Gaia has awakened, and the world will never be the same again.
Rockland Barkclay has had a rough year. On top of everything else, his father has just passed, and Rocky has to go it alone on their annual trip. But his plans for drinking alone in Algonquin Park are rudely interrupted by a sea of cosmic energy that governs the universe. Ether, the driving force of creation, has returned. Now a confused Rocky must navigate odd hovering messages to survive.
With the awakening of the very planet they reside on, humans are in a desperate fight to survive in an evolving world. If only Gaia hadn’t woken up so very… very… unhinged.
My Opinion: 570 pages, $4.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
Full disclosure: I received an advance copy for review. I purchased the novel when it became available.
The beginning of the story is a little hard to get into. The setup feels a little loose, the main character (MC) is a little annoying, and if I’m honest some of the game mechanics feel made up along the way with a few number issues. But the story gets better as it progresses and it really starts to shine once the MC starts to interact with other humans again. By the halfway mark in the story, I was completely hooked. There’s a bit more of a fantasy vibe to this RPG apocalypse story, but if you like Tao Wong’s System Apocalypse story, you’ll probably like this too. This story has several commonalities. Earth is transformed by a sudden flood of mana/ether, causing monsters to spawn, dungeons to grow, land masses to shift, and people to gain access to a System store, blue screens, and RPG progression. Also, like many apocalypse stories, it’s not always the monsters but the surviving humans that pose the biggest threat. There’s a lot of good action, interesting RPG class abilities for the MC, and a bit of town building.
Score: 7.7 out of 10
Equalize (Ether Collapse Book 1)