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Regressor #1

Third Apocalypse

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Decades ago, the world was changed by the arrival of the system.
One day, monsters spawned across the world, gateways to dungeons appeared everywhere, and the blue screens heralded the end of days. The apocalypse. The ruin of the world.

Amongst the ruins of the world, they survive.
The players.
Those granted power by the system and led by the regressor, the King of the Crows.
He who mastered the system, learned the truth of the apocalypse, and seized the keys of absolute authority.

But even a King cannot stop the fall of mankind.
No power is absolute. An end is eventual.
The final calamity and coming of disaster.

To fight against the overwhelming power of an Elder God, the mark of the regressor will be passed on.
Jax Nolan is picked as the successor, the man destined to go back to the beginning.

Back to the start of the apocalypse and the advent of the system.
And become the hero of the story.

Get a copy today!
For Fans of: Second Chance Stories, Tower Climbs, Blue Screen Apocalypses, LitRPG, and Interior Art.
Volume One of Three

476 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2023

652 people are currently reading
186 people want to read

About the author

Wolfe Locke

107 books101 followers
Father. Husband. Veteran. Author

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5 stars
300 (49%)
4 stars
176 (29%)
3 stars
76 (12%)
2 stars
31 (5%)
1 star
21 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
Profile Image for Khalid Abdul-Mumin.
332 reviews291 followers
July 14, 2024
What an exciting and thrilling ride.

Preamble :
A spectacularly rendered system regression apocalypse LitRPG with elements of grim Dark fantasy and some SciFi sprinkled in from the onset throughout. It then gets coupled with a fast past paced plot that's both challenging, brutal, chaotic and bloody, coming from a collaboration of some really talented authors and artists (that I'll gladly sample more from).

Thoughts and Writing :
Considering it's self published, I'd hesitate to compare it to the best among these sub-genres that I've sampled to date, (honestly, even the self published that I've read from this genre offers better writing, proofreading and editing) hence the negative star from perfect.

A little bit of grammar and spelling that doesn't retract much from the beautifully painted and fantasmagorically crafted post-apocalyptic earth full of monsters, of both the human variety and otherwise. Kudos to both Wolfe and Locke.

I nevertheless still enjoyed it tremendously and my main gripes with this trilogy is that it is woefully short, the largest not reaching past a 700 page count and it has stayed incomplete because the fourth installment should have been released by now, but hey, capitalism.

Synopsis :
It starts off with the last battle that humanity's last army of players wage and fail, in the last stronghold redoubt built on the ancient ruins of an elven city that was conquered by The Black Seraph, The Second Regressor, against an eldrictch Elder God name Aeon.

A mad elder god from the primordial void that delights in reaping and destroying the remnants of any fledgling civilization that spring from amongst multiple dimensions across infinite universes from existence by bringing upon the world his system that bypasses the laws of reality and sets up a game-like scenario complete with other races of divinities as system administrators.

Conclusion and End Notes :
The novel follows a non-comformist path by way of time travel rather than to directly resurrect a player from the last battle before the end of humanity.

Can and will that be enough to save humanity from the Apocalypse? Read on and get a glimpse of a wonderful world after the fall of humanity and how human behaviors don't change and adapt enough in confronting the age old questions of the collective unconscious and homosapien racial memories.

I highly recommend this for all and any dark fantasy lovers that will like to dip a toe into the LitRPG genre. A good introduction to apocalyptic regression fantasy LitRPG.
Profile Image for Jacob Proffitt.
3,307 reviews2,152 followers
July 22, 2024
At over 10% in on the story, we're still in the past waiting for the cover blurb reset to happen and all I'm seeing is death and despair. Lots and lots of death and despair and people who I know (from the blurb/setup) have no narrative future. Get on with it, already. Or, nevermind. I've got better things to do than wait on you to get the story started.
Profile Image for Russell Gray.
670 reviews131 followers
September 11, 2022
I don't like spending my time and energy trashing a book, but I also need to give a brief explanation to my future self since I'll undoubtedly forget this entire reading experience a month from now. I'll mostly just say that this was pretty generic, shallow, and not very satisfying to read.

