Alex is a game developer though he'd much rather stream RPG classics or spend time with Louie. That's his adorable corgi.
He also hates people. Not in a homicidal way but rather in an extremely-antisocial one.
Unless you hurt Louie.
In such an instant, Alex is pulled in the Apocosmos, where our whole world is just a blip in a colorful tapestry of million others.
A multiverse ruled by a strict system.
Where Norse, Greek, and Celtic pantheons clash.
Where dwarves craft, dragons hoard, and vampires don't glitter.
A world that is as cruel as epic.
Alex wants none of that though. He just wants to earn an early retirement somewhere in Spain.
There's money to be made in the Apocosmos.
Alex will take advantage of the market just like he did in his MMORPG days, in what seems like an error-proof plan.
But it's a zero-sum game and some people would do anything to eliminate competition.
My Opinion: 445 pages, $4.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
Full disclosure: I received an advanced copy for review but purchased a copy when it became available.
From the cover art and the opening prologue I expected an action filled fantasy story with lots of fights and a main character who was a berserker badass. However, that’s not what you get.
Instead, the story is split between a future version of the main character (MC) who is powerful and a berserker gladiator and the current version of the MC in a modern world who spends most of the story day trading craftable items to pay his medical bill. The MC, who is a programmer, doesn't have the background to do this trading though. So, while well described, it still felt out of left field that he was so good at it right away and knew all the pitfalls.
The story occasionally gets interrupted by scenes from the future where the MC is a badass berserker in a gladiatorial ring. It doesn't make sense that these interludes exist since they don't add anything to the story, not even any action until the very very end. Instead they felt disconnected. Like someone spiced in the talking parts of Gladiator into a movie about commodities trading. The two story lines don’t even meet up since the badass berserker version of the MC is years or decades older.
Another issue is that all of the fights, the combat scenes, felt contrived. They're not badly written, but they felt forced to gain the MC an ability or in one instance, get his corgi dog the ability to speak. Especially the last few fights that felt a little bit like padding since they didn't add much to the story besides getting the MC his berserker ability, which didn't make sense either.
I would have rather the story focused on the most interesting element. The trading aspect. It's not something that is seen often and felt the most original. It would have been more fun to see him leverage that for revenge or power in addition to paying bills.
Character wise, there are good fun characters in the story. The MC has a decent personality but inconsistent motivations and background between gymrat fighter, system crafting day trader, and regular job programmer/gamer. There are other good side characters that are fun, with the talking corgi being the best. Dialogue between the corgi, Louie, and the MC is always funny and a highlight. Other characters feel weirdly inserted, like the friend the MC hadn’t talked to in 2 years that turns out to be part of the System parallel world as a rich heir that for no really explained reason spends vast resources on the MC to protect him, outfit him, get him abilities, and eventually risk his life to help the MC.
The game mechanics in the story aren't bad but they're not particularly innovative either. Lots of item, and character descriptions but it's mostly standard RPG stuff applied to a modern world. The notifications are a bit longer and detailed than they needed to be and often took up multiple pages of the story. The saving grace on this front is the intelligent use of the trading/selling system. The MC uses it to predict the best times and days to buy, craft, and sell resources for a profit. It’s a system I haven’t seen much before and I thought it felt interesting.
Overall, the story felt disjointed, the action felt forced, and the Berserker title to the story felt like a false flag since it's barely part of the story. It's saved from a worse score because of the fun talking Corgi, and the neat trading mechanic.
Score: 6 out of 10
Berserker: A LitRPG Urban Fantasy Adventure (Apocosmos Book 1)