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Apocalypse Redux #1
Apocalypse Redux, Book One
The worst thing about the end of the world is we did it to ourselves
Isaac Thoma lived to see the last handful of survivors defeat the demonic champion. He is now alone, his past in ashes, the last and most powerful human on a blighted Earth. But what if he could go back?
Hurled back in time, Isaac has one chance to change it all. A chance to warn humanity of their impending doom. A chance to stop the [System] before shortsightedness and lust for power can render humanity extinct. Facing malign deities, demonic hordes, and the unstoppable march of human greed, Isaac will give his all to prevent the end that has already happened on the day the world became quantified.
Apocalypse Redux is a pre-apocalyptic LitRPG by Jakob H. Greif (aka Wilderfast). A rationalist approach to fighting the end of the world amidst mind-bending adventures and battles against infernal forces, Apocalypse Redux is the series that took RoyalRoad by storm. Buy it now to see if humanity’s fate can be changed. To see if one man, with a second chance at life, can rise up and make a difference.
Isaac Thoma lived to see the last handful of survivors defeat the demonic champion. He is now alone, his past in ashes, the last and most powerful human on a blighted Earth. But what if he could go back?
Hurled back in time, Isaac has one chance to change it all. A chance to warn humanity of their impending doom. A chance to stop the [System] before shortsightedness and lust for power can render humanity extinct. Facing malign deities, demonic hordes, and the unstoppable march of human greed, Isaac will give his all to prevent the end that has already happened on the day the world became quantified.
Apocalypse Redux is a pre-apocalyptic LitRPG by Jakob H. Greif (aka Wilderfast). A rationalist approach to fighting the end of the world amidst mind-bending adventures and battles against infernal forces, Apocalypse Redux is the series that took RoyalRoad by storm. Buy it now to see if humanity’s fate can be changed. To see if one man, with a second chance at life, can rise up and make a difference.
558 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 4, 2022
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539 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
August 16, 2024
This is an interesting take on the system apocalypse with time travel redo. Isaac is the last survivor of the system after decades of fighting and is given the opportunity to go back in time with his full knowledge to see if humanity can do better with his foreknowledge and help. Of course he grabs that chance eagerly and we're off to the races from there.
The system apocalypse is an interesting one in that humanity is twisted to engineer their own destruction. The system shows up and all it does is show people how to summon monsters to fight. Winning those fights gives experience that unlocks classes and attributes that make you stronger—eventually superhumanly stronger and with magic. Since this knowledge is given to everybody on the planet, you have an active temptation to power with the drawback that if you lose, you die and have set a monster loose for others to have to deal with. This is a fascinating dynamic, made even more interesting by our boy knowing that the system was created with explicit forces for good and evil contributing—the good created the options for humanity's growth, the evil creating the gotchas that lead to their eventual destruction.
Anyway, Isaac knows all of this, including some of the major disasters along the way that he hopes he can help avoid (or at least limit the casualties). It's how he goes about it that is deeply German and more than a little weird (to me). Rather than the obvious path of becoming a powerful hero who can save people and be a beacon of good conduct and showing how to use power responsibly, he chooses to join a research team he knows will become famous (conveniently located in his hometown where he is a student) so that he can guide the research to find the worst of the hidden gotchas that will cause so much harm. To be clear, this isn't a bad idea. And if it had been better depicted I might have been more engaged than I was.
The problem is that Isaac has that German trust in bureaucracy and academia doing the right thing even as the author has Isaac and the professor he attaches himself to plowing through red tape in the name of helping humanity. Add that Isaac isn't at all subtle about the things he knows and I constantly had to question the credulity of the research team he attaches himself to. I mean, even a little bit of curiosity should have outed Isaac as knowing entirely too much about how the system works, even before we see how his suggestions almost always lead to finding hidden traps in the summoning system. That absolutely nobody goes "hey waitaminute, how come you know these things already and also why can you fight monsters the rest of humanity can't even fathom?!?" This became completely untenable when he comes back with a bunch of space-aspected cores that create dimensional storage and nobody goes "um, how did you know how to defeat his completely impossible foe right off the bat and with such ease that you pop up with a dozen of these extremely valuable resources?!?"
And don't get me started on just giving a "neutral" god his entire story without even considering how that might blow up in his face.
The story was interesting enough, and the dilemma of the pursuit of power available to people with poor reasoning skills vivid enough that I kept through to the end. I'm going to go with three stars for the interesting worldbuilding even if Isaac doesn't completely hold together. And if I think about it hard enough, I wonder if the author is actually underplaying the chaos that this system would engender. There are a lot of people with poor impulse control that the temptation for power would completely overwhelm, particularly at the initiation of this system. I'd have expected a much bigger culling up front and accompanying monster invasion.
A note about Chaste: Isaac is completely uninterested in companionship, even though there is at least one interesting prospect who appears interested and is on the research team. This is a bit unnatural, but does lead to a completely chaste story.
The system apocalypse is an interesting one in that humanity is twisted to engineer their own destruction. The system shows up and all it does is show people how to summon monsters to fight. Winning those fights gives experience that unlocks classes and attributes that make you stronger—eventually superhumanly stronger and with magic. Since this knowledge is given to everybody on the planet, you have an active temptation to power with the drawback that if you lose, you die and have set a monster loose for others to have to deal with. This is a fascinating dynamic, made even more interesting by our boy knowing that the system was created with explicit forces for good and evil contributing—the good created the options for humanity's growth, the evil creating the gotchas that lead to their eventual destruction.
Anyway, Isaac knows all of this, including some of the major disasters along the way that he hopes he can help avoid (or at least limit the casualties). It's how he goes about it that is deeply German and more than a little weird (to me). Rather than the obvious path of becoming a powerful hero who can save people and be a beacon of good conduct and showing how to use power responsibly, he chooses to join a research team he knows will become famous (conveniently located in his hometown where he is a student) so that he can guide the research to find the worst of the hidden gotchas that will cause so much harm. To be clear, this isn't a bad idea. And if it had been better depicted I might have been more engaged than I was.
The problem is that Isaac has that German trust in bureaucracy and academia doing the right thing even as the author has Isaac and the professor he attaches himself to plowing through red tape in the name of helping humanity. Add that Isaac isn't at all subtle about the things he knows and I constantly had to question the credulity of the research team he attaches himself to. I mean, even a little bit of curiosity should have outed Isaac as knowing entirely too much about how the system works, even before we see how his suggestions almost always lead to finding hidden traps in the summoning system. That absolutely nobody goes "hey waitaminute, how come you know these things already and also why can you fight monsters the rest of humanity can't even fathom?!?" This became completely untenable when he comes back with a bunch of space-aspected cores that create dimensional storage and nobody goes "um, how did you know how to defeat his completely impossible foe right off the bat and with such ease that you pop up with a dozen of these extremely valuable resources?!?"
And don't get me started on just giving a "neutral" god his entire story without even considering how that might blow up in his face.
The story was interesting enough, and the dilemma of the pursuit of power available to people with poor reasoning skills vivid enough that I kept through to the end. I'm going to go with three stars for the interesting worldbuilding even if Isaac doesn't completely hold together. And if I think about it hard enough, I wonder if the author is actually underplaying the chaos that this system would engender. There are a lot of people with poor impulse control that the temptation for power would completely overwhelm, particularly at the initiation of this system. I'd have expected a much bigger culling up front and accompanying monster invasion.
A note about Chaste: Isaac is completely uninterested in companionship, even though there is at least one interesting prospect who appears interested and is on the research team. This is a bit unnatural, but does lead to a completely chaste story.
February 20, 2023
I've been reading less the past couple of weeks because I've been in a bit of a book slump. Books like this are the reason for that. I don't really like to DNF books unless something happens that makes my blood boil, so sometimes I end up feeling like I wasted a bunch of time reading crap. This is a prime example. I just listened to a 15 hour audiobook of a dude who was strong enough by the end to kill humanity's biggest threats, and is lucky enough to have the god of plot armor to send him back to the start. Awesome right? I normally really enjoy light novels and a few litrpgs that start off like this. But nope. This moron instead just dicks around with a group of random researches to very subtly guide them to learn things about the system that he's known for years. That's it.... seriously I'm not kidding, that's all that really happens in this book. It's just a bad slice of life because there isn't really character growth or anything compelling like romance or friendship to make the slice of life a little interesting. So we get basically an entire book of some jack off wasting his time because he's afraid of the government finding him out if he seems to know too much about the system, so instead he just helps with experiments... I'm just so bummed, I love this going back in time to help stop humanity from getting wiped out premise and it's just wasted by this numb nuts MC. How about you know, using all that experience to get really really strong 100x faster than before, trying to stop the biggest setbacks and in a couple weeks anonymously leak the secrets you know, since you're too scared to do it so early, a few weeks would be enough buffer time that people won't be as suspicious especially if you're the strongest person in humanity's side...instead he just wasted his time and I wasted my time reading this book hoping it gets better. Rant over, don't waste your time reading this unless you're as bored as me.
December 18, 2022
This was a really enjoyable read and exactly the kind of experience I hope for when picking up a new author.
Character - 7/10, Plot - 7/10, Setting/Game Mechanics - 10/10, Writing - 7/10, Enjoyment - 10/10
The biggest problem I've had with regressor stories is that most of them have a MC with no personality or goal other than preventing the apocalyptic ending of their original timeline and they usually go about this by scooping up all of the limited resources for themself and trying to become the strongest person in the world.
While I wouldn't say the characters in this story are the deepest, they felt like real people and the MC takes the path of trying to empower humanity rather than only focusing on himself.
The plot is the straightforward regressor formula: prevent the apocalypse. But this series takes the road less traveled by having the character do what they can to prepare humanity for the event. So rather than forming an elite kill squad that hoards all the special stuff, the MC joins a research team and assists/guides one of the brightest minds from his previous timeline.
The strongest element of this story for me was the game mechanics. Rather than have monsters and dungeons randomly spawning everywhere, monsters can only come into the world when they are summoned by a human. The System basically just hands everyone a summoning recipe guide and dangles the promise of rewards. Human nature does the rest with the inevitable overreaching that leads to disaster. I thought it was a great direction for the story and the system mechanics are revealed in-depth as the MC and his research group conduct experiments.
I'm genuinely surprised to see the number of mediocre reviews and the comments about telling instead of showing. Maybe it's because I recently read one of the worst genre offenders of this (He Who Fights With Monsters), but I found this story riveting by comparison. There is a fair amount of crunchiness to this story from a mechanics perspective that may not be to everyone's tastes, but for me, there was a perfect balance of introspection, mechanical experimentation, monster fighting, and exploration of society.
I highly recommend this book and can't wait for the next one to come out.
Character - 7/10, Plot - 7/10, Setting/Game Mechanics - 10/10, Writing - 7/10, Enjoyment - 10/10
The biggest problem I've had with regressor stories is that most of them have a MC with no personality or goal other than preventing the apocalyptic ending of their original timeline and they usually go about this by scooping up all of the limited resources for themself and trying to become the strongest person in the world.
While I wouldn't say the characters in this story are the deepest, they felt like real people and the MC takes the path of trying to empower humanity rather than only focusing on himself.
The plot is the straightforward regressor formula: prevent the apocalypse. But this series takes the road less traveled by having the character do what they can to prepare humanity for the event. So rather than forming an elite kill squad that hoards all the special stuff, the MC joins a research team and assists/guides one of the brightest minds from his previous timeline.
The strongest element of this story for me was the game mechanics. Rather than have monsters and dungeons randomly spawning everywhere, monsters can only come into the world when they are summoned by a human. The System basically just hands everyone a summoning recipe guide and dangles the promise of rewards. Human nature does the rest with the inevitable overreaching that leads to disaster. I thought it was a great direction for the story and the system mechanics are revealed in-depth as the MC and his research group conduct experiments.
I'm genuinely surprised to see the number of mediocre reviews and the comments about telling instead of showing. Maybe it's because I recently read one of the worst genre offenders of this (He Who Fights With Monsters), but I found this story riveting by comparison. There is a fair amount of crunchiness to this story from a mechanics perspective that may not be to everyone's tastes, but for me, there was a perfect balance of introspection, mechanical experimentation, monster fighting, and exploration of society.
I highly recommend this book and can't wait for the next one to come out.
January 3, 2023
How do you make an Apocalypse boring?
It's litrpg for geriatrics. Seriously, the sluggish pace is ridiculously slow and drawn out. The MC manages to make it halfway through the book and still be lvl 1. Despite prior knowledge and talking about getting ahead, all he does is waste time and chat with people. If I had to sum things up in one word, it would be 'Lame'.
It's litrpg for geriatrics. Seriously, the sluggish pace is ridiculously slow and drawn out. The MC manages to make it halfway through the book and still be lvl 1. Despite prior knowledge and talking about getting ahead, all he does is waste time and chat with people. If I had to sum things up in one word, it would be 'Lame'.
December 14, 2022
Telling, little showing
I liked the premise a lot. Cool twist on the system that I normally see.
But this entire book was dialogue. Like... An insane amount of dialogue. I'd read 5 pages of the group discussing an experiment. Then a bunch of "telling" that they did the experiment.
Rinse and repeat for the entire book. It made for an incredibly dry read. All the action was summed up after the fact except for a very small number of fights. And those were brief as hell.
The final fight scenes with a big tier 5 city ending monster? Significantly shorter than half of the group discussions about how to setup experiments to test aspects of the system.
This might be the most dialogue I've ever read in a book before. Not something I normally track tho. The amount of exposition in dialogue was awful. Followed by more exposition out of dialogue.
Sentences were put together well. I don't recall typos or awkward sentences at all. But there was no "showing." The sheer quantity of telling killed the book for me. I wanted to like it too.
I liked the premise a lot. Cool twist on the system that I normally see.
But this entire book was dialogue. Like... An insane amount of dialogue. I'd read 5 pages of the group discussing an experiment. Then a bunch of "telling" that they did the experiment.
Rinse and repeat for the entire book. It made for an incredibly dry read. All the action was summed up after the fact except for a very small number of fights. And those were brief as hell.
