Get this: you wake up in the hospital. You’re not feeling so hot - to put it mildly - and also, you’re surrounded by hordes of zombies! After trying to run away, you eventually find a map of the building, but guess what? It’s in French! Why? ‘Cuz you’re in France!
You’ve got nothing on you but a baseball bat, and the zombies are just one step away from biting you on your bare backside. But don’t worry, there’s still hope, because you’ve got your own personal shelter in spacetime.
My husband is listening to this audiobook right now, because he's stubborn & doesn't want to DNF it. This is a great book if you enjoy trolling incels; it's chock full of women who are described by hair color, cup size, & roundness of their asses - no joke, every woman's tits are described as "D cups", "DD cups", "F cups", & the only woman whose cup size wasn't speculated on was a Black woman (who of course loves playing basketball) wearing a very baggy top, & the protagonist made sure to point out that he couldn't discern her cup size, because it's important that he explains why he's not giving her cup size too. Basically, nothing matters about the women except for their looks & measurements (apparently, tits are even a personality trait), & wow, I really pity the author & his sad life & I wonder if he's ever even spoken to a woman, because if he has, it couldn't have ended well. I'm embarrassed for the narrator who read this shit, but one has to pay the bills, I suppose. The cherry on top of this shit show is the writing is just... bad. Seriously, I'm not just saying this because it's offensive, it's just awful writing, repetitive, dull, leaves a bad taste in your brain. If you're an incel who enjoys sadness porn with two dimensional characters who are only two dimensional because they have big tits, you're gonna love this! It's got all the cringeworthy stuff you "Nice Guys" like *insert eyeroll here*
note:the audiobook did get DNF'd, my husband got even more disgusted with it than I did lol
Short version, unlikeable MC, no real world building, terrible use of side characters, and way to much sex, zombie chopping, and dues ex machine, not enough actual plot and storyline.
I only made it about a quarter of the way through this book. It's about a street rat cuminal, who became the number one guy of a Crum lord who goes to the hospital and wakes up to a zombie apocalypse/system univers. No explanations are given or hinted at as to why there is a zombie apocalypse or where the system came from. He is given a magic superpower to transport himself and other people people to a magical shelter where he is God and king. The shelter has magic healing water and infinite magic potatoes (and maybe cabbage).
MC has a halfway decent backstory. But he seems like a thug knee breaker rather than the money laundering genius he is portrayed as, and he's kind of a prick. I don't like him, and wouldn't be sad if he was killed and someone else inherited his shelter, so that's a strike against the book (unlikeble MC).
Next, women are only good for sex, literally, that's it, he rescues 9 from a horrible gourp if dirtbags, and they are all described by their age hair color, bust size, leg length, and butt roundness. They describe their abilities, and most only know how to perform wifely duties (and that does not include cooking and cleaning, if you catch my drift).
Third, we have no world building back story, we just jump into zombie smashing with no questions asked as to how this happened, none whatsoever. We literally saved a major biologist who has been studying a cure for the entire time the plague has been going on, and we don't ask him a single question related to what the heck is going on?
I thought I should finally give litRPG another go.
I read the grandfather of litRPG books 'Dream Park' in the way-back-when days and thought it was a clever, one-off idea but never imagined it would become a real literary sub-genre 'thing'.
Nope, it's still not my thing.
In presentation this was, however, a particularly sloppy piece of work which stretched my credulity past its breaking point so perhaps I need to look at the sub-genre with something more... credible
If it's a gamers progress history written as a novel, the gamer isn't the kind of guy I like to game with.
The sexism and misogyny are very prevalent in this book there is also a lot of violence against women and the author writes like he doesn’t like women very much at all. The MC is unlikeable. However the story itself is not terrible it’s a base building apocalypse story and while some parts I grimaced and skim read through it has some potential if you can get over it’s many faults.
I like Russian litrpg. The Russians are trying to slow the woke mind virus corruption that is rotting the west from spreading to them. That makes their literature more interesting. Anyway this book started out really great. It seemed like the MC was going to be a ruthless badass. He had been a mobster before the apocalypse so I had high hopes. Well it didn't turn out the way I had hoped. The MC is kinda stupid. He also isn't ruthless or a badass. Instead he gets a special base-building type skill and it turns into a community building type thing instead of a powerful individual type thing. Kind of a let down but it could still be ok. Unfortunately the story and writing didn't hold up. There are inconsistencies galore. There are mistakes constantly. The system and skills are poorly thought out. I mean the author couldn't even remember what level people were at when he bothered to tell you about it. It took the MC a very long time to level up and other people caught up to him in 3 days. It was just a mess. Keeping the MC from seeming OP and shoe-horning different plots into place always took priority over stuff making sense.
