top of page
< Back

BuyMort: Smart Shopper

9/10

Damien Hanson / Joseph Phelps

LitRPG, Gamelit, Progression, 5x

The Story

The algorithms predicted that Nu-Earth would fall, that all Nu-Earth humans would soon be extinct.

The algorithms didn't understand Tyson Dawes.

After pacifying the old Earth underground military base and defeating the Sleem, Tyson Dawes and Silken Sands are flush with new items and morties. But the Dearth Conglomerate has been circling over them in Arizona, and they want his land.

Which wouldn't be such a problem if the boss weren't such an incompetent and spoiled child.

Bad business decisions, cronyistic impulses, and an unrelenting invisible hand continue to hem in Tyson and his Nu-Earth refugees. Allies fall, and life, already cheap, moves to the discount bin as he's forced to face the bottom line.

This story features an amalgamation of Amazon, Walmart, every service fee, sales algorithm, membership perk, advertising jingo, Microsoft mascot, and insane discount that you have ever experienced in your life coupled with the madness of the multiverse, a dash of invisible hand monopolism, feudalism, straight-up cronyism, and LOTS of profanity.

This MC is unlike others you have heard before. He cares about other humans, even his crappy boss. He doesn’t seek to be the leader—he just naturally is.

It’s him leading the desperate and hopeless against the machine.

BuyMort: Smart Shopper: How I Became the Accidental Warlord of Arizona has fantasy, violence, base-building, tons of market loot, monsters, a dungeon, affiliate and credit levels, and progression. It is single PoV and has no harem elements.

After the wild ride that was Book 1, I went into this one fully strapped in — and I wasn’t disappointed. While the tone shifts slightly from the chaos and rapid discovery of the first book, what we get instead is settlement building, resource management, and revenue streams—basically, LitRPG catnip for someone like me. Book 2 takes its foot off the gas just a little for the most part and leans more into the strategy side of things. We’re talking revenue streams, production chains, staffing, infrastructure—the good stuff. If you’re the kind of reader who loves watching a protagonist go from broke survivor to competent, spreadsheet-wielding overlord, you’ll be in your element here. The pacing reflects that shift too: slower in parts, but more deliberate, like the story knows it’s laying down some seriously juicy groundwork for what’s to come. Now, I do have one small, slightly silly complaint. The snake lady. She says “BUYMORT” far less in this book. I noticed. I missed it. There was something so perfectly ridiculous and iconic about the way she hissed it in Book 1 that hearing it less this time around felt like losing a weird, scaly friend. I hope she’s just saving up her screen time for a dramatic return later in the series. That said, the system’s still alive and kicking. There’s a clear sense that everything we’re building is going to matter hugely later on, and I love that feeling of slow-burn setup done right. So no, it doesn’t have quite the same punch-you-in-the-face energy of Book 1—but it doesn’t need to. It’s smarter. More grounded. Still funny. Still clever. Still completely addictive. Oh, there are a few dungeon dives though, and lots and lots of getting hurt, then healed by the magical starfish. And clippy’s there. Yes actual clippy… and he’s… kind of weird. And you better believe I’ve already cracked open Book 3

My Review

After the wild ride that was Book 1, I went into this one fully strapped in — and I wasn’t disappointed. While the tone shifts slightly from the chaos and rapid discovery of the first book, what we get instead is settlement building, resource management, and revenue streams—basically, LitRPG catnip for someone like me.

Book 2 takes its foot off the gas just a little for the most part and leans more into the strategy side of things. We’re talking revenue streams, production chains, staffing, infrastructure—the good stuff. If you’re the kind of reader who loves watching a protagonist go from broke survivor to competent, spreadsheet-wielding overlord, you’ll be in your element here. The pacing reflects that shift too: slower in parts, but more deliberate, like the story knows it’s laying down some seriously juicy groundwork for what’s to come.

Now, I do have one small, slightly silly complaint.

The snake lady. She says “BUYMORT” far less in this book. I noticed. I missed it. There was something so perfectly ridiculous and iconic about the way she hissed it in Book 1 that hearing it less this time around felt like losing a weird, scaly friend. I hope she’s just saving up her screen time for a dramatic return later in the series.

That said, the system’s still alive and kicking. There’s a clear sense that everything we’re building is going to matter hugely later on, and I love that feeling of slow-burn setup done right.

So no, it doesn’t have quite the same punch-you-in-the-face energy of Book 1—but it doesn’t need to. It’s smarter. More grounded. Still funny. Still clever. Still completely addictive.

Oh, there are a few dungeon dives though, and lots and lots of getting hurt, then healed by the magical starfish.

And clippy’s there. Yes actual clippy… and he’s… kind of weird.

And you better believe I’ve already cracked open Book 3

© 2022 by David Lingard. Proudly created with Wix.com

David Lingard is an author of LitRPG, Gamelit, Progression Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Historical Fiction Books

bottom of page