The System Apocalypse Books 1-3

The Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG Fantasy Series

By: Tao Wong

Narrated by: Nick Podehl

The end of the world with dragons and Levels

The world ends in a slew of blue notification boxes, bringing with it a game-like existence including monsters and Classes. Now, John has to make his way from Kluane National Park in the Yukon to Whitehorse through monster infested forests. But, that's not enough; because he'll need to help rebuild civilization itself around the System, aliens and monsters. And, as always, humanity will be its own greatest enemy.

This collection contains the first three books of the highly rated System Apocalypse series (Life in the North, Redeemer of the Dead and the Cost of Survival) and completes the first arc—Whitehorse and the Yukon and the first year of the apocalypse.

The System Apocalypse contains elements of games like level ups, experience, enchanted materials, a sarcastic spirit, mecha, a beguiling dark elf, monsters, minotaurs, a fiery red head and a semi-realistic view on violence and its effects. Does not include harems.

©2019 Tao Wong (P)2024 Starlit Publishing

Could've been better

Nick Podehl does an amazing job narrating this story.
I really enjoyed the concept of what Tao Wong was trying to create. Unfortunately, the character development was a bit lacking. The MC never seemed to learn any real lessons, just kept talking about his pent-up anger. I'm 3 books in and decided to see if the story gets better in the next book. On the plus side, Tao Wong does an incredible job giving descriptions of the battle scenes.

pretty typical

I feel there has been a lot of titles like this. This was as expected.

just a good book

i enjoyed it soo much and had a great time listening to it on long car rides

A mixed bag

4 stars may be generous, but the performance by Nick Podehl really helped to raise up the story in general. I had originally read the first 2 books on the series on my kindle, but dropped the series due to the MC..

The story overall is great with many supporting characters that make the story, despite their relative small contributions. The fighting, story arch in general, and the world building is all pretty good.

The MC is what stops this from being a 5 star read though and may in some people's opinion push it as low as 2 or 3. He is am emotional wreck...which isn't unheard of in these books. But it's clear he was messed up well before the start of the book. His emotional maturity is probably about at the toddler level, his go to response to anything he doesn't like, doesn't understand, or can't deal with is to throw a tantrum, lash out, then run.

Now I am a huge fan of MCs overcoming themselves and learning and growing, but by the end of the 3rd book he has barely improved. He doesn't really make much effort to do so himself either. From his lack of understanding and intelligence, he default feels betrayed and further fuels his trust issues, not trusting those that he should. I was ready to drop the series again due to this by the last chapter in the book as he once again displays this flawed character in the very last chapter and is "gasp" running again.

The only reason I will probably read book 4 is because of his friends that despite how he is about to abandon them, they don't let him and decide to leave with him.

Now don't get me wrong, the flawed MC does make some great fight scenes as he rages out of control and almost pathetically hilarious as he can't understand the feelings of others towards him. And there is some growth on his character, mostly due to his friends and Spirit companion not giving up on him, like he gives up on himself and them. With 1 credit these 3 books was definitely worth the cost.

There is some hope as if it was the MC at the beginning of the book he wouldn't even have let them accompany him at the end, but because he does. I feel he is heading in the right direction and hopefully we are not disappointed in book 4.

definitely worth the listen

loved it can't wait to hear more. love the characters and the story line.

Awesome characters!

Great overall! Not sure if I would have bought individually but great story and narration!

Great performance by Nick

Nick Podehl did a great job, this story is a big hunk of…. Coal, it’s not shiny and is only good for burning.

During combat the whinny protagonist will speak in platitudes about the facets of nostalgia and adventure, rather than details of the fight, and when there are details it’s very minimal.

The protagonist whom the writer wanted to be a brooding loner is more snowflake teenager with a big stick, and will ignore, others and then be completely flabbergasted he knows nothing of what’s going on.

I honestly missed 1/4 of the book because I got so bored I would space out. I’ll give it three stars because I liked the production, but I knock off points because characters are stereotypes and dull.

Very Political and Introspective

I can't say this was a bad series, but for all the complaints that he doesn't like politics he is embroiled in it in every book.
Additionally, he spends the vast majority of the series sulking around talking about how much he hates the System.

Nick Podehl was one of the first narrators that pulled me into LitRPG audiobooks, his performance kept me listening, but the amount of political intricacy was too much for me to really enjoy.

My final complaint is that throughout the series he relied so heavily on one time use equipment rather than skills and abilities. The economics of the shop overshadowed the litrpg theme

it's ehh

Starts really slow and took me some time to get into. Even once I got into it, I wasn't gripped or excited. It's just a decent time killer if you like the gamelit genre and you've already read all the good stuff. It's not gonna top any charts though. Ok worldbuilding but nothing super cool. It's MC is kind of annoying and has a lot of emotional problems that dont always make sense. Decent plot though. Doesn't spend too much time reading character sheets or system messages which is nice. Books are a bit short but the 3 for one credit is a good deal. Solid 3 star books, not great but not terrible either.

Simply wonderful

Tao has built an incredible world and system. There's as much mystery and action as you can handle. And nick brings each and every one of the characters to life. You want to cheer and cry these two masters have imbued so much life into this world.