A Brand New World: A Slice-of-Life Urban Fantasy

The Simulacrum, Book 1

By: Egathentale

Narrated by: Austin Rising

Length: 27 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

A teenager becomes a romantic hero in an artificial-reality school full of supernatural secrets in the first book of a slice-of-life, urban-fantasy series.

Leonard Dunning wakes up in a home he doesn’t remember—and to a face in the mirror he doesn’t recognize. He soon discovers he attends Blue Cherry High with his best friend, Josh Bernstein, who seems to be the most popular boy in school, with several girls competing for his attention. As the girls collide and clash over the oblivious Josh, Leo realizes each of them displays quirks of characters found in an anime harem comedy. So if Josh is the story’s protagonist, what does that make Leo?

To learn more about the simulation in which he’s been cast, Leo enlists the help of background extra Judy Sennoma. Together, they observe and catalog what’s going on around them to try to figure out how the story will unfold. But as Leo interacts with Josh’s love interests and inadvertently confronts stereotypical villains, he disrupts the flow of the narrative. Now, two girls have set their romantic sights on him, and he’s made some very powerful enemies. As the designated secondary protagonist, Leo has become a hero in an adventure that’s no longer following the tropes of the genre—and placed himself and his friends in grave danger.

Caught in the crosshairs, Leo must develop his newfound superhuman abilities before he gets dragged into the hidden conflicts between otherworldly factions. But he’s not afraid to push back against the plot, and the narrative’s shadowy controllers are in for a rude awakening.

The first volume of the hit slice-of-life romantic-comedy series—with more than two million views on Royal Road—now available in professionally formatted audio.

©2022 Gábor Horváth (P)2022 Podium Audio

long but so worth it

it's a long book but I couldn't put it down so it kind of speeds for itself

A Nice Slow Burn

A Brand New World is a nice slow burn of a book that does what it needs to do competently and with a bit of flair from time to time. I can understand the characters, their motivations and why they do what they do. Austin Rising is a great narrator that popped onto my radar recently, he again does a great job with this work as he manages to keep the flow of the story going despite its hefty running time of 27 hours and slow burn nature, no mean feat.

Frankly, this book shocked me with how it managed to be both self-aware and not too pretentious at the the same time. Anyway, despite there not being a lot that happens plotwise per say, it never feels boring. The internal thoughts, problem solving, and character interactions prevent the book from feeling empty. Maybe, a bit more combat would've spicied things up a bit, but overall if you want a long time sink thats also nice and relaxed while being well grounded, I reccomend A Brand New World.

Harem nonHarem

Extra Tags: Harem, non-litrpg

Story - Great story. I love a smart hero. Planners are the best when they are slightly over matched. The MC is quick to grow into his powers near the end which is fine as it isn't over shadowing everything else. The MC's humor is amazing as well. He and a couple of his friends make some great quips back and forth. He has a bit of the Oblivious Harem Protagonist to him but it mostly done in such away that it believable without just making him seem an idiot. Anyway Egathentale does a great job of both making good fun of the Harem tropes and leaning into it. 100% would recommend.

Magic - It is slowly introduced as an underlining building block for the world. The MC's abilities seem to be unique but in no way over powered. He clearly less power full then the others so there isn't a worry of the OP MC that flexes his random power to overcome everything.

Narration - Narrator did a great job for a single Narrator doing both male and female voices. The odd sound that the girls made were still pretty endearing which can be difficult in an audio book.

Story is great, though the intro is long.

Story is great, but the first act where basically nothing happens except the introduction of all the characters takes up a major part of the book. After that you get one instance of action which unveils the masquerade, and it goes back to status quo, though the MC starts to be a little more interesting.

However, there were numerous times when the narrator mispronounced foreign words that broke immersion, such as pronouncing the Japanese word Moe as the English Name.

Overall, I would recommend this book with a credit if you need something to listen to while at work or what not.

A ton of fun

Anyone familiar with the genre will find the common tropes associated with it as well as some fun and unexpected twists and turns. The comedy is stellar and will more often than not have you with a stupid grin on your face. P.S Judy best girl.

not bad

not bad, just a bit wordy and still follows the trope of avoiding making choices.

It was good

This has been sitting in my wishlist since I saw it in one of the groups that I belong to, I decided to watch it for awhile and wait for someone else to post a review on it to see how it was.

Instead I decided to take a plunge after Curiosity took control.

I loved, I can’t reveal much with our spoiling this book but I will be getting the next installment and I hope that this book will blow up in positive light.

Wow, I love it!

Took a chance on this one and couldn’t be happier. Interesting and funny story with a smart MC. Will definitely be listening to the rest of the series.

Great fun

If you want a book that makes fun of all the anime tropes comes true this is the story for you. Plus the author really has talent in writing and the use pros. Really this person has to have a library language. I was laughing out loud because of the tropes. I’m so happy to see someone call them out in a funny way that would make anime creators appreciate. Really though have a PhD and thought I had good vocabulary and this made me google terms. Great book.

This is entirely to entertaining for this concept.

After a brief time orientating the stories perspective in the beginning, it rapidly becomes very memorable. I may be bias, since I tend to like stories about a person from our world assuming the identity of a character in a story they have read.

I like stories with a fresh perspective throwing wrenches into an otherwise orderly and predictable story. It's just fun.

I'm having so much fun in fact, that I delayed listening to the new Dreadgod book in the Unsouled series that just came out today. And I've been waiting on that for months.