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Level: Unknown #3
Level: Apocalypse
An epic fantasy isekai LitRPG perfect for fans of Accidental Champion and He Who Fights With Monsters—Conquer the artificial world. Level Up. Kill the God.
Inside the mysterious Artifact world of Yensere, Nick has scored a major victory in the war against God-King Vaan, but now the true test of power has begun, and it won’t end until either Nick or Vaan are truly dead. Fighting alongside the army of the usurper king, the mighty Batal the Beast, they march their way toward Castle Goltara, the seat of power for the supposed Conqueror of Time.
Outside the Artifact, things are dire—whatever approaches from inside the black sun portal in Majus’ atmosphere shall soon arrive, but Nick’s older brother, Simon, struggles to find haven for his crew or obtain permission to flee their station with the Artifact. A religious cult has taken power within the OPC, and they see the coming invaders not as a threat, but as potential salvation.
With the lives of everyone on the station at risk, Nick has no choice but to push onward, finally unraveling the riddle that is the two black suns. With the capital in sight, the group now face the God-King’s his most powerful and devout Harbingers. Besting them will push Nick and his friends to the limits of their power, but Nick has two secret weapons on his the sentient sword, Sorrow, who was there six centuries ago when the God-King first rose to power, and a new addition to the team who seems to have the full knowledge of Yensere, and an incredible amount of power, at the tip of her fingers...
Inside the mysterious Artifact world of Yensere, Nick has scored a major victory in the war against God-King Vaan, but now the true test of power has begun, and it won’t end until either Nick or Vaan are truly dead. Fighting alongside the army of the usurper king, the mighty Batal the Beast, they march their way toward Castle Goltara, the seat of power for the supposed Conqueror of Time.
Outside the Artifact, things are dire—whatever approaches from inside the black sun portal in Majus’ atmosphere shall soon arrive, but Nick’s older brother, Simon, struggles to find haven for his crew or obtain permission to flee their station with the Artifact. A religious cult has taken power within the OPC, and they see the coming invaders not as a threat, but as potential salvation.
With the lives of everyone on the station at risk, Nick has no choice but to push onward, finally unraveling the riddle that is the two black suns. With the capital in sight, the group now face the God-King’s his most powerful and devout Harbingers. Besting them will push Nick and his friends to the limits of their power, but Nick has two secret weapons on his the sentient sword, Sorrow, who was there six centuries ago when the God-King first rose to power, and a new addition to the team who seems to have the full knowledge of Yensere, and an incredible amount of power, at the tip of her fingers...
- GenresFantasy
446 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 9, 2025
12 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 9, 2025
With Cataloger taking human form and The Beast on their side Nick and Lesya are beginning to feel that they may actually have a chance to beat the God-King. Especially when Sorrow begins to reveal the truth behind the God-King's assent to supposed godhood and Cat, as Cataloger now goes by, reveals the truth behind his overwhelming power.
Omg this was everything I was hoping it would be and then some!! There is so much I want to just straight fan girl out about here, but it would give away everything so I'm going to try really, really hard not to.
There's a couple of just huge reveals in this one about the nature of the artifact, the blight, and Vaan the pathetic (truly pathetic) God-King. The source of the Blight especially, while made complete sense was a definite "I hate Vaan more than I did before." Which is really the overwhelming emotion throughout most of this book. I am going to give a tiny spoiler here and let out that Vaan had been one of Sorrow's students at one point. A bright young man, who fervently disagreed with the teachings of the Sinifel Empire, supposedly. I'm going to be honest there is at no point where Vaan doesn't come across as just a petulant child at best and a power-hungry zealot at worst. Granted we learn Vaan's story from Sorrow who has a billion freaking reasons to hate Vaan with every fiber of his being, but I can't see anyone, including his most fervent followers sharing his story in such a manner that would ever elicit any other emotion that sheer rage at Vaan. I think for me it's his self-righteousness and his disgusting hypocrisy when it comes to the violence he is willing to inflict on his people for no other reason than he has to be right. And that's all it is, he is so sure that he is right that he refuses to listen to anyone else and it is downright infuriating, especially after we learn the source of the blight. Oh my gods did I almost toss my Kindle across the damn room when I found out the source of the blight combined with Sorrow's story in regard to Vaan. I hate Vaan possibly more than Sorrow.
Sorrow's story is a huge portion of this book and possibly the most important part, at least for me. Not only is he humanized in this one, quite literally, but he is so essential to brining Vaan to his knees because of his rage. Sorrow's story isn't even really a complicated one, but his hatred of Vaan is so very complicated. It is most definitely revenge but there is so much more to it than that. The waste of it all, just the complete and utter waste of human life for no reason other than Vaan's ego I think is what really drove him. I wholeheartedly believe that Sorrow's dedication to seeing Vaan ended would have been the same regardless of whether his wife and son had lived, I just think their deaths pushed him to be far more brutal than he would have been. Vaan is just the exact opposite of everything Sorrow stood for and I don't see Sorrow not standing against him.
