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Top 25 First Contact Novels on Royal Road (2026)

Updated November 2026 · ranked by average reader rating

First Contact Novels are among the most popular stories on Royal Road.

This guide ranks the best by average reader rating. The current top picks are Endless Delirium [Grimdark, Dungeon Crawler] (Book 1 Written), 404 Justice Not Found and The Call of the Hollow Men. Some of them are already finished, so you can binge without waiting for updates.

The 25 best First Contact novels on Royal Road

  1. Endless Delirium [Grimdark, Dungeon Crawler] (Book 1 Written)

    by Stygon
    4.81 · 81 chapters · Ongoing

    [Note: By popular request, I’m clarifying that the feather on the cover is a weapon, NOT a quill. This will make more sense at Chapter 2] The Fifth Integration begins. Descending upon Earth and the Fifth Universe as a whole, an infantile…

    ActionAdventure ApocalypseDungeon CrawlerDystopia

  2. 404 Justice Not Found

    by Jamie Kojola
    4.80 · 68 chapters · Hiatus
    ⏸ On hiatus · No new chapter since Jul 23, 2026 (3 months ago).

    Harlow, Minnesota. The hospital closed last year. The police left in the 80s. Hamburger is nine dollars a pound, gas is six bucks a gallon, and the only news channel is a man named Frank O'Flagg explaining why solar panels are the real…

    ComedyContemporary Anti-Villain LeadApocalypseArtificial Intelligence

  3. The Call of the Hollow Men

    by LostInTranscription
    4.75 · 25 chapters · Completed

    An experimental AI that he doesn’t remember stealing, thrown an unknown number of years into the future and promptly enslaved, Mat decides that everything sucks, and people still do mean things to one another. But alien life has been…

    ActionAdventure Artificial IntelligenceCyberpunkFirst Contact

  4. The Firstlings

    by C.H. Mouser
    4.73 · 53 chapters

    Humanity is on the cusp of the Dawn. Known as the Integration. The Dawn of the Spell. Aaron and his siblings are a new race called the Firstlings. Born in the dark tunnels of the Labyrinth, they are run from their nest into a world of…

    ActionFantasy First ContactGrimdarkLitRPG

  5. Flesh of Gods [Book One Complete]

    by vgvalmai
    4.70 · 116 chapters · Ongoing

    When the world ended, Nathan was drinking tequila through a vuvuzela at a bonfire party. He didn't even finish the countdown. Now Earth is gone. He's saved in the nanosecond before extinction by an alien corporation, fitted with a…

    AdventureComedy First ContactLitRPGMale Lead

  6. Engineer's Odyssey

    by 300YearOldMagician
    4.67 · 92 chapters · Completed

    Vince is on a business trip when aliens announce that Earth is the location for the latest round of some crazy contest. The monsters that start appearing would be enough to deal with, but he's more than a thousand miles from his wife and…

    AdventureContemporary First ContactLitRPGMale Lead

  7. Endless Delirium [Old Ver]

    by Stygon
    4.65 · 3 chapters · Ongoing

    The Fifth Integration begins. Descending upon Earth and the Fifth Universe as a whole, an infantile System attempts to do as it has every time before and bring the inhabitants into line. Yet, for the first time since the beginning of its…

    ActionAdventure ApocalypseDungeon CrawlerDystopia

  8. Stray Cat Strut [Will Stub Yesterday... as soon as the time machine is done!]

    by RavensDagger
    4.65 · 790 chapters · Ongoing

    In the year 2057, the world has become a corporate-run utopia for the super-rich, and a hellhole for all the rest. Catherine 'Cat' Leblanc is an orphan that is about as far from super-rich as one can be. When the Incursion alarms start…

    ActionSci-fi Artificial IntelligenceCyberpunkDystopia

  9. Rise of the Outlander

    by MasterGamer
    4.63 · 105 chapters

    [On break, will be returning with periodic chapters] Life in a monster infested jungle is hard enough without your village burning to the ground. After witnessing the destruction of her home, one lonely survivor is left with little chance…

    ActionAdventure Female LeadFirst ContactHigh Fantasy

  10. Sigma 16 [Sci-fi Survival Crafting LitRPG]

    by Commander Kane, Erios909
    4.59 · 122 chapters

    Talia, the daughter of a wealthy conglomerate CEO, harbors an unquenchable adventurous spirit. Wishing to make her own mark on the universe and avoid the boring life of corporate drudgery, she joins the droves of new human explorers…

    ActionAdventure Artificial IntelligenceCyberpunkFirst Contact

  11. Superheroes and Magic Invasions [apocalypse litRPG]

    by Belial666
    4.59 · 68 chapters · Completed

    [completed the October 2022 and April 2023 Writathon ] In the town of Destiny, Florida (not to be confused with Destin, also in Florida), magic portals open and spew out undead horrors. A few lucky survivors discover that killing the…

    ActionAdventure Anti-Hero LeadAttractive LeadFemale Lead

  12. Dominion [Book 1 complete]

    by Dawnstrider
    4.58 · 70 chapters

    The Aldevari Dominion has come to Earth. They need warriors for their galaxy-spanning war, so they've turned Earth into a hellish training ground. Civilization is gone in an instant. Everything Mankind has built is overturned and…

    ActionAdventure ApocalypseFemale LeadFirst Contact

  13. Apocalypse Continuum

    by Jakob H. Greif
    4.57 · 62 chapters

    The shadow of greatness is flooded with the limelight. In ages past, the world was wracked with changes, flooded with monsters while humanity gained the power of the gods. Yet that is the past. The present is filled with youngsters…

