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The Dragons of Decay (Tales from the New Earth Book 4) by J.J. Thompson.
This series continues on in book 4 (of 8). Simon, the most powerful man on the entire planet, has killed three of what are basically dragon gods by this point. 99.999% of people on Earth are gone, Simon and the few other humans left have been Changed into what are basically D&D characters.
This series has the bones of a good story, but I really, really struggle with what the author builds on them. All of Simon's powers (he's literally the most powerful man on the planet) were just handed to him (a god touched him on the head). But all the status around him felt unearned. Other characters endlessly said how smart and important he was, but it was shown in ways like this:
Side character runs inside. "Simon! It's all wet outside! And water is falling from the sky! What could it be?!"
Simon: "Why, it's raining, my friend."
All the characters standing around gasp. "You're so brilliant!!!!"
His humbleness really felt artificial, too. He killed three basically-gods, and every time someone brought it up, he was all "Aww shucks, it was just dumb luck..." (he claimed it was dumb luck repeatedly). Then all the other characters would tell him no, that he's wonderful, special, that he saved them all, that he's just the bestest best that ever bested.
The last straw that made me skim the last 10% or so of this story and drop the series was that Simon "died" in this book. Even if I hadn't known the series had four more books, there's no way I would believe he has really died, because there was nothing in the writing of any of these four books that made me trust that the author would actually do that.
So how did Simon come back to life? A goddess said he was just too important to die. Sigh.
And yet with all those vast and many issues, the story was entertaining, a really fast read, and up until the end of this book had hooked me. Even now, I'm kind of sad to drop the series, but the main character is just too perfect and too powerful for me to continue with.
I think I'm just not the right reader for this book. The main character is the most powerful man on the planet, did nothing at all to earn his power, and can kill gods with little harm to himself. Nearly every remaining person on the planet looks up to him. That's such a common thing in stories, I suppose there has to be an audience for that. I'm not part of that audience though.
