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Systema Delenda Est #1
Invading the System: Systema Delenda Est: Book One
When the System came to Earth, technology failed, monsters appeared, and billions died as humans were inducted into the game-like physics the System enforced.
Unfortunately for the System, not all humans were on Earth. Some scattered postbiological individuals decided to push it back, and embarked on a decade-long crusade to eliminate the System from Earth.
Cato is just an ordinary postbiological citizen, disgusted enough by the System’s excesses to go through one of the portals on Earth and spread himself to the broader System just as Earth is completely freed. He has no magic, for the System can’t be destroyed from within, but he does have the technology and knowledge of a civilization that is reaching toward the second rank of the Kardashev scale. Cato may have to operate under the System’s limitations, but he certainly doesn’t have to play by its rules, and fully intends to remove the threat it offers.
“…furthermore, I maintain that the System must be destroyed.”
Unfortunately for the System, not all humans were on Earth. Some scattered postbiological individuals decided to push it back, and embarked on a decade-long crusade to eliminate the System from Earth.
Cato is just an ordinary postbiological citizen, disgusted enough by the System’s excesses to go through one of the portals on Earth and spread himself to the broader System just as Earth is completely freed. He has no magic, for the System can’t be destroyed from within, but he does have the technology and knowledge of a civilization that is reaching toward the second rank of the Kardashev scale. Cato may have to operate under the System’s limitations, but he certainly doesn’t have to play by its rules, and fully intends to remove the threat it offers.
“…furthermore, I maintain that the System must be destroyed.”
331 pages, Paperback
Published August 18, 2024
58 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 6, 2024
This is a difficult story to review since I think readers may have a variety of experiences with this depending on their expectations.
Firstly, I think it's important that fans of Gamelit and System stories know that, while this story has a System along with skills and levels, the usual enjoyments of a System story aren't included here. You won't be following a zero-to-hero story as someone levels up, gains skills, and overcomes arrogant elites. Instead, this story follows a person who seems closer to artificial intelligence as they wage a guerilla war to destroy the System on a foreign planet.
It's a bold choice and one worth appreciating. But unfortunately, it also means that you won't get the things you might expect if you came thinking this was just another gamelit.
I remember having a professor back in college who really loved stories involving a Roman named Cato the Elder, who would end every speech he gave with the phrase, "Carthage must be destroyed." That phrase, give or take a bit of translational liberty, was "Carthago delenda est." It was a bit of a pleasant surprise to see this come full circle and provide a little backstory flavor for this book.
The story opens with our protagonist, who has assumed the name Cato, on Earth but standing in front of a portal to another world. The campaign to destroy the System on Earth has succeeded, but it's not enough for Cato. When asked what he's doing, he merely replies, "Systema delenda est," and then steps through the portal.
It took me a little while to really get into the story since we jump right into things and the main character is a human from a technological future where they gain the ability to transplant their consciousness into digital form and plant themselves into multiple bodies of synthetic design. It was an interesting angle, but I'll admit to being lost trying to visualize things since Cato was in the form of a ten-ton synthetic frame shaped like a panther.
I'll also admit to not enjoying this story as much as I expected. As mentioned before, from a gamelit perspective, it was practically a bust as the story was more of a takedown of things I would normally enjoy rather than a provider of them.
I'm a fan of the author, so I mostly enjoyed this story from the perspective of how it fits into their total body of work. I tend to enjoy seeing how the same ideas can take different forms and lead to different stories. While I enjoyed things from this perspective, I also couldn't help but notice that I enjoyed the story a bit less than I did Paranoid Mage, the author's series that I felt was borrowed the most heavily from. But while that series let me scratch the itch of following a character as they discover the mechanics of magic, this story mostly focused on the conflict.
I'm also not necessarily a fan of renaming metrics for the sake of being different, but not actually making anything different. I'm talking specifically of the way gamelit stories do power rankings. We are familiar with letter-based rankings that go from F up to S and with material-based rankings that go from Copper up to Platinum or Diamond. I still honestly don't remember what the ranks above Platinum in this story were other than the next rank up was Bismouth, followed by a couple more that were some other elements from the Periodic Table or something. Merely reskinning the power rankings doesn't change how they operate and it only caused some annoyance as it gave me something else to try and remember when I was already trying to juggle the weirdness of warframes and postbiological sapience.
