I’ll be using terms to refer to this novels so feel free to familiarise yourself with what in the world I’m talking about.

Fantasy

Everyone knows what Fantasy is. It’s dragons and swords and magic! It’s elves, dwarves, goblins and orcs. It’s one of those things that don’t really have to be explained. However it does have some sub-genre that I’ll be including here.

Urban Fantasy

This is where magic and the modern world mix. If you’re shooting dragons with a machine gun then this is probably urban fantasy. A few staples of these books are that magic is hidden from the majority of humanity and, oddly, that the protagonists are some form of detective. Mixing magic and legendary creatures into present day tends to be fairly entertaining and this is one of my favourite genres.

LitRPG

LitRPG’s are stories that have videogame like elements to them. These usually mean that the characters are given classes, like warrior or wizard, and gain experience to level up. There are exceptions though. Mostly they’re written to echo mechanics of a certain game or genre of games.
This genre can usually be separated into several types.

1. They’re actually in a videogame.
   The main character could be trapped there or not but the reason they’re seeing numbers that represent their stats is because they’re actually in a videogame. Honestly, this is my least favourite type. I just can’t get past the fact that nothing they’re experiencing is real and that the stakes are very low. Low stakes aren’t a problem in and of themselves but when that’s the case I can’t take the characters seriously when they start acting all dramatic. I have seen this type done well but in general I try to avoid them.
2. It’s another world/it’s just always been like this.
   This is probably my favourite type. Someone dies or slips through the cracks in the world and suddenly they’re in a world governed by videogame-esque rules and picking it up as they go along. Or, from their perspective the world has just always been like this and they’re living perfectly ordinary lives levelling up. I have to say, as well as this being my favourite type my favourite stories within this type are ones where the main characters are normal people getting levels in farming or innkeeping. I can have very specific tastes and this is that.
3. Random apocalypse
   LitRPG apocalypses are surprisingly popular. The general idea is that life is just continuing on as normal and then suddenly a levelling system is slammed into the world, monsters start crawling out of the woodwork and you have to level or die. These are frequently quite bleak or dark, with lots of chaos and death but I can’t pretend they aren’t great settings.

As with most genres LitRPGs have sub-genre. We’ll quickly go over two of them.

Cultivation

Arguably this should be a genre all of its own. But it shares a lot of similarities with LitRPGs and the two genres have a tendency to cross-pollinate upon occasion so I decided to cover it here.
Sharing a lot of DNA with martial arts films, Cultivation is also about going up levels but it tends to do this through self-improvement on the physical, mental and spiritual level. It focuses a lot on training your body through constant exercise, eating spiritual foods and medicines, meditating and channelling chakra/chi. The different levels are usually known in advance and there are clear guidelines for what you have to do to burst through to the next level.
If you think this genre sounds interesting I’d recommend either The Cradle series by Will Wight or A Thousand Li by Tao Wong.

Dungeon Core

These are stories from the point of view of the sentient dungeon heroes and adventurers have to battle through. The books usually focus on base building, designing obstacles and enemies for the adventurers to defeat. Usually there a symbiotic relationship between the two, with heroes needing the dungeons to get stronger and dungeons needing the life force or something that heroes give off.

Parody

There’s nothing better than a book making fun of the genre it’s part of and that’s what a parody is. But however funny you might find it, you’re likely to enjoy it even more if it’s not your introduction to the genre. Therefore everything that’s a parody comes with an automatic warning that, if you’re not familiar with the genre, you probably want to read another book first.

Science Fiction

Everyone knows what science fiction is. Basically, a science fiction book is one that takes place in a world where technology is more advanced that our own in some way. I personally separate it into two different sub-genre. For the record I don’t think that either one if better or worse than the other, they each have their own place and ay to tell enjoyable stories. But it makes it easier for me if I separate them in my head.

Hard Science Fiction

Hard Science Fiction is stories that could only really be told in the science fiction setting. Technology or advanced societies are integral to them and they tend to act as a exploration of how certain technology or policies could impact society. Think Star Trek.

Soft Science Fiction

This is where the science fiction is more of a backdrop or setting. Sure, you can tell the normal story of a bounty hunter tracking down fugitives but imagine how much cooler it would be if they were dodging asteroids at the same time! Think Star Wars.

Slice of Life

A slice of life book is, to me, a book about people just going about their regular life. This can be set in fantastic worlds and can include action and combat but if they’re just living their life as a comparatively normal person in that world and there’s no dramatic Call to Adventure then that’s what I’d call it.

Web serials

Web serials are long form stories, where chapters are usually posted regularly online. From a writer point of view, the format is really interesting. They tend to be pretty long and yet with the regular updates they can keep an audience engaged through a long story. However from a reader perspective, I tend to avoid them. Thanks to my ADHD, when I start reading something I sometimes find it hard to stop and with web serials that could be a long time of constant reading. The one web serial I read, and where I learned that this can happen, was Worm, by Wildbow. It’s a fantastic, dark, dystopian superhero series and is roughly 1,680,000 words long. I spent about two weeks doing nothing but reading it at every spare moment and, while it is a great read, I really don’t want me time to just vanish like that. Therefore any web serial I’m only going to read if it’s been adapted to novels and I’m absolutely not going be reading them online, however tempting that is.
If you’re interested in web serials The Wandering Inn series by Pirate Aba is a great place to start, though of course they can be any genre.