someone read this and decided to publish it. SOMEONE READ THIS AND GAVE IT 5 STARS! How can you read this and not think once "YIKES". Zhgulyov sees women as things to be raped or murdered or as a sex item. No women in leadership."

I hate the MC he is a psychopath. He only had to survive a day in the world but he acts like he has killed people for years. A person reacts to a dead body by throwing up and he reacts as if this person is automatically a weakling who is beneath him.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a review copy of this book
I liked this book.
It's a slight bit different from most LitRPG books in that the characters don't transfer permanently into the game, they're only transported into the game periodically, and only for limited amounts of time. However, their performance is the key, if they don't complete their given quests, they don't leave the game, but if they do, then they're allowed to go home. There's more to it than that, but I don't want to spoil it, and I honestly don't know where the story/options are going to go in future books, so I'll leave it at that.
However, I found this setup to be interesting, and while the book ended a bit prematurely (in my opinion), I think this will be a very good series if it continues like it started, this could prove to be a very interesting series indeed.

[Priest of letter Pi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot say anything about English translate of this book because I have read it in Russian. But that I can is told you, that it is a really cool story. I have already had enough of litRPG some years ago but this book is not feeling like typical litRPG with almighty characters that have an infinity number of epic wins. “City of goblins” is still not genial, of course, but its plot quite logic and main character good enough to make you be interesting in developing of story.
Sorry for my punctuation and another mistakes, I tried my best :)

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goblin World

I felt this was a middle of the road Litrpg. The main character wasn’t special nor was he OP. Which was refreshing. The Goblin World setting was fun. But the fights and actions in the story felt repetitive, the ending was rushed.

Rating: 3/5
Cover: 3/5
Narration: N/A
Favorite Line: N/A

[Shaun McClintock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent first novel with a believable protagonist

I liked the world and skill card system, and the writing style and characterization is excellent. Good range of heros and villans on the human players in the various waves being sent.

[Jon Svenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been around seemingly forever, so when it popped up again I decided to give it a try.

Ivan is a Russian who gets portaled to a game in a universe far, far away, where different species fight each other to level up and move on to different scenarios.

And if that had been the full extent of this story, I think it would have been better for it.

Nope. There's more. The gods are fighting each other for whatever reason, and certain humans get tagged to represent different pantheons, such as the Norse (Odin), Aztec, Krishna, etc. They can then assign followers and faith leaders, and if you kill one you get more points.

But that's not the biggest problem we have here. Ivan (the MC) is sent to fight goblins in one of their sacred city and has to last a day while leveling up once. He does (it's not really a spoiler), and then gets a break back on Earth before coming back to this goblin infested world.

Ivan has some cool powers. He is good with a spear, can shoot an arrow halfway decent, and later on can become invisible. Both the goblins and the humans are given a single card which represents their powers, and each time they kill someone they get another card.

In addition, each party is trying to get to the altars to claim them for their own god.

Each day 1,000 more people show up with a single card, which the goblins then line up to kill the noobs. While all this is going on, Ivan is making progress to level up, but no one seems motivated to get anywhere near the altar.

Which is pretty odd, especially for someone who can turn invisible. Even though he's not an assassin, it wouldn't be hard not to be one in this environment, killing his way towards the altar to claim it and get the heck off this world and move on to something (hopefully) better.

It doesn't happen, which is frustrating. During the second wave the leaders decide to band together to fight the goblin army, but they're not very good at it and more people die. They're making zero progress, and while there is a lot of drama, these people are never going to get off this goblin planet.

Which is frustrating. I struggled with this book, and not because the Russian translation was poor. There's simply too much going on for anyone to focus on anything. Which in some books might be fine, but I've already come to the conclusion that I'm not going to read through two more books of this stuff until Ivan gets free.

3.5/5*

[Randowne · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I write these lines, I have read the first 3 volumes of the book.
I found the story quite interesting and the world rather well constructed. There is a fairly credible and realistic description of what could happen in a world where the "system" exists and sends people to other worlds. However, I didn't enjoy it enough to give it 5 stars.

There are a few small inconsistencies that show changes in the author's direction and these are mostly in the first one. I especially remember the "energy cost" aspect of integrating into the system (the 1st failed) but later on humans will be able to go back and forth for example, or when the MC explains that you have to specialize a character and in the end he won't do it at all.

The use of switching back and forth between worlds is smart, because it keeps the current world and its structure, unlike many other systems. Having weapons in the system for XP is also smart. It keeps the use of normal weapons but the reason they won't be used is because of lack of experience. The absence of the importance of an economy in the system also avoids frequent mistakes.

There is also a lot of possible and interesting potential related to the gods. The fight of men and then the fight of gods for their place in the universe. The relationship between the different gods. The different factions. The relationship between the players and the system. The relationship between Vasily and Cain.
In short, a lot of potential. Will it be well used? Fingers crossed.


Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[Murphies_law · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag

Rating for books 1-7

Pros: - a slightly different approach to the genre
- More focus on team work and the greater good
- Gods actually play an important role
- Some intrigues and politics
- An interesting multiple choice ending

Cons: the protagonist was too cautious/passive for my taste. He ignored so
many missions all the time that it hurt..
- Despite calculating that getting to certain points with stats could give
benefits already in book 1 and verifying this, the protagonist prefered
wasting points on idiotic upgrades instead and refused strategic
improvement until book 7.. #aargh#
- the vast majority of characters are very two dimensional and flat.
- the human interactions were rather dull.
- after book 1 the protagonist stopped growing. Despite having cool
rudimentary skills he kept using modern weapons that handicapped his
growth. I felt rather disappointed about his lacking magic and atack skills.
- book 6 was a slog.
- book 7 was short and mostly disappointing..

