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Apocalypse Unleashed #1
Apocalypse Unleashed
On the day of Aiden and Olivia's math final, things take a surprise turn... The end of the world.
During Finals, the worst thing most people worry about is a failing grade. For Aiden and his sister Olivia, they must contend with the apocalypse. But at least there won’t be any more math tests!
With his trusty pen in hand, Aiden is determined to protect his sister no matter the cost. The future seems bleak as the school warps around them to become a maze of death and otherworldly monsters start appearing.
Essence, their one and only lifeline in this new world, changes everything, granting them power to fight back against the tide of chaos.
Aiden does what he must to survive and save his sister. In doing so, he begins to uncover the larger picture as a Quest leads them into the great beyond.
In a world of magic and monsters, all the cards are stacked against them.
Do they have what it takes to work the System and come out on top?
Experience the start of an Apocalypse LitRPG Series from Chris Ford, the author of Dungeon Shop. This is the dream come true for every one of us who wished the world would end before a math test! Add in a System, magic, and dragons and that isn't too bad either... minus the killer monsters part...
During Finals, the worst thing most people worry about is a failing grade. For Aiden and his sister Olivia, they must contend with the apocalypse. But at least there won’t be any more math tests!
With his trusty pen in hand, Aiden is determined to protect his sister no matter the cost. The future seems bleak as the school warps around them to become a maze of death and otherworldly monsters start appearing.
Essence, their one and only lifeline in this new world, changes everything, granting them power to fight back against the tide of chaos.
Aiden does what he must to survive and save his sister. In doing so, he begins to uncover the larger picture as a Quest leads them into the great beyond.
In a world of magic and monsters, all the cards are stacked against them.
Do they have what it takes to work the System and come out on top?
Experience the start of an Apocalypse LitRPG Series from Chris Ford, the author of Dungeon Shop. This is the dream come true for every one of us who wished the world would end before a math test! Add in a System, magic, and dragons and that isn't too bad either... minus the killer monsters part...
- GenresFantasy
495 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 26, 2022
189 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 29, 2022
I'm a big fan of LitRPG apocalypse stories, and this one hit all the right buttons from the start. Then things petered out after the 40% mark.
This is my first book by this author.
Aidan is a high school student, as is his sister Olivia, Anna, James, and all the rest. Various levels of evils show up, and I pictured them as big round balls with short legs and long arms. Whatever. Aidan manages to take action when others didn't, and he learns that when you kill a lesser evil you get an orb. Absorb an orb and you get skills, or upgrades to your weapon.
The book starts with a lot of action, then it devolves into everyone -- especially Aiden -- trying to figure out how the upgrades work. Which is perfectly normal. Except that though process lasts for the rest of the book. The action also dies down, and on top of that the characters are not well developed. One of them has a baseball bat, and that pretty much defines him, along with the girl he's paired up with.
I don't know. I wanted to like this. The action is good when there it's there, but then the book turns introspective while doing town building using magic. I even found myself flipping pages at the end, only stopping for the notifications during the last ten percent of the book.
3/5*
This is my first book by this author.
Aidan is a high school student, as is his sister Olivia, Anna, James, and all the rest. Various levels of evils show up, and I pictured them as big round balls with short legs and long arms. Whatever. Aidan manages to take action when others didn't, and he learns that when you kill a lesser evil you get an orb. Absorb an orb and you get skills, or upgrades to your weapon.
The book starts with a lot of action, then it devolves into everyone -- especially Aiden -- trying to figure out how the upgrades work. Which is perfectly normal. Except that though process lasts for the rest of the book. The action also dies down, and on top of that the characters are not well developed. One of them has a baseball bat, and that pretty much defines him, along with the girl he's paired up with.
I don't know. I wanted to like this. The action is good when there it's there, but then the book turns introspective while doing town building using magic. I even found myself flipping pages at the end, only stopping for the notifications during the last ten percent of the book.
3/5*
April 2, 2023
This was poorly done.
The first half seems like the author was trying to make a game, not write a book. If half the effort that went into describing skill trees was out into the setting, this might have had a chance. The characters are horrible described. They seem one dimensional at first, but that is just due to poor writing.
The first half seems like the author was trying to make a game, not write a book. If half the effort that went into describing skill trees was out into the setting, this might have had a chance. The characters are horrible described. They seem one dimensional at first, but that is just due to poor writing.
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January 28, 2024Average
Want to read about an overly complicated RPG system this might be the book for you. A character who hates the basic math of addition and multiplication as a high schooler. He has snow white hair and is a total edgelord where he feels the need to go alone against a big bad boss while taking almost no damage. The bickering between twin siblings every so many pages of the "are you doing ok?", back and forth gets old very quickly. The characters are very whiny about saving others. Other people who want nothing to do with leveling or protecting themselves. I'd understand putting up with it for maybe 10 minutes before the plotline moves along and leaves those idiots behind to continue growing.
I hate books that lean so heavily on bringing up a status screen every chapter or so. Also the overuse of explaining abilities and skills, or revisiting the same skills later and relisting the same info. Or even listing several options to watch a pro and cons list of why they choose the skill they did. Choose a skill and what it does and move on. Considering there is a dragon on the front cover it wasn't hard to see what option he was going to pick for the familiar. Not to mention that option with the dragon is descriptively almost twice as long and detailed as his other 2 options, wonder what he's gonna pick?
I couldn't get more than half way through this.
Want to read about an overly complicated RPG system this might be the book for you. A character who hates the basic math of addition and multiplication as a high schooler. He has snow white hair and is a total edgelord where he feels the need to go alone against a big bad boss while taking almost no damage. The bickering between twin siblings every so many pages of the "are you doing ok?", back and forth gets old very quickly. The characters are very whiny about saving others. Other people who want nothing to do with leveling or protecting themselves. I'd understand putting up with it for maybe 10 minutes before the plotline moves along and leaves those idiots behind to continue growing.
I hate books that lean so heavily on bringing up a status screen every chapter or so. Also the overuse of explaining abilities and skills, or revisiting the same skills later and relisting the same info. Or even listing several options to watch a pro and cons list of why they choose the skill they did. Choose a skill and what it does and move on. Considering there is a dragon on the front cover it wasn't hard to see what option he was going to pick for the familiar. Not to mention that option with the dragon is descriptively almost twice as long and detailed as his other 2 options, wonder what he's gonna pick?
I couldn't get more than half way through this.
August 15, 2022
not terrible
But they are clear flaws in the construction of this novel.
First, I’m not entirely clear on what everyone looks like. While hair color and eyecolor are occasionally mentioned, virtually nothing else is. This extends to the world that the main characters are in in the first few chapters. There’s a lack of information about the local area that leaves the narrative ungrounded.
Then there is a penchant for the main character to ramble about wildly in his head. It’s not an ADHD problem, but rather a flaw in the writing. as if the author can’t decide on the maturity and focus of the main character and is trying to hit everything.
Speaking of hitting everything, there’s a bit of a kitchen sink approach to the world building. An attempt to have a little bit of everything. Trying to add cultivation concepts on top of the LitRPG framework.
The prose is pretty clean, and while the cast are all teenagers there is little or no adult content.
I don’t feel I can really recommend this novel. But it is not the worst attempt at writing an apocalypse style tale I have read.
But they are clear flaws in the construction of this novel.
First, I’m not entirely clear on what everyone looks like. While hair color and eyecolor are occasionally mentioned, virtually nothing else is. This extends to the world that the main characters are in in the first few chapters. There’s a lack of information about the local area that leaves the narrative ungrounded.
Then there is a penchant for the main character to ramble about wildly in his head. It’s not an ADHD problem, but rather a flaw in the writing. as if the author can’t decide on the maturity and focus of the main character and is trying to hit everything.
Speaking of hitting everything, there’s a bit of a kitchen sink approach to the world building. An attempt to have a little bit of everything. Trying to add cultivation concepts on top of the LitRPG framework.
The prose is pretty clean, and while the cast are all teenagers there is little or no adult content.
I don’t feel I can really recommend this novel. But it is not the worst attempt at writing an apocalypse style tale I have read.
September 1, 2022
Mistakes: This book has little mistakes scattered all through it. I will list what I found on GoodReads and maybe they will be corrected. Unfortunately this review had to be copied and pasted from Amazon. For some reason neither the review or my notes on mistakes made it to GoodReads.
Plot: A school is transported to a different planet and a battle for survival ensues for the students. I would have liked more town building, but it seems a large chunk of that is skipped in the epilogue.
Characters: Everyone wants a dragon for a pet. Nobody bothers to think of how large they would get or how they would feed such a large beast. They may be cute when little, but wait till they grow up a bit and you try bagging that pile of dragon poop. Dragons just don’t make sense as a pet. I dislike that I’ve never run into a story that thinks about these things.
Don’t really care about the characters either. Nothing drew me to any of them.
