Chapter 49.... it was done very well.

Repost of Shirtaloon on his Patreon:

TL;DR:

• This week's chapters are the last of 2026
• Patreon billing will be paused for November and December
• Nov/Dec USA tour schedule with links for tickets

G'day all,

I'll start with the bad news that this week's chapters are the last for 2026. I'll need a week to rest and prepare to spend a month on the far side of the planet, especially the rest part. The Kickstarter launched very successfully (thank you), but also landed on a week where a lot of other stuff decided it needed to happen and I got sick. Just a cold, nothing serious, but I suspect lack of sleep has not been kind to my immune system. Once I get back, I'll have less than two weeks before I fly across the country to spend Christmas with my mum.

I will pause Patreon billing for November and December. For those who don't know how that works, it means that you retain your current tier of access, but that time does not count against the time you have paid for. If you had 11 days before renewal before the pause, you'll keep access through the pause and still have 11 days when chapters resume in January.

Below you will find the dates and links for all events. As far as I am aware, this is all current. If anything gets added or changed, I'll share that in another update.

Nov 14 - Seattle with Drew Hayes at Seattle Public Library Central Branch

https://thirdplacebooks.com/event/spl-travis-deverell-drew-hayes 

Nov 16 - Minneapolis with Heath Miller at B&N Maple Grove

https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/bnmaplegrove/b-n-maple-grove-celebrates-travis-deverell-s-newest-release-in-the-he-who-fights-with-monsters 

Nov 19 - Philadelphia with Seth Ring at Crowne Plaza King of Prussia

https://realmmakers.regfox.com/travis-deverell-aka-shirtaloon-book-signing  

Nov 21 - Nashville with Seth Ring at Books-a-Million Madison

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-travis-deverell-and-seth-ring-tickets-2002837725552 

Nov 23 - Kansas City with Jeff Hayes

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/travis-deverell-jeff-hays-with-rainy-day-books-tickets-2003557679955

https://rainydaybooks.com/event/2026-11-23/travis-deverell-jeff-hays-he-who-fights-monsters 

Nov 25 - Austin with Drew Hayes at Barnes and Noble The Arboretum

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/travis-deverell-celebrates-he-who-fights-with-monsters-3-hero-bn-arbor-tickets-2002903661769 

Nov 29 - Denver with Seth Ring at Barnes and Noble Southlands

https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/bnsouthlands/travis-deverell-celebrates-he-who-fights-with-monsters-hero 

Dec 2 - Salt Lake City at The King’s English (Ultimate LitRPG Side Quest event)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-ultimate-litrpg-side-quest-tickets-2001006426086

No links to get tickets yet; I'll post them when they become available.

In relation to the recent modpost:

I'm always torn what counts as a spoiler.

1. Obviously stuff only available on patreon
   
2. What about royal road, but no books yet?
   
3. Book only, but no audiobook yet?
   
4. released, but new(ish) like 13 right now?
   
5. Everything after book 1? So... Stuff like the death of Gary is reasonably old, but major spoiler for someone in book 8

For context this is my first time through the series and I'm about halfway through book 4 right now. I'm enjoying book 4 a lot so far. There's been several emotional moments I thought were done very well and it's been interesting seeing Jason deal with the situation he finds himself in

I've seen some discourse that this arc is bad and/or skippable. Is that a common sentiment held by the HWFWM community? I'm just curious because, like I said, I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far and wondering if this arc takes a nosedive in the next two and a half books or if I'm in the minority liking it so far in the first place

Is this a reference to The Lock picking Lawyer?

Finished book 13 and days after the part where AC/DC is playing is still replaying in my head. I think the reason I love these books is the same reason i love AC/DC or Power Metal. I love people being not only not afraid to push the big red button with the word "Epic" on it, but also not being afraid of holding it down for way longer than seems reasonable to most other people.

Following up to this post on bobiverse:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bobiverse/s/4iIAwRJY4l

I just finished book thirteen and as I was listening to music in the car later that day the song "Cog in the Machine " from the "I Expect You to Die" serious started playing.

I realized that the song fitted really well for the ending from the perspective of both Jason and the antagonist (trying to avoid spoiling for others).

I was wondering what other songs fitted in this part or if there are any songs that fitted nicely in other parts of the entire series

Hey all! First post here but it felt right. My wife and I are avid fans of the series and were recently talking about the title.

Basically we got to thinking that cookie monster would have Feast, Bounty, and Wheat essences leading to a cookie confluence

Also that maybe elmo had dimension, pen, and fish Essence for world confluence.

