A Tangle of Threads: A Slice-of-Life Urban Fantasy

The Simulacrum, Book 2

By: Egathentale

Narrated by: Austin Rising

Length: 27 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Trapped in an artificial-reality battle school, a genre-savvy hero is caught between two girls and four supernatural factions, in this slice-of-life fantasy.

Leonard Dunning was supposed to be the comic-relief best friend of the hero in a supernatural harem-comedy narrative. Instead, his rebellious attitude, flirtatious nature, and downright bravado have placed him in a starring role in a fantasy simulation where he possesses superhuman abilities, fights otherworldly creatures, and has won the hearts of two high school girls—Eleanor Dracis, a noble family’s princess, and Judy Sennoma, a “placeholder” character awakened by Leo’s interactions.

His antics have brought him the attention of four powerful cabals: the magical Magi, dragon-clan Draconians, angelic Celestials, and demonic Abyssals. Each of them is trying to fulfill an ancient prophecy involving Leo’s friend Josh Bernstein—the story’s would-be hero—as their chosen one. But Leo’s knowledge of the genre’s tropes, his array of out-of-context superpowers, and his loyalty to his friends have altered the narrative and made him the center of attention instead.

Now, he’s been branded Leonard Blackcloak and become entangled in several seemingly disconnected plots. And when a goofy mad scientist’s army of robots attacks Leo’s friends, it’s clear the simulation is trying to reassert control of the story with a sentai genre shift. With two girls to keep happy, the side effects of his powers wreaking havoc on his body, and numerous new enemies and allies joining the fray, Leo must uncover the identities of those in control—and what their endgame truly is.

The second volume of the hit slice-of-life romantic-comedy series—with more than two million views on Royal Road—now available on Audible and wherever audiobooks are sold!

©2022 Egathentale (P)2022 Podium Audio

Not quite a let down…

The second volume of this story was not as good as the first. For one, the humor and entertainment value of the book is treading dangerously close to played out. Second the pacing, compared to the first, was nearly exasperating. (This book covers about a week of slice of life compared to several months in vol. 1). Finally the ending, at least from the readers POV, seems arbitrary.

I listened to the first book multiple times because it was fun and intriguing. I can’t say I’ll be doing the same with A Tangle of Threads.

just as good if not better than the first.

If you enjoyed, the first book this one adds to it! the narrator's performance continues to be fantastic.

Love this series

I absolutely love this series. I've already listened to both books twice and can't wait for book 3. In fact I couldn't wait and went over to Royal road and started reading the rest of the series and caught up with what's released. The narrator is great and I've heard him in several other book series. The story itself really draws me in as I haven't listened to other books like it. Some people get really weirded out about the romance stuff involving polygamy but I really like books like this where it's not just the boring old "oh yeah a bunch of girls want this dude for no reason other than protagonist". We actually see the romance develop and I think it's super cute.

Really enjoying this series

This series turned out to be a real hidden gem. I’m glad I took a chance on it. Will definitely be getting some the next book.

A really fun story that occasionally gets bogged down.

It is very exhausting to sit through the MC going on and on and on about various details. I get that it is intended to describe the environment, character traits, and general feeling , but it seems like, it is possible to describe these things without the overkill. All I really need to know is that a girl is a fan of metal bands and has a lot of posters. Maybe even describe it as metal band posters wallpapering her room, To describe every little detail about the contents of a damn poster is overkill and makes me want to stop listening.

I am so incredibly interested in the storyline, character development, and the general intrigue, so it is frustrating to get derailed on tons of intricate details for many minutes at a time.

The stereotypical clueless MC with relationships seems overdone, Granted, he is a teenager with little to no relationship experience but he keeps making the same mistakes over and over again refusing to learn from his mistakes. I wish he could take his interpersonal relationships as seriously and he does with working out the mystery.

I really enjoy the story very much and am always excited to see where the story leads but for me, getting bogged down with unnecessary details is frustrating.

Despite my little complaint, I will be finishing the series. Overall, I am very happy with this story and can’t wait to see where everything leads.

This MC is confusing

Knows what’s going on more than others one minute, oblivious the next. Unaware of his friends feelings but somehow was supposed to be observing them to figure things out. The story is much like that scenario, an oxymoron. I would probably edit it down to improve it.