Jake's Magical Market

By: J.R. Mathews

Narrated by: Travis Baldree

Meddling gods. A magical card system. An apocalypse no one could have predicted.

Jake is working at the neighborhood market under his apartment when the world ends. He expected nuclear war, a computer virus, or even climate change burning everyone to a crisp to bring about the downfall of civilization. But cruel and arbitrary gods from another world? Who would have guessed that?

When these cruel gods shuffled Earth like a deck of cards, nothing was in the same place anymore. Monsters, dungeons, and magical items appear scattered across the globe. And suddenly, everyone has access to a new, strange magical card system that gives them magical powers.

Jake, wasting his day slacking off in the cooler, as he usually did, found himself alone in a completely new and very dangerous world. Can he learn to survive? Can he collect enough cards and create a good enough deck to fight back against the monsters that have overtaken his former home? And why are these strange people that look a lot like elves knocking on the door of the market he is hiding in and asking to buy some of his goods?

The gods may have stacked the deck against him, but Jake just might have a few cards up his sleeve that will help him survive.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 J.R. Mathews (P)2022 Royal Guard Publishing

Full Long Reviews (I

I liked this book alot, like my other reviews I'm going to say what I didn't like about this book and say what I did like about it. Number 1 This book in the start is really repetitive don't get me wrong I love this book it's like you are living in the book it gives a sort of immersion, how you ask by stocking the shelves of your store,doodling in your journal, growing your garden, Fighting dungeons, finding more humans, Training, this book is like you are the person at least for the first couple hours then the action starts. Also I don't like how this book has so much dialog I know I just wrote a paragraph on how good it was but there was alot of useless stuff in this book don't get me wrong this author has remarkable writing skills all I got to say is DO NOT BINGE this Is a book you listen to a hour or two a day I got this book when it came out and chain listened 16 hours until it got boring if you do get into the 4 hour mark and think it's getting boring just wait. this book is also so dramatic I couldn't find a better word to describe it the Mc gets depressed then happy then gets sad for killing someone goes on a 10 minute rant on how it's his responsibility or something like that. it might seem that I'm making the book seem bad but I like it I just want people to get this book and know what they are getting this review is detailed and hopefully someone gets it.

A great addition to the genre with a few glaring exceptions.

I will say that I was hesitant to pick this one up. I was worried that a “card” based system of magic and combat would manifest as hours of ill-advised, frustration inducing, turn-based, fight scenes. However, I was pleasantly surprised with a really well rounded and evolved magic system that has real depth.

This book is mostly well written and Travis Baldree’s performance is every bit as good as it always is. The reason I can only say that the book is mostly well written is that in general it’s actually really well written, until he decides to make a pivotal shift in the plot. Almost every single time, he does this via a drawn out fight scene in which the MC suddenly turns into the oblivious cheerleader in a 70’s, B Horror movie.

Invariably, the MC starts doing totally irrational things with no explanation from the author that just happen to draw the fight scene out. Most notably he often completely forgets about one or more of his core abilities that could have ended the fight in ten seconds. Sometimes the author acknowledges this but doesn’t adequately explain why the MC would be so unbelievably stupid. More often it’s never explained at all.

This had the affect of me rolling my eyes and yelling at the audiobook in much the same way that we used to yell at the blond cheerleader not to go into the unlit basement to have casual sex while a serial killer is loose in the neighborhood.

It’s especially annoying because the rest of the book is so enjoyable. This is either a major fail on the part of the editor and beta readers or on the part of the author for not listening to his editors and beta readers. Because the problem is glaringly obvious, and it happens repeatedly throughout the book.

In the end this didn’t ruin the book for me, and I do recommend that it’s worth your credit. However I hope that Mr Mathews doesn’t continue to use this cheap plot device in future works. It’s not only beneath him, it’s beneath any reasonably intelligent person, and it’s just lazy.

Great Momentum

The book just kept getting better as it went. I can't wait for book two.

Amazing journey

Words cannot express how amazing this book is. The depth of each character makes it feel so real that I found myself having an invested interest in not only the main character Jake but also his friends and Allies. This was an amazing experience and length for a single book that actually felt like I was reading multiple books. When listening or reading most books in this genre I can usually tell the direction the story is going in and can guess what is going to happen next but not even once was I able to do that in this book. This book performed by the legendary Travis Baldree deserves more than 5 stars and anyone who gives it less than that deserves to be dragged out into the street and shot.

Great book. Awesome start to a series.

I really enjoyed this book. So much I decided to write my first review in over 200 books. Don't be fooled by the teen literature category. This book is for anyone who likes litrpg but may not like the stat heavy side of some series. Really looking forward to the next book and where the author takes his journey.

More Please

I know this is the first book from this author I really hope he keeps writing because this was awesome I can’t wait to see more from him

Really enjoyed this book

Enjoyed this book on my long drives. I am hopeful for a 2nd one and will be looking forwards to it.

Kinda

Main character is crafty, reasonable and intelligent. Multifaceted. Magic is simple with complexity built in. Main character seems morally complex but his decisions are either based survival which makes sense or vengeance. I thought it was gonna be slower than it turn out which is good. World build was amazing.

awesome!

i love the story and the characters and really hope there will be more soon!

Phenomenal

Wow!!! Jakes magical market is an outstanding book, I was not expecting it to be this good. I highly recommend the book and I cannot wait for part 2