EDIT: I stopped this series at book 8. I had some fun with it, but I wouldn’t recommend it. #Harem and way too many fronts. Now I’m just annoyed.
A LitRPG packed with action and reactions, featuring a former mafia accountant who wakes up in a post-apocalyptic world. I mention his shady origins because, despite that, he’s clearly portrayed as a hero—though at times cold, highly pragmatic (and heartless), yet still a hero nonetheless. Of course, he ends up with an absolutely overpowered advantage that shapes him into what he becomes. Honestly, I would have preferred to see what he could have done without it and only gain the Shelter later. That would have been fascinating to explore how much a skill can truly change a man—but that’s a whole other debate.
If it looks, tastes, and smells like a harem, then it probably is one. This is really at the edge of what I can tolerate in that regard, and book one gets a 3-star rating because of it (and the author’s obsession with breast size would drop it to 2). Thankfully, this is the worst of the series, and while things calm down, traces of it still pop up occasionally. I almost feel like writing an analysis on this, but no one wants to read that. In short: he surrounds himself with beauties (willingly or not), gives them important roles, but can’t help having an attitude that would make feminists bristle. Don’t look for them in the army, basically.
This was exactly what I wanted/needed, so the average rating for the first six volumes will hover around 4 stars. Things are constantly happening—everywhere, all the time, in every direction. The skill system is classic (skills, occasional skillbooks), and stats that seemed relevant early on quickly fade into the background. The progression from individual → small group → large group feels organic. The economy was decent at first but left me a bit unsatisfied later. You’ll go from a few coins to thousands, then hundreds of thousands, and finally millions… Good luck keeping track. I’m much less forgiving about system skill prices, but that’s probably because after seeing millions, my brain refused to process anything smaller. Still, I think the work is well done, since I often thought changing X or Y might have been better, but upon reflection, the system remained more than viable.
On a planetary survival scale, the first two volumes made sense. Later, I disagreed more with the hero’s actions (though with nonstop action, long-term thinking is tough, I imagine). My goal, once it was clear we needed as many Earth survivors as possible, would have been to focus hard on major cities to train as many viable resistants as possible. That way, strong autonomous pockets could save smaller groups in their sectors while building a real support network. Instead, the hero drifts along and drags his feet. The author was clever, though, in introducing credible elements to justify his choices (like the machines). He compensates by making the hero commit rookie mistakes.
In short, a series I enjoy 80%+ that delivers action and entertainment and keeps me interested.
Eastern European writers in general are way more cynical than their rather pampered western colleagues who seem to repeat the same old tropes over and over again. Both the world and the protagonist can be harsh and uncaring. A lot of leaders are despicted as exploitative and decadent..
I really enjoyed the book and had to smile several times. The protagonist is a cranky loner and only an unwilling hero (reminding me of the similar "An Ideal World for a Sociopath" series) with an impeccable fashion sense *rofl*. For quite a while i was afraid the book would turn into one of these harem stories but luckily, that was not the case..
All the characters are very two dimensional but the story is entertaining.
The only three things that i disliked were a) the fixation on breast sizes at one point of the book, which i found infantile and rather bad taste and b) the despiction of the radical feminists as outside as ugly as inside as a generalisation. Their despiction in the book was quite over the top and seemed like a persiflage. c) the constant written wrong frenchised english was not my thing..
Shelter is a new series from Magic Dome Books, and even though I'm generally not a fan of zombie stories, this one checks all the boxes for a good LitRPG apocalypse tale. The story is well done, and it floes very well. Despite the fact that I'm not usually a zombie story fan, I found myself thinking of things the characters could do to clear the zombies from their various encounters, so the story kind of grew on me. I'll be reading the next book in this series for sure when it's available. Fans of LitRPG apocalypse stories will feel right at home with this one, and surprising enough, I can recommend this one to those who typically don't care for zombie stories. The only other series I actually liked that was zombie related was7 Days Later which was similar enough that fans of one series will probably like the other.
Not that the story is bad, but the writing is amateurish, immature (seriously, the body description of EVERY female character is tedious and puerile, like if it was written by a teenager or a really young male adult who still lives in his parents' basement). The first part of the book is the worst part, I rolled my eyes multiple times. After that, it gets better.
The translation can be atrociously amateurish sometimes (and I'm not even an english native speaker), it wasn't done by a professional (I bet that the Russian author doesn't read english, so he doesn't know).
