World Unbound

The System Apocalypse #6

by Tao Wong

Four years ago, the Erethran Honor Guard arrived and threw John Lee into a Portal to another world. Since then, Earth has received no word of the intrepid adventurer. Until now.

Finding his way back to Earth through a Portal, John returns to a very changed world. The shackles of Galactic control have bound Earth and humanity ever tighter to the System. Now, John has to find a way to free Earth from Galactic control while battling stronger, more powerful enemies. And worst of all, he will need to indulge in politics.

Good thing he's got a new Class and new allies.

World's Unbound is book six of the System Apocalypse, a LitRPG / GameLit series of post-apocalypse troubles, scifi & fantasy elements, all in a world filled with game mechanics.

This series contains elements of games like level ups, experience, enchanted materials, a sarcastic spirit, mecha, a beguiling dark elf, monsters, minotaurs, a fiery red head and a semi-realistic view on violence and its effects. Does not include harems.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Post Apocalyptic, Urban Fantasy, LGBT

397 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2019

About the author

Tao Wong is the author of the A Thousand Li progression fantasy series and the System Apocalypse LitRPG series, among others. His work has been released in audio, paperback, hardcover, and ebook formats, and translated into German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and several other languages. He was shortlisted for the UK Kindle Storyteller Award in 2021 for A Thousand Li: The Second Sect. In 2026, the first three books in the A Thousand Li series will be republished in hardcover by Ace Books.

When he’s not writing or working, he enjoys practicing martial arts, reading, and dreaming up new worlds. He lives in Toronto, Canada.

Reviews

[Soo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mini-Review:

LitRPG - 4.5 Stars

Well crap. I caught up with the series and I'm not sure when the next book will be out.

I love the way John learns and adapts to the System. I may be in the minority but I'm super happy with the fact that John was thrown into a wacko world to train and grow for four years. The series really needed a time jump for things to be established and move the plot forward. It wouldn't have been possible without selective jumps in time.

Highlights:
- Welcome home battle.
- Duel with Ayuri
- Duel with WereHippo
- Happy that Lana moved on.
- Laughed when John hooks up with Roxley.
- Setup for the Vote
- Climax: 2 Thumbs Up

I especially like how the author tries to impart the changes in day to day society and the overall emotional & psychological states due to the changes.

Writing could use another search by a good editor and sloppy parts could be made stronger but the overall impact, plot and atmosphere was well established.

[GaiusPrimus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really really really like what Tao did with this go.

Even though there's a lot of "politikin" happening through most of the book, it's very fulfilling to see the culmination of what started in book 1, without loosing the mystique of the story and without actually creating a hard stop, the end, situation.

Really looking forward to the next one.

[ProbityDefence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good bhut with a real downer beggining

This book started with a time skip a massively changed main character and a break up. While the book is good it has a rather abrupt tonal shift from the rest of the books. It's rather jarring.

[Timelord Iain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between the time jump and the developments in this book, it was probably my least favorite installment, but I guess it had to happen to shift the focus to a larger scale going forward...

[Drew Clevenger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Spoilers

I hate time skips, with a passion surpassed only by my hatred of unnecessary harems. Thankfully theres no harems. The series has been good about the time skips so far, but 4 years on an off screen training session just ruined it for me.

[Tory · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't wait for the audiobook of this one after finishing the previous one so I jumped straight to reading it. This book is extremely hard for me to rate because while I enjoy this series and I liked the book, almost the entire time i was reading it I was disappointed, I need to explain that for it to make sense. The author did something that I absolutely despise, something I have dropped books, shows, and anime for several times over the years despite enjoying them, He gave us a ton of build up towards a grand "master quest" then skipped it entirely with a 4 year time skip under the guise of "Oh it was training, training is boring." but still manages to repeatedly tell us how not boring it was throughout the entire book. The author explains his decision at the end of the book, if it had been at the beginning It might have been slightly less disappointing but still disappointing none the less, and states he plans to write a book 5.5 at some point in the future for anyone who wants to read it. There is quite a bit more action in here than in the previous books a good amount to break of the constant "I went to X to talk to X about X because I want X" but rarely giving any actual details other than what he wants which seems to be the theme of the book. The end of the book is great if a little predictable not so much who as in the overall what. Once again the next book promises to be great which I really hope it is, The author called this book the end of an Arc and the past few books very much have felt like an Arc unfortunately it felt like a filler arc which I hoped was over. Now that I'm done being an ass and pointing out my personal feelings on the book I want to point out that overall it is a good book, it's a good addition to the series most readers will probably enjoy it if they are this far into the series but be warned it will probably leave you wanting.

[Jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

Total Disaster

I thoroughly enjoyed the previous books but this one was a disappointment. The Lana-John relationship replaced by Loxley then given hope that thread would die on a dumpster fire for another favorite lady only to kill her off. Follow this up by extremely boring political maneuvering and I'm done with thus series. Sadly it used to be one of my favorites.

[Brandon Staley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Missed the Mark

This is the lowest rated of this series for me. The author had an opportunity to focus on what was great in book 1 but instead did a massive time jump and focused solely on politics. Really disappointed with the pacing and lack of character development in this one. Maybe the author is just bored with this series....

[Wilhelm Eyrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like what Tao Wong did with this book.

I was pretty upset initially that his time off world was skipped but as I kept reading I realized what happened there and I honestly would not be thrilled with an entire book that was fighting and basically a “training montage”. I do wish he went further into what he learned on that planet but hopefully that is explored more in the books to come.

This book was a lot of politics and it was well written, I didn’t find myself bored or skipping over those scenes. The end was great and was not something I saw coming which is always pleasant. I did get emotional as well which is a plus.

I was a little upset with some of the minor changes that happened with earth but I will probably get over those eventually, maybe.

Jumping right into the next book!

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars. The author's decision to time jump over his 4 year mission left me feeling disconnected from the MC. Overall, this book was much too political for my interests, and the formerly established team is now mostly dissolved. I bought the rest of the series on a bargain previously, so I will probably read on, but would likely have stopped now otherwise.

[Miles · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.49☆

[Kyle Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The series was good, if not for the gay romance it would be great. I'm just not into it. Gay people don't bother me, but I just don't want to read about dudes in a sexual relationship. No matter how short or long the scene is.

[Katricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Look I'm not /saying/ that I like this series so much that I literally fell asleep listening to this book. (I know, that's normally not a compliment, but trust me. This time it is.)

I am going to say, however, that when I noticed the audiobook was out after definitely-not-obsessively periodically checking audible every time I finished a book I was reading (and sometimes just because), it took less than twenty-four hours to listen to the entire thing...

Really enjoy how John's character has developed throughout this series, and the truly global perspective this book manages to accomplish. Skipping over the entire time he was gone was an unexpected move, but I think it worked out well here.

John's conversation with Katherine at the end was moderately ominous, but in a way that makes me want to go start on the next book immediately because I don't want to wait until book #7 gets recorded.

Also: can I just state for the record how much I adore the fact that John's bisexuality is fully embraced throughout the series? If gay/lesbian protagonists are rare in non-romance novels, bisexuality's more, "Bi what now?" Because I appreciate that. So much.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I waited four the audiobook and was worth listening to. I liked the book well enough, but despise politics, so most of the book being that definitely dropped it down for me.

I wasn't a fan of the time skip, and while the author said it would have been just a training montage with no levels, it wouldn't have had to go that way, but whatever, it worked out.

The ending was mostly good, but killing off basically the only other character I really like pissed me off. Should have killed off his stupid ex.

Anyway, solid book, looking forward to the next audiobook. Nick Podehl awesome as usual.

[Kurt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the previous books in the series. Not amazing, but good, solid LitRPG books.

This one, however, fell a bit flat. Less hacking and slashing with far, FAR more (attempts at) political intrigue. But the political intrigue wasn’t all that interesting or well-written.

Additionally, the 4 year time lapse was a bit jarring and never really fully overcome in my opinion.

I’ll be leaving the series here, unfortunately. Too many other great choices out there for me to soldier on.

[Heavy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Male gay sex is not my thing.

[Mr Tdj · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this series around xmass time and was hopeing there would be more with how the previous book ended and in some ways the time gap effect to the start of this book is annoying, normally when such an effect is used its done to explain away why someone has suddenly jumped massive ammounts in ability but in this case it seems like he has barely imporved at all, all of those skills he has should have gained serious levels through constant use, he should have returned as the most overpowered character possible with his levels glitched out by the way the system works, but for some reason the author chose not to do this (despite that having been the theme up to this point) which did seem somewhat at odds with how most of the genre does things

still its nice to see the way this book unfolded and it would be nice to have more books in the future, maybe this time though the prottagonist can come home after a few years of absence and be totally over the top powerful especially since he's supposed ot have an ulitmate ability that he still hasn't really figured out how to use....

and yes obviously i liked the book :)

[Ben Mcpeake · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is sad for me to say but this book was just SO BORING for me and has forced me to come to the decision to give up on this series, at least for now. One of the biggest issues of this book for me was that the author kept SAYING how much stronger John was after the time skip but for me we were never actually shown how much stronger he was and i think it is because the author couldn't find a way for the fights to be both compelling and close while also showing how much better John was.

