Broken Interface - Kernel

Post Apocalyptic Zombie LITrpg Progression Fantasy

By: Alex Kozlowski

Narrated by: Pavi Proczko

Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Early one morning, the world ended. The devastating Alpha Event rewrote the very laws of reality itself, transforming peaceful cities and communities into sprawling hellscapes filled with flesh-eating zombies—and worse!

For Daniel, a zombie apocalypse couldn’t have happened at a worse time. If he’d been back at the farm, he might have stood a better chance than most. Instead, Daniel woke up in a distant hotel room armed with nothing but a hangover.

To add insult to injury, as he and other survivors shelter for safety in their hotel, Daniel discovers another misfortune. To help guide them through the horrors of this new reality, each survivor is supposed to have been grafted with an interface—a guide to help them level up, develop their skills, and better understand the world around them.

Daniel’s is broken.

Nevertheless, this new reality has gifted Daniel with other strange, new powers—powers that could enable him to unite what other survivors they can find into a force capable of surviving in this cruel, new world.

Kernal is the first book in the Broken Interface series, set in Alex Kozlowski’s Alpha Physics Universe—described by listeners as “a breath of fresh air” in the LitRPG genre, with stories that are “human, thought out, and realistic”.

Style: single third-person POV, LITRPG, with gore and adult themes but no explicit sexual content.

Warning: There will be a cute pet.

©2022 Alex Kozlowski (P)2023 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

a surprise hit

I was a bit concerned that I was not going to enjoy this but the book is well written and the narrator is awesome epic with a lot of content and story.

Check This One Out

Right up front before you read any further just know that I recommend this book to anybody reading this review. When it comes to the first book of any new series I tend to take it easy as beginnings can be inherently shaky. I have never come across this author before, but I have for the narrator. As far as I'm aware he's only ever done solo narration and he's really good at it. Back to the author I found his writing quality all around. I do refrain from talking about anything that takes place past the midpoint of the book as I'd never want to spoil anything for anybody if I could help it. Basically what you need to know about the story is that there is an event that creates an apocalyptic situation leading to the death of a lot of people. There are these interfaces controlled by sentient beings that by their own laws are not supposed to let the affected race know of their existence at least in the beginning. There's not enough of them to go around for every affected member of the race and thus those that don't get one mutate into monsters that our main character is insistent on calling zombies but are described as something akin to an Eldridge horror out of a horror movie. The main character is actually unfortunate enough not to get one of the interfaces and yet he's only mutated partially due to his one night stand. You see the gentleman had the potential according to himself of becoming an engineer but due to circumstances ended up a farmer. He goes to the city to have a good time and ends up hooking up with this exotic looking lady who's a nurse with the accompanying college degrees of which she reminds him of this after he awakens. She has basically damaged her interface to help save him and he has gotten doubly lucky because his interface should be barely functioning and yet it's way more. If I had one criticism it's of the main character being this blend of stupid, weak, emotional, and tentative. Again I want to emphasize the point that I do tend to take it easy on beginnings and there's certainly a lot of space for the main character to grow in the beginning. The main character starts to get into the situation more as a wood mage for lack of a better descriptor. He can consume cores of the mutated and that may give him additional powers as he progresses. There are approximately 100 chapters in the book and by chapter 14 they're still fighting their way out of the hotel. It's a pretty good size book at 22 plus hours and I certainly found it entertaining otherwise I wouldn't have recommended it. Lastly I'm simply going to say well done to everybody who had a hand in bringing this story to us, the audible listeners.

Enjoyable listen

Okay, let me start by saying this is the first Alex Kozlowski book that I've ever listened to. That being said, it took me while to get used to his style. After listening to the entire book I found that it was well written and was probably closer to a realistic timeline for events to occur. I was looking for things to happen a little faster than they did because the mc never leaves their starting point during the entire book. On the other hand if you look as the starting point as a dungeon where each floor is a level that has to be cleared then everything makes since. By the end of the book the "dungeon" is cleared and people are starting to level up. Also, his bonded companion the mouse has more character than a lot of the people the mc is stuck with.

Overall this was a really good book and I am really anticipating their first outing into the new real world. Pavi Proczko made this a super enjoyable listen.

I received a free code for this audio in exchange for an early and honest review.

Good Beginning

This was a good introduction to this series. This was a really unique take on the genre and that helped me to enjoy this book. The MC isnt overpowered to begin with. He's mentally human and makes mistakes that strain him mentally and emotionally. The book is easily feasible and you could even say relatable if you had to imagine what most normal people would do and how they would act.

My only complaint is the length of this book, and ultimately feeling as if the story hasn't progressed much. Its a good and bad thing. I want to know more, but I want story advancement that feels more substantial than this.

Excellent narration from Pavi Proczko.

not terrible but not good

not to much to say about this book it's just not good the pacing is crap the mc is the epitome of wannabe tough guy and for me personally I ain't a fan of op mc troupe I won't spoil it so I'll say this if you are board and got nothing else to listen to give it a shot.

great book!

I was wary when I saw it was related to alpha physics. I loved this story and mechanics of that book but I hated the main character so I was worried he would be like him again but this is so much better

Good listen.

Good listen, even though the MC is weak willed. Seems the author likes his MC to be emotionally soft.

Pavi did an excellent job with narration.

This one was really enjoyable

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were great, the world was interesting, and the system wasn't overbearing. Overall this was a nice change of pace from my usual listens. Pavi Proczko did a great job narrating this as well. I will definitely be getting the next book in this series.

Great Narration, story is meh

A little over half way through (12+ hours in) and I think I’ll put it down for now. Pavi Proczko did a great with the narration, as always. The story left much to be desired, long, rambling, and frankly a little boring. MC has no agency, takes orders and makes minimal progress, 12+ hours in and the mc is in the same place fighting the same small skirmishes. His system was more annoying than entertaining and left you without much info, just didn’t hook me. Could probably skip every other chapter and still have a full understanding of what’s going on.

Straight forward "realistic " system apocalypse

No Harems, no weird sex crap, and no ham fisted social commentary for a modern audience. Fun fast paced story narrated well(as usual) by Pavi. A good establishing shot of an Australia that has taken it's goal of killing everyone to an extreme new level