I was genuinely unsure where the story was going at various points, which was a novelty, and many people might enjoy this story solely for that reason. My experience was colored a bit by mistaken expectations, so I think Book 2 will be a larger determinant of my thoughts on this series as we move forward.
Firstly, I think it's important that fans of Gamelit and System stories know that, while this story has a System along with skills and levels, the usual enjoyments of a System story aren't included here. You won't be following a zero-to-hero story as someone levels up, gains skills, and overcomes arrogant elites. Instead, this story follows a person who seems closer to artificial intelligence as they wage a guerilla war to destroy the System on a foreign planet.
It's a bold choice and one worth appreciating. But unfortunately, it also means that you won't get the things you might expect if you came thinking this was just another gamelit.
I remember having a professor back in college who really loved stories involving a Roman named Cato the Elder, who would end every speech he gave with the phrase, "Carthage must be destroyed." That phrase, give or take a bit of translational liberty, was "Carthago delenda est." It was a bit of a pleasant surprise to see this come full circle and provide a little backstory flavor for this book.
The story opens with our protagonist, who has assumed the name Cato, on Earth but standing in front of a portal to another world. The campaign to destroy the System on Earth has succeeded, but it's not enough for Cato. When asked what he's doing, he merely replies, "Systema delenda est," and then steps through the portal.
It took me a little while to really get into the story since we jump right into things and the main character is a human from a technological future where they gain the ability to transplant their consciousness into digital form and plant themselves into multiple bodies of synthetic design. It was an interesting angle, but I'll admit to being lost trying to visualize things since Cato was in the form of a ten-ton synthetic frame shaped like a panther.
I'll also admit to not enjoying this story as much as I expected. As mentioned before, from a gamelit perspective, it was practically a bust as the story was more of a takedown of things I would normally enjoy rather than a provider of them.
I'm a fan of the author, so I mostly enjoyed this story from the perspective of how it fits into their total body of work. I tend to enjoy seeing how the same ideas can take different forms and lead to different stories. While I enjoyed things from this perspective, I also couldn't help but notice that I enjoyed the story a bit less than I did Paranoid Mage, the author's series that I felt was borrowed the most heavily from. But while that series let me scratch the itch of following a character as they discover the mechanics of magic, this story mostly focused on the conflict.
I'm also not necessarily a fan of renaming metrics for the sake of being different, but not actually making anything different. I'm talking specifically of the way gamelit stories do power rankings. We are familiar with letter-based rankings that go from F up to S and with material-based rankings that go from Copper up to Platinum or Diamond. I still honestly don't remember what the ranks above Platinum in this story were other than the next rank up was Bismouth, followed by a couple more that were some other elements from the Periodic Table or something. Merely reskinning the power rankings doesn't change how they operate and it only caused some annoyance as it gave me something else to try and remember when I was already trying to juggle the weirdness of warframes and postbiological sapience.
I was genuinely unsure where the story was going at various points, which was a novelty, and many people might enjoy this story solely for that reason. My experience was colored a bit by mistaken expectations, so I think Book 2 will be a larger determinant of my thoughts on this series as we move forward.
June 10, 2025
An absolutely unique take on the "system comes to Earth apocalypse" litRPG. I'm not entirely sure how practical some of the things used actually *are* (biological orion drives, fern based radio communication, etc) but given that Earth was post-biological to the point that they had Summer Civilizations (that is, simulated realities of millions that would operate at millions of times faster than real time, such that the civilization within would rise and collapse over the course of a single summer) inventing all kinds of esoteric future-tech that it kind of doesn't matter. The important thing is that base reality obeys normal physics and the system space obeys its own rules and finding something that operates in both to serve as a bridge between the two isn't that far fetched.
October 21, 2024
I'm only a couple chapters in, and this is different.
