Col. Petros Arkansas (Ret.) is abducted from his comfortable home by aliens and his life changes forever.
The aliens begin experiments on him with tests in harsh computer generated environments and expect him to survive without modern equipment.
The Colonel teams up with a core group of Spec-Ops operatives to survive, but first he has to learn what his new situation is, what enhancements he has available in these game-like simulations and how to ramp them up.
He begins a wild adventure of self-discovery, self-enhancement, and in some rare instances self-awareness.
Will he survive the unfamiliar idea of grinding out levels for enhancement and who will come to his aid?
The path he chooses is often dark, filled with fantastical creatures and outlandish beings, and the steps he takes are wracked with pain and far less traveled. Along the way he discovers that humanity’s existence is on a knife’s edge and the road to salvation lies in his hands. Together with the team he has to face down some of the scariest horrors in existence.
Despite all these obstacles, Petros digs deep into that dogged Spec-Ops persona, and meets the road he treads with a hard, determined step and a willingness to run.
Will he run away or towards the challenges?
The subtle combination of Military Sci-fi, Fantasy, GameLit, and LitRPG ensures there is plenty of action and intrigue for followers of any of these genres.
Embark on this journey and discover the answers in the Abduction Chronicles:GENESIS.
My Opinion: 357 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
The cover art for the story and the do not do justice to the story and if not for the last line in the novel description, I wouldn’t have thought the story had anything to do with LitRPG.
In the forward to the novel the author identifies three genres that his story uses: Fantasy, LitRPG, and Military fiction. While it’s true that the novel hits all three, there’s definitely a priority for which is fleshed out the most and matters to the story. Unfortunately, the LitRPG sections are the least of the three.
The story starts off with the main character (MC) being abducted by aliens and injected with nanites that transform his potential. He then finds himself dropped in a simulations where he has to survive and reach some locations. The first 12% of the novel really focuses on some well written survivalism with small does of gamelit like notifications that are mostly used to convince the MC that he’s in a simulation. After the 12% mark, is where the RPG stuff comes into play with the MC finally gaining levels, the ability to increase his stats and skills, and the ability to choose a class. From there it’s really a bunch of good world building as the MC comes to understand the situation he’s in and why aliens have abducted humans to fight for them. He’ll have to decide which side he’s on and if he can work with the situation he’s in. There’s lots of training, both magical and physical, as well as a clear threat that’s presented to the MC to oppose.
The biggest highlight of the story is definitely the military aspect. From the survival aspect to the comradery between abducted former military personnel, there’s just such rich details that it’s hard not to be impressed. The world building done to create the fantasy universe and the two main factions is rather well done too. There are lots of nice little details that flesh things out and make you believe this universe exist.
However, where the story loses points is with the LitRPG aspects. The RPG elements in the context of the story are imposed by the abducting aliens as a way for the humans to improve themselves. Humans are awarded experience for completing simulations and achieving training goals. However, what’s awarded has no consistency. The beginning simulations the MC goes through get him 5 levels, and later ones where he’s doing less to accomplish the quest goal get him 10 or even 20 levels. Thus the experience given for completing scenarios and simulations is completely arbitrary and intentionally without detail. The entire ‘Leveling’ aspect actually doesn’t matter to the story and is used as an artificial marker to power up the MC at regular intervals. Other progression aspects feel more relevant with skills increasing as the MC trains and him getting new ones as he learns them. There’s also a magic system, but that’s completely fantasy based with the MC willing spells into existence or learning incantations and theory from books. Even though the MC applies spell points to level up spell groups, it has no actual impact on the story.
Overall, while the military and fantasy elements are well thought out and impactful, the RPG stuff isn’t. Still, it’s an entertaining story and I liked it. I loved the early survival aspects and really enjoyed the military comradery and action. Those two aspects alone would get the story an 8 out of 10. But the RPG aspect would get a 6 out of 10. So, I’ll split the difference on the final review score.
Score: 7.4 out of 10