Portal to Nova Roma by J.R. Mathews

SPFBO8 SPSFC 2024

To find peace, Alexander must first embrace war. After tragically losing the only person he ever cared about, Alexander, a rogue artificial intelligence, opens a portal to an alternate dimension to escape his grief. Scanning trillions of different dimensions, Alexander finally finds a world that is reminiscent of the only time he was ever happy, back when he could play virtual reality games with his only friend. He doesn't know why, or how, such a world exists, but he doesn't care. All he cares about is finding a place where he can escape the misery of Earth and start over. Join Alexander as he risks it all by downloading his intelligence into a body made from the best stolen technology and bio-enhancements Earth has to offer and takes the plunge through a portal to another world. Only this new world isn’t full of the idyllic adventures and fantasy roleplaying he had hoped to find. Instead, Alexander finds himself trapped in the middle of an ancient city, in a divergent timeline, where monsters have ravaged the world and the only people left alive huddle behind thick walls, struggling to survive. To save his new home, Alexander must quickly learn to adapt to his new world, melding magic with technology to give himself an edge over the unending waves of monsters assaulting the city. To survive, Alexander must embrace war. Portal to Nova Roma comes from the author of the breakout success Jake’s Magical Market (4.7 stars with over 2,600 ratings on Amazon) with over 13 million pages read on Kindle Unlimited and thousands of Kindle copies sold. It is the first book in the Portal to Nova Roma trilogy. Tags: LitRPG, Portal Fantasy, Empire Building, Historical Fantasy, Survival.

Jake's Magical Market by J.R. Mathews

SPSFC 2023

Meddling gods. A magical card system. An apocalypse no one could have predicted. Jake is working at the neighborhood market under his apartment when the world ends. He expected nuclear war, a computer virus, or even climate change burning everyone to a crisp to bring about the downfall of civilization. But cruel and arbitrary gods from another world? Who would have guessed that? When these cruel gods shuffled Earth like a deck of cards, nothing was in the same place anymore. Monsters, dungeons, and magical items appear scattered across the globe. And suddenly, everyone has access to a new, strange magical card system that gives them magical powers. Jake, wasting his day slacking off in the cooler, as he usually did, found himself alone in a completely new and very dangerous world. Can he learn to survive? Can he collect enough cards and create a good enough deck to fight back against the monsters that have overtaken his former home? And why are these strange people that look a lot like elves knocking on the door of the market he is hiding in and asking to buy some of his goods? The gods may have stacked the deck against him, but Jake just might have a few cards up his sleeve that will help him survive.