What do you think?
Rate this book
Paths of Akashic #1
Initiation
Alistair's life as a simple policeman was turned upside down, suddenly separated from friends and family as his universe slowly joined the fold.
With Earth in the line of fire and invaders from the wider multiverse on their proverbial doorstep, the Milky Way has only limited time before the bridge to the wider multiverse establishes itself. What will our hero do?
He peaces out, of course! Why would he join the frontlines? Instead, he finds an unexpected ally in Riseth, a fierce and clever demoness with whom he shares a powerful soul resonance.
Together, they plan to escape the chaos that will follow the trial, gather their loved ones, and set off on a gold rush into the vast, untamed universe, where they’ll carve out a new home among the stars.
With Earth in the line of fire and invaders from the wider multiverse on their proverbial doorstep, the Milky Way has only limited time before the bridge to the wider multiverse establishes itself. What will our hero do?
He peaces out, of course! Why would he join the frontlines? Instead, he finds an unexpected ally in Riseth, a fierce and clever demoness with whom he shares a powerful soul resonance.
Together, they plan to escape the chaos that will follow the trial, gather their loved ones, and set off on a gold rush into the vast, untamed universe, where they’ll carve out a new home among the stars.
- GenresFantasy
738 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 30, 2024
798 people are currently reading
111 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
December 28, 2024
DNF.
The standard fare system apocalypse initiation. The plot is nothing special and the characters are uninspired. The romance between the MC and the succubus feels very forced and inorganic.
But the biggest flaw, IMO, is the progression system. There are so many achievements!! I listened to the audiobook, and it felt like the MC was getting a new achievement every minute. This made them feel meaningless and cheap... which is not what achievements should feel like!!
The standard fare system apocalypse initiation. The plot is nothing special and the characters are uninspired. The romance between the MC and the succubus feels very forced and inorganic.
But the biggest flaw, IMO, is the progression system. There are so many achievements!! I listened to the audiobook, and it felt like the MC was getting a new achievement every minute. This made them feel meaningless and cheap... which is not what achievements should feel like!!
November 26, 2024
It was OK until about 83% of the book. After that the style drastically changed. Но море cause and effect relationship - things simply happen, the MC and his friends suddenly knows about concepts that were never explained etc. I Gave up at 88%.
November 1, 2024
Really good
This was a very fun book. It's honestly fairly typical LitRPG, but that's not a bad thing. It is actually one of the only books that blends LitRPG and cultivation and does it well.
Highly recommended
This was a very fun book. It's honestly fairly typical LitRPG, but that's not a bad thing. It is actually one of the only books that blends LitRPG and cultivation and does it well.
Highly recommended
November 3, 2024
Fun Read
A good solid read. Fun characters with an interesting world. I purchased the book after reading on kindle unlimited so I can read again. Looking forward to the next book
A good solid read. Fun characters with an interesting world. I purchased the book after reading on kindle unlimited so I can read again. Looking forward to the next book
May 19, 2025
I'm about a quarter of the way through. It reads like most apocalypse books that give you a trial run, so far.
What strikes me as odd is how the protag just adjusts to this new reality so quickly. Using magic, sensing mana, using skills. Juts odd, especially when there was no explanation how, so far. The other books at least used something about brain chemistry being adjusted.
Him being a former police should have no say in him coping with beings that look like abominations (giant spiders with blade legs, etc). Nothing said about him being autistic or on the spectrum.
Other than him just fitting into this new world so easily, I'm enjoying it so far.
All this talk of "records" has me feeling like the author liked the Primal Hunters Series.
I don't know how I feel about this. In my opinion, a lot of the stuff here wouldn't have gone over well if you weren't already deep in the genre. Then there is all these references. I'm sure the average (read normal) person don't go around dropping pop culture references in daily life, especially a police officer.
There is also time frame. Near the end of the book, it's revealed that it has almost been two months of the "tutorial". Are you saying the protag mastered all these skills, especially learning magic from scratch in two months?
Now the protag is putting together a team to take on the wider universe.
