Rapture

Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut, Book 1

By: Daniel Schinhofen

Narrated by: Andrea Parsneau

Alvin woke in a room that was not his, to discover that he had died and his brain had been bargained off cheaply to pay off someone else’s debt. It did not sit well with him. It didn’t surprise him that even in death, people were still using him for their own purposes. He had never exactly been a good guy, but everyone had their breaking point, and he had found his.

The bastards in charge had uploaded his mind into a virtual death game. The whole world could now pay to see him play it and probably die. Alvin questioned whether he was really a bad guy, if this is how they wanted to treat him. Regardless, he was not about to wait for death to come for him. He would kick open the damn Apocalypse Gates and see about crushing everything that challenged him. It was time to make the world aware that he was done with pretending to be nice.

Welcome to Apocalypse Gates!

(This audiobook contains adult themes, including gore, death, drug use, and graphic sex.)

©2017 Daniel James Schinhofen (P)2018 Daniel Schinhofen

Dear Schinhofen, can I come live in your imagination?

I love good LITRPG stories, given my broken body the idea of living in a new virtual body is inherently an attraction for me. Daniel Schinhofen is hands down one of my favourite LITRPG authors now that I found his writing or at least the Alpha World series and now Apocalypse Gates as a new series. If you like LITRPG and post apocalyptic stories you'll fall instantly in love as I did, if just one or the other you should enjoy yourself at the least, but I wouldn't be at all shocked if you fall in love with the stories anyway. I don't do spoilers in my reviews but I will say I was quite shocked to find sex scenes more explicit here than in Alpha World with a sucubus involved.

Love <3

Andrea makes me happy again listening to this, and I cant wait to hear more of this series

Oddly compelling

I liked a lot about this book. It kept me interested. The characters were compelling if a little hyperbolic, but they kept my interest and showed good growth throughout the novel. The storyline wasn't as predictable as many LitRPGs. It had good story flow, interesting change-ups, and a lot of room for new story lines. The narrator was excellent. I've got no complaints about this book, however, the "treat me bad because I'm a broken girl" stuff was a bit much. I know some people find that type of behavior erotic, but it was just distracting, and I found myself skipping over the more demeaning parts. Toward the end of this book, it *appears* that the author is deemphasizing that facet of the narrative. I hope he doesn't do like a lot of authors and double-down on the sex, stupidity, and bad behavior. Definitely not for the kiddies to hear, lots of F-bombs and sexual situations. Make sure you have headphones on if kids are around. Overall, this book was worth a credit. I feel lucky to have gotten it during a sale. I'll be adding book 2 to my wishlist.

Good start to an interesting series

I'm honestly getting sick of LitRPG genre but this is a nice twist. A lot of this book is setting up and explaining mechanics of the world, but it is still a good story. Worth your time.

Wow

Simply one unexpected gem. Story performance get 5 stars . Can’t get enough. Will definitely buy more from this author.

the best so far

I have read many books from Daniel and always complain the lack on the sex department and finally I found one that fulfill that expectation.

the plot is pretty well done and got away from the puritan and all right MC witch I am great full.

if you like action, games and sex combine, this will make a great fit for your tastes.

greatly enjoyed

This was a book I got with one of my credits and was extremely pleased and absolutely plan to continue the series. a few things happen that annoyed me but not in a way that was necessarily bad or out of character for people in those circumstances.

Don't let others hear it in public but good story

I like the story but man is there a lot of graphic sexual content. Just be aware, I wouldn't turn it on around others.

Excellent first book

Daniel Schinhofen does it again. The MC is likable and is relatable but warning, he is a borderline sociopath. If you don't like guns, sex and characters with attitude, then pass this book by. Andrea Parsneau voice acting was top notch.

Interesting Porn Scifi Story

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Drop about 1 to 1.5 hours of the porn dialog... I really like the premise and the story is engaging, but this is ultimately a porn novel.

What did you like best about this story?

I like the premise and the open-ended nature the story. The author could take the story in many potential directions which creates a high-level of engagement for me as a listener.

Which scene was your favorite?

The scenes where they progressed the story versus the over-the-top porn and cheesy between-sex dialog segments between the main character and his love interest.

Do you think Rapture needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I think this book itself needs an edit which cuts the more-graphic sex scenes out... "Rapture - The Less Pornographic Cut" for the win. Even if the next books in the series rationalize the sex somehow... it is just too much.

Any additional comments?

I do not write reviews... and in this case I'm attempting to give a warning to potential listeners. I can't really comment on the quality of the porn to be honest, but if you like lots of this type of reading/listening then you should take it for a spin. I'm no prude regarding sexuality however I'm not accustomed to anything this graphic in the scifi genre.

At first I thought it a bit odd/surprising that there was a female narrator... however once they dove into the first full-blown porn scene (which is a bit into the book), then I understood that she's effectively a phone-sex operator for a good portion of the narration once they shift to porn mode (which is where things go consistently for the second half of the book).

Had this book's editor taken the chopping block to a minimum of 45 minutes of sex dialog I would have rated it higher and recommended it to friends. As is I am *extremely* happy I did not recommend to personal friends based on my early enjoyment of the story as it would have been highly embarrassing.