Character - 4/10, Plot - 4/10, Setting/Game Mechanics - 5/10, Writing - 4/10, Enjoyment - 3/10

It's kind of hard to rate the characterization in this story because it doesn't really exist. The MC is just an empty shell masquerading as a human with the typical regressor goal of avoiding the future apocalypse. The supporting cast was just mindless window dressing.

The plot was basically the same thing all the regressor stories are: a compatriot of the strongest heroes of the future witnesses the Big Bad overpowering everybody and then our MC inherits an item that lets them go back to the beginning. Absolutely nothing new here. The opening 22% was also extremely boring. Relying solely on spectacle is already a weak tactic when we're talking about movies, but it's even worse in a book. Combine that with the typical lack of stakes when a book opens with a fight scene (I don't know any of the characters yet so what do I care who dies?), and I was just twiddling my thumbs waiting for the MC to go back in time and get the real plot moving.

Nothing really stood out for the setting or game mechanics early on and it was about 75% into the book when our MC finally gets some companions of sorts to barely liven things up. I thought the wave scenario with a few dungeons to use as resources was interesting and the small bits of the book taking place in those dungeons were probably the only highlights for me.

The writing was on the wrong side of average, even for the gamelit genre. There were lots of typos and proofreading errors at a pace of maybe one for every couple pages. Over hundreds of pages, that adds up to an unacceptable amount. The two columns style of stat sheet wasn't a great formatting choice since multiple skill descriptions get cut off and spilled onto the next page. Skill descriptions also felt a bit overbearing here and I wouldn't be surprised if they were 10% of the book's page count.

The style of writing in the opening 20% was also painful for me to read. It mostly just felt like self-gratification for the author who enjoys reading his own writing a little too much. The pattern of three is handy to use here and there to make something more memorable (See the "I have a dream" speech), but when you overuse it, it just becomes repetitive and redundant. I honestly felt like the opening part of the book fell flat on its face as a result.

This is probably the lowest I've rated a book that I actually still finished in quite some time. I had fairly low expectations going into this, but the story still found a way to fail them.
Profile Image for Tony Hinde.
2,132 reviews75 followers
March 7, 2024
For some reason, the start of this story repelled me. It's like there was an anti-hook. The POV character was not central to the events and was himself a featureless observer. There was nothing to cling to. There may be something to this book, but I felt the need to drop this one quickly.

Things weren't helped by the desperate need for a copy editor.
Profile Image for William Howe.
1,796 reviews86 followers
April 30, 2022
It took 7 chapters to finally get to the regression part…which we knew about from the cover blurb. Seven chapters of superlative strewn fighting and skills that we already knew were going to go away.

It did not develop a character I wanted to follow.
848 reviews4 followers
April 25, 2022
This reads and feels like a book made for gamers who, I am certain, will enjoy it very much. It is not my type of book with all the status checks and all. I must confess that I found the story long and skipped some pages.3 Stars.
Profile Image for Devan.
618 reviews20 followers
April 27, 2022
So I love these regressor stories and therefore my review may be a little jaded due to that. I loved the direction the author is taken the MC. For once the MC isn’t a mage/warrior/straight up healer. His build is complex and nuanced. Love it so far.

I didn’t love the start. Most of these just jump straight to the past, but I would say the 1st 15-20% was the final battle that leads up to his time travel/regression. This portion was a bit confusing but overall still fun. The more I read the more I enjoyed it.

I noticed many characters from some of the authors other books and it made me realize I need to reread some to fully appreciate the cosmere that he has created. I recognized 4 characters from other books he wrote and I’m sure there were more I didn’t notice because I haven’t read them all.

I was a bit disappointed in the lack of perks/skills/cheats the MC gobbled up due to prior knowledge from a previous life. That is what I enjoy the most from these kinds of books. The MC deliberately doesn’t do this to avoid messing up opportunities for people he plans on teaming up with in the future. Which adds a new fun dynamic but was still overall a little disappointing for me.

