• Jake's Magical Market

  • By: J.R. Mathews
  • Narrated by: Travis Baldree
  • Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (6,798 ratings)

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Jake's Magical Market  By  cover art

Jake's Magical Market

By: J.R. Mathews
Narrated by: Travis Baldree
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Publisher's summary

Meddling gods. A magical card system. An apocalypse no one could have predicted.

Jake is working at the neighborhood market under his apartment when the world ends. He expected nuclear war, a computer virus, or even climate change burning everyone to a crisp to bring about the downfall of civilization. But cruel and arbitrary gods from another world? Who would have guessed that?

When these cruel gods shuffled Earth like a deck of cards, nothing was in the same place anymore. Monsters, dungeons, and magical items appear scattered across the globe. And suddenly, everyone has access to a new, strange magical card system that gives them magical powers.

Jake, wasting his day slacking off in the cooler, as he usually did, found himself alone in a completely new and very dangerous world. Can he learn to survive? Can he collect enough cards and create a good enough deck to fight back against the monsters that have overtaken his former home? And why are these strange people that look a lot like elves knocking on the door of the market he is hiding in and asking to buy some of his goods?

The gods may have stacked the deck against him, but Jake just might have a few cards up his sleeve that will help him survive.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 J.R. Mathews (P)2022 Royal Guard Publishing

What listeners say about Jake's Magical Market

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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Lots of 5 star reviews

Stop looking for bad reviews.
Normally that is I bad sign and something weird is happening. Most of the time the book isn't that good.
This book is.
If you like litrpg books this book has everything you might want. Good progression, the main character isn't instantly the strongest person in the room everywhere he goes, good writing, fighting, emotion.
This is up there in quality with wandering inn.
5 stars. (I only gave it 4 so that you stop scrolling down)

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115 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

It's like a video game cutscene.

You know those games where you absolutely body the boss, then it cuts to black and your party is unconscious on the ground? That's this story. The author makes his character so ungodly overpowered right off the bat that the only real way for him to lose is author fiat. Phrases like, 'I tried to use my ability but before I could I got jumped by four people who beat the crap out of me!' Our guy has like fifteen different ways to get out of any bad situation but never gets to because the author just writes that he doesn't. There's suspension of disbelief, and then there is this story.

I finally got fed up with it when the mc got caught by a trap that he was explicitly warned against, and explicitly trained to deal with. We spent several chapters with him being trained to deal with pretty much the exact situation he was faced with. So, what happens?

Do we get a big payoff from his training and supposed preparation? No. We get like three sentences. Despite the fact that he literally sees them coming ahead of time and has the ability to just leave with his insanely op abilities, we are told: trap goes off, mc gets jumped, mc is knocked unconscious. That's basically the level of detail we are given for this incredibly important event that greatly impacts the story.

I was completely stunned when this happened but I figured, fine. He gets punished for being overconfident. An idiot child could have gotten away from the trap given the insane abilities he had, but fine. Then we get days of him being injured and kidnapped, and just conveniently forgetting he has a healing spell.

You know, the spell that he uses constantly to mend his clothes, clean himself up, grow his crops and even freaking wake up in the morning! It's like the author just decided to give his character brain worms.

I'm also pretty sure the author forgot about several abilities he gave his own character. That's somewhat understandable given the sheer number of powers the mc collects. Less understandable is that he forgets an aspect of the mc's PRIMARY COMBAT ABILITY. The thing he spams every single fight! He just forgets that the mc can use it to aoe himself, something he does a few times after receiving the upgrade, and then basically never again. I had to listen to thirty minutes of the main character whining that a blindfold made it impossible for him to use his abilities, because they all required sight and a target. It almost gave me an aneurysm from sheer frustration.

Naturally, the mc committing these 'mistakes' leads to him getting yet another power up. Hooray! How convenient!

These complaints are made all the more maddening by the magic system and world, both of which I found genuinely interesting. The narrator did a great job, and most of the characters are serviceable, if not particularly interesting. This is honestly a decent enough story if you just want to turn your brain off. Unfortunately, deus ex bullcrap and author enforced stupidity really spoiled it for me.

Please keep in mind this review is just one person's opinion. It's entirely possible that I am just too picky about character decisions. All I can say is that I was genuinely enjoying this story for quite a while, but the longer it went, the more frustrated I became. It just felt like plot convenience took priority over previously demonstrated competence.

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68 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great progression story

pros:
The story mixes several types of progression stories loosely around the MC. (done very well)
the characters are very well thought out and each have their own character development which is often ignored in this genre.
The no harem or eternal virgin story fluff.

cons:
The story moves away from the market almost entirely other than it being a Place the MC wants to return to.
This is not a story of the progression of a market in another world from a shack to a multinational conglomerate as I was desperately hoping for.

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65 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Jake... from State Farm

Amazing book. It hit all the marks I like to see in a good LitRPG or Gamelit title. Relatable MC. Cool magic system. Some good humor. No harems. Awesome first title by this author.

Travis Baldree also narrates this like a rockstar. I loved hearing one of the characters being read in Yerein's voice.

My only complaint about this book is that the MC's name is Jake, his name is said quite often and everytime it was said, I mentally continued "from State Farm" in my head.

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30 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Don't let the cover art dissuade you

I nearly didn't get this because the cover art seemed "kidish". Do not let the cover dissuade you. the story, characters, and theme are great.

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Gets worse as it goes on

My dislike for the protagonist aside, this story got less interesting the longer it went on. Ballooning so far out in scope that I was just in a perpetual state of eye rolling.

i don't care for stories with such a huge scope especially when they're rushed and unearned.

This is that.

Having said that, this story has one of the coolest implementations of magic I've ever read. Naturally, it's almost immediately abandoned for a far less interesting one which ties into my main reason for ultimately disliking this book.

YMMV

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly funny

This book caught me off guard it had no reviews and just came out being the author's first book he did an amazing job to create a world into characters that have real problems and find real solutions the story full of humor and funny moments that will catch you off guard I do highly recommend reading this book.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

It was great...

It was so good I was enjoying it until like there was about 1/3 left. After that it completely went off the rails it became annoying and frustrating that ending was just...wow I don't even have words to just how it was.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Took a chance and don't regret it at all.

Refreshingly unique, solid writing, with great reading.
Not done yet, but happily binging.
Well done!

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Magic Apocalypse Book!

This book is essentially 2 books in one: The first intro to the story book and discover new powers, then the turn everything on its head with a combination of rash decisions and insane power creep (with enemies being stronger as well). Overall, I really enjoyed the book and found it very difficult to put down. It does a good job of being unique in a genre that's pretty saturated at the moment.

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11 people found this helpful