I'm going to give it some more, as I trust the author enough to come through.
It took a while, but I eventually got into the groove. I didn't like this as much as the author's other works, because this basically boils down to scifi vs magic.
It was fun to read, and seeing the system as an insidious force, while not new, was a great anvil for the author to craft a far reaching story that has depth.
I will pick up the sequel.
3/5 Stars
I'm going to give it some more, as I trust the author enough to come through.
It took a while, but I eventually got into the groove. I didn't like this as much as the author's other works, because this basically boils down to scifi vs magic.
It was fun to read, and seeing the system as an insidious force, while not new, was a great anvil for the author to craft a far reaching story that has depth.
I will pick up the sequel.
3/5 Stars
December 8, 2024
Incredibly unique take on the System genre.
Absolutely LOVE the unique take on the System genre - rather than the standard iskei/reverse iskei storyline, Earth was previously reverse iskei, the advanced to post biological locals are rather displeased by the system's interference with normal physics and tech, managed to kick the System off of Earth - and now this novel follows a post-biological human who deliberately caught the system portal to the next world in the chain to keep the fight going and end the system EVER returning.
Absolutely LOVE the unique take on the System genre - rather than the standard iskei/reverse iskei storyline, Earth was previously reverse iskei, the advanced to post biological locals are rather displeased by the system's interference with normal physics and tech, managed to kick the System off of Earth - and now this novel follows a post-biological human who deliberately caught the system portal to the next world in the chain to keep the fight going and end the system EVER returning.
May 8, 2025
I bought the book with high expectations. Carthago delenda est or delenda est Carthago ("Carthage must be destroyed"), is a Latin oratorical phrase pronounced by Cato the Elder, a politician of the Roman Republic. Cato is also the MC of this novel.
It's a story on how human defended Earth from the system and now are starting the counter attack in other planets.
The story lacks in Epic but it s well written Characthers are believable, and the whole POV of destroying the empire is a novel idea.
I like it. I will but next volumes for sure.
It's a story on how human defended Earth from the system and now are starting the counter attack in other planets.
The story lacks in Epic but it s well written Characthers are believable, and the whole POV of destroying the empire is a novel idea.
I like it. I will but next volumes for sure.
September 14, 2025
This book is a really creative cross between fantasy LitRPG and hard sci-fi with post-human AI and genetic tampering.
The books starts at 100 miles an hour with action, but it takes a bit to get going emotionally because I don't really know these people or even know exactly what they're trying to do.
But by the end of the book, the people are fleshed out and it became a really engaging story. I've not read anything like this and I'm looking forward to seeing where he goes with it.
The books starts at 100 miles an hour with action, but it takes a bit to get going emotionally because I don't really know these people or even know exactly what they're trying to do.
But by the end of the book, the people are fleshed out and it became a really engaging story. I've not read anything like this and I'm looking forward to seeing where he goes with it.
March 29, 2025
I enjoyed this authors previous series, but while reading this one I had to keep looking back at the goodreads page to make sure I didn't accidentally start reading the third book in a three book series. It felt like it started in the middle of an established story so it wasn't engaging at all and I didn't feel an attachment to any of the characters.
October 5, 2024
I seem to have been reading rather a lot of litRPG recently. This was a pretty good one.
December 8, 2024
Love it.
December 13, 2024
Bob vs the system.
February 3, 2025
The premise seemed interesting but in the end I found it dull. It was not clear if the system itself was the root of all problems or if the corrupt gods were at fault. Regardless, it lacked heart.
November 8, 2024
I have a weakness for Progression Fantasy, where the protagonist gains skills and levels up like a video game character. Take the gamification too far, though, and you have a LitRPG. Compelled gets that. In this book, post-singularity Earth was invaded by the System and turned into a deadly game of wizards killing monsters (and civilians and each other) in return for power. Survivors in space used biotechnology to fight back, and managed to drive the perverse incentive structure off Earth. But just as the last portal to the other System worlds was closing, one post-human super-soldier slips through. He calls himself Cato, and it is his mission to pursue the System to its source and annihilate it. A fun, fun book.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews