Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lord January | 2022 | Dakota Krout | Buy |
| 2 | Lord January: A LitRPG Cultivation Saga | 2022 | Dakota Krout | N/A |
| 3 | Lady February | 2022 | Dakota Krout | Buy |
| 4 | Lady February: A LitRPG Cultivation Saga | 2022 | Dakota Krout | N/A |
| 5 | Dokeshi March | 2022 | Dakota Krout | Buy |
Year of the Sword published all five books in 2022, with characters named for January, February, and March advancing through a cultivation system built around sword-based martial arts and spiritual progression. Several books have both standard and extended “A LitRPG Cultivation Saga” editions, similar to the Damsels of Distress structure.
Krout’s interest in cultivation fiction as a subgenre shows in how seriously the system is constructed — the monthly naming convention for characters and the sword-focused cultivation path reflect a more structured approach to progression than his earlier dungeon core work. The series sits at the intersection of Western LitRPG conventions and Eastern cultivation fiction, which is an increasingly common combination in the genre.