All the Skills — Reading Order & Series Guide

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Book 1, All the Skills, is the entry point. The setup establishes the protagonist's situation and the deck-builder system within the first few hours — neither rushes the other. By the end of Book 1 the genre's promise is fully visible and the case for continuing makes itself.

Verdict on the series

S-low — Worth Starting.

S-low on craft discipline. Honour Rae writes the rare LitRPG that respects the reader's time — chapters advance the deck, the character, the world, or the stakes, with very little patience-tax filler. The deck-builder mechanic is the engine, but the engine is in service of a series whose character work earns its own credit. Six books in, the series-so-far is a consensus highlight of the modern field's middle ground between Classic LitRPG and progression fantasy.

What it does best. Story-per-page discipline. The deck mechanic, used to expose character and world rather than as a numbers exercise. Honour Rae's pacing instincts, which keep books in the 12-18 hour range — long enough to be substantive, short enough to be readable. Reliable cadence.

Where it sags. Limited cosmic scope so far — this isn't a series racing toward multiversal stakes. Some readers want their LitRPG to scale up faster; All the Skills is paced for steady deepening rather than rapid expansion. That's a feature for many readers and a constraint for others.

Who it suits. Readers tired of bloated LitRPG. Anyone curious about deck-builder mechanics in narrative form. Listeners who appreciate a reliable yearly cadence. Who should skip. Readers who want cosmic-scale and multiversal stakes from book one — try Defiance of the Fall instead.

Reading order

See the full review for the current reading order — book data is being populated as the series is verified.

Is the series complete?

Not yet. Honour Rae has not announced a target book count. Cadence is the most reliable factor — roughly twelve months between entries — and book 7 is expected around mid-2027. Standard ongoing-series risk applies, but cadence here is a strength rather than a worry.

Where to go next

If you finished what's out and want a similar register:

The Stubborn Skill-Grinder in a Time Loop (X-RHODEN-X) — the other modern LitRPG with this level of story-per-page discipline.
Warformed: Stormweaver (Bryce O'Connor & Luke Chmilenko) — same S-low tier, completely different (sci-fi) setting.
Cradle (Will Wight) — the completed-arc reference for progression-fantasy craft discipline at this level.

Frequently asked questions

What's a deck-builder LitRPG?

The system mechanics are built around a deck of cards — skills, abilities, and creatures the protagonist accumulates and assembles into a usable hand. Think Slay the Spire mechanics in long-form fantasy narrative form. It sounds gimmicky in summary and reads as one of the cleanest LitRPG systems in print once you're in it.

Is the cadence reliable?

Yes — Honour Rae has held a roughly twelve-month cadence across the run. Book 6 landed in mid-2026; book 7 is expected around mid-2027. Among ongoing LitRPG series, this is one of the more dependable schedules.

Is Luke Daniels's narration good?

Yes, and notably different from his Iron Prince work in register — All the Skills calls for a lighter touch and Daniels delivers it. Audio is the canonical format.

Why S-low rather than higher?

The craft is exceptional and the series has the discipline most LitRPG lacks. What holds it at S-low rather than S-mid is the scale — the world has stayed relatively constrained through six books, where S-mid peers (Defiance of the Fall, Infinite Realm) have built bigger cosmic structures. Whether All the Skills should scale up or stay disciplined is itself an open question; staying disciplined may be the right answer.

Where should I start if I'm new to deck-builder mechanics?

Start at Book 1. The deck mechanic is introduced gradually and the protagonist learns it alongside the reader. No prior deck-building familiarity required.