Power

Wormhole Mana, Book 1

By: Tom Larcombe

Narrated by: Shawn Compton

When the government thinks they have a lead on an inexpensive energy source, they throw together a research project for it, disregarding some unfortunate occurrences with similar research previously. The theory is that they can create a wormhole that will constantly allow energy through, then they'll convert the energy into electricity and feed it into the grid. Maxwell Carter works a maintenance job at a government research facility.

The research lab he works at has an accident, more energy coming through the wormhole than anticipated, enough to completely rupture the shields that were supposed to contain it until they finished determining how to convert the energy into electricity. Previously harmless animals are changed to nightmare threats and people are dying, seemingly due to incidents related directly to their interests.

Max and his friend Ron make it out of the facility alive, although the rest of the people in the facility aren't so lucky. The strangeness that was surrounding the labs seems to be expanding, even reaching his home within a day or two. Now strange screens, reminiscent of some of the online games he's played, are appearing in his vision, and apparently Prometheus, the AI running on the supercomputer from the research lab, is the one in charge of it all and is dedicated to spreading this new energy worldwide.

©2023 Thomas Larcombe (P)2024 Tantor

Different take on LitRPG

Interesting story line. Ebook version needed some editing but errors seemed to be corrected in audio version Characters weren't deep but most were believable.

excellent story and interesting plot

I cannot wait until Brooke too to finish listening to the plot and story of this book it was really interesting to listen to I enjoyed the whole story I've replayed the story multiple times

Good but slow

A good story and would make a very good series. Though the issue I have with it was the story move very slow. In fact, I put this book away for about a month before I came back and finished it. it is a very good story and has some good plot elements.

Great system origin story

There was a lot that went great with this book. But it did turn into a slice of life. Unless the author can get the characters a will to power, it will continue to be a slice of life.

I want book 3 now!!

REEEEEALY good series so far. Ran though both books in a weekend if that says something. I hope there are lots more books to this series! an maybe a little longer. Though I would say if I showed up at his camp an learned all that 😆 🤣 I'd be talking out loud to "him". making everyone who didn't know think I was crazy. (book2) like come on man! give me a damn brake at night. I scratch ur back u scratch mine. I need some sleep. chill bro 😆 🤣

so a system outbreak

this book is the star of a system series. The US has found out how to make worm hole but they don't completely understand them. the first time one of this Worm hole is made it destroyed part of a big city. this story takes place in rural Colorado where a small facility is working on making a smaller worm hole. this facility is using an AI name Promitius to with the primary gold of making the energy product by the worm hole usable by all of humanity. exposure to this energy makes the Promitius AI go sapien so he comes to the conclusion that the best way to make this energy usable by every one is by making a system and adapting people to the energy. However he disad that the best way to implement the system is by copying MMO RPG as inspiration.

TLDR an AI used Energy from a magic portal to make System and give everyone classes.

Entertaining Light Read

The small picture is fun and very entertaining. The large picture is alright but don't poke it. There aren't any huge plot holes but plenty of potholes. The stats and rpg elements are very light which is a good thing as I'm scared what mess would be caused bringing them to the front. I'd like to see a few of them disappear(like HP). The characters are fun and the story flows nicely. I like that it's not a big worldwide apocalypse but more like a spreading plague where countries have a good chance of remaining intact. The plot holes are ignorable for the most part but they still very much exist. One big one is the mostly missing animals (only specific animals seemed to have survived). The other is the legit creation of new antagonistic sentient races by an AI specifically built to help humans.
In short: It's a fun read as long as you can ignore(not too hard) the wider picture.

Outste

I picked this book not really knowing anything about it and enjoyed every minute of it. Now I have to wait for the next one tocomme out on Audible.

Good premise, standard system, narration issues.

The plot development was good, with characters at a good level, not overpowered or underpowered. Explanation of the reason for the introduction of the System was plausible, though the AI is an odd mix of benefactor and villain.

Good variety of characters though almost exclusively focusing on Max, the competent and even-tempered good guy who’s just trying to get by after life and love dealt him a bad hand.

The biggest drawback is the pace and tone of the narration. The narrator has a nice voice and I heard no obvious mispronunciations, so kudos on that. However he only seems to have about 5 voices he can use, young adult male, elderly male, young girl, young adult female, and elderly female. There is only one young girl but there are several characters for each of the other voices and so they all sound the same. All of these have either a Midwestern, or slightly southern accent. Except for the ones that have a bad attitude, who all seem to have a New York / New Jersey accent. That might be accurate for Colorado (where this story takes place) but I’m not sure. More variety of scripts would be useful in distinguishing the characters more easily.

The pace of narration felt slow through the while story. Not annoyingly slow but a bit plodding. Easy to ignore though.

One last thing — the book ended so abruptly that it caught me off guard. No real ending, no denouement, no cliffhanger, just a few characters chatting and in the middle of the conversation the book ends. Very odd.

can't wait for book two

I didn't think I would enjoy this book as much as I did but I was pleasantly surprised it was great I really got into the story the characters seemed pretty realistic you know how I would try and survive in that situation