Ghost in the System: Book 1

By: Alexey Kovtunov, Benjamin Patrick Miller - translator

Narrated by: Jonathan Johns

The System is here! Most of the population of the planet were suddenly turned into zombies, while the rest acquired new abilities. Abilities that let them run from the zombies, save themselves, hide, and try to survive. But it only takes one bite that almost always means death.

Our hero was standing in line when the apocalypse came. He was lucky at first to be caught in a crowd when the zombies tried to bite him on the leg. Really lucky, because those trials unlocked new abilities for him. He got to be one of the first to choose his character class. He had to do it quickly, before someone else got the best one . . .

Considering he was introverted, maybe even a little antisocial, the choice was easy. Master of Shadows? Nope, already taken. Okay, Master of Darkness! Also taken.

Okay, Ghost class also works. And it is a gold class, even though the bonuses you get are a little . . . questionable.

©2024 Alexey Kovtunov, English translation copyright 2024 by Benjamin Patrick Miller (P)2024 Tantor Media

Unique power

The MC is a little edgy but the unique power, system and zombies are fun.

It's okay. I hopes for book two.

4 Star for narrator.
Main character is certainly flawed. Whimsically empathetic when its not annoying to the MC, but still a Jerk at every turn. MC becomes inhuman and pretty much only sees humans as exp juice boxes or coin vending machines.
Maybe it is a translation issue but I have hopes that this British tosser becomes multi dimensional instead of a flat begrudging edge lord who is invincible.

Shut up about Potatoes

Seriously another story about a morally decrepit psychopath who is beyond in need of being confined within a psychiatric ward. It is obvious there is an emotional and mental disconnect with the mc. I generally love Lit RPG apocalypse stories despite the wide discrepancy in quality found within the genre... Yet within the first hour of listening all I can think about is how in universe here it is a shame that such an awesome class skill was gained by someone who was going to let a teenage girl and boy both get raped just so he could secretly steal whatever was put down. Yeah you read that right. He was hoping that the rapists would put down their stuff not so he could save the teenagers, but so he could grab the stuff and run. That is until they realized they didn't have enough time so they were just gonna kill the teens for an increased inventory size. Once he knew he could increase his inventory by killing the rapists he decided to interfere...

On top of the rehesible mc, this reads like the author is talking down to the audience calling loot boxes or spheres in this case "potatoes". The MC constantly uses childish language, only to match it with curse words, killing without remorse and for profit, and stealing whatever isn't bolted down while invisible.

The system itself seems fine and the overall plot is typical of the style of story. Overall it is lower mid tier for the Lit RPG genre.

Stupid ending!!

All over all the book wasn’t that bad, but it had such a stupid ending that I had to knock a star off for that. The main character gets the best power of all in a zombie apocalypse. Plus, it matches his personality as being an introvert very well.

The Sociopath i wanted

This book is very similar to the "Ideal World for a Sociopath" series. The MCs are both anti-social, get an invisibility-based power, find that the zombie apocalypse fits them better than regular life, even the inventory system is similar. This MC is not archery-based, and, in fact, in the few instances when the MC uses a bow, he comments on how terrible he is with it.

However, this book has none of the issues that i had with that series. This MC is truly ambivalent to most other people. he approaches every situation with "how does this help me?" Though it is implied that he cares more than he lets on, often coming up with reasons to allow himself to intervene and help other people. "if i help them, they will get stronger, and learn more, and that will help me" He seems to have a soft-spot for kids and animals, and for people who are at least trying to help themselves.

Also, no harem yet. YAY!