Seeds of Chaos Omnibus: A GameLit Dark Adventure Series

Seeds of Chaos, Books 1-2

By: Azalea Ellis

Narrated by: Natalie Duke

Length: 31 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Leveling up would be amazing...

...if it weren't so deadly.

They injected me with a VR chip, a GPS tracker, and my first Seed. They gave me unbelievable powers.

Then, they sent me to fight.

The monsters here are alien and vicious. There is a second moon in the sky. I watched a tree start moving and kill someone. And the other players...?

They're even worse.

I’m alone. I’m weak. And I’m scared. But I will cling to life by the tips of my bloody fingernails.

Who is behind this twisted game? Where are they sending us? Is there anyone I can trust?

If I want to survive, I have to get stronger. But can I do it before the game kills me?

This omnibus contains the first two books in a dark and deliciously violent adventure series that combines science fiction, fantasy, and game elements. You'll love Seeds of Chaos because of the electrifying action, flawed characters, and kick-ass heroine.

Get it now and start the series that will keep you up all night listening.

©2018 Seladore Publishing (P)2019 Seladore Publishing

Hidden Gem!

Great story and narration!

Abducted and injected with a mysterious liquid, Eve's life has turned into a nightmare! Shortly thereafter a game interface shows up in here vision and she is told that she must get stronger to survive "the trials." Can she survive unannounced trips to another world while trying to maintain her "normal" life without everyone deciding that she is crazy or a delinquent?

Fun series! I can't wait for more!

Quite a surprise find

While three are some litrpg elements, they are not intrusive to the narration. Lots of time feels like it passes in these first two chapters. Tons of action and plenty of little surprises and twists to keep things interesting the whole while.

Good Book

The story was alright. Not the best RPG book. Most likely will not listen to the other books. Fine with not know how the grand story ends.

A dark, brutal world, but one full of depth

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

This is a fantastic series, in my opinion. It is intense, has heart, and the characters are not one dimensional. This is an omnibus of the first two books of the series and, at 31.5 hours, is a great value for a credit. I want to warn you, though, this book can be very graphic and gruesome at times. The main set of characters are young, too. As a father, there were a couple of scenes that were hard to get through. After one scene, I even paused the book for a while to work through the emotions it evoked.... Thankfully, the author does a tremendous job of balancing these moments of stark brutality with lighter moments so you aren't completely overwhelmed by it. I was very glad I stuck with it and am very excited to see where the story goes from here. I also want to point out that Natalie Duke does a great job on the narration. She has an engaging voice that easily held my interest throughout the entire book. Onward to book 3!

Pretty Good Book

This is a all around solid book and I really enjoyed it. The voice actor was awesome and the story moved forward and a good pace. I never felt bored or thought anything moved slow.

Great story.. highlights human selfishness

Good story, if you’re looking for a hero this isn’t that book. The story highlights human selfishness and drive for self preservation. The protagonist is a selfish ##*! but she gets what she wants so I guess that’s good.

I was very pleasantly surprised.

I was afraid that because of the name, it would be a knockoff of Aleron Kong's Chaos Seeds litRPG series. I was happy to discover they were nothing at all alike. I have already bought the next book in the series. I would classify this as YA. Good writing but a professional editor would not hurt in some parts. The narrator is good but she sometimes mangles the pronunciation of some words. I love her alien accent which sounds like a strange mixture of Bostonian and South African. All in all it's definitely worth a credit.

An excellent story, with some caveats...

First off, the quality of the writing, as well as the reading are excellent here. The story is both typical and unique, brought to life by the harsh edge of the circumstances the characters are in, as well as the excellent use of words and the reader's exquisite talent for bringing the passion and edge from the pages to the ears. Where the presentation starts to fray are all the logic holes used to get from point A to B to C. My first and strongest rejection of the story was the initial premise. The use of a stat based interface accomplishes nothing for the story, nor does it really even feel relevant for the intended purpose. All it really does is provide a basic ranking reference for the reader. Why the characters are trapped in what is basically a "death game" is also rather illogical. At the risk of giving a minor spoiler, the mysterious group wants the kids involved to power up, but instead of nurturing growth, they instead just dump the kids into a meat grinder, basically cutting off their nose to spite their face. The end result for me is that the first half of the first book is pure nonsense. After that, however, the real story starts, and that's when I really started to get hooked. After announcing itself as another edgy teens Hunger Games (with more brutality and gore), the story casually leaps to what amounts to an entirely different genre. From contemporary science fantasy (LitRPG flavored) to more of a... pure fantasy with contemporary elements. The story's depth and lore grows and the characters start to feel... more real.