I don't know if I will read the sequel. A friend dropped it in the first couple chapters after they saw it was going to be a family adventure type book (looking to get back to his family and friends).
Will see what I do in the future. Protag does too many things without being self aware that it might be too easy and too fast.
2.5/5 Stars
What strikes me as odd is how the protag just adjusts to this new reality so quickly. Using magic, sensing mana, using skills. Juts odd, especially when there was no explanation how, so far. The other books at least used something about brain chemistry being adjusted.
Him being a former police should have no say in him coping with beings that look like abominations (giant spiders with blade legs, etc). Nothing said about him being autistic or on the spectrum.
Other than him just fitting into this new world so easily, I'm enjoying it so far.
All this talk of "records" has me feeling like the author liked the Primal Hunters Series.
I don't know how I feel about this. In my opinion, a lot of the stuff here wouldn't have gone over well if you weren't already deep in the genre. Then there is all these references. I'm sure the average (read normal) person don't go around dropping pop culture references in daily life, especially a police officer.
There is also time frame. Near the end of the book, it's revealed that it has almost been two months of the "tutorial". Are you saying the protag mastered all these skills, especially learning magic from scratch in two months?
Now the protag is putting together a team to take on the wider universe.
I don't know if I will read the sequel. A friend dropped it in the first couple chapters after they saw it was going to be a family adventure type book (looking to get back to his family and friends).
Will see what I do in the future. Protag does too many things without being self aware that it might be too easy and too fast.
2.5/5 Stars
April 28, 2025
It was ok - good.
The Mc was enjoyable. He is fairly competent, overall intelligent and driven, but he sometimes showed tendencies to stupidity and heroism. The author has the habit of making his Mc make references to movies which only the Mc understands, as that’s seemingly comedy.
The power system reminds of Primal Hunter. It also has records, skills and titels. Sadly there are quite a few cultivation elements, which I‘m conflicted about. You apparently can learn basically every type of magic by grasping its concept (imagining really really hard). This ruins min maxing or specifying a certain build. Additionally there is disruption magic, which allows pretty much everyone to bypass skills, further undermining the importance of a proper build. This leads to a wide array of skills and the author partially forgets about them. Like when the Mc is angry and blows things up to calm down, despite having a skill literally called calm mind. Frankly I think the power system is a bit of a mess and could use some more limitations and rules so not everybody can just do everything.
The only thing saving this story from being a PH ripoff is the partnership between Alister and the succubus. As this offered more than just dry stat grinding.
The ending was rushed. Simply rattling down a couple of power ups and new people without proper setup takes away from the overall enjoyment. More time to properly introduce his friends, family and their paths is needed.
Having said all of that, I am still going to read the next book, as its a fun and interesting read. The world building is very promising and the characters are enough to get invested.
The Mc was enjoyable. He is fairly competent, overall intelligent and driven, but he sometimes showed tendencies to stupidity and heroism. The author has the habit of making his Mc make references to movies which only the Mc understands, as that’s seemingly comedy.
The power system reminds of Primal Hunter. It also has records, skills and titels. Sadly there are quite a few cultivation elements, which I‘m conflicted about. You apparently can learn basically every type of magic by grasping its concept (imagining really really hard). This ruins min maxing or specifying a certain build. Additionally there is disruption magic, which allows pretty much everyone to bypass skills, further undermining the importance of a proper build. This leads to a wide array of skills and the author partially forgets about them. Like when the Mc is angry and blows things up to calm down, despite having a skill literally called calm mind. Frankly I think the power system is a bit of a mess and could use some more limitations and rules so not everybody can just do everything.
The only thing saving this story from being a PH ripoff is the partnership between Alister and the succubus. As this offered more than just dry stat grinding.
The ending was rushed. Simply rattling down a couple of power ups and new people without proper setup takes away from the overall enjoyment. More time to properly introduce his friends, family and their paths is needed.
Having said all of that, I am still going to read the next book, as its a fun and interesting read. The world building is very promising and the characters are enough to get invested.
