Book 1 - An Apocalyptic LitRPG - The System Apocalypse

This book had some promising things going for it. The whole Dungeon World concept was dumb, but I expect that from LitRPG and it was an entertaining kind of dumb. And having a non-white, bisexual male protagonist was a nice change from the norm for the genre. I started disliking it early on when the author played up the sci-fi aspects of the setting, especially with regards to the protagonist's equipment. That's a taste thing; I just would have preferred for it to lean more towards fantasy. What isn't subjective is the horrible lack of proofreading and proliferation of technical errors. Typos abound. The author constantly uses numerals in prose passages where they are not appropriate. There are tense error, and they're very noticeable.

All of this makes this book disappointing even by the low standards of the LitRPG genre. I will of course now follow the author and read any future installments to see what he does wrong next.

Interesting world. Similar premise as SpeedRunner, but with the entire Earth as the new dungeon and people have to play or die. The action takes place in the Alaskan/West Canada region, one that is changing rapidly with forced implementation of Earth’s new status. In many ways, this was a very good book. Given the assumptions (however implausible), the author gives us a fairly consistent world full of action and also spends enough time on game mechanics to give us a better idea of his world.

However, it doesn’t appear that the author has fully understood all the implications of his world. Like most people, the main character starts with physical and mental flaws. After the Earth is turned in to a dungeon world, he starts improving his physical and mental characteristics. By increasing his physical characteristics, his physical flaws vanish. Logically, by increasing his mental characteristics, his mental flaws should vanish too. The author seems to agree with this, when the protagonist increases his intelligence, he starts understanding much more of the world around him and changes his behavior to reflect a higher IQ (e.g., reads more challenging books). In another example, the main character greatly increases his perception and starts noticing much more of the life around him. Yet, despite massive increases in perception and willpower – to superhuman extremes – the main character remains a socially clueless introvert with severe anger management issues. This shows itself in very annoying ways. Despite flirting with what will probably be his significant other for months, he has a one-night stand with another woman because he doesn’t really that the focus of his flirtation is really interested in him. He also kowtows to a bureaucrat his aptly dubs Minion and then loses his temper at Minion later despite his supposedly incredible willpower. Further, he doesn't use his intelligence to solve the problem despite multiple options that are obvious to the reader.

I understand that writing about characters with superhuman mental capabilities is challenging. Flowers of Algeron may have been the best ever example of doing it right. For a contemporary example, Dave in the Emerilia series is a much more believable example of a character with exceptional willpower and intelligence than Wong’s main character.

Finally, there are a few gratuitous homoerotic scenes where the main character is thinking about sleeping with the male elf who owns the city where most of the action takes place. These scenes have nothing to do with the rest of the book and are really disconcerting, especially since the character’s relationship with his presumed significant other (female) is such a large part of the book.

I took the time to write these comments in the hopes that the author will consider them and improve the sequel. There is a lot to like about this book and it has great potential to become one of the better litRPG series. Just have the character reflect his mental statistics and have a monogamous relationship with his girl.

This genre is normally such a disappointment with bad storytelling poor character building and all around subpar grammar. This book however is an unexpected deviation from the standard. I enjoyed the way the main character was flawed and broken.

On the other side however, the supporting cast was really not really fleshed out very much and the interactions tended to be a little wooden at times. It felt like the writer was pushing through the story to get to the fight.
The fight scenes were interesting. They were written in a way that brought to mind a graphic novel. Quick short descriptions to build a sense of movement with flashes of gore to drive home the danger.
All in all a good book, I hope to see more from the author.

Literally, the word the author was looking for is "worse" not the worst. Its like either he never learned the difference or somehow every instance of worse was changed to worst. 'Things couldn't get any worst.' 'This was worst than I thought.' Almost every instance the word should have been worst. That out of the way, this book is pretty good! This was recommended to me by someone who know I couldn't quite get into LitRPG despite his many suggestions and knew I loved the outdoors and adventuring and books about those subjects. This is definitely a LitRPG novel. But one set in present day and certain mechanics introduced to make it more like that weird adam sandler movie Pixels where the giant 80's game characters attack and less sword and sorcery middle ages. Though it still has those components. Overall I thought it was a pretty fun read. For my more suspense thriller type taste I'd rate it 3 stars, but I think if your tastes run to more litrpg or apocalypse type novels with a game type meachanic its at least 4 stars. Somethings were a little too convenient for my tastes and by the end of the book I was a little bored of his rage issues. Also didn't like the ending or lack thereof. Not to mention the worst issue--literally.

Honestly, since I picked up Kindle Unlimited, I've been running into a lot of hit-and-misses on the selections regarding the whole LitRPG genre.

Life in the North, though, did not disappoint. World-building was solid and -- what I appreciate most -- a sound reasoning for all the changes from the Dungeon World inclusion. Characters are rich, even though they don't get much screen-time. Only place it loses points, however, is because the plot and it's really a marginal thing. It's a bit slow but that's an understandable situation since this is just the initial book and haven't really hit their stride yet.

All in all, I'm looking forward to the next book! Keep it up, Tao!

The writer does a terrific job with the World Setting putting an original spin offshoot in the genre. You know, galactic ruling body decides all of earth is now a dungeon for the rest of the universe to play in, but he aborigines (humans) get a short time to transition (survive and level up) before the gates are opened. This story is the beginning. Oh, SPoiler alert, 60% of humanity is killed in the first 24 hours with those who've played MMRPG of course being at an advantage LOL. PLAYING TO THE READERS MUCH?

Not your tipical litrpg
Not alot of stat sheet but enough to be interesting.. about end of the world as we know it by aliens to make,a dungeon world blends typically rpg worlds ( elf, dwarfs orks) with sifi and modern day stuff.. really good book couldn't stop reading it once i started it.. can't wait for the next book

On a personnal level, the main character is spot on. I very much understand where this main character is coming from, even if the specifics are different. Some grammar and punctuation mistakes, but still a good read in my opinion.