    ActionAdventure First ContactGameLitLitRPG

  14. DIE TRYING [A Roguelite Extraction LitRPG]

    by Mark Arrows
    4.57 · 175 chapters · Ongoing

    Jump into a fantasy deathworld. Smuggle magical loot and refugees back to Earth. Try not to die. Michael Wade's only goal in life was to get rich or die trying - and that's gotten a lot more literal recently. Stuck in retail hell, his…

    ActionAdventure First ContactHigh FantasyLitRPG

  15. Life is a Side Quest

    by JW Chambers
    4.57 · 113 chapters · Ongoing

    Alexander hates video games, comics, and anything else he deems unproductive. When he receives a notification that he has become a wizard his first thoughts are, "No thank you." Yet, this unexpected system, complete with stats, levels…

    ActionAdventure Female LeadFirst ContactLitRPG

  16. Lost in the Future

    by Autonomous Pen
    4.56 · 55 chapters

    Tags: GameLit / LitRPG, Adventure, Drama, Action, Character-Driven, Slow-Paced, Power Progression, Overpowered Main Character (eventually), Magic, Slice of Life-ish (at times), some Romance Release schedule: 1 chapter every Saturday, at…

    ActionAdventure Dungeon CrawlerFirst ContactGameLit

  17. Quiet Life Of The Mute Archmage (OP Archmage/ Academy/ XianXia/ LITRPG/ Mute MC)

    by P_Magno
    4.55 · 37 chapters · Hiatus
    ⏸ On hiatus · No new chapter since Aug 6, 2026 (3 months ago).

    What does it take for a mute girl to climb out of the slums and defy the very heavens? Rescued from a rainy grave in the slums by a kindly Sage, Molly found a home and a talent for magic she never knew she had. But while others chant to…

    AdventureDrama CozyCraftingCultivation

  18. System Breaker [Xianxia System Apocalypse Litrpg] [STUBBED: Books 1-3 on Amazon]

    by OstensibleMammal
    4.54 · 94 chapters

    Heavily edited and overhauled Books 1-3 on Amazon Kindle (Renamed to Infernal Ascension) Nothing will stop Young Master Wei An Wei from exacting his revenge upon his father. Not the forces of the Claimed Hells. Not the laws of reality…

    ActionAdventure Anti-Hero LeadCultivationFirst Contact

  19. The God of Death Just Wants to Quit?!

    by Fallen Pages
    4.53 · 106 chapters · Ongoing

    Nerez no longer remembers the name he had when he was just an ordinary human on Earth. It has been far too long since a literal date with destiny, or rather with the Goddess of Fate, condemned him to wander the sea of souls through a…

    ActionAdventure Anti-Hero LeadAttractive LeadCrafting

  20. Vivid Stars Online

    by L.S. Easton
    4.53 · 159 chapters

    Jared doesn’t just want a change, he needs one. For the last year, he has been prepping for the latest VR game to be released. Having scrimped, saved, and worked countless hours of overtime, he is finally ready to leave his humdrum life…

    ActionAdventure Artificial IntelligenceDystopiaFirst Contact

  21. Building World Peace with My Bloodthirsty Demon Army

    by Bimbanana
    4.52 · 164 chapters · Ongoing

    Welcome to planet Talvaris, your generic isekai world filled with magic, dragons, and voluptuous female elves. Everything here is as beautiful as the goddess Celes envision it, if you just ignore the slavery and racism on the corner…

    ActionComedy Anti-Hero LeadAnti-Villain LeadCozy

  22. Behemoth of the Ocean "A Cruise ship Isekai Litrpg" [BOOK 2 COMPLETE]

    by Alt41
    4.51 · 261 chapters · Ongoing

    A gradually awakening cruise ship, limited fuel and a super Empire that already knows about them. That was what Captain Dan and the core members of his crew found themselves dealing with. Transferred to a fantasy world governed by a…

    ActionAdventure CraftingFirst ContactKingdom Building

  23. Integration Apocalypse: Elf Huntress From Earth

    by UnStepAble
    4.51 · 26 chapters

    Earth has been Integrated. For eight billion humans, it’s the apocalypse. For her, it’s a chance at homecoming. Luna Castellan never felt like she belonged. Then the world ended and proved her right. Luna is drafted into the Tutorial…

    ActionAdventure ApocalypseAttractive LeadDungeon Crawler

  24. Shaper of Metal Post-Apoc Progression LitRPG

    by RainHarlow
    4.51 · 47 chapters

    Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, & Audible available HERE! Monsters overrun Earth like a plague, and System powers for a chosen few aren't enough to take it back. Humanity needs more. As a former military transport pilot, Jack Laker once met the…

    ActionAdventure ApocalypseFirst ContactGenetically Engineered

More First Contact novels to explore

Want everything in one place? Browse all First Contact stories.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best First Contact novel on Royal Road?

Right now Endless Delirium [Grimdark, Dungeon Crawler] (Book 1 Written) by Stygon is the highest rated, with an average rating of 4.81 out of 5 and 81 chapters. 404 Justice Not Found by Jamie Kojola comes next.

How are these stories ranked?

Stories are ordered by their average reader rating on Royal Road, and the guide is refreshed as ratings change.

Are there completed First Contact novels I can binge?

Yes, including The Call of the Hollow Men, Engineer's Odyssey and Superheroes and Magic Invasions [apocalypse litRPG].

Where can I read these First Contact novels?

Every story is free to read on Royal Road. Open a story's page and use the Read button to go straight to it. FicGems doesn't host any chapters.