Why four stars? Because the first book is a bit of a muddle, for one. It could have transitioned from point to point more fluidly. Also, while well written, some scenes/scenarios start to drag a bit, as well as the whole story relying on some more Japanese "shounen" elements. In real life, the injuries these kids get would be permanently crippling. Heck, they would be lethal. It's to the point that it feels like the writer is more interested in coming up with ways to mutilate people purely for the sake of grit than for any meaningful contribution to the story. Cut out the gratuitous gore and suddenly the story is much much shorter. Thankfully, just as much attention is given to building a stark yet rich world, so even as I lose interest, I'm still compelled along. I haven't yet decided if I'll get the third book, but I have to admit that I'm intensely curious to see where things go "from here".

Great GameLit/LitRPG novel

Seeds of Chaos Books 1 and 2 are great GameLit/LitRPG novels. It is almost a mixture of GameLit and Hunger Games as it involves young adults involved in a life or death game without their consent. It follows Eve Redding who is abducted by military looking men and injected with a "Seed" a substance that almost kills her but after her recovery makes her a player in the game. Nix the shadowy organization that has done this to her an others follows her every move and progress. She is pitted against other players in life or death situations and she must get stronger and earn more seeds to do so in order to level up and survive.

Eve can be very stubborn and is deadset on finding out more about Nix and getting herself and her friends/teammates that she is met out of the game safely. This book has many LitRPG elements but has more of a backstory and a whole other Sci Fi element to it. The progression of the characters is interesting and seeing them get stronger, harder and even more merciless when necessary is satisfying and even a little disturbing.

The Narration by Natalie Duke is excellent and she really adds to the enjoyment of the story and does a great job bringing Eve and the other characters to life. Getting 2 books and 31 hours worth of entertainment out of 1 credit is definitely worth it and quite a bargain. Book 1 and 2 are a bit different from each other and can almost feel like different books, as book 1 is really about building the characters and world and there is quite a bit of mystery that is only revealed towards the end and then really explored more in Book 2 that changes how things are and are viewed. I am very interested to listen to the next book in the series to see where things go from here.

"Please note I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

It got better.

First, let me say I'm not a big fan of first-person writing or teen MC's. I was listening over the speakers and had to stop the book and double-check the genre because the book started out with a girl saying she was arching her back. It's not erotica. I usually like this narrator, but there's a semi-sexy, awkward quality to the reading that's a bit off-putting this time.

ok, back to the writing... Young people are selfish, but are they REALLY so cold on the inside that seeing other people die doesn't bother them? I hope not.
A little disappointing that the first thing she chose to upgrade was her looks. Are there people who bite their lip every time they need to get focused? People bite their lip when theyre anxious or to be sexy. If she bites her lip.. HARD... one more time to wake herself up, I might not be able to keep going.

Update: I pushed through book 1, and it did get better. I still had trouble with the book. The lip biting was weird. The MC isn't believable because she is awkward teen girl with very little insecurity. She's a plain-faced, tall, chubby high-school senior. She doesn't have any friends. Her closest friend is her handsome, athletic little brother. She is the ugly duckling at home and at school. Her fam is pleasantly surprised bc she's found some friends. The trials are a terrifying experience, but they turn her into an alpha female. She manipulates a group teens to band together with her as their leader. Now that shes part of her peers, her main goal is to use them to keep herself alive. Weeks turn to months and the MC becomes a less crappy person when she is bleeding from all her face holes, back-handing hostages, engaging in intrigue, mingling with royalty, and inspiring the much stronger people around her to follow her to victory.