The reason I gave this book four stars is because not only is the MC interesting he has the kinda dynamic I like in a leading role in the story. Which for me is personal pain and rage. He does what I have been dealing with in my life and I can relate to him. The story in of its self is interesting but is strange in the beginning with getting used to the style of writing it really becomes a great read. Their are some lite grammer issues but those are far and few between. Now the reason it only gets a four star are some confusion in the leveling system and class system. More specific information with how the System of the world works would help understand the world that is being made better.

What a rollercoaster of emotions this book delivers. The post apocalyptic stories are always interesting to me so. More so if it has litrpg elements added to it. Having a MC that has some serious personal issues helps build a good story can't wait for more. Though if I had a say in what direction to go, I would leave if I was John. Some would say he is running from his problems I would say I'm distancing myself from idiots that are the cause to personal issues. In the long run its better for everyone. Just living in the same settlement as my ex girlfriend who cheated on me, at my darkest hour/time in life would have me leaving for the next town in the early chapters of the book. With that said though still a great story so far can't wait for more

Possibly the best reasoning for the world to have a RPG system imposed upon it. Wonderful blending of RPG and living through the Apocalypse..... The tiering of the classes, mixed with reality logic, What is is what it is; leads to a much more grounded version of game vs reality. Death really being the end, as well as the personal tension, of the repressed feelings of the main character, leads to a very gripping tale!

Very entertaining and better than most in the litrpg genre. The book has a lot of emotional stuff but it is handled well and didn't make me want to stop reading although a prefer books that don't focus on the mental as much.

On a personnal level, the main character is spot on. I very much understand where this main character is coming from, even if the specifics are different. Some grammar and punctuation mistakes, but still a good read in my opinion.

The reason I gave this book four stars is because not only is the MC interesting he has the kinda dynamic I like in a leading role in the story. Which for me is personal pain and rage. He does what I have been dealing with in my life and I can relate to him. The story in of its self is interesting but is strange in the beginning with getting used to the style of writing it really becomes a great read. Their are some lite grammer issues but those are far and few between. Now the reason it only gets a four star are some confusion in the leveling system and class system. More specific information with how the System of the world works would help understand the world that is being made better.

What a rollercoaster of emotions this book delivers. The post apocalyptic stories are always interesting to me so. More so if it has litrpg elements added to it. Having a MC that has some serious personal issues helps build a good story can't wait for more. Though if I had a say in what direction to go, I would leave if I was John. Some would say he is running from his problems I would say I'm distancing myself from idiots that are the cause to personal issues. In the long run its better for everyone. Just living in the same settlement as my ex girlfriend who cheated on me, at my darkest hour/time in life would have me leaving for the next town in the early chapters of the book. With that said though still a great story so far can't wait for more

Possibly the best reasoning for the world to have a RPG system imposed upon it. Wonderful blending of RPG and living through the Apocalypse..... The tiering of the classes, mixed with reality logic, What is is what it is; leads to a much more grounded version of game vs reality. Death really being the end, as well as the personal tension, of the repressed feelings of the main character, leads to a very gripping tale!

This is a pretty great first book, honestly the only thing it really needs is an editor. The story is fast paced and it's easy to get immersed into the story but there is just so many jarring misused or missing words that it just breaks up the flow. Again I really liked this story and my only complaint is the large number of issues that break up the flow. Other than that I highly recommend this story.

This story was really easy to get into. The character progression makes sense. The depth of the lead character is kind of shallow but adequately developed. Really loved the story. Made me think of playing Secret World Legends, an awesome story. He could benefit from a tad better editor though, the grammatical errors are consistent and very few for this genre. /salute on a job well done.

The concept was interesting and I look forward to a sequel. I found the main character believable and thoroughly enjoyed the setting, some of which is likely due to my time spent in the northwest territories.

My only complaint are a few typos which seemed as though the book was edited with spellcheck instead of good human editing. Those were enough to pull me out of the story in several places and that is why I did not give this five stars.

The story was enjoyable to read, but there were words completely left out of sentences in places and the reader is left to fill in the blank.

It makes it hard to stay IN the story when you keep pausing to figure out what the author might have meant.

The main character, John Lee, left a little to be desired at times. By the end of the book we still don't know a lot about him. Hopefully will be fleshed out a bit more in book 2, which I am definitely looking forward to reading.

Since RPG books are becoming so common it's always interesting and exciting to find someone with a slightly different twist to the story. Especially someone who writes in a style that I enjoy ..... where the main character is the main focus . This is what I found...... keep writing.

Great setup to turn the world into a LitRPG. Enjoyed the mix of adventure, City building, world descriptions, and gaming development. Nice balance of solo "play" and group content. Overall, a pretty great LitRPG.

Not crazy about the end point. Main character is having a crisis of self, and there's really no resolution to any character interactions or overarching quests. But the journey was good enough to earn a 5-star read recommendation, and very hopeful for the next book.

Most books try to yank the protagonist into the rpg world with only the thinnest of threads holding the plot together, but this book brings the rpg, the magic and sci-fi, to the protagonist in a smooth, easily understood, way that allows for the suspension of disbelief that is missing from so many other books in the genre. 5 stars if re-edited to remove the handful of typos and grammar errors. They were rare but more noticeable because of this.

Good read very entertaining. Nice character development later in story. Does have the trope of giving the PC a big advantage right at the start of the story. Will be interesting to see where the story goes in the next book.

I liked this litrpg. Specifically I liked the premise of the real world being coopted into a kind of video game. The characters were well developed and had distinct personalities.

Looking forward to the next chapter of this amazing story .