The final fight scenes with a big tier 5 city ending monster? Significantly shorter than half of the group discussions about how to setup experiments to test aspects of the system.
This might be the most dialogue I've ever read in a book before. Not something I normally track tho. The amount of exposition in dialogue was awful. Followed by more exposition out of dialogue.
Sentences were put together well. I don't recall typos or awkward sentences at all. But there was no "showing." The sheer quantity of telling killed the book for me. I wanted to like it too.
October 11, 2022
Describe this in one word. Pedantic.
Time traveling apocalypse books are difficult to write. You need a really good grasp of the problem leading to world annihilation, and a solid reason for system and the reset. This has the first and flubs the second. Add in the writing style that is overly specific and quite boring and you get a bloated book that doesn't tell you much. The pacing makes it feel like a slice of life book, but their is nowhere near enough character development to pull that off.
Time traveling apocalypse books are difficult to write. You need a really good grasp of the problem leading to world annihilation, and a solid reason for system and the reset. This has the first and flubs the second. Add in the writing style that is overly specific and quite boring and you get a bloated book that doesn't tell you much. The pacing makes it feel like a slice of life book, but their is nowhere near enough character development to pull that off.
April 8, 2023
☆☆: Disappointing. Like eating the bread parts of a cream pastry expecting the next bite to have filling, but it's all bread.
Plot-wise, NOTHING important happens. I kept waiting for the actual plot to start, then the book ended.
Very minor SPOILERS below to illustrate my point, but again nothing really happens so it is hard to spoil anything:
*********
MC is the last person on earth and is given a chance by the gods to go back in time and change fate.
What does he do with this chance?
He wastes the entire book doing useless research for info that he already knows -_-
Does he prevent his previous friends and family from dying? No, he ignores and blocks them -_-
However he DOES help his random group of researchers level up a bit. And he even offers to help police officers of his city level towards the end of the book. THE WORLD IS IN DANGER how is this going to save the world???
Does he carefully craft the perfect build? Not really. He gives up a chance at a Legendary class by rushing to level 10, supposedly so he can better deal with some impending calamity... which is never mentioned again in the book -_-
Basically, MC is the last hope of humanity and absolutely squanders it. He doesn't make himself strong enough to save an entire world. He doesn't train a group of trusted fighters. He doesn't release info to the public so they can safely level and defend themselves.
The book just feels empty where nothing happens. Kind of like a slice-of-life plot-wise, except even slice-of-life has character growth and thoughtful interactions.
My rating system:
☆: Actively hurts to read. I'd rather claw my eyes out.
☆☆: Disappointing. Waste of time. Some frustration.
☆☆☆: Okay but forgettable. Probably won't read a sequel if it exists.
☆☆☆☆: Great, but re-reading would feel like a chore.
☆☆☆☆☆: Excellent, I'd recommend to everyone. The journey is as enjoyable as the destination - would happily re-read every so often.
Plot-wise, NOTHING important happens. I kept waiting for the actual plot to start, then the book ended.
Very minor SPOILERS below to illustrate my point, but again nothing really happens so it is hard to spoil anything:
*********
MC is the last person on earth and is given a chance by the gods to go back in time and change fate.
What does he do with this chance?
He wastes the entire book doing useless research for info that he already knows -_-
Does he prevent his previous friends and family from dying? No, he ignores and blocks them -_-
However he DOES help his random group of researchers level up a bit. And he even offers to help police officers of his city level towards the end of the book. THE WORLD IS IN DANGER how is this going to save the world???
Does he carefully craft the perfect build? Not really. He gives up a chance at a Legendary class by rushing to level 10, supposedly so he can better deal with some impending calamity... which is never mentioned again in the book -_-
Basically, MC is the last hope of humanity and absolutely squanders it. He doesn't make himself strong enough to save an entire world. He doesn't train a group of trusted fighters. He doesn't release info to the public so they can safely level and defend themselves.
The book just feels empty where nothing happens. Kind of like a slice-of-life plot-wise, except even slice-of-life has character growth and thoughtful interactions.
My rating system:
☆: Actively hurts to read. I'd rather claw my eyes out.
☆☆: Disappointing. Waste of time. Some frustration.
☆☆☆: Okay but forgettable. Probably won't read a sequel if it exists.
☆☆☆☆: Great, but re-reading would feel like a chore.
☆☆☆☆☆: Excellent, I'd recommend to everyone. The journey is as enjoyable as the destination - would happily re-read every so often.
October 12, 2022
What?
What is the point in this book? The climax of the story is a fight in another continent that the mc doesn't even participate in? It's seems more like it's a revolving question of the author asking what next and then saying oh I know this... thing is story progression just because you added more does nothing for this story. So the mc is strong, but besides killing monsters to level up, the mc did nothing at tge end but sit and watch the action on a laptop, lame. Its a potentially good story but with no substance I can't give it more than two stars. annoying
What is the point in this book? The climax of the story is a fight in another continent that the mc doesn't even participate in? It's seems more like it's a revolving question of the author asking what next and then saying oh I know this... thing is story progression just because you added more does nothing for this story. So the mc is strong, but besides killing monsters to level up, the mc did nothing at tge end but sit and watch the action on a laptop, lame. Its a potentially good story but with no substance I can't give it more than two stars. annoying
November 18, 2022
Quite good, and different than I was expecting. Most redo stories usually go the path off “MC becomes strongest there is”. While there is some of that, this one is more focused on preparing humanity as a whole for the apocalypse to come. There is a little more science and experimenting than I’d like but overall this is done quite well.
March 7, 2023
Incredibly boring
Plot concept is decent but the writing is bland and character development is practically nonexistent outside of stat and skill acquisition. Author refers to stat pages too often. Dialogue is bland. Lists of skills and summons that do nothing to move the story along but just bloat the word count are obnoxious to the point that I just began to skip them out of hand.
Simply there is zero tension. Zero reason for me to have even the slightest inkling of an interest in the outcome. The author seems to have a lot of ideas but is allergic to sticking on a subject for more than a few paragraphs. There’s always got to be some new things that’s being jumped to. Why are so many LITRPG authors seemingly incapable of exploring details? It’s like they’re great at creating the framework of a decent story but just don’t have the focus to actually flesh it out in a way that makes me give a damn about the story and characters they write about.
Plot concept is decent but the writing is bland and character development is practically nonexistent outside of stat and skill acquisition. Author refers to stat pages too often. Dialogue is bland. Lists of skills and summons that do nothing to move the story along but just bloat the word count are obnoxious to the point that I just began to skip them out of hand.
Simply there is zero tension. Zero reason for me to have even the slightest inkling of an interest in the outcome. The author seems to have a lot of ideas but is allergic to sticking on a subject for more than a few paragraphs. There’s always got to be some new things that’s being jumped to. Why are so many LITRPG authors seemingly incapable of exploring details? It’s like they’re great at creating the framework of a decent story but just don’t have the focus to actually flesh it out in a way that makes me give a damn about the story and characters they write about.
November 7, 2022
I read this on RR already, as I realized after starting it. Good, but a bit clinical in tone, so it lacks that spark which would get it that 5th star. The idea is interesting, more so than many books out today, but that doesn't replace the je ne sais quois which would make it more engaging.