December 22, 2024
The pace is glacial and Alistair barely exists as a person.
March 28, 2025
Not great. I am not a big fan of these type of books anyway and this one is not done very well.
March 23, 2025
Started to Enjoy it but went down hill
Maybe I should have listened to other reviewers but I didn't think it would be that bad. It went from an interesting story that seemed focus great feats and a unique system to a succubus romance story. Where the tough battle junkie cop becomes a blushing teenage boy for a girl he likes.
It pulled the worst crime a book can do when it comes to romance. Has the MC fall in love with the very first pretty girl he meets after any major story event. Literally the VERY FIRST female he speaks to, instant fall in love after knowing her for less than a week. Hell less than a day for the 'feels'.
It's so ham fisted and crude that it just makes it almost a parody of actual story. Oh yes, the sweet loves that many only shape shift to your ideal woman succubus who has unique connection just to the MC! Perfect just for him! ...Really?
It's bad. The story itself and setting could have great, it was very very interesting. The author had something great that would have had many people loving it. Yet decided to turn into some YA love story fit for bargain bin grocery store romance isle entertainment. Why? Did the author want to be relegated to novels that are bought at the airport and tossed away after the flight when half way read?
Just...sad. So much potential wasted.
Maybe I should have listened to other reviewers but I didn't think it would be that bad. It went from an interesting story that seemed focus great feats and a unique system to a succubus romance story. Where the tough battle junkie cop becomes a blushing teenage boy for a girl he likes.
It pulled the worst crime a book can do when it comes to romance. Has the MC fall in love with the very first pretty girl he meets after any major story event. Literally the VERY FIRST female he speaks to, instant fall in love after knowing her for less than a week. Hell less than a day for the 'feels'.
It's so ham fisted and crude that it just makes it almost a parody of actual story. Oh yes, the sweet loves that many only shape shift to your ideal woman succubus who has unique connection just to the MC! Perfect just for him! ...Really?
It's bad. The story itself and setting could have great, it was very very interesting. The author had something great that would have had many people loving it. Yet decided to turn into some YA love story fit for bargain bin grocery store romance isle entertainment. Why? Did the author want to be relegated to novels that are bought at the airport and tossed away after the flight when half way read?
Just...sad. So much potential wasted.
June 17, 2025
Felt off…
Really a 2.5…This book started off descent enough and then just got worse. There were just a lot of things that didn’t make sense. For example, he’s a cop, and after meeting some other people in the universe, realizes that guns are still a thing, but never expresses the want or need to have one. Even though he was a cop and was in the military. The main character also is supposed to be older and then regressed his look, and what not back to a younger age. However, he acts like he’s 12 in some situations, as opposed to a grown-up, mature person, which doesn’t make any sense. Little things like that it was just off and I got a little over halfway and I just couldn’t do it anymore.
Really a 2.5…This book started off descent enough and then just got worse. There were just a lot of things that didn’t make sense. For example, he’s a cop, and after meeting some other people in the universe, realizes that guns are still a thing, but never expresses the want or need to have one. Even though he was a cop and was in the military. The main character also is supposed to be older and then regressed his look, and what not back to a younger age. However, he acts like he’s 12 in some situations, as opposed to a grown-up, mature person, which doesn’t make any sense. Little things like that it was just off and I got a little over halfway and I just couldn’t do it anymore.
January 23, 2025
likable MC, a little bit whiny, but an OK book
I enjoy the story very much, good power, progression, good world building, and an excellent set of side characters. The characters were written well for the most part. The only issue I had was the MC with all his talents and abilities seem to be a little bit whiny and wishy-washy. Sometimes he acted like a courageous MC the others he acted like a whiny little boy. That’s my only issue with the book. Is the characters inconsistency of behavior if this is the author‘s first book he did an excellent job i’m going to read the next book. This was fun, fast paste and well worth the read.
