Shirtaloon Books in Order

If you want the true starting point: He Who Fights with Monsters → He Who Fights with Monsters 2 → He Who Fights with Monsters 3
If you want the full Greenstone opening arc: He Who Fights with Monsters → He Who Fights with Monsters 2 → He Who Fights with Monsters 3
If you want the Earth-homecoming stretch next: He Who Fights with Monsters 4 → He Who Fights with Monsters 5 → He Who Fights with Monsters 6
If you want the bigger fallout after that: He Who Fights with Monsters 7 → He Who Fights with Monsters 8 → He Who Fights with Monsters 9

Shirtaloon is the pen name of Australian writer Travis Deverell. He lives in Australia, and his route into fiction seems to have started from a very relatable problem: an academic paper that was so dry he wanted to write something far more fun instead. The result was not a small side project. It was the beginning of the story that would become He Who Fights with Monsters.

That detour stuck.

Deverell started telling the story in serial form online, where readers found it quickly and kept coming back. What began as a web fiction project grew into a long-running LitRPG series built around Jason Asano, a sharply funny Australian hero dropped into a world of monsters, magic, gods, and social systems he cannot stop poking at. The scale got bigger, but the basic appeal stayed clear from the start.

A lot of that appeal is in the blend. The books have ranked powers, loot, big fights, and all the progression fantasy machinery readers hope for, but they also spend real time on friendship, class tension, public image, and the cost of getting stronger. Jason's abilities look dark from the beginning, and the series keeps returning to a simple question: what happens when someone wants to do good while carrying powers that make everyone else uneasy?

Deverell's stories like settings with rules and pressure points. Guilds, noble houses, churches, adventuring bodies, and systems of rank all matter, not just as background but as engines for conflict. Readers who come for the build mechanics often stay for the found-family energy, the humour, and the fact that characters have to live with what happens after the fight is over.

He Who Fights with Monsters lays out that formula right away, with Jason waking up in another world and trying to survive cultists, cannibals, and his own alarming powers. He Who Fights with Monsters 2 and He Who Fights with Monsters 3 widen the world, strengthen the team around him, and turn what looks like a wild adventure into something with much bigger consequences.

Then the series shifts shape. He Who Fights with Monsters 4 through He Who Fights with Monsters 6 bring Jason back to Earth, which gives the story a more personal edge as magic collides with family, history, and the life he left behind. Later volumes such as He Who Fights with Monsters 10 and He Who Fights with Monsters 11 lean further into buried civilizations, unstable powers, strange realms, and enemies that are as political as they are supernatural.

He writes big systems, but he doesn't forget people.

That balance is a big reason readers stay with the series for the long haul. Deverell likes banter, but he also likes aftermath. His books make room for recovery, guilt, loyalty, and the awkward reality that saving the day rarely leaves anyone unchanged. Even when the scale turns cosmic, the stories usually come back to conversations, friendships, and Jason making any room more complicated just by walking into it.

Success turned the project into a multi-volume published series, with audiobooks narrated by Heath Miller and hardcover releases beginning in 2026. Through all of that, Deverell's public author persona stays pleasantly grounded. He still comes across as the Australian writer who decided a dry paper could wait, still seems slightly amused that so many readers showed up, and still jokes about the board games on his shelves staring at him while he works.