It ends somewhere around the last place I saw it on RR, so I'll probably check out the next book, as it's a very involved system and I'd like to see where it goes.
It ends somewhere around the last place I saw it on RR, so I'll probably check out the next book, as it's a very involved system and I'd like to see where it goes.
October 30, 2024
EDIT AFTER COMPLETING SERIES:
This is one of the best ApocaLit series out there…and it’s COMPLETE! Well designed, well written, and the progression is methodical. While the MC *is* OP, he is generally just better informed and skilled. He is not so overwhelmingly powerful it gets boring. He is never able to solo the *biggest* threats.
strong>I don’t have time
My TBR pile grows larger and I find this series and…damn.
The tongue-in-cheek references to LitRPG are handled well. The MC uses his knowledge to advance knowledge more organically than other regressor types.
I’m going to buy book 2 now. Good stuff.
This is one of the best ApocaLit series out there…and it’s COMPLETE! Well designed, well written, and the progression is methodical. While the MC *is* OP, he is generally just better informed and skilled. He is not so overwhelmingly powerful it gets boring. He is never able to solo the *biggest* threats.
strong>I don’t have time
My TBR pile grows larger and I find this series and…damn.
The tongue-in-cheek references to LitRPG are handled well. The MC uses his knowledge to advance knowledge more organically than other regressor types.
I’m going to buy book 2 now. Good stuff.
April 17, 2024
Good clean fun. This is a modern system apocalypse style regressor litrpg set in Germany that makes efforts to think through impacts of actions in a alternate timeline. Worth a read.
January 29, 2025
If I have to read another sentence of how awesome Isaac is because of his knowledge, then an explanation of that knowledge for the 1 millionth time, I think I might faint.
And don’t even get me started on the stats list every single time. Oh, skill A moved from level 1 to 2, then we get an explanation of what the skill is, what it does at level 2, what it now does at level 2, why level 2 is better. Same for each new level, for all the skills. Stupid. Then Isaac fights a monster where he tells us how and why his new skill level is so good and what it does to be that good. And yes, he tells us again exactly how the skill works.
It’s exhausting.
Terrible writing.
And don’t even get me started on the stats list every single time. Oh, skill A moved from level 1 to 2, then we get an explanation of what the skill is, what it does at level 2, what it now does at level 2, why level 2 is better. Same for each new level, for all the skills. Stupid. Then Isaac fights a monster where he tells us how and why his new skill level is so good and what it does to be that good. And yes, he tells us again exactly how the skill works.
It’s exhausting.
Terrible writing.
October 10, 2022
The apocalypse has never been so boring
Welcome to the apocalypse, prepare to be bored. Detailing the study of monsters through the scientific method does not make for a fun story, it makes for a double one. Between the plotting plot and the truly cringe, he dialogue, this book was a slog to get through.
Welcome to the apocalypse, prepare to be bored. Detailing the study of monsters through the scientific method does not make for a fun story, it makes for a double one. Between the plotting plot and the truly cringe, he dialogue, this book was a slog to get through.
January 7, 2023
I feel the author is all over the place (the opposite would be tunnel vision) but the thing is, gambling, purchasing stocks, organized crime, university research, frat parties, police training, leveling up, etc. it's just too much to maintain cohesion in a one book story (so far). That and half the story is missing the main characters of the story (they are like watching what is going on, through a computer terminal or tv.) like what happened with the thunder-spirit elemental monster in Los Angeles...
I liked the fact that the author chooses atypical monsters, weapons, mythology (although they are mostly germanic versions) Zwei...(two handed sword), ghost, etc. I disliked the wide dispersion of the story, the fact that the main character suffers from arrogance, determinism and self-centeredness...(thinks that only he can save the world, that the world will become extinct anyways, that only his way is the right way, etc. etc.) The author suffers from having lived too long under a bureaucratic/totalitarian/authoritarian brain washing, freedom killing, government, etc. All author sees are forms to fill up, taxes to be payed and bureaucracy. The first thing the main character Isaac does is go to a University to try to initiate changes... In an apocalypse, the last thing a "free-person" will think of is filing the right forms, paying your taxes or being good to "Uncle-Sam"...Usually universities are the last places on Earth where Hi-tech and actual research is done. Normally one would try social media, then mass media, then private enterprise... Academy is one of the last to implement changes, especially if they are publicly funded universities like the one in this story... Proof, is how many patents, Nobel Prizes, inventions and copyrights have come out of public universities in Germany in the last 50 years? None come to mind...
Positive is that even though it is apocalyptic, the main character is "trying everything he can to change the future" or at least like the title of the book (reduce the damage of the apocalypse)...
The last thing is, the author thinks badly of every possibility (terrorism on airplanes), bad judgement of "stupid people", cheaters in gambling, etc... Usually when the sh*t hits the fan (in an apocalypse) people don't care anymore, they do whatever they want, and the stories/books/genres reflect that...Having magic and a game-like system that "allows it", without really explaining where the mana comes from, or how it works, leaves a lot of plot holes and polish to fill in re-edits and rewrites...This system gives each person the "opportunity and free will" to become powerful and save themselves or lose themselves and the people around them...it depends on the author's ethical values, his life-outlooks, etc. how the story develops from there...
I liked the fact that the author chooses atypical monsters, weapons, mythology (although they are mostly germanic versions) Zwei...(two handed sword), ghost, etc. I disliked the wide dispersion of the story, the fact that the main character suffers from arrogance, determinism and self-centeredness...(thinks that only he can save the world, that the world will become extinct anyways, that only his way is the right way, etc. etc.) The author suffers from having lived too long under a bureaucratic/totalitarian/authoritarian brain washing, freedom killing, government, etc. All author sees are forms to fill up, taxes to be payed and bureaucracy. The first thing the main character Isaac does is go to a University to try to initiate changes... In an apocalypse, the last thing a "free-person" will think of is filing the right forms, paying your taxes or being good to "Uncle-Sam"...Usually universities are the last places on Earth where Hi-tech and actual research is done. Normally one would try social media, then mass media, then private enterprise... Academy is one of the last to implement changes, especially if they are publicly funded universities like the one in this story... Proof, is how many patents, Nobel Prizes, inventions and copyrights have come out of public universities in Germany in the last 50 years? None come to mind...
Positive is that even though it is apocalyptic, the main character is "trying everything he can to change the future" or at least like the title of the book (reduce the damage of the apocalypse)...
The last thing is, the author thinks badly of every possibility (terrorism on airplanes), bad judgement of "stupid people", cheaters in gambling, etc... Usually when the sh*t hits the fan (in an apocalypse) people don't care anymore, they do whatever they want, and the stories/books/genres reflect that...Having magic and a game-like system that "allows it", without really explaining where the mana comes from, or how it works, leaves a lot of plot holes and polish to fill in re-edits and rewrites...This system gives each person the "opportunity and free will" to become powerful and save themselves or lose themselves and the people around them...it depends on the author's ethical values, his life-outlooks, etc. how the story develops from there...
December 30, 2024
German man travels back in time to stop the apocalypse by writing academic papers.
