The Wandering Inn by Pirate Aba is one of my favourite series of books. It focuses on Erin Solstice, a girl who went to the toilet one night and ended up accidentally wandering into another world. After fleeing a dragon and getting chased by goblins she ends up in an abandoned inn and decides to clean up the taproom before getting some sleep. She’s then amazed when a voice in her head tell her that she’s gained the Innkeeper class.
It’s a LitRPG web serial, though it’s pretty light on the LitRPG elements. People get classes and can get better at them, as well as gaining skills but it’s usually something that happens in the background. What this series mostly thrives on is the characters. Erin herself is fascinating. On the surface she’s just an ordinary girl who likes chess but she has depth, rock solid conviction and a desire to do what’s right. She lands in this fantasy world like a meteor and seeing how everything begins to change around her is fantastic.
The writing is also good and the sheer amount of different moods it can evoke is astonishing. Usually it’s writing in a pretty light-hearted way, with Erin herself being a little silly. But when it gets serious it gets really serious. Action, drama and horror can all be found in these pages and they’re all done really well.
If there is a barrier to entry its that these books are pretty long and that the first book takes a wee while to get going. But it starts strong and so I’d recommend you at least give the first book a go. If you liked that then believe me, it only gets better.
As of the time of writing this (10th of November, 2023) the next book (The Titan of Baleros) is due out in four days and I’m actually getting twitchy waiting for it. If that’s not a recommendation I don’t know what is.
The books in the series:
Library of Alexander 