Cthulhu Cymraeg: The Nighty Country (edited by Mark Howard Jones) is not merely a rewarding anthology of weird fiction in the tradition of H. P. Lovecraft, but also an affectionate homage to the Cthulhu Mythos. Throughout its pages, the anthology embraces many of the elements readers have come to associate with Lovecraftian weird fiction: ancient forces, unsettling discoveries, forbidden knowledge and encounters with phenomena that lie beyond ordinary human understanding.

I consider this anthology a testament to the enduring fascination of the Elder Gods and the uncanny within speculative fiction. Each of the contributors has crafted a distinctive tale that echoes the chilling atmosphere of classic weird fiction while bringing something fresh and individual to the tradition. 

As a devoted fan of weird fiction and literary strange fiction, I was delighted to read this anthology. I found it utterly compelling and enchantingly unsettling, not to mention satisfyingly strange. To be honest, I took the opportunity to read it twice because publishing this review, because the stories are excellent.

The stories included in the anthology are:

Paul Lewis: "The God of the Green"
J. L. George: "The Last Days of Don Juan Jenkins"
C. M. Saunders: "Strzyga"
Charles Wilkinson: "The Madness of T. S. Vargiven"
John Llewellyn Probert: "For I Have Seen the Darkness Moving"
Mark Howard Jones (the editor): "Mad Gods and Englishman"
Charles Wilkinson: "The Men, Hurrying"

The Glossary of Welsh Terms at the end of this anthology is a welcome and useful addition, particularly for readers who may be unfamiliar with the Welsh words and expressions that appear throughout the anthology.

"The God of the Green" by Paul Lewis is an excellent opening story. It follows Cariad, a woman who returns to a small Welsh village upon the death of her mother. There, she finds herself surrounded by a close-knit and supportive community, yet gradually begins to suspect that something strange is taking place after discovering mysterious vials of blood. Lewis weaves an engrossing tale of homecoming, belonging and destiny, bringing it to a satisfying conclusion.

"The Last Days of Don Juan Jenkins" by J. L. George follows a librarian who becomes fascinated by a handsome stranger searching for information about one of his ancestors, whose pursuit of an old Welsh legend brought him from Wales to America in the 1790s. This splendid tale of gay romance, a road trip and strange transformation develops in unexpected ways and is likely to linger in the reader's mind long after the final page. I was impressed by this story, because it is captivating and unsettling in the best possible way.

"Strzyga" by C. M. Saunders is a marvellous tale about Dennis, a security guard working the night shift in a warehouse. When he hears a strange noise, he discovers that something inside one of the crates appears to be trying to scratch its way out. What follows is a satisfying exploration of how an ordinary, rational person reacts when confronted with something completely inexplicable. Its combination of the mundane and the uncanny reminded me somewhat of classic episodes of The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone.

"The Madness of T. S. Vargiven" by Charles Wilkinson is one of the finest mad-scientist or mad-genius stories I have read in quite some time. It follows Rhun Neagle as he returns to his native community, only to discover that darkness is now strictly enforced in a manner reminiscent of wartime blackouts. He soon learns that everything has changed since the mysterious Night Committee assumed control of the town, and that the reclusive figure living up the hill may be responsible for what is happening. I was utterly captivated by the story and its steadily intensifying sense of unease.

"For I Have Seen the Darkness Moving" by John Llewellyn Probert is another brilliant tale of dangerous scientific curiosity. A doctor visits an old friend who has withdrawn from society to live in a deserted old hotel. He soon discovers that his friend has constructed a device capable of opening a gateway to another dimension beyond our known universe - and that his assistance is required to take the experiment even further. The story contains fascinating echoes of Lovecraft's "From Beyond", while developing its premise in a distinctive direction of its own.

"Mad Gods and Englishman" by Mark Howard Jones is an excellent and grippingly written story about Owen and his fellow Welsh soldiers on the Western Front during the Great War. They gradually become aware that something strange and horrifying may be lurking in the mist in the no-man's land. I was particularly impressed by the author's prose and his storytelling skills. His depictions of the war, the soldiers and the increasingly unsettling events are wonderfully vivid, and he does not shy away from gruesome or disturbing imagery. There is something about the atmosphere that reminded me slightly of the film Deathwatch, in which First World War soldiers encounter an unknown horror amid the trenches of the battlefield.