The characters are the biggest selling point for this series to me and that continued in this book with the exception of Lana who i just couldn't enjoy in this book and not because of the relationship developments but because of basically EVERYTHING else. The thing that almost made me want to pick up the next book for a minute there at the end was the Roxley/John developments but the dating habits of roxley's race were brought up but not explored in a way that was enough for me AT ALL and for that to be the end and then have John leave without it being resolved was just stupid for me.

Overall i have enjoyed this series but this is where it ends for me. 4.5/10

[Martin Hernandez · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF.

I just don't care about all of the politics, and I still don't have any attachment to any of the characters. By book 6 I should at the very least care about the main character, but I don't. Sure, John had some development over the last couple of books from being an angry goblin to a more mature land owner, but I didn't sign up to read a book/series about socioeconomics on a galactic scale.

The time skip was "cool" in the sense that it was a shake up, but I would have rather we gotten a standalone book where we follow John through those 4 years, and then the NEXT book where he comes back to earth.

The only reason I stuck it out so long was due to how short the books are, but that isn't enough to keep me going when I have so many other series I would rather dedicate my time to. The concept of this series was interesting, but after these last 3 books I'm just not feeling it anymore. Maybe I will try again later when I have nothing else to occupy my time since the descriptions of the future books sound somewhat more interesting, but I'm not holding out any hope. I shouldn't have to SLOG through an entire trilogy to get to the space stuff.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I respect Tao Wong for making a major change in the direction and feel of his series with this sixth book. Jon has returned to earth after four years on a forbidden world and he has a lot to learn if he is to catch up with what has been happening. No one continued his massive push to bring cities under human control and give humans a vote on the Galactic Council and now he needs to see what can be done to unite 80% of the human and alien voting population behind one candidate to give earth that vote. It seems like an impossible task, but everything Jon has done since the start of the apocalypse has seemed impossible and he throws himself into figuring out how to cajole and bully the needed support. He doesn't want the seat on the council for himself. He just wants the earth to have representation behind a decent candidate.

There is a lot of fighting as you would expect in this series, but for the most part, it didn't feel like a fighting book. This one was about politicking and backstabbing and betrayal. Characters we care about die, but next book promises to be a very different type of experience as Jon continues his search to understand the system.

[Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great climax to the first major arc!

I love the system apocalypse series. I say this because it is requires preface before reading this review any further.

I grew up on robotech, and my favorite series was the invid saga and the post apocalyptic earth that was a major part of that story. And system apocalypse, this story specifically, is closing out the earth part of the series.

There’s a reason the cover is set in space. John has been gone and seen the greater universe and what motivates some of the other factions and politics of the Galactics, the group of aliens who now live on Earth.

As such, he has insight he shares with the rest of our surviving heroes and sets on an amazing journey with bloodshed - and diplomacy. And diplomacy, as we who have known this character for some time know - is not his strong suit.

It sets up an amazing tale that really inspires hope in where the series is going. I’m not too sad that we’ve finished one part of the tale - because I know the next part will be amazing!

[Torr · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has shifted too far into galactic politics and not what I read/listen to LitRPG for which is the leveling process and fighting of monsters and clearing of dungeons. I like having an overarching plot line in a series to keep it cohesive and together; but when that plot line overrides the stuff I like in a series the less I care that same plot line because it's robbing me of the good stuff.

In the afterword the author stated that book 5.5 would be basically a 4 year training montage that would be boring and not a good LitRPG; I disagree because every time that period of time was mentioned I thought, that's the story I wish I was getting. Clearly my comprehension of what makes a good LitRPG is different than his. I just wish I had know before I started the series that the story was going to move away from the stuff I enjoy the most starting in book 3.

Future books are marked space opera, which is how the first book should have been labelled instead of a LitRPG if that was the ultimate plan then I would have been an informed consumer.

[Tortuga Verde · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another writing style shift

So, like the last book, this seems more a deviation from the first 3. You first off skip a lot time time. It is also focused on politics. You see a lot of horse trading and the consequences. There is still plenty of action.

I think he pulls it off though at times just barely. There are a lot of jumping between views quickly that make it seem a bit fragmented. I feel like it could have been a better.

You see some major shift in John’s relationships with Lana and Roxley. This seems a bit glossed over and not a major part of the book. But if important to you, you might be disappointed with the way it goes.

The ending was a bit of a surprise and in some ways a highlight.