I love this series less for what it is, than for what it does.
The plot is that the world ended because modern humanity (who has gained LitRPG powers) summoned too many monsters it can't control, so our protagonist goes back in time to create health and safety regulations for monster summoning in true German style (him being German is plot relevant).
What Apocalypse Redux does is take the skills and classes that humanity might gain in a system apocalypse and ask how modern humanity would use them. I.e. a General might get a skill which moves some of his soldiers with their equipment to exactly where they're needed. So what does our hypothetical German General pick as his unit to redeploy? Well he went to the NATO school of combined arms warfare, so he picks a Eurofighter Typhoon Squadron.
This in Book 4 leads to one of my favourite moments in literature to date, where the heroes are struggling against a powerful opponent and a German General rocks up, takes command and says 'I cast Summon Fighter Jets' (paraphrased). Then we get 30 pages of fighter jet pilots fighting a wizard.
It's cool as hell is what I'm saying.
That actually ties into another thing I really like about this series - the author doesn't have the same inherent paranoia for authorities and government which American writers so commonly have. The government here is generally interested in its own self preservation which means it's desperate to do something about the incipient apocalypse (because people aren't blind). Desperate governments tend to do dumb shit and a lot of the conflict is structured around trying to make sure that what the government does is at least moderately helpful (and because it's Germany dealing with red tape). A lot of the story is the protagonist trying to launder his knowledge through more respectable sources and becoming someone who the authorities need to take seriously, first because he's useful, then because he's respected and only later because he's powerful.
Apocalypse Redux has clearly decided it wants to focus on how society would grapple with and adapt to people suddenly getting superpowers and being able to summon monsters rather than the adventures of Stabby Mc StabStab and his attempts to stab (or axe or arrow) the apocalypse in the face. It's better for it, even if conference calls aren't as naturally thrilling as fights. My only criticism is I think it would have benefited from more moments just showing how society and the world is changing.
Overall, this is something unique in a sea of unremarkable mundanity and I can't recommend it enough to fans of the genre.
I love this series less for what it is, than for what it does.
The plot is that the world ended because modern humanity (who has gained LitRPG powers) summoned too many monsters it can't control, so our protagonist goes back in time to create health and safety regulations for monster summoning in true German style (him being German is plot relevant).
What Apocalypse Redux does is take the skills and classes that humanity might gain in a system apocalypse and ask how modern humanity would use them. I.e. a General might get a skill which moves some of his soldiers with their equipment to exactly where they're needed. So what does our hypothetical German General pick as his unit to redeploy? Well he went to the NATO school of combined arms warfare, so he picks a Eurofighter Typhoon Squadron.
This in Book 4 leads to one of my favourite moments in literature to date, where the heroes are struggling against a powerful opponent and a German General rocks up, takes command and says 'I cast Summon Fighter Jets' (paraphrased). Then we get 30 pages of fighter jet pilots fighting a wizard.
It's cool as hell is what I'm saying.
That actually ties into another thing I really like about this series - the author doesn't have the same inherent paranoia for authorities and government which American writers so commonly have. The government here is generally interested in its own self preservation which means it's desperate to do something about the incipient apocalypse (because people aren't blind). Desperate governments tend to do dumb shit and a lot of the conflict is structured around trying to make sure that what the government does is at least moderately helpful (and because it's Germany dealing with red tape). A lot of the story is the protagonist trying to launder his knowledge through more respectable sources and becoming someone who the authorities need to take seriously, first because he's useful, then because he's respected and only later because he's powerful.
Apocalypse Redux has clearly decided it wants to focus on how society would grapple with and adapt to people suddenly getting superpowers and being able to summon monsters rather than the adventures of Stabby Mc StabStab and his attempts to stab (or axe or arrow) the apocalypse in the face. It's better for it, even if conference calls aren't as naturally thrilling as fights. My only criticism is I think it would have benefited from more moments just showing how society and the world is changing.
Overall, this is something unique in a sea of unremarkable mundanity and I can't recommend it enough to fans of the genre.
April 15, 2024
This is a great take on the System apocalypse, where the arrival of the System changes almost nothing (immediately). Humanity is in control of its own destiny, and only human greed and stupidity could usher in civilization's downfall. Of course, they never stood a chance. Rewind, and our protagonist gets a second chance to save humanity from itself.
What follows is a very measured, methodical, and sedate system apocalypse as our MC tries to guide humanity toward a better outcome. I am on board with the scientific approach and can even get behind his wanting to keep his origins a secret - I mean, who would want to bring themselves to the attention of government agencies as a natural treasure ripe for exploitation? I suspect the series' pace will pick up, but an unavoidable consequence of this approach is that the narrative sets a rather leisurely pace for this genre.
The negatives for me are that some of the early pacing feels off. In one sense, the System is a big nothing-burger; in another, we suddenly see people using new class powers professionally on the first day or two of its arrival. It's a bit of whiplash between people not able to decide if they should even go to work and those that, apparently, immediately summoned creatures, got a class and then went to work and started using their new powers on the job. The first day might have made a more believable first week.
The self-replicating nature of summons is also a little off. It's a fun idea, but the math on this doesn't work. On the first day, you would have monsters escape into the wild, especially the oceans. Given their exponential self-replication rate, there isn't really a believable scenario in which the planet won't be overrun in the first six months; some yahoo in the woods would seed armageddon before most people could clear their first system notice.
Lastly, I wish the MC would stop pitching himself as someone with specialized knowledge on the System because he read ... litrpg books. I mean, come on. Try pitching NASA to join their asteroid defence project because you watched Armageddon and Deep Impact a BUNCH of times. Reading a bunch of fiction on magic, a System, or anything really, doesn't provide you with any special insight if there's an actual emergent phenomenon. It would, however, get you laughed out of the room and likely banned from the building.
Still, these are mostly quibbles. I did enjoy this book and will continue with the series.
What follows is a very measured, methodical, and sedate system apocalypse as our MC tries to guide humanity toward a better outcome. I am on board with the scientific approach and can even get behind his wanting to keep his origins a secret - I mean, who would want to bring themselves to the attention of government agencies as a natural treasure ripe for exploitation? I suspect the series' pace will pick up, but an unavoidable consequence of this approach is that the narrative sets a rather leisurely pace for this genre.
The negatives for me are that some of the early pacing feels off. In one sense, the System is a big nothing-burger; in another, we suddenly see people using new class powers professionally on the first day or two of its arrival. It's a bit of whiplash between people not able to decide if they should even go to work and those that, apparently, immediately summoned creatures, got a class and then went to work and started using their new powers on the job. The first day might have made a more believable first week.
The self-replicating nature of summons is also a little off. It's a fun idea, but the math on this doesn't work. On the first day, you would have monsters escape into the wild, especially the oceans. Given their exponential self-replication rate, there isn't really a believable scenario in which the planet won't be overrun in the first six months; some yahoo in the woods would seed armageddon before most people could clear their first system notice.
Lastly, I wish the MC would stop pitching himself as someone with specialized knowledge on the System because he read ... litrpg books. I mean, come on. Try pitching NASA to join their asteroid defence project because you watched Armageddon and Deep Impact a BUNCH of times. Reading a bunch of fiction on magic, a System, or anything really, doesn't provide you with any special insight if there's an actual emergent phenomenon. It would, however, get you laughed out of the room and likely banned from the building.
