System End

Natural Laws Apocalypse, Book 8

By: Tom Larcombe

Narrated by: Derek Shoales

Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Marc is all too aware that the end of the acclimatization year the System has provided to Earth is quickly drawing to a close and that others will be allowed onto the planet to start claiming areas shortly. Zeus has promised that his series of quests will get Marc, at least, to the maximum level reachable in that first year, but Marc is nervous that it isn't going to happen.

With the transformation of his Safe Zone network into a Kingdom, Marc finds more responsibilities, Fortunately for him, even the help files on the Kingdom recommend delegating authority and, as a result, Sean finds himself with more work than ever. The transformation to a Kingdom also gives Marc some new options. Now he can convert dungeons he completes into Training Dungeons, designed to be more survivable, although giving fewer benefits in the process of completing them. He can also create Training Dungeons from dungeon cores that he has claimed, giving him lots of options to build a strong defensive force for the Kingdom.

With a little bit of abuse of the System's rules, Marc's Kingdom makes it into the Space Age, allowing them to accept Zeus' final quest. A visit to a secret base on the moon gives them the final thing needed for Zeus and Hera to launch their attack on the System in their endeavor to replace it with their own 'kinder, gentler' version.

©2023 Thomas Larcombe (P)2024 Tantor

Definitely a series worth listening/reading. Loved the progression throughout.

The progression towards the end is great, found myself laughing at Mark's plights and Jeff's antics yet again. Sad this is the final book. Would love to see the story carried on either 5 or 10 years after the events of the end of the book. Finally an explanation for the source of the system and it's very satisfying.

Great world

Hate the MC, his GF is REALLY lame and I don’t care for the way they treat members of their team… imagine D&D first time paladin (self righteous) who’s also somehow the DM (so it’s his show). Then multiply x2 and add in that the author seems to have had no positive male role models growing up so he has terrible and inane male interactions. The MC is thin skinned and impossible to imagine as any kind of leader. On the technical side the authors use of an internal dialogue (which he then immediately shares out loud… smh) is a very very bad. No one wants to hear a conversation twice and it’s a lazy writing tool. Lastly, the writer needs an editor… there is no reason to “fugue state” twenty times in 6 paragraphs, at some point It can be implied.

Series End....and I Find Myself Sad to Let it Go

First, let me just say, I completely recognize that this story and book series will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea. But I ended up really enjoying it for what it was and was sad that it came to an end, and rather abruptly unfortunately. I half wondered if the author had just become burned out on this world and these characters and was ready to move on to something new.

The entire series is a progression-based storyline, though maybe "storyline" is too strong a description. Essentially, everything is about the characters and their safe zone finding ways to level up over and over and over and over, until the 1-year anniversary is reached of the System taking over the world, at which time aliens will be allowed to come to Earth and create havoc. All the leveling up comes in sometimes interesting ways, and sometimes not. If that's not for you, then perhaps consider skipping the series.

I'm not a gamer, so I found myself thinking all of the widely varying stats for each character (and place and weapon and ability) was really clever. The author clearly knows his gaming stuff and wrung out every bit of that knowledge onto the pages.

As a result though, the story (again, if you can call it that) suffered from a lack of connection with regards to outside relationships. For example, the heroes journeyed to a nearby newly discovered safe zone created by a bunch of college folks. A dungeon in that safe zone housed an octopus-person boss in a water world that ended up being friendly (I really enjoyed the uniqueness of this dungeon and boss). Mark (the MC) became good friends with that octopus-boss (Octavius). This was in, what, Book 3 or 4 I think? I kept waiting for Octavius to show up again, but he never did. I wanted the heroes to return to that safe zone to visit with Octavius, perhaps share new things learned with each other after months apart, strengthen each other. I was hoping Octavius would somehow find a way to visit the heroes' safe zone (Anyport). (I didn't quite get the whole Octavius II octopus character, who got placed in a large aquarium and then his growth just....stopped? Like, absolutely nothing new grew with that character. It just became a slightly more sentient animal that the MC occasionally visited in its tank and talked to in order to get stuff off his chest. Why didn't it grow physically and mentally at the same rate as the original Octavius? I mean, cute character I guess, but not sure what the point was.)