Overall, I am having a hard to deciding how I feels about series. I feel it is struggling a bit. I can’t tell if it is because the story is slowing down or the it is getting a bit boring.

[Miguel · Rating 1 out of 5]

To start: Tao Wong is a bully who competes with other writers by using his trademark as a cudgel. Don't support his work, it encourages authorship by cruelty.

For this work, Wong hasn't a clue how to write in the genre he seeks to lay legal claim to, and exhibit A is his limp MC. The reader is told John is an impressive fighter, and that those of his class are formidable in the extreme. The catch: Tao Wong can't write combat. The resulting contradiction of an MC is one who poses no real threat to enemies, yet seems to command respect for fights he loses. We are told he performs well in certain fights...which are skipped in the prose because Tao Wong is not capable of writing them. He, in fact, skips a whole 4 years of fighting, which we are assured were very eventful. Hopefully he will one day discover R.A. Salvatore and learn to write combat, though there is some risk he would then attempt to enforce copyright upon the superior author out of sheer jealousy.

[Groucho42 · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the previous books showed the author most likely has never had a strong relationship, this one removes all doubt. John struggles for four years to get back to Earth and his girlfriend, as soon as he's back Lana tells him she's boinking someone she met, and it's "no problem". A real person in John's situation would struggle greatly, at least internally, with the breakup. Forget the MMO setup, this bit of fantasy stretched belief.

On the story side, John's back as Earth gets close to voting for a seat on the Galactic Council. Lots of politics and violence, hand in hand. That part was well done. At the end, as some folks move off to the council, my hope is that Wong begins to bring in more SF MMO information rather than the almost pure fantasy it has been so far. The fights are getting to all seem alike, there needs to be something to reinvigorate the series. This is the chance

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 6

Mistakes: I found a handful scattered throughout the book. Nothing that really hurt the story though.
Plot: This is mostly political. Lots of deals and a few betrayals. Easy to get bored with.
Characters: We see some racism from the MC, which while I don't like, did make him seem more human. Most was just him calling himself a banana, but at one time he refers to a black man as a monkey.
I do not like the relationship between the MC and Roxly. Not because of the guy on guy relationship, it bothers me, but I just don't trust Roxly at all. I find the MC to be foolish to be in a relationship with him after everything he has been through.
I will miss Ingrad as I liked that character.
6.5/10

[Vincent Archer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting AND frustrating entry in the series.

It's interesting because it's a big change of pace. And it's frustrating from two different angles. The first is simple: you get a major timeskip. You're told John had major, complicated, dangerous... interesting adventures... and then nothing. It's not about those. It's about what happens after he won.

The second frustration is that it's all about politics. There were some political aspects in the previous entries, but this one is politic dealing. It's a support for a some fighting and complicated situations, but it's still politics.

But we're promised much in exchange, so it's all worth it. As long as we get at least a book in the Forbidden Zone sometime.

[Leslie Baptiste · Rating 4 out of 5]

killing off the emcees friends is not a good idea.

Good book, good finish to this arc except for one problem. first of all the pros fast paced, excellent, better character growth and development for the MC. he still has some more growing to do. But I am glad the author tone down his anger management issues. The cons, the killing of another core character, how could you do that. She was the last of her kind. I had to take a star away because of that development. she made a good counter and friend to the MC. Authors should learn not to kill off certain characters. Not sure if I will continue reading the rest of the series. I also see that I am not the only one who has issues with the direction the series is going. I see that the review counts are down.

[Lundos · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 years have passed since the last book and the time jump makes it a little weird. We are not told in detail what happened to John Lee in that time, but he gets back to earth a master class and even more OP.

There's a lot of politics, assassinasions, death, and mayhem, and a little gay sex. I guess it's true that everyone has to be bi-, gay, or pansexual these days. Yeah, it was made clear from the first book but it seems weird that the only man the MC ever showed interest in was a dark elf. There's a little flirting with a new woman before her end, but it feels like the romance is forced into the story.

Besides that it's a pretty good plot. The pacing is fast, action-based, and most characters stay true to themselves.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another perfectly fine book. But this pushes further into the politicking of the new world and that's fine, but I don't know that we're given enough time to really appreciate everything the author wants to convey nor does he always convey everything we probably need to understand it and ramifications.

That's fine if this was still a guy struggling against monsters, but it isn't, so I'm not sure I appreciate the story as much.

Anyway, it isn't bad by any means, but the story is changing. I'm not entirely certain I'll be continuing the ride - it's an interesting approach and I imagine figuring out the 'why' of the system in the next books could prove a good story, just not sure it's one I need to read.