Profile Image for Jerome.
36 reviews
May 2, 2022
A decent novel filled with errors

I quite enjoyed the premise for what it was but, there are just so many minor errors dotted throughout the novel that it drags down the quality. This clearly needed an editor or at the very least a proof reader but it's clear the author just cut corners to publish their web novel.
Profile Image for Jim.
388 reviews9 followers
October 20, 2022
Time travel is tricky, but it’s the only chance to survive

As the final battle with the Mad God draws near and all has been prepared, the King of Crows is making his final, but not first, attempt to beat the Mad God and his forces. It was not enough to save their world. So another chance is taken to send a hero back in time, but as it’s failed to be enough for multiple attempts, it’s time for a new approach.
Time to send someone else back, Jax, a loyal but much less powerful soldier. Jax decides to take a different route, one looked down upon by most but that he feels he can use to enhance everyone else. A support class.
The good news is he loses none of his skills and knowledge, but his status is reset as he goes back to the start of the apocalypse. As a swordsman and soldier with a mind full of knowledge and experience that he shouldn’t have, he has decided to make a difference and save those worth saving.

He just has to hope it’s enough to help his friend the King of Crows and others protect this world from the Mad God’s oblivion in the future final battle.
Profile Image for Travis.
2,863 reviews48 followers
November 30, 2022
While not on my list of top 100 LitRPG books, I don't agree with some of the reviews, claiming the book was all about the criminals, and how bad they were. That's not the story at all.
I can't say I care for the way the story unfolded, but it's (mostly) about bad folks making the best of a even worse situation, and as it turns out, for the most part, they weren't acting like dirty rotten people they were supposed to be. I liked the story in so far as it felt like the criminals were trying to make the best of the situation they were handed, in that regard, the story was fairly good, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the way most of the players go their status, though to be fair, it's not like they were given much choice. This kind of story (at least those elements of stories) doesn't really appeal to me, so the story wasn't as good as it possibly could have been in my opinion. But with all that said, I still think the story is worth reading. There was some good world development in here, and the LitRPG elements weren't bad either.
29 reviews
July 23, 2022
I gave it 5 stars to help the authors in truth this work is a 4stars at best for me

For someone so highly placed the MC seems rather clueless and naive in the beginning. Then the hero worshiping grated a bit as there was little context given for the MC adoration of the king of crows except for a few lines. This makes his constant hero worship come off as boot licking. Also while the story is interesting it tends meander with the MC constantly going off on tangents and bouts introspection which hurt the pacing of the story. Lastly the character building and world building left a lot to be desired. All in all I will try the next installment to see if anything changes if not I'll be dropping this story even though I love regression type litrpg stories. If you like regression stories give it try, you may like this.
275 reviews7 followers
August 14, 2023
Great start!

Overall I really enjoy The Story So Far. It can be a tad bit slow going, and I feel like the stats information needs to be heavily scaled down. Something I noticed can just be common in the first book of a series , when the author is figuring things out . Feels like they were using the stats info as filler to make the book longer. We'll see if it was just a start of the series pitfall or if this is a common occurrence when I read the next book . Other than that I'm looking forward to reading the next one.
41 reviews
May 6, 2022
Enjoyable read

If you have enjoyed the world the author has built in his other books then this is a win for you. You get to learn something about some of the characters that have fallen to the wayside in the world we know. As well as get a fresh take on some aspects of the world.

This is a solid entry and a good addition to the realm the author has created. If you have problems with his other works than this is not for you.
5 reviews
May 18, 2022
The story of the ultimate support

Amazing book, written not for the hero, but for the one who followed him into the depths of despair. Only downside that shows in this book is it can get a little convoluted with the information given with little context, but it shines in how Jax does everything with the future in mind. Looking forward to the next book to see how everything unfolds and seeing his growth to save the world... As the one not in the spotlight
11 reviews
July 6, 2022
A good read

I think this book was well thought out and well written. It has some faults, for me mainly the mc's faulty moral reasoning, but I still enjoyed it immensely. I just chuck it off to him being human.

I especially love that the MC is not another dual wielding swordsman, but actually goes, so far, a more original rout. Love it! The dungeons are also well thought out and very well implemented.
Profile Image for Mark.
974 reviews80 followers
August 18, 2022
Magical Earth apocalypse, "system" grants people magic powers, etc etc etc. Protagonist fails to save the planet but is time looped back to the start to take another shot at it.

