The Wastes of Keldora

Factory of the Gods, Book 1

By: Alex Raizman

Narrated by: Christopher James Mayer

Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

After one too many failed inventions, Julian has hit rock bottom.

Summoned to another world where gods and monsters roam, Julian continues his streak of bad luck. Rather than touching the Godcore directly, he let his smartphone absorb it. Now, he's got to figure out how to make the Godcore and his phone work together to help the people who summoned him survive their upcoming annihilation by the mad God of Chains.

He's going to have to innovate his way out of his bad luck. Good thing Julian has a plan - he's going to build a factory in a medieval world.

©2020 Alex Raizman (P)2021 Audiobooks Unleashed

factorio with a mediocre mc

not really a lot to say here. if you have played factorio, then you understand the general idea behind this book. if you take those elements out then you're left with just a kind of poor attempt at a summoned hero story. the main character whines a lot about everything. it's really not terrible but it's not great.

need more

could have been titled "no shirt no shoes no service"
I need to know more of the story. I hope the rest of the series is made audio. the narrator has the proper nerdy voice for Julian.

Dueling betas?

Love the story concept, but was taken aback by ultra cringey exchanges between MC and other characters who have very misplaced submissive/beta exchanges with one another. It wouldn’t be so noteworthy, but it happens in almost every chapter.

Fun time.

The story is decent. The narrator is okay. However it desperately needs a sound engineer. On multiple occasions the sound will rise or drop and massive tone shifts. This doesn't make the experience horrible but jaring at times.

It scratched the itch.

I enjoyed the story. For the most part the MC reacted like a dude that reads. Not too smart, but enough to be dangerous, and just overwhelmed enough that it takes a minute to get things right. Overall, It was fun.

I enjoyed it.

I like the industrial revolution take on a litrpg. Having the hero deal with a tower defense scenario was fun.

The pop-culture puns make the story!

the characters are believable and real and the story is interesting with a believably flawed hero. I can't wait for the next book.

Not as bad as I thought it would be.

The story is ok, and I really like the concept the author has going. So it’s definitely worth a buying the second book. There were some complaints about the female main character from some of the other reviewers that seem short-sighted to me. I’m sure anyone would react that way in that situation. There was a moment where it seemed a bit extreme, but after a bit later it explains the situation and it makes sense.

The MC wasn’t terrible, but there was two moments in the story where I wish I had the power to strangle a fictional character.

I haven’t heard any books narrated by Christopher but does a more than adequate job of narrating this title.

If the summary is sounds interesting to you, I recommend you give it a try.

I’d say the only true flaw of this book is the length.
Cruelly short.

New beginnings. Same people.

I have only gotten to ch 13, and the main female character is the worst. She summons the MC, threatens him, blame him for things that clearly weren't his fault (always in hindsight), and he took an arrow to save someone life. If the MC doesn't stand up for himself by the end of this book, I will be dropping this series. No point in following someone who bends over at every cough in his direction.

Edit: so, after finishing the book, the MC does change slightly. Just enough to see if book 2 will be any good. The girl is still the worst part of this book. I think the author was attempting a tsundere type character.

it is Factorio

the book covers what amounts to the first hour or so of gameplay if Factorio had a storyline.