LitRPG for people who clock in

Second Shift Books

Funny, big-hearted LitRPG about ordinary working people who get dropped into a game system and have to do the job anyway. A carpenter who has to fix the dungeon. A dad who became a committee. Two trilogies are complete and out now, and a third lands in November.

Start Load Bearing Start Committee of One Read 3 chapters free

All six books are free to read with Kindle Unlimited, or a few dollars each to buy on Kindle.

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Two finished trilogies from Dex Renner. Pick the one that sounds like you.

If you like crafting, building and dungeons

Load Bearing

A formwork carpenter, a thousand-year-old dungeon, and bosses you beat by passing inspection.

Start with Book 1
If you like comedy, apocalypse and found family

Committee of One

A hive-mind AI grabbed one dad wrong. Now there are four of him, and they vote.

Start with Book 1
Both trilogies are complete

No cliffhanger waits

All six books are out now on Amazon Kindle. Audiobooks are on the way. Not sure yet? Read the first three chapters of Load Bearing free.

Read 3 chapters free

Reading order

  1. Load Bearing (Dex Renner, complete): 1. The Dungeon Is Not Up to Code 2. Change Order 3. Seal
  2. Committee of One (Dex Renner, complete): 1. Minutes of the First Meeting 2. Motion to Dissent 3. Point of Order
  3. Dead Server (Ellery Corbin): 1. Known Issues 2. Works As Intended (both Nov 15) 3. End of Life (Nov 22)
  4. Overgrowth (Dex Renner): 1. Foundation (Dec 6)

Each series stands on its own. Start with whichever one sounds like you.

Load Bearing

Complete · 3 books

Everybody writes the dungeon crawl. This is about the guy who has to fix the dungeon afterward. Mott Dunnage is a formwork carpenter in a world of thousand-year-old dungeons that are failing, where bosses aren't fought, they're inspected.

If you likecomedic LitRPG, crafting and trade-skill progression, and dungeon stories told from the repair crew's side.

Cover of The Dungeon Is Not Up to Code, Load Bearing Book 1, by Dex Renner
Book 1 · Start here

The Dungeon Is Not Up to Code

There are no levels here. There's the Ticket: a battered leather booklet of trade certifications, and work you aren't certified for will not hold.

Read on KindleFree with Kindle Unlimited

Committee of One

Complete · 3 books

Everyone in the county joined the Consensus in seventy-one hours. Dave Wexler was in a sub-basement fixing a condensate pump when it reached for him. It grabbed wrong. Now there are four of him, and they hold meetings.

If you likecomedic apocalypse LitRPG, found family, and a hero who keeps getting outvoted by himself.

Cover of Minutes of the First Meeting, Committee of One Book 1, by Dex Renner
Book 1 · Start here

Minutes of the First Meeting

They live in a break room in the back of his head. They hold meetings. They vote. They level up by writing it on the corkboard.

Read on KindleFree with Kindle Unlimited

Dead Server

Coming Nov 15, 2026

by Ellery Corbin

Three hundred years ago, the developers stopped answering. The Concordance has worshipped their record ever since. Marrant has spent three years copying it out by hand, and at twenty-two she works out what the sacred text actually is. It is not a book of commandments. It is a bug log. A progression fantasy with no stat screens, where every use of power is a line item somebody has to sign. The whole trilogy arrives in November.

If you likeprogression fantasy with no stat screens, rules-heavy magic, and a mystery buried in the world's own code.

Cover of Known Issues, Dead Server Book 1, by Ellery Corbin
Book 1 · Coming Nov 15, 2026

Known Issues

Every fix the gods wrote down as incomplete is a hole in the world that is still open. But there are nine thousand and forty-one notes, and there will never be another one.

Coming Nov 15
Cover of Works As Intended, Dead Server Book 2, by Ellery Corbin
Book 2 · Coming Nov 15, 2026

Works As Intended

Book Two lands the same day as Book One, so you can go straight on.

Coming Nov 15
Cover of End of Life, Dead Server Book 3, by Ellery Corbin
Book 3 · Coming Nov 22, 2026

End of Life

The finale, one week later. The series is written start to finish.

Coming Nov 22

Overgrowth

Coming Dec 6, 2026

A new series from Dex Renner

If you likecrafting LitRPG, base building, and post-apocalyptic survival with a work crew at the center.

Cover of Foundation, Overgrowth Book 1, by Dex Renner
Book 1 · Coming Dec 6, 2026

Foundation

Coming Dec 6

The famine thinned us. The Overgrowth finished the job — a living forest that ate every stick-built thing on Earth in six seconds. What survived: the people inside concrete.

Dex Renner's third series is a crafting LitRPG about a work crew that rebuilds the world one pour at a time. Book 1, Foundation, arrives December 6.

The Second Shift letter

A short letter for LitRPG readers: new releases from our authors, one great book from somebody else, and a joke from the System. Sign-ups open soon.

Want something to read right now? The first three chapters of The Dungeon Is Not Up to Code are free on this site. No sign-up needed.

Free: Load Bearing, Chapters 1–3

  • Mott Dunnage and a Friday pour he does not trust
  • A thousand-year-old dungeon nobody has ever maintained
  • About 4,000 words. Reads in twenty minutes.
Read the free chapters

Our authors

Dex Renner

Dex Renner writes funny, big-hearted LitRPG about working people stuck inside a game system. In Load Bearing, Mott Dunnage, a formwork carpenter, wakes up in a world of thousand-year-old dungeons that are starting to fail, and bosses are inspected, not fought. In Committee of One, a hive-mind AI reached for Dave Wexler while he was fixing a pump in a sub-basement and grabbed wrong. Now there are four of him, and they hold meetings in the back of his head.

For fans of comedic LitRPG, crafting progression and dungeon stories. A third Dex Renner series, Overgrowth, starts December 6.

Ellery Corbin

Ellery Corbin writes progression fantasy with no stat screens and no floating text, set in a world where the gods were developers and scripture is their patch notes. Advancement is an examination and a page in a register. The debut trilogy, Dead Server, arrives in November 2026.

More Second Shift authors

New authors and series are joining the list. Check back soon.

Books by author

  • Dex Renner · Load Bearing (3 books, complete)
  • Dex Renner · Committee of One (3 books, complete)
  • Dex Renner · Overgrowth (Book 1 on Dec 6)
  • Ellery Corbin · Dead Server (Books 1–2 on Nov 15, Book 3 on Nov 22)
See the reading order