The book does a better job than average at conveying how devastating and how hostile the magic apocalypse would be.

This is one of those books where the protagonist is an asshole for no particular reason. I'm not continuing the series primarily because he is so unlikable.

Profile Image for Clint Young.
849 reviews
May 5, 2022
KU Review

There is a bunch of lore and books in this universe. You don’t have to read them all but it does help some of the backstory if you are familiar with it. This is another great addition.

As the title says this is a review for Kindle Unlimited and as such is a reflection of my enjoyment of the book and in no way reflects cost to value analysis.
Profile Image for Steve.
1,610 reviews60 followers
June 4, 2022
4.5 stars. Not a particularly original idea (what is these days, really) but well executed. The real criteria for me is that it held my attention. This is something that fewer books recently have managed to do, so it gets rounded up. I'll check out the next one (if I remember by the time it comes out).
Profile Image for James Riley.
1,211 reviews15 followers
July 9, 2022
Really good

This book was a lot of fun. The characters were well put together and the storyline flowed well. The only minor quibble is that the descriptions of stats and abilities gets a tad long at times. That is a very minor quibble. Definitely worth a read. I'm hoping there is follow up.
2 reviews
September 9, 2022
Could not finish this. 15% in and we are still in a fight with people i dont care about and who will be inconsequential as soon as the regressor part starts. Constant gasping over how strong everybody is. Waaaaaay to long introduction. Started skipping pages not even 10% in and decided i could never care about MC as i would be constantly annoyed over this needlessly unemotianal start
Profile Image for Melanin Monreaux.
91 reviews7 followers
August 7, 2023
Cool world, format hard to read

About 50 percent of this book is the same stats repeated and memories that don't fit into the middle of an action moment. Its format doesn't change the font, italics, bold- Anything that would separate the flashbacks and the stats. It all alides right into the rest of the writing and makes it hard to read
Profile Image for Sophie Glen.
164 reviews
February 23, 2025
My last straw was when the main character yelled at some guy that if he couldn't protect his family because he didn't grow stronger this would be his own fault. This made the character so unlikeable.
The whole system is so clunky and I didn't get it. There is just battle after battle and barely anything else. I didn't care for it.
Clearly, this isn't my type of story.
Profile Image for John Wilson.
71 reviews2 followers
April 27, 2022
my favorite so far

This is my favorite book so far in this universe. Finally a main character I can connect with. I look forward to seeing what choice they make for the next scenario.
95 reviews1 follower
April 29, 2022
some cool ideas

I’ve read a lot of Wolfe’s books. They are great. The mc’s never seem to work well with others but this one’s a bit better. Overall really cool and I’ll read the next one
1 review
May 2, 2022
Good start to the series

Really enjoy time travel aspects of this genre. This is a great addition to them. Love seeing a MC trying more for a support role than trying to be the big hero. Definitely recommend
397 reviews3 followers
May 16, 2022
good entry

The beginning is a bit long considering we don’t yet know any of the characters. However once he gets sent back in time I really like how the story weaves in monitors of the future with his current predicaments
146 reviews1 follower
May 25, 2022
Good read

Was looking for something a little different and this really worked for me. Great story progression and overall good characters. Look forward to seeing where this series leads to.
48 reviews
July 1, 2022
Nice Read

I really enjoyed this first book. Lots of action from the start. Not to many stats that fill up pages. The story has potential to be awesome series. While mc goes the path of support I was worried he would be weak. A hybrid healer / ass kicker would be awesome.
Profile Image for Donny Clearwater.
18 reviews
July 2, 2022
Perfect

No complaints about this book and in particular I'm a huge fan of the first several chapters that showcase exactly what he's going against rather than just vague warnings and descriptions. I also loved the mini flash backs he gets from the memories.
84 reviews1 follower
July 18, 2022
Love it so far

I like how so the genesis and other stories the in together with this book. Please continue this series the game mechanics and dungeon World scope is amazing. So many plot lines you could take this story! Can't wait for more!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews

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