I enjoy the story very much, good power, progression, good world building, and an excellent set of side characters. The characters were written well for the most part. The only issue I had was the MC with all his talents and abilities seem to be a little bit whiny and wishy-washy. Sometimes he acted like a courageous MC the others he acted like a whiny little boy. That’s my only issue with the book. Is the characters inconsistency of behavior if this is the author‘s first book he did an excellent job i’m going to read the next book. This was fun, fast paste and well worth the read.
May 16, 2025
Proofreading Required!
This is an enjoyable intro to a light LitRPG System Apocalypse Tutorial style story. The litrpg aspects are there, but not intrusive, and enhance the story rather than detracting from it.
The System is far more idiosyncratic than you'd expect, which can make some moments quite comical.
Unfortunately, the book is riddled with typos and spelling errors, which a good proofreader would fix. A copyeditor wouldn't go astray either, as it could do with a bit more structure, rather than an arbitrary cut-off point.
However, all in all, it's still a fun story.
This is an enjoyable intro to a light LitRPG System Apocalypse Tutorial style story. The litrpg aspects are there, but not intrusive, and enhance the story rather than detracting from it.
The System is far more idiosyncratic than you'd expect, which can make some moments quite comical.
Unfortunately, the book is riddled with typos and spelling errors, which a good proofreader would fix. A copyeditor wouldn't go astray either, as it could do with a bit more structure, rather than an arbitrary cut-off point.
However, all in all, it's still a fun story.
June 26, 2025
it was... fine. not as good as I'd hoped, but fine, I guess. The beginning was really tough to get through and I took a couple breaks before pushing through. my main issue was the insane pacing and scaling rate. he immediately for an overpowered affinity, got so many skill and loot choices that I quickly started zoning out and having to repeatedly rewind during them, and he could basically get any ability he wanted I'd he just thought about it hard enough. he could blink AND fly by like level 15.
it got moderately better after meeting other people, like his girl, but my main issue still remains, there's just way too much, way too fast.
it got moderately better after meeting other people, like his girl, but my main issue still remains, there's just way too much, way too fast.
January 6, 2025
Fun Read. Familiar yet comfortable.
It’s a regular system apocalypse with a few twists but nothing too out of the ordinary. My only complaint is that things keep happening ing and happening fast when it comes to his magic. The magic and skill system are overly complex in my opinion and don’t make too much sense. Almost complicated for the sake of standing out but it just makes you feel like a data dump and you can completely skip how the MC learns to use a certain magic and it won’t matter one. It to the story.
It’s a regular system apocalypse with a few twists but nothing too out of the ordinary. My only complaint is that things keep happening ing and happening fast when it comes to his magic. The magic and skill system are overly complex in my opinion and don’t make too much sense. Almost complicated for the sake of standing out but it just makes you feel like a data dump and you can completely skip how the MC learns to use a certain magic and it won’t matter one. It to the story.
April 2, 2025
boring and swallow
The progression, world building, littpg aspects, dialogue, and generally all of it are shallow. The complete lack of depth makes it impossible to connect with any character, especially the MC.
I wanted to like it but i couldn’t finish the book and up up skimming the last half desperately searching for any redeeming aspect. The switch to cultivation was poorly done, as was the companion stuff.
The way items like storage and armor were handled was lazy and mindless.
I was quite disappointed.
The progression, world building, littpg aspects, dialogue, and generally all of it are shallow. The complete lack of depth makes it impossible to connect with any character, especially the MC.
I wanted to like it but i couldn’t finish the book and up up skimming the last half desperately searching for any redeeming aspect. The switch to cultivation was poorly done, as was the companion stuff.
The way items like storage and armor were handled was lazy and mindless.
I was quite disappointed.
June 7, 2025
I dropped at around the 3.6 hour mark of the audiobook, and so far it was thoroughly mediocre. Everything felt shallow. The power system is there, but it's mainly just there to give OP titles to the MC for minimal effort. There are distinct side-characters, but all of them are 2 dimensional (eg. racist shooty guy, rational leader girl, thirsty healer girl, etc.). The dialogue is mainly there so MC has the opportunity to try and fail to be funny.
It didn't help that I started this book after some Terry Pratchett/Will Wight/Benjamin Kerei rereads. I might try again later.
It didn't help that I started this book after some Terry Pratchett/Will Wight/Benjamin Kerei rereads. I might try again later.
April 8, 2025
MEH...Probably worth a read
Nothing much to write about this book. It was not great or bad, just unremarkable and not memorable. MC and associated characters were OK, like the rest of the book. The author really liked the word "pout"! He used it to describe everyone and used it often.
Nothing much to write about this book. It was not great or bad, just unremarkable and not memorable. MC and associated characters were OK, like the rest of the book. The author really liked the word "pout"! He used it to describe everyone and used it often.
September 19, 2025
The twist is that the mc is isn't OP in the conventional sense, but in the supposedly competency way. What does that mean, he seems to know how to do things, or master things quickly or instantly. With all the pop culture references, just too many, and not worked into the dialouge in a natural way, makes the writing feel hallow. I may give the secon a try when I have nother else to read.
December 4, 2024
Great series opener
Great opener for a series! Nice mix of tropes and setting. I'm looking forward to seeing what the author does with the story next, and to explore the universe they're creating.
Great opener for a series! Nice mix of tropes and setting. I'm looking forward to seeing what the author does with the story next, and to explore the universe they're creating.
February 6, 2025
The power system is horrendously balanced. Titles and skills are given away as plot armor and just as quickly forgotten. The dungeon is one forced event after another. Nothing in this book feels organic.
March 4, 2025
Awesome book
Great book with lots of character growth and action, I hope in the next few books through that he gets a new race like Sun Demon or something that would be cool overall. I love this series
Great book with lots of character growth and action, I hope in the next few books through that he gets a new race like Sun Demon or something that would be cool overall. I love this series
April 14, 2025
DNF - Cookie-cutter system apocalypse. Instead of trying to pull you in with a story but it already starts you off with stat reading, skill reading, MC taking 3 steps and then exposition about a topic, 2 more steps and another 2 paragraphs of exposition.
June 10, 2025
there were moments where I was hooked, but there were also moments where I felt my eyes glazing over. I don't remember the parts that did each, or why they did, just those experiences are what I remember from the book
June 26, 2025
Alright
Get to 20-25%, and the story takes off. I put this down once around 10% and got recommended it recently, so I pushed myself to read more and then got caught around 20% and couldn't put it down.
Get to 20-25%, and the story takes off. I put this down once around 10% and got recommended it recently, so I pushed myself to read more and then got caught around 20% and couldn't put it down.
August 14, 2025
Tropes, and more tropes.
I feel like I've read this book already with how many regurgitated ideas it has.
I hate the Titles system and how the MC gets OP Titles constantly. It is cheap and lame.
The battles are so annoying to read that I started skimming them.
DNF 33%
I feel like I've read this book already with how many regurgitated ideas it has.
I hate the Titles system and how the MC gets OP Titles constantly. It is cheap and lame.
The battles are so annoying to read that I started skimming them.
DNF 33%
December 15, 2024
Great book
Loved the story, great characters, story moved continously, unique world and story. Can't wait for second book. Couldn't put book down!!!
Loved the story, great characters, story moved continously, unique world and story. Can't wait for second book. Couldn't put book down!!!
December 19, 2024
Very good read
I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes LitRPG and progression types of books with an apocalypse theme.
I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes LitRPG and progression types of books with an apocalypse theme.
January 24, 2025
Fanfreakingtastic!
What an amazing book! I absolutely loved this book and such wonderful characters! I can not wait for the next book to come out!
What an amazing book! I absolutely loved this book and such wonderful characters! I can not wait for the next book to come out!
February 15, 2025
Very Interesting
This story of a guy going through the tutorial of the System was an action packed read that I enjoyed reading.
This story of a guy going through the tutorial of the System was an action packed read that I enjoyed reading.
March 17, 2025
Promising start, but after the first dungeon (about 50% into book 1) it turns into a directionless mess. Made it halfway through book 2 with nothing really happening before dropping this.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews