Radioactive Evolution

A Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic Adventure

By: Richard Hummel

Narrated by: Armen Taylor, Anneliese Rennie

Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

How far would you go to change humanity's fate?

Jared Cartwright grew up in a loving, caring community, completely isolated from the horrors of the outside world. When tragedy leaves him alone and untethered, Jared sets out to explore the unknown: a world where twisted, scarred creatures roam an earth ravaged by nuclear war while the rich fled to the skies on floating utopias, escaping destruction and leaving the rest of humanity to die.

To face his new reality, Jared must learn to survive in a cold, harsh world. A twist of fate changes Jared's destiny when he discovers dragons are real. The dragon unlocks a hidden technology within his body, giving him powers he never imagined existed.

With deadly adversaries above and below, he must evolve beyond mere human limitations to defeat the powerful rulers of the cities and the rabid beasts lurking in the shadows.

Amazon number-one best seller in Post-Apocalyptic & Cyberpunk!

©2018 Richard Hummel (P)2019 Richard Hummel

Critic reviews

"A worthy series kickoff with riveting characters and a world that readers will want to explore." (Kirkus Reviews)

Five stars: "I was hooked. I just couldn't put it down." (Kim Anisi, Readers' Favorite)

Fast paced and fun!

This book was so much fun to read! I pretty much enjoyed everything about it and loved the world the author created!! There was only minor issues that kept it from being a 5 star read.

The plot was fast paced and highly entertaining. Jared is trying to survive in a world ravaged by radiation and war. He scavenges what he can but it's hard because if he doesn't inject the nanites into himself regularly, he will die. On one such scavenger run, he finds a good deal of loot and a stone. Before he can study it fully he has to flee from an animal he hears. Safe for now, he is stunned to see the egg hatch into a Dragon. Dragons were long thought extinct so Jared takes a while to realise what he has. I loved seeing them grow together and their interactions were fun and easy. Both Jared and Scarlet were the reason I loved it so much!! Anyway, back to the plot, Now that Jared has Scarlet, he realises that he might have a chance to defeat the people who did this to the world but he will need help. He sets out to find other people who will help him.

As I said, the plot was fast paced, entertaining and was easy to follow, but there were quite a few unanswered questions I had. There wasn't much about the world before and how it came to be the way it is now. It also didn't fully explain the nanite situation and the way they are distributed. I understand how the nanites work, but why when Jared or Scarlet sucks up the dead things nanites, do they only get something like 60% to distribute? Where did the rest go? I'm not much of a gamer so maybe that's why I didn't fully understand it!

Other than the unanswered questions, I found myself immersed in the world the author created. I loved the mutated animals, especially the bunnies!! I loved the quest Jared and Scarlet were on. Their bond was compelling and I loved seeing it grow. I loved the fighting scenes, which were plenty by the way, and I loved the overall story! I'm really looking forward to the next one because despite not understanding everything, I've become invested in these characters stories and I can't wait to see where the author takes it.

The narrators Armen Taylor and Anneliese Rennie made an awesome pair. Armen Taylor gave a a brilliant performance as Jared. His inflections and cadences brought the story to life. Anneliese Rennie was also brilliant as Scarlet. Her voice for the Dragon was scarily good. I need to see what else these narrators have narrated.

I was given this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

post apocolyptic. lit rpg + Dragon love

amazing book. interesting and unique leveling system. a main character that would be OP in another setting but in this one there are threats far beyond him, so his rapid growth feels nessisary. the narrators bring both the main characters to life. delivers on a dragon bond as well or better then the Eragon novels. gonna have to reccomend to my mom because sge is a huge ann mcafee fan.

*sigh*

yet again we have ourselves land missing the plot. the main character is a loner who blunders through everything and has no meaningful catches in his plans.
Also, all of his major blunders that are actually worth critiquing / being interesting, are perfectly understandable and or completely emo.

the voice acting was great though.

great book 👍

I normally don't write a review for these books but I really enjoyed this one.

Not what I expected

First of all, I would like to say that I found the blurb of this book terribly misleading. I was expecting a sci-fi post-apocalyptic tale, but this is a LitRPG fantasy story. Not that I don’t enjoy fantasy, but I tend to be pickier than with sci-fi. I had a hard time keeping the suspension of disbelief due to this book being a fantasy and LitRPG story. Would I have listened to this book knowing all this? Probably not, since I believe I am not the target audience for it.

The world building was good, and some events were interesting, but I had issues with the whole premise, and I found the characters poorly developed. I would recommend this book to anyone into fantasy and LitRPG, but for those looking for a more technical and post-apocalyptic story, this may not be the book. What I liked was the duet narration, which made the story flow.

Both narrators were quite good at expressing the characters’ emotions. This kind of narration is seldom done so that only this characteristic makes the audiobook worth a listen.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The script for a bad video game.

The perfect book for a teenage boy that would rather be playing video games than reading. Filled with idiotic gamer phrases such as "dual weilding" and "activate heat vision" from the mind of someone who confuses video games with reality. It also has no ending and cuts off unresolved. Somehow despite rolling my eyes at the goofy plot, I still want to know how the next book goes.

On the fence

This story is pretty good up until about halfway chapter 19. I think if the author went solo with his MC that the story would have remained a much better story but as soon as he started adding more people the story became very dull and unrealistic. It is like all the other people were just manicans taking up the background. I think it's sort of fitting that the MC is bossy and micromanaging the other characters seeing they act just like robots lol. The author could have done much more with character building and development but he was very slow in doing so his hesitation at Power leveling is just ridiculous. I think it is more likely that the author does not know how to articulate power leveling. A good example to look into is the Defiance of the Fall series which shows how to do this very well. This story would have been much more interesting as solo human with his Dragon Survival Story seeing the author does not know how to handle large groups believably. What the author could do to fix some of this story is to have a second that act sort of like a drill sergeant to the robots at least this way the MC does not come across looking bossy and micromanaging but more is a powerful protector that keeps to himself but has underlings who believe in him and are willing to do the Dirty Work. There is a lot this story needs however and at the point I'm at I'm stopped reading and want my credit back. Bottom line is believability. It just doesn't work sorry.

This better be a series!

This book is for those who loved The Inheritance Cycle and appreciate a good post-apocalyptic setting and a dash of LitRPG aspects.

I thought I had read all the great fantasy books and here I find a fresh and original idea. READ THIS BOOK If you liked The Inheritance Cycle. It's got the same sorta vibe about the dragons and goal.

I can't find any info on future books so if there is a series consider this book a solid 4.7/5. (4 stars due to lack of info on a sequel)

Post-Apocalypse Lit-RPG Fantasy

Wow, this book combines all the genres of Post-Apocalypse, Lit-RPG, and Fantasy into an epic story. The book was not what I expected, but I became sucked into the story. It was very entertaining and definitely an original idea and take. Plus there are Dragons. Give it a listen, you will definitely enjoy it.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

There will be Dragons... and they will be awesome!

So I'm always a bit of a sucker when it comes to dragons and this book definitely features them heavily, and features them well. Strong, intelligent and magical, as they should be.

Besides that, the main character was a bit more wishy washy than many in this genre but that just made him all the more realistic and relatable. He doesn't just accept things and do actions without thinking about his actions and the consequences. The side characters are also fun and unique with personalities not being repeated and even some having enough unknown about them to create some possibilities for the future of the story series. I look forward to more to come in the series and will definitely be reading it.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.