"The Men, Hurrying" by Charles Wilkinson brings the anthology to an intriguing close. It tells of Bowen, who has purchased an old Bardic chair and begins to experience visions of men running. The story is an appropriately mysterious conclusion to a collection devoted to the uncanny and inexplicable.

Taken together, these diverse tales offer excellent writing, chilling atmospheres and plenty of memorable weirdness. Although the authors approach the weird from different angles, the stories are united by a pervasive sense that ancient, unknowable forces may still be lurking just beyond the boundaries of everyday reality. For readers who enjoy Lovecraftian fiction, Welsh settings and tales in which the familiar gradually gives way to the strange, Cthulhu Cymraeg: The Nighty Country is a rewarding and atmospheric anthology.

Highly recommended!

Fantasy, science fiction, or horror?

One of the new views follows Risingshadow's three primary genres, Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror, across publication years.

Seeing them together makes it possible to explore how their presence in our library has changed over time.

When did a genre begin to grow? How have Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror developed alongside one another? And which books are behind those changes?

On the personal side, the question becomes even more interesting:

How has your own reading changed?

Reading Insights can look beyond what you enjoy today and help you explore the path that brought you there.

A major milestone for Risingshadow

Reading Insights has been a substantial project for us.

Behind the new interface is a much larger effort to make better use of the reading and book data that has accumulated on Risingshadow over many years.

We have also tried to be careful about what that data can actually tell us. Reading history is rarely perfect, and not every bookshelf contains enough information to support every kind of insight.

When there is not enough evidence for a meaningful observation, we would rather say so than invent a story from incomplete data.

That principle has been an important part of building Reading Insights.

Build your own reading world

If you already have a Risingshadow account and have been adding books to your bookshelf, take a look at what your reading history has to say.

You may already have years of reading waiting to be explored.

If your bookshelf is still small, this is a good reason to start building it. Add books you have read, rate them, and let your reading history grow over time.

And if you have not joined Risingshadow yet, you can create an account and begin building your own bookshelf.

This is only the beginning

This release marks the completion of the first major development phase of Reading Insights, but it is not the end of the project.

For now, we want to see how people actually use it.

Which insights do you find interesting? What do you discover in your reading history? Is there something that looks strange or difficult to understand? Is there something about your reading that you would like to explore but currently cannot?

Those experiences will help guide where Reading Insights goes next.

For now, we hope you will explore it, experiment with it, and perhaps discover something about your reading that you did not know before.

Welcome to your Reading Insights.

Dungeon Crawler Carl changed the conversation

Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl is difficult to ignore when looking at LitRPG's changing position.

The series began independently before Ace acquired print rights to its early installments, marking the Penguin Random House imprint's first LitRPG acquisition.

Its premise is unapologetically strange. Earth is transformed into a deadly intergalactic dungeon, and Carl enters it alongside his ex-girlfriend's prize-winning cat, Princess Donut. Survival means fighting monsters, gaining abilities and navigating increasingly elaborate game mechanics, all while an enormous alien audience watches the carnage as entertainment.

It sounds like something designed for a niche audience.

Instead, it became a New York Times bestselling series.

By 2026, Dungeon Crawler Carl had grown well beyond its self-published origins, with major print editions, a graphic novel adaptation and a television adaptation in development. The success demonstrated that readers unfamiliar with LitRPG terminology could embrace a story filled with the genre's mechanics when the characters and storytelling worked beyond the system surrounding them.

More importantly for publishers, it showed that an audience developed through independent and digital publishing could successfully cross into traditional bookstores.

And Dungeon Crawler Carl is no longer an isolated example.

Major publishers are picking up established LitRPG series

Penguin Michael Joseph acquired the first three books of Travis Deverell's He Who Fights with Monsters, written under the name Shirtaloon. Like many of the genre's biggest successes, the series developed an enormous following before attracting a major traditional publisher.

HarperVoyager followed with a deal for four books from pirateaba's sprawling The Wandering Inn.

That series is another example of why LitRPG developed so effectively outside conventional publishing. Beginning as a web serial, The Wandering Inn grew into an extraordinarily large fantasy narrative on a scale that would have been unusual for a new traditionally published series.

Now that unconventional history is an asset rather than an obstacle. Publishers are acquiring stories with established communities, proven reader engagement and years of material behind them.

The pattern resembles what has happened elsewhere in publishing with successful self-published romance and romantasy. Instead of assuming that online success belongs to a separate market, publishers are increasingly treating those audiences as evidence of commercial potential.