The story gets better overtime. There's some interesting and original ideas. The psychology of the protagonists is really basic and the long descriptions of the looted spoils get boring really fast. There is just too much of it. It's like watching somebody playing a video game that consist of fights and growing up a base.
But there was good moments, nonetheless.
So, overall, not that good, not that bad, just ok to pass time.
Is a simple fun story that needs a lot of editing. There's so many plot holes that you just start ignoring them. Logic doesn't make any sense to the plot line, and it's not worth trying to make it fit. The story meanders along though. At times I got bored and really had to force myself to continue. It's not that the story is bad it just goes off on tantrums on things that feel like filler to the story as they really are unimportant. The author never really gives any world building knowledge of how the system works or to advance, instead the main character just takes things as they come. He's in the dark just as much as the reader. The main character is grading on your nerves in the beginning, but a slow character Arc forms as more people rely on him. This is an airport read at best, simple fun, but you may be dumber for having read it.
I got this as an ARC to check the translation from Russian to English. This is definitely a web serial, unfortunately you need to be able to read Russian if you want to check it out online. Good thing it's being translated into English!
This combined two of my favorite things, zombies and litrpg. I enjoyed this one so much that when it got published I had to go and read it again.
There is a lot going on and for me it was just a very fun read.
9/10 A little choppy in a couple of spots. Looking forward to book two!
And expanding personal shelter that also is a shard of a broken world, floating in a cosmic sea of other shards of broken worlds? Awesome idea! And the main character is not your typical hero. He is more of a tyrant... But willing to save people if they are willing to become his slaves. But he's a good slave driver .. really he is.
This was an enjoyable book and I am excited for book 2!
I’m not sure if stuff was lost in translation as this is a Magic Done book, but parts of this did not mesh properly in wording. Great premise to the story and the basic idea around it is pretty cool. Some stuff could have used more flushing out while some stuff needed less. Sergey is pretty funny though.
Decent read. I’d put it more like a 3.5, but I’m unsure if I want to read the next book or not. Maybe 50/50
I liked this book. I really wanted to love it, though. Yes, it is well written and has a compelling story. The MC is really hard to like. Think Derek from Systerm Universe without any of his charm, and add a huge heap of sociopathic tendencies. The other problem is that the book just ends. You're truck8ng along, and then it's over. All in all, it's worth the read but you may get frustrated.
Rage zombies combined with isekai and progression litrpg Russian author so unfortunately the cultural references come off as primitive and unpleasant. That aside, it's actually very intelligently written with some humour. The MC is of course an anti-hero. The 'system' is well thought through and consistent. MC's OP power is OP and the plot armour is very thick so there is not much sense of peril but the story is written well enough to keep me engaged at least until book 2 so far.
Good stuff to what could turn out to be a very interesting series. I could see some readers complaining about the misogynistic main character. His attitude is very much traditional old Russian, despite the circumstances around him which shows other wise, he sticks to his antiquated beliefs. Of course this generates quite humorous conditions.
Nice. Not great, but there's just enough weird charm to keep me along for the ride. I’ll admit, I wasn’t fully sold, but something about this Russian and his troop of worker monkeys(slaves) has me curious enough to see where the chaos leads next. Fingers crossed for fewer banana peels and more plot in the next one.
Overall, very good story. The editing could have been improved, the same piece of back story was repeated multiple times in different chapters for some reason. Its nice to read a work of fiction that adheres to real gender roles and isn't all beta-simp.
Interesting view of an antihero Russian gangster as the main character. Kept me entertained as our irreverent hero goes through a zombie apocalypse hindered by speaking only Russian and English in France.
Held my interest and made me look forward to book 2
I really enjoyed reading this book the MC is a mix of good guy and tyrant. Sergey's secret safe spot was open to anyone willing to sign a contract and was definitely a good deal.
This has nothing to recommend it. It is consumable, basically entertaining, but riddled with errors / bigotry / repetitive crap. There are worse reading choices, but I can't recommend this to anyone.
The disrespect toward half the human population is overwhelming in this book. The deeply unhealthy relationships are completely revolting. It's as if a teenager who was abused by women wrote an otherwise interesting story. I'm so disappointed.
Found the authors writing to be humorous and witty. My favorite combination. MC is clever, practical, and kind of gruff. A Russian bear outwardly but a fox inside. Loved it and looking forward to next book.
This was better than the cover suggested it would be. Zombie apocalypse but with a foreigner stuck far from home who can’t speak the language. Hilarious but keeps you in the edge of your seat
Really cool and unique apocalypse story. Lots of storylines available to branch in so many ways. Eager to see how the current story progresses and where they end up. Great first book in a series.