Divine Apostasy Boxed Set Volume 1 (Books 1-3)

De: A. F. Kay

Narrado por: Travis Baldree

It's Ruwen’s Ascension Day, and he finally dies for the first time. His newly revived body can learn Spells and Abilities for the Class given him by the Goddess Uru, and dying is no longer permanent.

Ruwen’s high intelligence makes becoming a Mage inevitable. With his new powers, he will locate his parents and clear their family name. But nothing goes as Ruwen imagined, and when a rival God tries to kill Ruwen shortly after his disastrous Ascension, his focus turns from his future to just surviving.

His choices place him in the middle of an ancient war, and he must overcome the limitations of his unexpected Class to level quickly. Only then will he have the tools needed to survive. But dying now comes with a terrible penalty, and failing Uru might not only cost him his life and loved ones, but his entire world.

It turns out dying on your Ascension Day is the easy part.

©2025 A. F. Kay (P)2025 A. F. Kay

I would have paid for each separately

I love these books I would have purchased each separately if I had to 10/10

Yes! An Omnibus. Loved it.

Enjoyed book 1 not too long ago and now got to get 2 and 3 for the price of 1. Bargain. The story is fantastic, the performer is amazing, and I am now on my way to grab book.

Don’t bother

The story opens with an incredible gripping plot and we just…never get back to it. Story meanders worse than any LITRPG or progression fantasy I’ve ever read. 20 hours into this plot and I barely know anything about this system except they call the rogue tree “observers” and everything else is cookie cutter basic.

If that doesn’t say enough, even Travis Baldree isn’t enough for me to stick to it. DNF 20 hours in.

I really tried to like this...

Any story with Travis narrating has to do something crazy for me to hate it as much as I hated this story.

I don't think I liked *any* of the characters. From the main protagonist thinking he's Jesus and being unbelievably (literally. I don't believe it) charitable to everyone but himself to his love interest at the very end of the third book flipping out out of nowhere (I really mean this, it gave me whiplash), basically blaming him for her father's misfortunes because he...exists?

That's after 3 books of 'romance' between these two btw, and strong 'bonding.'

I hate all the characters. From the protagonists to the antagonists, they're all unbelievably stupid. The progression is basically non-existent too. What felt particularly galling was, when we actually see some proper progression, the author pulls the whole 'you can't use your true power' thing, or the world will end.

I keep saying 'stupid,' not accidentally. I think a lot of the premise of this series is just brain-dead, no thought put into it. I found myself continuously asking myself 'Okay, but WHY?' It felt like the author wanted certain plot beats, but spent zero effort in believably justifying them in-universe.

Then there's the whole scale-creep thing.

I'm not sure I would have made it past book 1 were this not in a 3-book set. The protagonist is unbelievably whiny in the first book, and while that mellows out by book 3, that's just replaced by that cringe-inducing savior complex.

No, fyi, it's not admirable to turn the other cheek against murderers. The only time that BS flies is when the author makes the people doing so not face the consequences of their inaction.

Just an incredibly frustrating read that I turned off in disgust at the end at the heel turn from the girlfriend I mentioned earlier. I'd have rated it a 1, but I typically only do that for books I literally can't finish.

I at least got to the 'end' of this one.

So Annoying

Let me explain. When the first book started, it had some great potential and I was loving the momentum. But then around the second book... the pacing tanks and some of the more annoying qualities of the first book come to the forefront like a hammer to the face. Two really come to mind. First, a character named Sift is CONSTANTLY hamming things up. The moments that should be serious simply faceplant because Sift CANNOT shut up. He always wisecracks no matter the situation, and Ruin runs right along with him like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Second, Ruin crushes really hard on another female character (to avoid spoilers I won't name her) and it is so cringingly juvenile I feel like retching. Again anything serious collapses in the face of Ruin's weird teenage crush monologs about this girl.

For these reasons, I can't really recommend these books. There are so many LitRPG books out there you could be reading instead. If you want a funny LitRPG, go read Beware of Chicken. If you want dark, try 1% Lifesteal or Defiance of the Fall. And if you want something in between, go for Dungeon Crawler Carl. This series has its place somewhere... just not on my bookshelf.

No, just no. Child’s story at best. No logic atall

No, just no. Child’s story at best. Huge and numerous plot holes. Childish or nonexistent logic. Gods want me dead so I’m going camping with the whole town…..Seriously?

too much handholding

I want to like these books, but the way everything plays out the MC is rather insignificant and has little control of anything. everything plays out as if he is following a script. MC gets a random ability, it is exactly what he needs to get out of this situation. he looses his abilities? he next is in a situation where he needs a new class to get by.
You know how Micgiver gets stuck in a tough spot and makes an item out of random junk to free himself. it's the opposite of that. here the MC would make a random item and then he is placed in a situation where that item is perfect to get him out.

Reverse character growth

When characters suddenly lose their growth, or simply fail to grow it gets pretty boring. Not a bad series, just not fond of low, no or reversed growth

Needs a good editor

Story is interesting, performance is very good but pacing leaves a lot to ask. To be honest first two books should be one with the length of one, drooping half of the text. There are a lot of parts of text that could be easily removed without any loss for the story. For example: Does description of the alchemical procedure to crate healing ointment add anything? And not actually how the character does it, it is basically only procedure. No it does not. The character is not an alchemist and basically uses the item once. A lot of filler text, not to mention the fact that tables are being red, with the record of reading single table 3 times in one chapter. I am amazed that I was able to somehow trudge through that without just leaving the book aside for something better. It gets better in book 3, so I have hope for the future, but it was a bit hard to get through the first two.

That being said, the story is interesting. I think it might get better as the story progresses but as summary for the 3 first books go, It feels a bit lacking.