When I read Barak Engel's The Crack in the Crystal: Ascendance, I didn't necessarily realize that it was anchored in characters that had actually been rolled-up at his gaming table during pre-Covid gaming sessions, but it did seem to me, as the story was unfolding, that it was very true to the RPG nature; the story revolved very tightly around the main characters. This wasn't a bad thing, necessarily, but it definitely made it feel more LitRPG than old-school Fantasy. The other thing that I noticed was it didn't make me feel out of the loop in that aforementioned "you had to be there" way. The story unfolded nicely, never losing me, but always revealing new twists and turns as it went along. The unpredictability increased quite a bit toward the end, but not in a bad way, leading to a satisfying enough ending.
The Crack in the Crystal is a cleverly written story about a group of misfits from a poor part of town. Sollis, a girl who grew inexplicably fast and turns out to be some sort of wildmage; Lormek, a dark-skinned dwarven orphan who had been taken in and raised by Rajiv, a Diviner and Healer of the Church of Tranquility who did what he could to care for the poor people in the Shallows; Nyelle, a talented Elven Bard; Garrett, a stealthy and skilled Gnome agent of the Thieves' Guild; and Aidan, a Master Bowyer who is both inventive (having invented several special features for bows) and gifted with the ability to communicate with wood and encourage it to alter its shape and grain magically. As is often part of the adventurer's background, each of these characters has a tragic past, either never knowing their parents, losing their parents in violent circumstances, or being disowned by their family. Also, as is often part of the adventuring party's background, they wind up getting together for a specific mission...
Okay, granted, it's not as much of a trope as meeting each other in a tavern, but being selected for their specific talents by the Thieves' Guild for a mission works well enough as a way to put the team together. It also seems plausible enough, as well, given that Sollis is essentially a Sorceress (in a world where Wizards are rare and gain their abilities through years of studies) and the others each seem to have a spark of magic within them, from Aidan's ability to speak to wood to Nyelle's more-than-natural-talent Bardic ability to control sound, to Lormek's ability to heal (like father, like son) and Garret's unnatural ability to go unseen and unnoticed.
The mission they get set upon reveals some interesting things and gives the team a chance to get a feel for how they can use their abilities together as a team, but soon, a larger, more important crisis is revealed: one that could threaten the entire world. One that only our scrappy troupe of heroic misfits might be able to stop.
While some LitRPG actually spells out leveling up and hit points right in the text, The Crack in the Crystal definitely has the feel of a D&D setting, but manages to avoid spelling out the mechanics too much. For that matter, in the official website for the book, it is described as a "fantasy-mystery/thriller crossover," so there's that. To me, it feels LitRPG, but in a way that you don't have to necessarily be familiar with RPGs to enjoy it.
All in all, it was an enjoyable read, with an impressive number of twists and turns that actually surprised me*, but that, upon re-reading parts of the book, I have to acknowledge that there were hints here and there that put it right in front of me and I just didn't see it. If you love fantasy, you're a fan of D&D, and/or you feel up to the challenge of spotting the mysteries before they're fully revealed, I highly recommend The Crack in the Crystal: Ascendance. I only see this listed as a novel, not a part of a series, but then I see that the name includes Ascendance and strongly suspect that it's the first book in a series by that name. One could hope...
* As my close friends know, I tend to figure out twists and mysteries from a mile away. Barak Engel does an excellent job of sprinkling in the clues without the context, then showing you the context later, which leads to quite a few "aha!" moments.
