Emulation

A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG (Ether Collapse, Book 5)

De: Ryan DeBruyn

Narrado por: Luke Daniels

The Mechano Lord’s Leader is finally locked out—but Earth is far from safe. Just as survival seems within reach, Gaia’s true Monsters come calling.

Rockland ‘Rocky’ Barkclay is done playing nice. With the Guild Collective’s invasion looming, humanity needs to level up—but old-world politics are slowing progress. While Sela maneuvers the political powers, Rocky does what he does best: smash through problems and grind for strength.

Focusing on his Territory, Dungeon Development, and Place of Power, Rocky finally sees real gains. But have Gaia’s monsters just been in hiding? Across the world, ancient forces stir, and hordes spill from hidden strongholds. If Rocky doesn’t act, there won’t be a world left to defend when the invasion arrives.

Level his domain or fight back the apocalypse—who says he can’t do both?

©2025 Ryan DeBruyn (P)2025 Mountaindale Press

outstanding

an epic story I can't wait for the next part and once I started I couldn't stop until the audio book ended

Excellent Continuation

I’m really glad Ryan DeBruyn decided to come back to this series. Emulation is a strong addition that moves the story forward in a big way. The plot progresses a lot, and it does so in a way that feels satisfying. Characters grow, decisions have weight, and things actually happen—which isn't always the case in longer series.

One thing that stood out to me was how real some of the situations felt. There’s a scene in a meeting room where the people involved are clearly more interested in posturing than solving anything, and that just rang true to me. I’ve been in rooms like that. It’s small details like that that made the story feel grounded, even while it’s dealing with all the LitRPG elements.

As for the audio, the narrator did a great job overall. There are a lot of characters, and they all had distinct voices. A couple of them grated on me a little, but to be fair, those characters were supposed to be irritating. So it might’ve been intentional—and if so, well done.

On a personal note, this series has meant a lot to me. It was one of the first LitRPG series I ever got into, and it was also the first one I read where the main character used to be a professional athlete. That detail stuck with me, and it still makes the story stand out in a genre full of similar setups.

Definitely recommend this one if you've been following the series.

One of the best series out

One of the best series out, well written, narrator is perfect. can't wait for the next one already

Last one in the series so far

As I said in the title, I think this is the best book so far. It’s been a really long time since I’ve been the first three but this was way better based on where I can remember and then the last book while I enjoyed it, it wasn’t my favorite. So I figured when I saw this book came out three years later after the last one, and I will give a shot and I’m glad I did it. It was worth the credit. It’s unfortunate where that’s a very least come out to the same amount of time between the authors other series. Ation was pretty solid. I think Luke Daniels does a pretty good job not my favorite narrator, but he’s decent.

PS after writing my review, I checked back to see when his other books released and besides his recent book but the basketball player all his most recent books non-cleaning this one and that one released in the same year and I heard that potential his other books are we using this year as well so if anyone follows any office of the series that’s exciting hopefully we’ll get more content from him soon. They want to wait three years for this next book.

Great book

A solid generalization of the previous books, it was fun, reciting. Good fight scenes care to grow and good lead up to the main fight.
And the greater world.

Before the invasion

Emulation

After finding Atlantis, Rocky has been able to prevent the Mechano Lords from sending any signals or more conversation seeds through to Earth. The problem is that millions of people have already been converted and can be activated as soon as the Mechano Lords invasion clears the atmosphere. With Sela being tied up in politics at the Atlantean Council, Rocky returns to the Grotto. There is a guild to manage, dungeons to develop, and levels to be had.

This is such a fun post apocalyptic litrpg series! Rocky and Sela are great, but Azoth steals the show! The action is solid and the new elements fit in well with the story. The dungeons are very entertaining. I know it bothers some people, but the language filter and its effect on the characters crack me up! I’m ready for the next one! Luke Daniels did a fantastic job with the narration!

Content warning: none

Love it

Love the story really excited to see what the invasion looks like in the next book and hopefully it last even pass the invasion

Too much stats and quest details

It is easier to excuse excessively long stats or rereading quest details with a new author or even series, but this book is neither. I’ve grown less and less tolerant of this crutch, particularly when the author doesn’t use chapters make skipping easier.