5/10 Not horrible, but it could have been better.
Plot: A school is transported to a different planet and a battle for survival ensues for the students. I would have liked more town building, but it seems a large chunk of that is skipped in the epilogue.
Characters: Everyone wants a dragon for a pet. Nobody bothers to think of how large they would get or how they would feed such a large beast. They may be cute when little, but wait till they grow up a bit and you try bagging that pile of dragon poop. Dragons just don’t make sense as a pet. I dislike that I’ve never run into a story that thinks about these things.
Don’t really care about the characters either. Nothing drew me to any of them.
5/10 Not horrible, but it could have been better.
January 12, 2023
Sadly, not much base building in this one, a bit near the end, but that's all we get. I'm a big fan of base building, so I'm going to have to keep an eye out for the next book in the series, as there should be plenty of it in there.
Good story folks. Checks most of the boxes for a good LitRPG tale. I'm sure some would say the main character is a jerk, but I disagree, he's only doing what he thinks best, and in the process, makes some fantastic adventures happen. Good for him. Can't wait for the next one.
Good story folks. Checks most of the boxes for a good LitRPG tale. I'm sure some would say the main character is a jerk, but I disagree, he's only doing what he thinks best, and in the process, makes some fantastic adventures happen. Good for him. Can't wait for the next one.
November 20, 2022
Entertaining and random
The story is definitely entertaining and interesting. It doesn't seem to follow a predictable path, which can be a good thing. It does seem like most of the kids' personalities go through drastic changes. The epilogue raises more questions, especially with the new view of Aiden's town. Basically, it skipped some time.
The story is definitely entertaining and interesting. It doesn't seem to follow a predictable path, which can be a good thing. It does seem like most of the kids' personalities go through drastic changes. The epilogue raises more questions, especially with the new view of Aiden's town. Basically, it skipped some time.
August 7, 2022
Interesting take on genre
Interesting take on the genre. It twisted my expectations a bit and changed things up when I least expected. Overall, a good read and worth following for the next!
Interesting take on the genre. It twisted my expectations a bit and changed things up when I least expected. Overall, a good read and worth following for the next!
August 15, 2022
Great adaptation of the apocalypse
So I felt that this book was actually pretty good. I loved the story and the progression is perfect. The skill progression and magic system was also unique. If you like litrpg you should give this book a try. You won’t be disappointed!
So I felt that this book was actually pretty good. I loved the story and the progression is perfect. The skill progression and magic system was also unique. If you like litrpg you should give this book a try. You won’t be disappointed!
April 26, 2023
Really like this series
The series is well written and interesting. The rules of leveling up have unique elements. The system is not as helpful as normal. Can to wait to see how the series develops
The series is well written and interesting. The rules of leveling up have unique elements. The system is not as helpful as normal. Can to wait to see how the series develops
April 30, 2023
pretty good
the last half isn’t nearly as good as the first half, there were some spelling mistakes like a number mixed within a word or “danged instead of dangled”. the plot lost steam halfway and went into an internal monologue for like 200 pages of self-recrimination.
the last half isn’t nearly as good as the first half, there were some spelling mistakes like a number mixed within a word or “danged instead of dangled”. the plot lost steam halfway and went into an internal monologue for like 200 pages of self-recrimination.
July 26, 2022
Still Great
Read this on the first go around on rr. Was good then. Great now. Chris has a way with story.
Read this on the first go around on rr. Was good then. Great now. Chris has a way with story.
July 27, 2022
great start!
Very good start. Couldn’t put the book down. I highly suggest this book to fans of the genre. Won’t be disappointed.
Very good start. Couldn’t put the book down. I highly suggest this book to fans of the genre. Won’t be disappointed.
August 1, 2022
Great read
I don't think I'm the target demographic for this book. Saying that, it was very good. I'm hoping there next one comes out soon.
I don't think I'm the target demographic for this book. Saying that, it was very good. I'm hoping there next one comes out soon.
August 12, 2022
Very good read
I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who like LitRPG and progression type of books with lots of action.
I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who like LitRPG and progression type of books with lots of action.
August 21, 2022
Everyone was kind of an asshole.
November 1, 2022
incredible start
Such a fun first read with a respectable system in at where I BBC an easily follow along and see just how far characters progress. Can’t wait for more
Such a fun first read with a respectable system in at where I BBC an easily follow along and see just how far characters progress. Can’t wait for more
March 24, 2023
This was pretty good, I think it was only hurt by the fact that it had so many PoV changes. I will most likely finish this series.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews