Life in the North: An Apocalyptic LitRPG

Great Book! Negative reviews are misleading!

This is a great LITRPG! I loved it! I bought book 2 and 3 already and can’t wait to listen to them.

WARNING ABOUT MISLEADING AUDIBLE REVIEW COMMENTS!!!
Despite being a LitRPG enthusiast I refused to read this book for multiple months because of the negative reviews. There was a similar trend of issues mentioned in audible comments which are typically red flags for books that I will not enjoy. These concerns were unfounded and I want to mention them just in case other listeners are deciding to not read this for the same reasons:
1. I cannot stand it when the main character is dumb or when stupidity drives plot. If I am fifteen minutes in and I keeps screaming “WHY DID YOU DO THAT?” then there is a high probability that the book is being returned. There were a lot of comments which seemed to suggest that the main character kept making dumb decisions or that his rage caused him to make dumb decisions. Yes…The main character has a rage problem, but other than some emo moments in the last ~10 minutes of the book I didn’t see it leading him to dumb decisions. In some ways I understood it. Minor spoilers…There was a moment when he sees a terrible sight and his “rage” drives him to want to kill a bunch of overpowered monsters that “an army would have trouble fighting.” His companion warns him not to, but he risks his life and moves in to fight anyways. At first I was slapping my head because I expected him to run into the middle of these monsters’ guns blazing. I was pleasantly surprised when he formulates a plan, which takes most of a day to implement, and manages to kill all of the monsters. A risky well executed plan leading to great rewards, thumbs up scene in my opinion.
2. This refers to the many comments mentioning “HOMOSEXUALS.” Typically I have a lot of trouble stomaching sex scenes in general. I prefer them to be vaguely hinted at and if not, I usually skip them because they are typically awkward to overhear or to melodramatic for me. For example; my heart was burning with such intensity that I worried it would melt through me, around him, and down my legs…
Really?
Really?
That being said explicit man-on-man sex or man-on-man emotions are a bigger turn off. I don’t think I’m homophobic, I believe in gay rights and really don’t care where you put your sexual organs, as long they are willing and past the age of consent. I think my issue is that when I read books I typically see myself as the main character and I don’t find men attractive. If I am putting myself into the viewpoint of someone who is pining over a wilder beast of a man, then its difficult for me to maintain immersion because I can’t see myself in that situation.
With all that being said, let me state that the “homosexual” sentences (because I can’t say there is a homosexual scene in the entire book) is so trivial that I am surprised anyone even mentioned them. I went into this expecting to be skipping chapters where the main character is having “ball slapping sex” with Joe the Lumber Jack. Instead I have maybe ten sentences in the entire book that may suggest the main character is Bi but prefers women. Not only that but other than a single sentence that states “I dabbled back in college.” the only male he seems to be attracted to is an elf who has a MAGICAL ABILITY WHICH MAKES PEOPLE ATTRACTED TO HIM. So the three scenes with the elf are pretty much like:
*Sees elf* “I want to kiss him.”
*Elf smiles coyly at him*
“I don’t trust him, and I don’t have time for this.”
The only other thing is that some people actually think that the main character is interested in this elf but the only actual sexual encounter he has is with a women and thankfully its pretty much just mentioned.

Legitimate concerns
These concerns did not impact my enjoyment of the book but if you are someone who can only spend a credit on a perfectly written book, then it may impact your enjoyment of it.
1. This is a LitRPG. If you don’t know the genre a writer uses role playing game themes or systems when creating their fantasy world. For example, a leveling system is used in this fantasy world. That being said some LitRPG enthusiasts will not enjoy this book as the LitRPG aspects are kinda light. Although I preferred it… rather then 10 minutes of reciting spreadsheets this book focuses more on the characters.
2. I felt like this book didn’t have a good antagonist, climax, or resolution. The closest thing to a main antagonist seems to be the world itself. When the book ended it left me wanting more and if there wasn’t a book 2 for me to immediately jump into I would have been disappointed.

33 of 37 people found this review helpful

Fun Environment, Lame Main Character

The systems created, skills, and encounters are fun. The combat isn’t described very well. But the emo angry idiot main character feels like he was written by a teenager. It would be nice if people in the litRPG world could write adult characters. John literally says things like blood, pain, and death to himself... the dialog is rough in places.

Nick Podehl (who is fantastic) and the systems developer are worth the ride, but this isn’t a good story with interesting characters.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Interesting concept

Post apocalypse rpg is a very interesting concept. I may be old school in disliking the modern tech that's available but it makes sense for the story. What turned me away is how much it jumps around, sometimes hard to completely follow. Not a bad story by any means and I will, at a later date, come back to the following works to finish the series.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Very unexpected

A lot better than expected, hoping the story stays interesting in the second book. As always Nick is an amazing narrator and the characters have good feel to them I think this touches on some things that get left to the dust for characters that John experience and it is the anger they have built in that usually gets shoehorned into being some random burst of raw power and strength for them rather than actually being a flaw for the character.

7 of 9 people found this review helpful

Tired of the sudden jerks to Homosexuality.

Frankly, I dont care who you love in this life. Male on male, Female on Female. But my taste is rather old school normative. I like classic male - female relationships in my literature. Its what I enjoy hearing. Its a complete put off for me when the story turns to Bisexual fantasy material out of nowhere after 4 hours of quite interesting buildup.
Nick Podehl does an amazing job on this book and on every book he has done but i'm starting to detect a pattern of this sort of story twist. (Sufficiently advanced magic is another example.)
Call me intolerant, I dont care. Politics has no bearing on what I enjoy in entertainment. I'm tired of every love story turning into a virtue signaling mess that doesn't make sense to the plot when the MC suddenly comes out of the closet after flirting with a different relationship the entire book.
I'm done. Just done.

36 of 49 people found this review helpful

God damn it John

Right so the thing is this so mostly a fun listen. There is a lot to like but the thing is John our hero is the fucking worst. I understand where he is coming from and why he does a lot of what he does but the things the man is still a bloody idiot and extremely frustrating. Can we get a new protagonist like Lana or Richard or any one but this jack ass who is a fucking idiot. It is rare for me to hate a protagonist this much. I can only that in the future he either improves and stops being a selfish man child or we change main characters.

23 of 32 people found this review helpful

Dissapointed

I was really disappointed with the story. Listened for till the end and hoping that it will become better.

Main character is bland and not interesting. As if all story doesn't know where it will go.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A promising concept ruined by the main character

Would you listen to Life in the North: An Apocalyptic LitRPG again? Why?

I probably won't listen to it again. The protagonist, John, is supposedly a late 20s or early 30s computer programmer with severe interpersonal problems. It felt like watching a teenager in an adult's body with superpowers flop around with zero self-awareness

Which character – as performed by Nick Podehl – was your favorite?

Ali the spirit

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

annoying main character

the worst character is by far the main character. I stopped the book half was and went through another before finishing it.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Your world is now forfeit

I love that the dude upgraded his body and ended up looking kinda like Keanu. This is a fun book, the MC has big anger issues which he's trying to work through and seems to be maybe pansexual from some of his conversations.
Very cool concept that weaves in lots of familiar skills and ideas. I liked it and am looking forward to another chapter in this story.

5 of 7 people found this review helpful