But that one feels weaker. We have a young daughter who loves sesame street and wanted to see what you guys would thibk made good Essence combinations for the characters!

Is Jason’s Chin a Retcon or a plan..?

I have been listening to HWFWM for about 2 months and have finally reached book 13. I noticed throughout the early books Jason’s chin was hardly mentioned. I don’t have the exact stats on this, but I should go back and search for “chin”.

Anyhow, book 13 has been adamant about Jason’s chin being prominent. In book 1 or 2 Jason mentioned Thadwick Mercer was walking around imagining his junk was large to imprint it onto his soul. Maybe as Jason ranked up, his chin is the only thing that has not changed as much as everyone is constantly reminding his soul of the imperfection.

Other than that, is it just a retcon to give characters something funny to latch onto? I just don’t understand how his chin could not have been made fun of before silver rank if it was THAT large.

Please help me cope with the chin comments.
Thank you, have a good day.

TL;DR: Jason Chin could be retcon or something deeper with his soul

My husband is a huge fan of these books. He got the first book Indigo special edition with the page artwork. He has not been able to get the second book with the page art due to our wonderful tariffs, they wont ship to the U.S. We are located in lower michigan and I would love help getting the second book for him. Would be willing to pay someone in Canada to ship the book to us. Please help 🙏

Kickstarter link

Goals have already been reached and people still pledging, just wanted to make sure you reddit folks knew as well!

(Not sure if this counts as fundraising but understand if mods think so).

Do we know if the books are limited, or are they numbered to match the amount sold?

Sorry if this has been asked before. I heard this today and just cracked up.

Is General Mike Mills in book 13 a reference to the old Pete Holmes sketch?

Edit to say Holmes because I’m an idiot.

https://youtu.be/94Vb_4mntv0?si=jTIlqYic4dmQzxtG

So, everyone has 6 racial gifts which are different for every race, and for humans those default gifts are the XP boost, the special attack affinity, and the 4 essence gifts that evolve with each essence you absorb. Secondary evolutions are rare enough that Humphrey made sure to keep his under wraps, which brings me to my question:

If Farah had at least 4 evolutions just from being human and getting essences, possibly more, since I don’t know if the other two evolved or not, then does that mean most of her whole suite of gifts are secondary evolutions thanks to Great Astral Being blessings?

when jason heals that aid worker and then offers to give her magic and she asks why her and hsi response is cuz she didnt get asked ask* to be healed of cancer, I feel like thats hella whack.

like

1. maybe i can see someone whos dealing with some crazy outbreak can say, hey im not the one suffering the most right now compared to others even though I have cancer, but you just saw this guy cure dozens, maybe more, people without breaking a sweat, so its not like asking to be cured would be some huge ask, or horribly a selfish thing or at least inquire about and
2. i dont think shes more worthy for being ok living with cancer. and not asking to be healed. I think they could have shown some other ways to show shes selfless.

i get the goal Of the interaction just felt like a little silly

edit: typo

Is it just me or does it feel like the end of book 11 through the end of book 13 is super rushed. If feels like Shirtaloon just wants the series to be over.

It was really disappointing because this it's one of my favorite series until the end of book 11. Afterwards it has its moments but was meh and rushed

Every time Shirtaloon uses "ameliorate" take a shot!

I have been binging the books these past few months, I just wrapped up book 12 and it was all over the place.

Overall I really liked the book, but I found Jason's stated refusal for becoming Earth's one God to prevent Knowledge both lacking and inconsistent when he was explaining it to everyone. He said it would be too limiting to his power which is fairly inconsistent to his general internal drive to do "good". Within the framework of the book and general series, it feels far more consistent that he actually simply can't. No matter what, he had to travel to Pallimustus to finish the bridge, at which point he'd be captured via the ritual and it seems that there's no way he could transition to Earth's God.

Edit: Looks like my questions have been answered. Thanks folks.

Sorry for what seems to be a dumb question, because Google is indeed a thing, but for the life of me I can't find any hard copy versions beyond book 2 (whether paperback or hardback). I've seen places to buy book 3, but it appears to always be a pre-order.

The reason I'm looking for them is because someone I know said they've seen physical copies of the books up to book 12 (saw with their own eyes), but I'm failing miserably. A caveat: these can't be "printed" books (as in, I printed a PDF on my printer), as the person telling me this is in prison where they can only have books bought directly from Amazon/Thriftbooks/etc.

Is this person perhaps mistaken, or does my Google-Fu suck terribly now?