New Arcadia: Judgment Day: A LitRPG/Gamelit Adventure

by Eric Jason Martin

MULTI-CAST AUDIOBOOK COMING JULY 29, 2025 - GET READY FOR THE CONCLUSION OF THE EARPHONES AWARD-WINNING TRILOGY.


IT'S TIME TO MORPH


In a grim, not-so-distant future, humanity is in crisis. A deadly pandemic has confined billions of people, leaving the survivors completely isolated in their homes and utterly dependent on the mega-global Chum Corporation.


For some lucky beta testers, the only escape is to log into New Arcadia—a real-as-life role-playing game set in a gleaming 1990s-inspired city. There, they can enjoy the freedoms denied to them in the real world—like Prime Beta Tester John Chambers, who has reinvented himself in New Arcadia as street-fighting hero Blaze.


But John and his ragtag gang of friends have discovered that the virtual reality of New Arcadia was designed to be more than just entertainment. Secretly, the program is being used to test how effectively society can reintegrate once the pandemic restrictions are lifted—and one sinister Chum executive now has plans to seize New Arcadia and shut everyone out forever.


When John and his allies find themselves abruptly kicked from the New Arcadia server, they face their deadliest challenge yet—a perilous trek through the real-life dystopia of post-pandemic California. They must battle deadly drones and sinister Scummers in their desperate fight not just for freedom, but for the chance to rebuild society itself.


Even if they can make it back inside New Arcadia, the fight is far from over. John’s unlikely band of heroes will then have to climb the tallest tower in the city and take out a virtual army of bad guys to achieve victory.


But first, they’ve got to put on a show—and maybe find love, too.


New Judgment Day is the pulse-pounding and witty conclusion of the New Arcadia LitRPG trilogy by Eric Jason Martin—which blends the dystopian allure and nostalgic charm of Ready Player One with the sharp humor and intricate world-building of He Who Fights with Monsters.

327 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 15, 2025

Reviews

[Hawkar Banjir · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a strange dissonance at the heart of New Arcadia: Judgement Day, a tension between nostalgic homage and narrative momentum, between genre fun and emotional depth. From the first moments, when the listener is thrown into a frenzied (yet oddly lukewarm) escape sequence, the book seems both overclocked and underwhelming simultaneously. I found myself constantly feeling as if I had overgrown the story and the characters that I genuinely had missed over the years between this novel and it's prequel.

Eric Jason Martin clearly still loves the neon-drenched world he’s built, but here the gears grind a bit too loudly. The 90s references, once a delightful nod, start to feel obligatory, even meme-like. Characters blur, new ones crowd in, and Blaze, our MC sort of fizzles a bit in the beginning, with no other real dimension to grow. The voice cast, however, brings undeniable energy. The production is crisp, immersive, and effortlessly entertaining, which often salvages scenes that might otherwise fall flat on the page. Still, as the first two acts unfold, the pacing falters and thematic clarity wavers. The book struggles to justify its stakes.

Then the final quarter arrives like a long-delayed power-up. Plot threads tighten. Emotional beats (somewhat faintly) resonate. There's something quietly affecting about the way EJM lets the core message of the story unfold. For a moment, it's not about saving the world, but recovering a memory of who you were before the world got this hard. Recovering something meaningful and striving forward regardless of how terrifying the future may be. It's imperfect, but sincere. You remember Streets of Rage and Street Fighter and Power Rangers. You remember being a kid. You remember wanting to be stronger. You remember the joy you felt whenever you made a new friend. You remember a time when hope came easy. That’s where this story shines.

Final Rating:
-Plot: 3
-Prose/Voice Acting: 5
-Pacing: 4
-Characters: 3
-Worldbuilding: 3
Total: 18/25 = 3.6 stars, rounded to 4.

In the end, I loved my time with New Arcadia. And while I am sad to see it go, I can say that I have grown a bit from it. I started the series when I was in the midst of COVID. I read book 2 through one of the darkest parts of my life. And I have finished the serious now as a young man, who, even though the world seems crazy, is more sure of himself than ever.

Thank you Mr. Martin, for a wonderful experience.

[Andrew Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've got mixed feelings having listened to this. The cast as always has been fantastic and its very well done. Full with the usual pop culture references.

But it felt a bit safe and by the numbers in this one. I was expecting some kind of twist or double cross, but it became apparent early on that Blaze and his squad were going to win without any real difficulty and everything be wrapped up nice and neatly.

Still enjoyed it though and the trilogy as a whole was solid.

[Dan Stefanovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every joke is cringey, every twist and turn is more stupid than the last, and every climax builds to the objectively wrong payoff yet, somehow, Eric Jason Martin's "New Arcadia: Judgement Day" still manages to wildly entertain because the author seems to be more interested in just having a good time than being the next Chaucer - and there's nothing wrong with that.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing spectacular but still fun. Giving it a bonus star for finishing the series in three books.

[Aaron James · Rating 5 out of 5]

The '90s vibes are more than enough to make this trilogy worth a read.