Bleeding Edge

EDGE Force, Book 1

By: Matthew J. Barbeler

Narrated by: Heath Miller

EDGE Force: A clandestine organisation that leverages the best and brightest humanity has to offer to defend against the threats that can't be fought by normal means.

JD Rideout is a washed-up writer with the best years of his career behind him. Nursing the wounds of a marriage breakdown, his kids are the only thing keeping him going.

When JD wakes up on a tropical island in the middle of the Whitsundays on Queensland's Central Coast, chained to the ceiling, he knows something is very wrong. He feels like a character in one of his novels.

Those who fight for EDGE Force unlock the ability to level up and gain powerful skills to help them fight against threats to our reality.

JD is given a pistol and an axe, along with a new callsign: Hatchet. Uprooted from his life and forced to fight for the fate of the world, Hatchet may just be planet Earth’s last line of defence.

As Hatchet, he’s tasked with fighting back against a shadowy cult that has reappeared after 15 years in hibernation.

But fighting the cult isn’t the only thing that drives Hatchet. These cultists are using the essence of an ancient entity to reshape reality into whatever their twisted imaginations can bring forth. This entity is reaching out to Hatchet too, propelling him towards an epic showdown with the forces of the Fellowship of Cosmic Truth.

During the course of his mission, Hatchet encounters an unexpected ally–a German Shepherd dog named Kaiser–who might just be smarter than Hatchet. Kaiser has his own reasons for fighting the cult and the two form an unlikely alliance.

Bleeding Edge contains LitRPG elements including levelling up, skill increases, new abilities, and a deep crafting system. The book is written using Australian English, and contains Aussie slang.

©2021 Matthew J. Barbeler (P)2022 Podium Audio

Entertaining

Bleeding Edge has a decent plot and one novel idea that I enjoyed a lot, but overall bogs down into many game mechanics taking over the story. The plot revolves around a man who finds himself in a prison with a zombie trying to get at him. As he rescues himself, he begins to discover that he is experiencing the world through a game-like interface that permits him to rapidly gain skills and levels. This is pretty typical of the LitRPG genre. The unique element that I enjoyed so much was the ability of the main character to enter the fictional worlds he has created and interact with his characters even to the point of getting their help in the "real" world.

Where the book slows down is in its use of leveling up skills. The balance of game versus story in a LitRPG can be a difficult one and Barbeler doesn't have it quite right yet in this book. He spends much too much time on experience, skills, and levels, and it really slows the story down. He also finds a way for his character to maximize his skills very quickly which I think also lessened the tension of the story and created a too-powerful main character.

Fun story and good main character

The series had a lot of potential. The skills and leveling system are interesting.

Without spoiling anything, I'm not sure were you go with the power levels from here.

ok but not great

it's a basic story that had real potential but just could not pull everything together. Well narrated and worth giving it a chance but not great.

It was awesome!!

I thought it was gonna be slow but holy cow did it keep me pulled into the story. At every turn I was like what the heck thats so crazy and cool. This book is a great new addition to litrpg!

awesome

entertaining story and excellent narration. kaiser is the best boy. can't wait for book two.

Australian Resident Evil

This story in a nutshell?

What if "Leon S. Kennedy" was a Shotgun Weilding Aussie Hatchetman, with a doggo?

Started a bit slow became great

The book started just a bit slow for me but then picked right up and by 1 hour in it was great. Looking forward to next book in series

Good, but not that good

Good story but at some point, I felt like I was watching somebody’s video game experience rather than reading a story. About halfway through the story, I stopped reading it, and it took me a month before I got back to it. Really just lost interest in it. The main thing that inspired me to finish the book was the reader of the audiobook. He is one of my favorites audiobook readers.

Always love Heath Miller!

The book was good… definitely sounds like you’re reading a video game story line, but Heath Miller always makes the characters really come to life and you begin to love them.