Still, these are mostly quibbles. I did enjoy this book and will continue with the series.
December 29, 2022
Rating 3.5 stars
This book was pretty good. Reminding me of Towers of Heaven but just with the setup. The world is ending. There are only 3 people left. The system that gave them power was also the thing that caused their demise. The last 3 people wanted to go out in style and decided to take out a powerful demon. 2 of them die before the demon is destroyed leaving on one person alive. He then gets visited by a god and is told he has met certain criteria to go back in time and try to change things. He accepts. He goes back in time 10 years to the day the system first came into being and he is going to try and change things. The system is somewhat different than what I am used to. With this system the people are given information about how to summon creatures that they then can kill to gain power. The unique part of the system is that if nobody summoned anything there would be no monsters. There also wouldn't be any way to power up. So, the good people summoned monsters to kill so that they can get stronger because they knew that there are other people that were going to do the same. If the monster killed the summoner, it could then go off and kill others. This is one of those damned if you do and damned if you don't scenarios. The MC knows what is going to happen and wants to stop it but understands that he can't just tell people as nobody will believe him. He needs to get more powerful himself but also needs to warn people so that they can also get more powerful. He joins the team of scientists that he knows is going to study the system. His goal is to push them into finding those answers a little bit sooner than they would have originally. At the same time, he is building up his own power. There was a scientific aspect to this dealing with experiments on how to study the system. This was both interesting and boring at the same time. After a while it got a little boring, but I understood the need for it. I liked the thought process but too much of anything can be a little repetitive. Overall, I enjoyed the book, it could have been better hence not quite 4 stars but enough to want to read the next book so more than 3 stars. I really wish Goodreads came up with a 10-star system.
This book was pretty good. Reminding me of Towers of Heaven but just with the setup. The world is ending. There are only 3 people left. The system that gave them power was also the thing that caused their demise. The last 3 people wanted to go out in style and decided to take out a powerful demon. 2 of them die before the demon is destroyed leaving on one person alive. He then gets visited by a god and is told he has met certain criteria to go back in time and try to change things. He accepts. He goes back in time 10 years to the day the system first came into being and he is going to try and change things. The system is somewhat different than what I am used to. With this system the people are given information about how to summon creatures that they then can kill to gain power. The unique part of the system is that if nobody summoned anything there would be no monsters. There also wouldn't be any way to power up. So, the good people summoned monsters to kill so that they can get stronger because they knew that there are other people that were going to do the same. If the monster killed the summoner, it could then go off and kill others. This is one of those damned if you do and damned if you don't scenarios. The MC knows what is going to happen and wants to stop it but understands that he can't just tell people as nobody will believe him. He needs to get more powerful himself but also needs to warn people so that they can also get more powerful. He joins the team of scientists that he knows is going to study the system. His goal is to push them into finding those answers a little bit sooner than they would have originally. At the same time, he is building up his own power. There was a scientific aspect to this dealing with experiments on how to study the system. This was both interesting and boring at the same time. After a while it got a little boring, but I understood the need for it. I liked the thought process but too much of anything can be a little repetitive. Overall, I enjoyed the book, it could have been better hence not quite 4 stars but enough to want to read the next book so more than 3 stars. I really wish Goodreads came up with a 10-star system.
January 27, 2024
I have to agree with most other reviewers about how boring this book or how 'scared' the MC is to reveal his knowledge or even just to kill monsters. Like he keeps acting as if it's already illegal when there is no law saying that they can't summon and kill monsters. Unless there is some German law that the author assumes we would know like a 'public endangerment' law that he assumes the summoning would fall under.
Now that aside, the worst part is that its a time travel redo LITRPG without the redo. The MC main goal isn't to redo stuff it's to lead people to learning about the System 'faster' Thats it. Normaly what makes these books great is the MC has foreknowledge of bad events or things they should have done when weaker to get and be more powerful. The "If I only knew when I was level 5" Type things. Rare achievements. Rare skills, rare weapons, rare aspects...ect. Except our MC does none of that. His main goal is to do exactly what he did before just..'a little faster' not even a lot faster but just 'a little faster'
He's making his exact same build he had at the start of the book , before the time restart. No plans to get new skills, new aspects, new anything. Nothing he learnt to add to his skills while low level. Nothing. No hidden system thing that if he uses at the start he'll get a OP edge nope. Nothing to summon that other don't know about.
He doesn't even use his knowledge of alchemy or gears to buy up all the cheap ingredients and make it to resell. Nope. Hell he doesn't even buy all the ingredients just to resell as ingredients when people realize how vital they are to the new SYSTEM.
He basically went back in time to say a few words to a research group to send them down paths they'd already go down, but a little faster.
That's all this MC does in his time restart. The normal stuff just 'a little faster'.
Now that aside, the worst part is that its a time travel redo LITRPG without the redo. The MC main goal isn't to redo stuff it's to lead people to learning about the System 'faster' Thats it. Normaly what makes these books great is the MC has foreknowledge of bad events or things they should have done when weaker to get and be more powerful. The "If I only knew when I was level 5" Type things. Rare achievements. Rare skills, rare weapons, rare aspects...ect. Except our MC does none of that. His main goal is to do exactly what he did before just..'a little faster' not even a lot faster but just 'a little faster'
He's making his exact same build he had at the start of the book , before the time restart. No plans to get new skills, new aspects, new anything. Nothing he learnt to add to his skills while low level. Nothing. No hidden system thing that if he uses at the start he'll get a OP edge nope. Nothing to summon that other don't know about.
He doesn't even use his knowledge of alchemy or gears to buy up all the cheap ingredients and make it to resell. Nope. Hell he doesn't even buy all the ingredients just to resell as ingredients when people realize how vital they are to the new SYSTEM.
He basically went back in time to say a few words to a research group to send them down paths they'd already go down, but a little faster.
That's all this MC does in his time restart. The normal stuff just 'a little faster'.
April 14, 2025
A Solid Concept Undermined by Flat Execution (No Spoilers)
I went into this LitRPG novel intrigued by the premise: the world ends, and the protagonist travels back in time to prevent it. It’s a classic setup that, in the right hands, can lead to emotional depth, tense stakes, and a satisfying character journey. Unfortunately, while the concept has potential, the execution falls flat. I read up to book 4, but stopped there.
The writing itself isn’t bad in terms of grammar or mechanics, but the narrative voice is mechanical and lifeless. Much of the book reads like a bullet-pointed list of events in paragraph form: Then he did this. Then he did that. Then this happened. There’s no sense of pacing, buildup, or suspense. The story doesn’t seem to care if you’re invested in the characters or not—because they themselves aren’t developed beyond surface-level traits.
Character development is virtually nonexistent. The protagonist moves from event to event with little introspection, emotional struggle, or transformation. Supporting characters feel like cardboard cutouts—names with dialogue, rather than people with motivations or arcs. There’s no real chemistry, no friction, no relationships worth rooting for.