I am most disappointed in Gareth though. Look, I knew I was going to hate Vaan okay, like there's just no way I wouldn't but Gareth at least seemed to have something of a damn brain in his head, and he just throws it straight out the stupid window thanks to his so-called faith. And sure yeah there's kind of a redemption scene but it's just far too little far too late. But, I also think Gareth had to be written the way he was. He and so much of Yensere is such a prime example of where blind faith leads you. Never questioning and never challenging authority whether it is religious or not never ends well.
Now, what is probably going to keep me up for nights is the morality of this whole godsdamned thing. This is brought up in book two as we find out that the people of Yensere are the uploaded consciousness of people that had lived on a real-life planet, and it is definitely something Nick and Lesya both struggle with throughout the story from the beginning. Knowing this means that they can view the people of Yensere as NPCs, however, when we discover what the Blight actually is and what the theory is on why the Apocalypse happens every thousand years like clockwork, we end up with a Log Horizon level moral conundrum here. Technically, no matter how you slice it these people aren't living. At least in our current understanding of life so why does it even matter if they are oppressed or some demons takes out more than half of their population once a year. And weirdly enough, the answer is it matters. Which quite frankly in the face of that ex Disney kid making that stupid app to create AI versions of your dead relatives feels weird to say and it's 100% Cat's dedication to saving the people of Yensere that solidifies that for me. The AI who basically ran the whole damn thing sees them as people worth fighting for, worth dying for and so this leads to a whole ton of real life more implications ala stupid Disney Kid.
The fight scenes in this were just above and beyond the call of duty. Every single solitary one, but omigoodness that last battle I was this close to having a panic attack! Like seriously edge of my seat, wtf do you mean he's only lost 20% health in the last two pages that's impossible!! It couldn't go fast enough for me and yet felt like time had slowed down for the characters. What was really a handful of pages for me felt like it for them it was days. The last fight scene may have been perfect.
Finally, two things one even though Dalglish implies in his author's note at the end that Gaulith is probably going to be a problem in book four I loved the necromantic magic system, I loved Gaulith, and I am a firm believer that he can somehow live happily in the new world. And just wtf with that ending!? Oh, sure yeah, we solved Yensere fine but now we have sssooo many more questions, I think more than we started off with!! Book four needs to be here next week!
As always thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the eArc!
Omg this was everything I was hoping it would be and then some!! There is so much I want to just straight fan girl out about here, but it would give away everything so I'm going to try really, really hard not to.
There's a couple of just huge reveals in this one about the nature of the artifact, the blight, and Vaan the pathetic (truly pathetic) God-King. The source of the Blight especially, while made complete sense was a definite "I hate Vaan more than I did before." Which is really the overwhelming emotion throughout most of this book. I am going to give a tiny spoiler here and let out that Vaan had been one of Sorrow's students at one point. A bright young man, who fervently disagreed with the teachings of the Sinifel Empire, supposedly. I'm going to be honest there is at no point where Vaan doesn't come across as just a petulant child at best and a power-hungry zealot at worst. Granted we learn Vaan's story from Sorrow who has a billion freaking reasons to hate Vaan with every fiber of his being, but I can't see anyone, including his most fervent followers sharing his story in such a manner that would ever elicit any other emotion that sheer rage at Vaan. I think for me it's his self-righteousness and his disgusting hypocrisy when it comes to the violence he is willing to inflict on his people for no other reason than he has to be right. And that's all it is, he is so sure that he is right that he refuses to listen to anyone else and it is downright infuriating, especially after we learn the source of the blight. Oh my gods did I almost toss my Kindle across the damn room when I found out the source of the blight combined with Sorrow's story in regard to Vaan. I hate Vaan possibly more than Sorrow.
Sorrow's story is a huge portion of this book and possibly the most important part, at least for me. Not only is he humanized in this one, quite literally, but he is so essential to brining Vaan to his knees because of his rage. Sorrow's story isn't even really a complicated one, but his hatred of Vaan is so very complicated. It is most definitely revenge but there is so much more to it than that. The waste of it all, just the complete and utter waste of human life for no reason other than Vaan's ego I think is what really drove him. I wholeheartedly believe that Sorrow's dedication to seeing Vaan ended would have been the same regardless of whether his wife and son had lived, I just think their deaths pushed him to be far more brutal than he would have been. Vaan is just the exact opposite of everything Sorrow stood for and I don't see Sorrow not standing against him.
