The Culling of Man

A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy, Book 1)

By: Craig Kobayashi

Narrated by: Michael Norman Johnson

I'll bet you've never listened to anything like the final boss at the end of this 24-hour LitRPG apocalypse.

Garath was a gamer that spent his time adventuring in magical worlds behind a keyboard. He was exploring one of those very worlds when the planet that he actually inhabited became suddenly, and drastically more interesting.

The ability to shapeshift into a house cat or summon a demon to serve him were things that were only possible in video games and epic fantasy novels, until they weren't. He may not have had the luxury of a controller or mouse to explore his new abilities, but Garath's dream came true when Earth was fundamentally altered. More akin now to the RPG games that he loved so much than the 9-5 grind he'd woken up to that morning. He's a quick study, though, and learns quickly that this new Earth isn't just fun and games.

The tutorial kills everybody.

Well not everybody. Almost everybody. Garath and a motley crew of friends and neighbors band together to survive. They are forced to work together using their new abilities to hold off the increasingly deadly waves of monsters.

The Peril's Prodigy series features 30 unique Classes, a human racial ability to shapeshift, character leveling, some things you really just can't un-hear, and a look into the future of this new Earth. It will make you laugh. It will make you cringe. And if you're anything like Garath, it'll make you wonder where in the hell on this new video game Earth were all the god damn hot elves?

***Full disclosure: This is not a harem novel. There are no hot elves.

©2019 Craig Grimes (P)2019 Spectrum Audiobooks

Really Great Start

Apocalyptic Litrpg. Very reminiscent of Tao Wongs Litrpg series. The Mc is much more tolerable though. Heavy system mechanics. Very interested in the future of this series.

great read. innovative story, that's still light .

loved it. nice and light and vague enough to have me wanting the next in the series.

A good start.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

This was a different type of title for me. Up to this point I had only been exposed to one other Apocalyptic/Game-lit type title. I wont try comparing the two titles as I don't think its fair to either. I would like to start off by saying that I found the writing to be humorous, if only a bit heavy on the stats and number crunching. There seemed to be mild, light hearted jabs here and there directed at other game-lit titles/series that would pop up every so often and usually incited a chuckle or two. I enjoyed the fact that while the MC was portrayed to be something of the typical college layabout, he wasn't made to be a whiny or entitled man-child. There was very little attempt at instigating a love interest, another appreciated fact as when done poorly, it can ruin a book entirely. There were definitely decisions made by the MC through the story that I wouldn't have agreed with personally as a gamer. Though I suppose there wouldn't be much point in disparaging that fact. Its what draws the mind towards the problem solving and situational awareness aspects of the story. If I had to list just one thing to say as a con for the story... In my personal opinion. It would be the fact that the Main Character's stats were reviewed so often and in full detail. To me it seemed there were several spots where the author would have been better served in expanding on their narrative rather than number crunching.

Mr . Michael Johnson's performance was enjoyable for me for the most part. His pacing was consistent. He managed to differentiate character voices decently well from what I could tell. His delivery on the more humorous lines was good. I 'm really only able to nit pick him in regards to word pronunciation. While that might sound ignorant, stubborn or intolerant. Its a personal pet peeve of mine that I have always had major issues with. With that aside. Well done sir.

To close, I would like to thank Craig Kobayashi and Michael Norman Johnson for sharing this story with the world. I look forward to another installment in the future.

Meh..

The story need's some work, and the narrator sounds like someone reading a story to kids for the first time.

The lack of emotion and monotone approach of the narrator probably take away from the story, but it's hard to tell.

Great Story! Can't wait for book two

The Culling of Man is a fun story by a new author Craig Kobayashi. It is an interesting take on the post-apocalyptic litrpg genre and I think it hits all the marks. The characters are interesting and the audiobook kept my attention the entire run time. The narration is good and I enjoyed my time with this one. I look forward to book 2.

Awesome!

Couldn’t stop listening to it! The MC isn’t OP and isn’t clueless....no harem either.

kinda drags on . ehh

its ok . weird unnecessary stuff happens. mostly good but i wont be reading part two because nothing really caught my attention.

Good Content, Narrator Not So Much

I was not able to finish the book due to the narration, but the overall content was good. I just couldn't deal with the narrator's voice. The transformation ability is a little OP but if you can get past the narration you'll probably enjoy this book. It's standard litRPG without any harem garbage.

A good start

A pretty standard opening to this style of gamelit, for some reason inexplicably the entire world gets an mmo interface, electronics stop working and everybody has to try and survive. Not so spoiler almost no one does the human population shrinks to a few hundred thousand around the world.

What is a bit different, in addition to everyone getting an interface and a class, everyone also has the ability to shapeshift into beasts, pretty much any beast that they have a chance to study the creature and get to know it. it's a neat addition to what is otherwise a pretty standard fair for this apocalypse mmo subgenre.

The narrator was quite good. I will get the next book.

A Good Start to a Series

This book was given to me for free at my request and I am providing this voluntary review.

I'll admit at the onset that I am a big fan of LitRPGs in general. While not the best LitRPG I have ever read, it is certainly not a bad one.

Like some other reviewers have noted, the depth was a little shallow, with less of the book being spent on character development and the majority being spent on the action. Given the initial descriptions of several of the characters, I think I would have enjoyed hearing a bit more of their stories and their motivations. Action-wise, it does not fall short on expectations.

Overall, the book felt a little incomplete. The end wraps up a bit quickly and while the story touches on some topics that grabbed my attention (who/what changed the world and why, consequences of certain abilities, the dragons, etc.), they fell a bit off to the side in favor of more action. That being said, I would very much like to see another book in this series that builds on and adds more depth to the world described in this book. It has a lot of potential and I want to hear more of Garath's story.