[Tyler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting read but not a fan of the MC

Although I understand part of the MC personality is from his first skill not being censored I didn't like him or is messed up pragmatism. The only reason for not killing most of the time is because of convience or because he would be caught. Kind of a sociopath. Plus I'm not a fan of the casual racism, not hate speach but certainly some weird pragmatic racism? That and the sexism that the women are going to be weak. Always been a bit of a turn off for me. That's just the character made but not a fan of him. But the ability system was a little unique and similar with the leveling. The world building was interesting with some different variables. Might check out next book to gauge progress.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very enjoyable read. The characters are realistic and so is the atmosphere. I saw one triggered feminazi barking about the book being misogynistic but it's just trolling and completely false. Those type are not happy unless the book is about a 90lb girl with no training who spend the whole story beating 200lb trained bad men. If all you enjoy is girl-power fantasies then sorry. This story is too honest for that. When the "system" abducts people it assigns them stats based on reality. If your fit before the abduction you have better stats, if your a couch potato you'll be worse off. Women obviously have a disadvantage in the purely physical statistics. I like how the book has some realism rather than ignoring reality to pander to modernistic delusions.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book long ago when it first came out. I got to say I thought it was great.
Since this book has come out I have received ARCs for the entire series. I'm looking forward to the new series in this story arc.
I'll be honest, I read so much that at this time I can't really recall to many details about this book. I do remember that I finished each book in one sitting and was always disappointed when I ran out of pages.
Overall I think that this is just a fun series.
As more of the books pop up on my, you might like this list, I will drop a short note, but nothing in-depth.

8/10

[Zhg1987 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book - I wrote it myself;).
The accusations upset me, I do not agree and expressed my position on them in the comments. I will not argue further, I think the text should speak for the author. The only question is, will they give him a chance?
If anyone has any questions about the series, you can ask them here. I will periodically look at the resource and give answers. Unfortunately, my English is not very good, so I use a translator for this. Fortunately, they are quite good these days.
Thanks.

[Joseph K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book with interesting main character

This was a good book that had a very interesting main character. They had a good progression throughout the story and there was a lot of action and adventure as well. It will be interesting to see how the characters choices so far impact the adventures in future books and if the goblin he helped returns to help him or cause problems. I enjoyed this book and recommend it and hope for more books following these characters and set in this universe.

[Michael Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, excellent pacing, execution, and an MC that was not OP or unbearable. Just rock solid litprg and a series worth sticking with. I like crunchy litrpg but this author really did a great job of striking a balance of what many folks will find an agreeable amount of stat updates that let you know it was still litrpg but not so many stats as to break the flow of a story such a great level of tension and a sense of consequences that kept the MC grounded in the choices he made. Well done!

[Manolo Macchetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi piacciono i LitRPG russi. hanno un'estetica diversa rispetto a quelli statunitensi (o coreani). La trama di questo libri è una via di mezzo tra un system integration e Gantz.
gli avversari sono i goblin. Il racconto va giù liscio... peccato perchè nonostante le 600+ pagine il racconto finisce a metà senza davvero nulla di concluso. E' evidente la natura di serial ma è un peccato una fine così mozzata, che gli fa giocare le 5 stelline

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've put this book off for so long. I hope it will turn out to be a hidden gem like those other put-aside-books that I picked up this year.

The end was kind of abrupt, but the story was "okay", I guess.
I could read the sequel sometime in the future.

Slight similarities to other books where "the system" takes people and throws them at problems.

3/5 Stars

[Alesay · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 40%. 2.90 stars. The premise had potential with its dark survival setting, but the execution just didn’t land for me. The pacing felt slow, the writing lacked tension, and the MC didn’t have the drive or spark I usually look for in this kind of story. While some interesting things might come later, I wasn’t engaged enough to keep going.

[Stephen · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring

Others have said that it’s racist. I didn’t really think so. I did think it was boring. It’s just one loooong explanation with a couple of average fight scenes.

No redeeming features.

[Dan Beaver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly entertaining. I picked it up because of my interest in Russian fiction, but did not expect a lot. The plot moved along quickly, although the English translation might have been a little awkward at time.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author sets up a good system but with weak world building. Things feel shallow in general — like there is huge potential but you very much doubt that the potential of the world building will be fleshed out.

[Andy Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshing

Nice to have a well written and good flowing story. Definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.

[Darren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor

Poor read. It's a bit interesting with more emphasis on mechanics than plot or character development. Mundane and not very interesting.

[gordon musgrave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok book

Way to much inner dialogue!! Pages and pages not much else , the main character started ok but I started to dislike him more and more

[Ray Ritchey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun Read

Nice LitRPG system apocalypse story with a slightly different take. Very easy to read and just flowed. I look toward to the next book.

[Hillary Umane · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it

One of the best system apocalypse books I’ve read in a long long time. Looking forward to the next book

[Craig Russo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a super fan. So much of this story is predictable.

[Johnie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good one sitting read

I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes LitRPG and progression type of books with lots of action.

[Ciarda C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this series
Original
Fun

[Chris Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a bit too generic a Lit RPG.

[Joseph Michelsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story but, sadly, reads like a textbook. I'm not sure if it's the book itself or the translation but it made everything painfully slow.