And perhaps the biggest issue: there’s no mystery or tension to drive the story forward. Nothing to make me wonder what will happen next, or how the protagonist will overcome the next challenge. The story tells you everything as it happens, without letting you feel it, or giving you a reason to care.
This book isn’t terrible. It has a coherent plot and a logical structure. But it’s missing the spark that makes stories stories. It reads like a game log, not a novel.
2 stars – For a concept with promise, but a delivery that left me completely uninvested.
I went into this LitRPG novel intrigued by the premise: the world ends, and the protagonist travels back in time to prevent it. It’s a classic setup that, in the right hands, can lead to emotional depth, tense stakes, and a satisfying character journey. Unfortunately, while the concept has potential, the execution falls flat. I read up to book 4, but stopped there.
The writing itself isn’t bad in terms of grammar or mechanics, but the narrative voice is mechanical and lifeless. Much of the book reads like a bullet-pointed list of events in paragraph form: Then he did this. Then he did that. Then this happened. There’s no sense of pacing, buildup, or suspense. The story doesn’t seem to care if you’re invested in the characters or not—because they themselves aren’t developed beyond surface-level traits.
Character development is virtually nonexistent. The protagonist moves from event to event with little introspection, emotional struggle, or transformation. Supporting characters feel like cardboard cutouts—names with dialogue, rather than people with motivations or arcs. There’s no real chemistry, no friction, no relationships worth rooting for.
And perhaps the biggest issue: there’s no mystery or tension to drive the story forward. Nothing to make me wonder what will happen next, or how the protagonist will overcome the next challenge. The story tells you everything as it happens, without letting you feel it, or giving you a reason to care.
This book isn’t terrible. It has a coherent plot and a logical structure. But it’s missing the spark that makes stories stories. It reads like a game log, not a novel.
2 stars – For a concept with promise, but a delivery that left me completely uninvested.
Read
June 9, 2023There are several styles that stand out when you read LitRPGs. The majority of those I've read essentially show the evolution of a character, more rarely of his entourage too, and see the character grow in power to dominate his opponents.
What I like about this one, despite its problems, is the willingness to work on a global scale rather than a regional or national one.
Isaac has the knowledge, strength and power to become a true pillar and will seek to use this to protect the world as a whole. But how? Through knowledge. It's knowledge that allows millions of characters to evolve, rather than just a hundred.
This quest for knowledge unfortunately leads to slow, pseudo-scientific writing to justify Humanity's logical advance on the [System]. This is what most detracts from the book, even if it remains fairly logical and well-constructed.
Others have done as he did, imagining a secret identity for the hero that will publish "shocking" information to the world and allow information to be given without justification. You can feel that the author wanted to start classically like this before changing his mind, but was obliged to resort to it, otherwise stagnation lurked.
This secret identity and its relations with the mafia leave me a little perplexed. I find it hard to understand their relevance here. It would have been better to ignore it or get completely involved in it, rather than stepping in and doing nothing with it. What's the point of selling Aspects to a mafioso for a few thousand euros when their legal value will soon skyrocket?
In short, what's the point? It's an easy read, not bad and quite interesting, but suffers from a relative slowness.
What I like about this one, despite its problems, is the willingness to work on a global scale rather than a regional or national one.
Isaac has the knowledge, strength and power to become a true pillar and will seek to use this to protect the world as a whole. But how? Through knowledge. It's knowledge that allows millions of characters to evolve, rather than just a hundred.
This quest for knowledge unfortunately leads to slow, pseudo-scientific writing to justify Humanity's logical advance on the [System]. This is what most detracts from the book, even if it remains fairly logical and well-constructed.
Others have done as he did, imagining a secret identity for the hero that will publish "shocking" information to the world and allow information to be given without justification. You can feel that the author wanted to start classically like this before changing his mind, but was obliged to resort to it, otherwise stagnation lurked.
This secret identity and its relations with the mafia leave me a little perplexed. I find it hard to understand their relevance here. It would have been better to ignore it or get completely involved in it, rather than stepping in and doing nothing with it. What's the point of selling Aspects to a mafioso for a few thousand euros when their legal value will soon skyrocket?
In short, what's the point? It's an easy read, not bad and quite interesting, but suffers from a relative slowness.
May 13, 2023
Audio books are often listened to because your hands and eyes are engaged on some other task. Hence, fast forwarding the audio book every time the meaningless character sheet is reviewed AGAIN is not really a good option. In the written format, you can just skip past it - but in the audio book it is not a great option.
And you will get to hear this guy's character sheet ten times or more. In the FIRST HOUR of the nearly 16 hour audio book. What the actual fuck. My man, it is not like we are actually getting to play this game. The stats are just an extra bit of fluff description - not a critical 'what exactly is his strength stat' thing.
A good ways of dealing with the character sheet I've read in a different book I cannot remember the name of -
The best was at the end of each chapter, they would tell you just the changes (+2 to Strength). Every couple hours you might get to hear the full sheet. That is all that is needed. Really. [While there are people who might say they enjoy hearing the character sheet a dozen times an hour these are probably tedious anal people best avoided.]
Later in the book, the author calms down with the temptation of flashing (fairly meaningless) stats and gets down to the important things like characters and story.
Had the extreme annoyance of 'we now interrupt this story to bring you stats' not been so prevalent this book would have gotten 4 stars. We'll see what the next is like.
And you will get to hear this guy's character sheet ten times or more. In the FIRST HOUR of the nearly 16 hour audio book. What the actual fuck. My man, it is not like we are actually getting to play this game. The stats are just an extra bit of fluff description - not a critical 'what exactly is his strength stat' thing.
A good ways of dealing with the character sheet I've read in a different book I cannot remember the name of -
The best was at the end of each chapter, they would tell you just the changes (+2 to Strength). Every couple hours you might get to hear the full sheet. That is all that is needed. Really. [While there are people who might say they enjoy hearing the character sheet a dozen times an hour these are probably tedious anal people best avoided.]
Later in the book, the author calms down with the temptation of flashing (fairly meaningless) stats and gets down to the important things like characters and story.
Had the extreme annoyance of 'we now interrupt this story to bring you stats' not been so prevalent this book would have gotten 4 stars. We'll see what the next is like.
December 27, 2023
OK this is a very strange approach to the reborn so I'm OP genre of books. As you know the trope isn't very original but for me the fun comes from the progression to op status and the fights (or if I'm really lucky I could get really interesting and diverse character interactions). Here, even though we have the (stupid) background story and (weird - at this stage) reason for timetravel that's fine because like I said I'm not looking for eventual plot holes or whatever and looking forward to Mc dominating and face slapping. Unfortunately the author decided that he wanted for the Mc not to solo his way to glory and humanity's salvation because 4 hands are better than 2 fists (or something to that effect). So we have the Mc literally babysitting a research team to help them figure out the stuff he already knows, so that they will legitimately publish their findings for the whole of humanity's benefits. That's a very smart way to go about things and all but it's also reaaallly f. ing boring to read about. I found myself skipping whole chapters of the Mc fighting literal lv 1 mobs after he said he was one of the most powerful on earth.