That movement is also visible in the way readers discover books. At Risingshadow, we are seeing readers follow LitRPG from one series to another rather than treating a breakout title as an isolated curiosity. The interest is increasingly in the genre itself: what else is available, which series are continuing, and what is coming next.

Will Wight's Overworld could bring another audience to LitRPG

Will Wight is a particularly interesting example.

Wight's Cradle series helped make progression fantasy considerably more visible, building a huge readership through independent publishing. His next project, Overworld, moves explicitly into LitRPG territory.

Scheduled for 2027 from Tor Books, Overworld follows a professional butler thrown into a fantasy world governed by game-like rules. It combines an author already strongly associated with progression fantasy with one of traditional fantasy publishing's most recognizable imprints.

That crossover matters.

LitRPG no longer needs to rely entirely on readers discovering obscure web serials or independently published ebooks and then learning what the genre is. Books marketed and distributed by major fantasy publishers can introduce its conventions to readers who may never have searched for the term "LitRPG" at all.

LitRPG is starting to move beyond adult fantasy

Perhaps the most revealing development is happening outside the genre's traditional audience.

In September 2026, Farshore acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Ryan Rimmel's Plus One Hatchet of Awesomeness, the beginning of a two-book middle-grade LitRPG fantasy series.

The first book is scheduled for May 2027, with a sequel planned for February 2028.

A children's publisher investing in LitRPG is notable because it suggests publishers are beginning to see the format as something broader than an adult digital-fiction phenomenon.

That possibility had already been circulating within the publishing industry. At the 2026 Bologna Children's Book Fair, literary agents and rights professionals identified LitRPG as an emerging category worth watching, particularly after the success of Dungeon Crawler Carl, and suggested its mechanics could translate naturally to younger audiences.

For a generation that has grown up with Minecraft, Roblox, RPGs and persistent online game worlds, the basic language of LitRPG hardly needs explaining. Levels, quests, inventories, abilities and upgrades are already familiar storytelling concepts.

The interesting question is what happens when publishers begin treating that familiarity as an advantage.

Why LitRPG works

Game mechanics alone do not explain the genre's growth.

At its best, LitRPG turns one of fantasy's oldest pleasures into something unusually visible: progression.

Traditional fantasy has always been filled with characters learning magic, finding powerful weapons and gradually becoming capable of confronting larger threats. LitRPG simply makes that development explicit.

A character does not merely become stronger. The reader can see how much stronger.

New skills unlock. Numbers increase. Equipment improves. Previously impossible enemies become manageable, only for the story to introduce something worse.

That creates a particularly effective narrative loop: challenge, progress, reward, greater challenge.

But the LitRPG stories escaping their original niche tend to offer something more than numbers. Dungeon Crawler Carl works because Carl and Donut are memorable characters and because its absurd humor sits beside surprisingly dark ideas about exploitation and entertainment. The Wandering Inn uses game-like mechanics inside an enormous character-driven fantasy world. He Who Fights with Monsters combines progression with adventure, comedy and a long-running central character arc.

The mechanics provide structure. The characters give readers a reason to keep watching the numbers go up.

The growing readership we see at Risingshadow suggests that this appeal is not confined to readers who arrived through gaming or web fiction either. LitRPG is increasingly sitting alongside epic fantasy, progression fantasy and other established branches of speculative fiction as something readers actively seek out rather than simply stumble across.

What happens next?

The next few years should reveal how deeply LitRPG establishes itself within mainstream fantasy publishing and how much its influence spreads into the broader progression fantasy market.

There are already reasons to watch beyond individual book deals.

More major publishers are experimenting with established LitRPG properties. Authors with large existing fantasy audiences are entering the space. Children's publishers are beginning to test the format with younger readers. Meanwhile, successful series are expanding into graphic novels and screen adaptations.

The genre's independent ecosystem is unlikely to disappear. In fact, that may remain one of its greatest strengths. Web fiction and self-publishing allow LitRPG authors to experiment with length, structure and publishing frequency in ways traditional publishing often cannot easily replicate.

But the boundary between those two worlds is becoming much less distinct.

From what publishers are acquiring to what readers are increasingly looking for, the direction is becoming difficult to miss. A few years ago, a fantasy reader could spend a lifetime in traditional bookstores without encountering the term LitRPG.

That is becoming increasingly difficult.

The numbers, quite literally, are going up.