For that matter, NO ONE ever visited Anyport, even though it became widely renowned for its size, its heroes, its entertainment, safety, food, transportation, etc. Not even the nearby farmer friends or even the dwarves. Everyone just stuck to their specific zones / houses, which in the end made everyone feel more like NPCs than real people. Along those lines, hardly anyone ever cared or mentioned anything about missing friends and family. That alone should have been a HUGE part of any storyline of an apocalyptic nature.

I wanted continued interactions with all the various creatures and people and places that the heroes came across in their adventuring. The giant crows? They just disappeared the last couple books, but I really enjoyed them and what they might have become and created amongst themselves and with the nearby townsfolks. So many interesting characters and places, but alas, they all tended to be one-and-done.

In this aspect, the extreme "linear-ness" of the story to get from Point A to Point B to Point C without looking back (other than their own Anyport city) was a mild disappointment.

The handful of interesting characters that did recur (e.g. Amy or Reggie or the main Police guy whatshisname) did not really develop, not really. I would have loved delving more into Amy's or Reggie's lives. Perhaps Mark could have taken Amy on a mission to Greece or some such, let that "kid sister" relationship really bloom. Same with Reggie, the boy genius techno-wiz. These cute amusing characters became what amounted to merely features of Anyport - the city's messenger and tech support.

One minor complaint: As a gay fan of the series, I would have loved some gay people / couples at least sprinkled around the various safe zones. There was one instance of a gay guy in Greece that was used as a joke to make Rob (the big strong guy) extremely uncomfortable. That wasn't cool. Anyway, I guess gay people were too stupid or something to survive in this world, oh well.

Still, I did ultimately enjoy the progression nature of the main heroes with their stats and growing abilities. Until the ending.

We spent 8 books waiting with anticipation of reaching the 1-year anniversary and the aliens arriving to take over the world. As Book 8 progressed, I was like...we're running out of time, is there going to be a 9th book, what's going on....

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Then, with about an hour left, the heroes' time was up and the aliens were allowed onto Earth. WITH ONLY AN HOUR LEFT IN THE AUDIBLE SERIES! Seriously, wtf. There was what felt like a forced duel with an alien, then we immediately skipped ahead 3 years. W.T.F.! No! Everyone's stats had tripled, they were essentially god-lings. There was a sudden confusing battle with another alien kingdom. The End. O.M.G.

Honestly, it was a let-down. While I found myself missing the characters after such an abrupt ending, I felt cheated that I didn't get to experience barely anything of what we spent 8 books anticipating. and whatever journey they ended up taking to get them all to that three-years-later point.

So, Dear Author, I'd buy a sequel series of these characters if you wanted to go back and explore that 3-year period once the aliens were let in and the stakes became real for the heroes with everything they'd built and learned. I'd be here for it. And I'd LOVE a 'Day One' book that showed the chaos that ensued when the first System message came out and then took over everyone's lives. There was merely an off-hand comment or two -- "cars crashed, lots of people died that day". EXPLORE THOSE FIRST FEW DAYS ON A WIDE-SCALE GLOBAL BASIS!

Oh, and finally, I thought the narrator did a great job. Not sure why some reviews called him terrible or flat or whatever. I liked his different voices for the individual characters. No complaints, and certainly did not come across as a "cheap" option for narrating the books.

Great series

Really enjoyed this series. Like the magic system and story lines. One complaint is Felica.

Love it

Love the series the story and pace was good but the end was a little rushed as they say bye felicia

A fantastic ride

I wish it kept going. but this seems to be the end if marks story

I enjoyed the ending of the story

A big thank you to the author for sharing this adventure and bringing this story to its conclusion. It was a wild and fun ride and I enjoyed it. I’m sure you will too.

I love it

this is a great story and preformed to perfection. I recommend it completely and hole heartily

A great conclusion to an awesome story

Keeps you at the edge of your seat until the very end. A very satisfying read and ending to a great series.