Maybe this gets better with proper action and more struggles (not related to dumb decisions the author introduces with the rationale that "hey people are dumb) but I don't have the patience to reach them through all the slice of life chapters.
Maybe this gets better with proper action and more struggles (not related to dumb decisions the author introduces with the rationale that "hey people are dumb) but I don't have the patience to reach them through all the slice of life chapters.
March 23, 2025
I'm going to one review which covers the first two books, and I anticipate will cover the rest of the series as well.
These books are fun, largely plot driven novels. If the LitRPG meets Urban Fantasy subgenre that is System Apocalypse appeals to you, I think these books are addressing that in an interesting an engaging way. Most of the interesting worldbuilding (which I'd generally rate as fine) has to do with the system and how the world reacts to it; I think the system itself isn't doing anything unique for the subgenre but it is used in interesting ways. . The writing is above par for self-published works from my experience with them so far and it makes itself easy to read.
The characters are fine but a little boring. Our main character, Issac, is likeable but his unique situation is often glossed over rather than explored, and most of the secondary characters haven't gotten much character development over the 2.5 books I've read so far (the professors at least have some stuff going for them, but the research students need some help). The primary antagonist of the second book might be the most interesting character in the series so far.
Overall, I'm rating 8/10. I'm currently really digging the subgenre so the series is hitting the spot for me, but there hasn't been anything genre transcending here.
These books are fun, largely plot driven novels. If the LitRPG meets Urban Fantasy subgenre that is System Apocalypse appeals to you, I think these books are addressing that in an interesting an engaging way. Most of the interesting worldbuilding (which I'd generally rate as fine) has to do with the system and how the world reacts to it; I think the system itself isn't doing anything unique for the subgenre but it is used in interesting ways. . The writing is above par for self-published works from my experience with them so far and it makes itself easy to read.
The characters are fine but a little boring. Our main character, Issac, is likeable but his unique situation is often glossed over rather than explored, and most of the secondary characters haven't gotten much character development over the 2.5 books I've read so far (the professors at least have some stuff going for them, but the research students need some help). The primary antagonist of the second book might be the most interesting character in the series so far.
Overall, I'm rating 8/10. I'm currently really digging the subgenre so the series is hitting the spot for me, but there hasn't been anything genre transcending here.
October 7, 2022
Isaac Thoma is the most powerful human on earth at the moment, an earth which has been devastated leaving him the sole survivor of the apocalypse and with his past in ashes. However, he is hauled back in time and given a chance to change it all, to warn humanity of their impending doom but will they listen? The system's lust for power will bring humanity to its knees and render it extinct and Isaac had lived and experienced all of the horrors which this entailed, so he was now more than ready to fight demos and deities, human greed and everything in between to prevent the end from happening once again. This is a pre-apocalyptic, time travelling LitRPG and the first book in a new series which is filled with non-stop action, and heroism as one man takes a stand to save humanity. He gathers a group of people who can help him achieve his goal even though he cannot tell them that he is from the future, the future which unless stopped was dire indeed. I liked the idea of the time travel with a chance to change extinction for humans but I found the book to be too full of little details about status and getting stronger in the game even when fighting tier 1 creatures, I think we need to see more progress in the game.
May 11, 2023
Help me read more books
It's a nice story. It's a little different from most time rewind LitRPG tales in that the main character doesn't immediately run off and begin changing things as much as they can, but takes his time, and analyzes the best course of action, then promptly implements it, not by direct action, but by influencing what the main research team takes a look at, the most important things, so they can get the word out via papers, conferences and the like. Actually, a rather intelligent approach in my opinion. I like this story, and fully intend to read the next one. May as well, since I'm outside building a shelf to hold the cat bowl for outside usage, so the food doesn't get soaked when it rains. I can multitask.
Anyway, highly recommended for those who like smart thinking main characters. Admittedly, he does run off and get into some not so smart situations from time to time, but who doesn't. Go add this to your to read shelf if you're a fan of the genre, and haven't read this one yet.
It's a nice story. It's a little different from most time rewind LitRPG tales in that the main character doesn't immediately run off and begin changing things as much as they can, but takes his time, and analyzes the best course of action, then promptly implements it, not by direct action, but by influencing what the main research team takes a look at, the most important things, so they can get the word out via papers, conferences and the like. Actually, a rather intelligent approach in my opinion. I like this story, and fully intend to read the next one. May as well, since I'm outside building a shelf to hold the cat bowl for outside usage, so the food doesn't get soaked when it rains. I can multitask.
Anyway, highly recommended for those who like smart thinking main characters. Admittedly, he does run off and get into some not so smart situations from time to time, but who doesn't. Go add this to your to read shelf if you're a fan of the genre, and haven't read this one yet.
June 5, 2023
Neat idea, and easy to digest premise and actions taken by the mc, but ultimately quite flawed in certain aspects , while i agree with his whole empowering humanity as a whole, in the end one has to simply look at history and see how fragile such good intentions are in front of pure might, worst part is that the author tried to do something unique but instead trapped himself in a corner where now he has to go with the "lucky encounter" route to justify the power growth of the mc, since the mc will be spending quite some time on "empowering humanity" by being trapped in a lab and nudging scientist in the right direction, instead of gaining personal power and the recruiting the said people and actually showing the effectiveness of the methods that he is nudging the other to come up with.
Seriously a waste of time.
And some high star reviews while good and honest, completely miss the point of reading a fantasy book which is enjoyment, if they want to read a lab journal then go read science papers and stop encouraging these writers to write bad books.
Seriously a waste of time.
And some high star reviews while good and honest, completely miss the point of reading a fantasy book which is enjoyment, if they want to read a lab journal then go read science papers and stop encouraging these writers to write bad books.
July 24, 2024
Really mostly excellent as a series.
Takes an alternate approach to most books in the genre, focusing on a research and knowledge first to solving the end of the world. This is an interesting premise that I enjoyed exploring quite a bit here in book 1. As the series went on, the odd combat scene will show up here and there but topics branch out to encompass exploration of the governmental bureaucracy, social implications and change, international relations, military and police training modification, and law. The main character is by necessity a strong fighter but it is never his main class or calling as he sits at the center of many of these arenas of societal change brought about by the apocalypse. Saving the world isn’t just about stopping everyone from dying.
This concept was very novel and interesting and I enjoyed it for a good long while, making it 6 books in before I started flagging. Ultimately I think the copious side focuses on societal change aren’t my cup of tea, but even then, for the Series as a whole I’d give 4.5/5
Takes an alternate approach to most books in the genre, focusing on a research and knowledge first to solving the end of the world. This is an interesting premise that I enjoyed exploring quite a bit here in book 1. As the series went on, the odd combat scene will show up here and there but topics branch out to encompass exploration of the governmental bureaucracy, social implications and change, international relations, military and police training modification, and law. The main character is by necessity a strong fighter but it is never his main class or calling as he sits at the center of many of these arenas of societal change brought about by the apocalypse. Saving the world isn’t just about stopping everyone from dying.
This concept was very novel and interesting and I enjoyed it for a good long while, making it 6 books in before I started flagging. Ultimately I think the copious side focuses on societal change aren’t my cup of tea, but even then, for the Series as a whole I’d give 4.5/5
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