I am most disappointed in Gareth though. Look, I knew I was going to hate Vaan okay, like there's just no way I wouldn't but Gareth at least seemed to have something of a damn brain in his head, and he just throws it straight out the stupid window thanks to his so-called faith. And sure yeah there's kind of a redemption scene but it's just far too little far too late. But, I also think Gareth had to be written the way he was. He and so much of Yensere is such a prime example of where blind faith leads you. Never questioning and never challenging authority whether it is religious or not never ends well.
Now, what is probably going to keep me up for nights is the morality of this whole godsdamned thing. This is brought up in book two as we find out that the people of Yensere are the uploaded consciousness of people that had lived on a real-life planet, and it is definitely something Nick and Lesya both struggle with throughout the story from the beginning. Knowing this means that they can view the people of Yensere as NPCs, however, when we discover what the Blight actually is and what the theory is on why the Apocalypse happens every thousand years like clockwork, we end up with a Log Horizon level moral conundrum here. Technically, no matter how you slice it these people aren't living. At least in our current understanding of life so why does it even matter if they are oppressed or some demons takes out more than half of their population once a year. And weirdly enough, the answer is it matters. Which quite frankly in the face of that ex Disney kid making that stupid app to create AI versions of your dead relatives feels weird to say and it's 100% Cat's dedication to saving the people of Yensere that solidifies that for me. The AI who basically ran the whole damn thing sees them as people worth fighting for, worth dying for and so this leads to a whole ton of real life more implications ala stupid Disney Kid.
The fight scenes in this were just above and beyond the call of duty. Every single solitary one, but omigoodness that last battle I was this close to having a panic attack! Like seriously edge of my seat, wtf do you mean he's only lost 20% health in the last two pages that's impossible!! It couldn't go fast enough for me and yet felt like time had slowed down for the characters. What was really a handful of pages for me felt like it for them it was days. The last fight scene may have been perfect.
Finally, two things one even though Dalglish implies in his author's note at the end that Gaulith is probably going to be a problem in book four I loved the necromantic magic system, I loved Gaulith, and I am a firm believer that he can somehow live happily in the new world. And just wtf with that ending!? Oh, sure yeah, we solved Yensere fine but now we have sssooo many more questions, I think more than we started off with!! Book four needs to be here next week!
As always thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the eArc!
December 12, 2025
Third installment of the Level Unknown series which continues our journey with Nick and crew on their crusade to slay the Godking of Yensere and set the black sun back on its path to the apocalypse.
I was really excited to be able to get an ARC of this book and have devoured this series in a week. This third book brings some much needed closure for some characters as well as delving deeper into more of the world's lore and the origins of the artifact.
Gareth remains one of my favorite characters, I thoroughly enjoyed his character arc in this particular book. I was sad to see that he never really realized his Godking never had the best interest of his followers at heart. Gareth provides an excellent example of what can happen when you follow faith blindly, taking everything at face value and never delving deeper for answers. I always enjoyed how he was a foil to Nick's character which gave us a reader pause to be like "oh maybe Nick *isn't* infallible".
Cat getting her own body was an interesting development and I enjoyed seeing how she interacted with her world and the people within it. Watching her struggle with those tough choices and the consequences of them as well.
The magic of the world continues to be really interesting but still easy to follow as it expands and evolves with new characters and classes being introduced.
I do wish we got more of what is happening with Simon but I'm glad that Nick can now communicate with him via the Artifact. The ending with Simon left me shaking my kindle demanding there to be more because I am in need of more answers.
Overall I really enjoyed this book for its world building, the expansion of the lore, development of our characters and seeing how everything has evolved from the first book. It's easy to read and follow what is going on, easily a book I will be recommending to people who want more LitRPG recommendations.
I was really excited to be able to get an ARC of this book and have devoured this series in a week. This third book brings some much needed closure for some characters as well as delving deeper into more of the world's lore and the origins of the artifact.
Gareth remains one of my favorite characters, I thoroughly enjoyed his character arc in this particular book. I was sad to see that he never really realized his Godking never had the best interest of his followers at heart. Gareth provides an excellent example of what can happen when you follow faith blindly, taking everything at face value and never delving deeper for answers. I always enjoyed how he was a foil to Nick's character which gave us a reader pause to be like "oh maybe Nick *isn't* infallible".
Cat getting her own body was an interesting development and I enjoyed seeing how she interacted with her world and the people within it. Watching her struggle with those tough choices and the consequences of them as well.
The magic of the world continues to be really interesting but still easy to follow as it expands and evolves with new characters and classes being introduced.
I do wish we got more of what is happening with Simon but I'm glad that Nick can now communicate with him via the Artifact. The ending with Simon left me shaking my kindle demanding there to be more because I am in need of more answers.
Overall I really enjoyed this book for its world building, the expansion of the lore, development of our characters and seeing how everything has evolved from the first book. It's easy to read and follow what is going on, easily a book I will be recommending to people who want more LitRPG recommendations.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 15, 2025
TLDR: I came into this book thinking it was the end of a trilogy, and I was non pleasantly surprised when I realized this was not the case. I will read the next book when it comes up since hopefully that one will actually resolve the mysteries I care about.
A lot of mysteries are still left unresolved (more specifics about the cause of the black sun and how the artifact works example), and the book itself was very predictable and full of exposition. For example, they set up to defeat a “bad guy” (who I don’t understand why he was seen as the bad guy since he was literally stopping the apocalypse) and defeat him. Since the bad guy was stopping the apocalypse, the apocalypse then happens. But they are somehow still surprised about the fact that the apocalypse…. is an apocalypse (huh?). Then there is another evil guy who is the actual interesting and plot relevant one, but the book ends before that can get ANY traction. All of this has a lot of dialogue between character talking ad nauseum about how scared or determined they are, and it gets a bit tiresome at the end.
Gareth’s plot was very interesting, but I wish it could have been expanded a little more after his transformation. He is transformed, fights, and dies. What was really the transformation going to accomplish?
Also, what a disappointment with Cat. She was built up so much for her only to be another Magic user with a different element. Brought barely any new knowledge and could honestly just have been a random new person who joins the team. That way the banter between Nick and Cataloguer, very absent this book, could have been preserved a little more.
A lot of mysteries are still left unresolved (more specifics about the cause of the black sun and how the artifact works example), and the book itself was very predictable and full of exposition. For example, they set up to defeat a “bad guy” (who I don’t understand why he was seen as the bad guy since he was literally stopping the apocalypse) and defeat him. Since the bad guy was stopping the apocalypse, the apocalypse then happens. But they are somehow still surprised about the fact that the apocalypse…. is an apocalypse (huh?). Then there is another evil guy who is the actual interesting and plot relevant one, but the book ends before that can get ANY traction. All of this has a lot of dialogue between character talking ad nauseum about how scared or determined they are, and it gets a bit tiresome at the end.
Gareth’s plot was very interesting, but I wish it could have been expanded a little more after his transformation. He is transformed, fights, and dies. What was really the transformation going to accomplish?
Also, what a disappointment with Cat. She was built up so much for her only to be another Magic user with a different element. Brought barely any new knowledge and could honestly just have been a random new person who joins the team. That way the banter between Nick and Cataloguer, very absent this book, could have been preserved a little more.
December 15, 2025
Level: Apocalypse delivers another thrilling plunge into Yensere, blending epic fantasy, isekai flair, and LitRPG progression into a fast-paced adventure that rarely slows down. The stakes feel bigger than ever, both inside the Artifact and out, and the dual perspectives of Nick and Simon add tension that kept me invested throughout. The confrontations with the Harbingers are brutal and satisfying, and the deeper lore surrounding the black suns and the God-King’s rise makes the world feel richer than in previous installments. While a few pacing bumps and dense exposition moments keep it from being a full five stars, the sentient sword Sorrow, the mysterious new teammate, and the mounting cosmic danger more than make up for it. A gripping, high-energy ride that fans of the series, and LitRPG epics in general, won’t want to miss.
December 12, 2025
Review: This was not as good as the first two in the series. Going through the process of building characters and leveling up is what makes LitRPG fun. Following established characters that can no longer level up to a degree that is interesting, leaves the story line flat.
There are epic battles that do not last for very long and a back and forthing between the digital realm and the real world. At this point the real world has better intrigue but is given only token exposure. The writing is still exemplary and is reflected in the ease in which the story line unfolds. Gareth manages to increase in depth even though he has limited exposure.
I had a good time reading this, especially the ending. Or is it the end?
I received this ARC for an honest review.
4.5/5
There are epic battles that do not last for very long and a back and forthing between the digital realm and the real world. At this point the real world has better intrigue but is given only token exposure. The writing is still exemplary and is reflected in the ease in which the story line unfolds. Gareth manages to increase in depth even though he has limited exposure.
I had a good time reading this, especially the ending. Or is it the end?
I received this ARC for an honest review.
4.5/5
December 5, 2025
I loved this just as much as the first two! Full review TC
December 7, 2025
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance reader's copy of the book. Holy cow was this book intense. You get sucked deeper into Yensere, and the war with the god king comes to its conclusion. But then there's a twist involving the Black Sun that is not only in the digital world of Yensere but threatening the real world and I did not see that ending happening. I'm committed to this series now, I am full in. I truly can't wait to see what happens next.
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