Madman Apocalypse: Book 1

De: Dosei

Narrado por: Eric Michael Summerer

The whole world has gone mad, so it's a good thing that Gambit is already insane.

Locked away in a padded room, Gambit watches as the world goes to hell. Blood rains from the sky. Screams echo through the city. Monsters tear through reality.

The world transforms overnight into the GREAT GAME, an apocalyptic battleground where monsters hunt, dungeons materialize, and the System destroys everything humanity once knew. All for the entertainment of the unseen audience.

Armed with nothing but his fists, Panda the talking plushie, and a glitched character Class that shouldn't exist, Gambit fights his way out of the asylum. But his existence triggers alerts across the GREAT GAME, drawing the attention of its agents who hunt players that don't follow their rules.

As civilization burns around him, Gambit battles both his personal demons and the literal ones stalking the streets. But in a world where insanity transforms humans into the very monsters they fear, Gambit's fractured mind becomes his deadliest weapon.

The GREAT GAME demands players. Its orchestrators demand victims.

But what they get is Gambit, the glitch they never saw coming.

©2025 Kristoffer Pauly (P)2025 Tantor Media

Maybe went on a little too long?

It was pretty crazy, even for me, and usually I like crazy. Overall, pretty decent. About 2/3 through it started to get better as things came together but by that point I was starting to get a little burnt out. But there were a lot of good parts. I think I would continue it if more come out but I don't think I'd immediately start them.

dungeon crawler Carl craziness

I love the mc he just does whatever he want. badass to the core, truly a power fantasy. morality be damned.

good, but....

I enjoyed the story and found it quite engaging. However, I think the narrator could improve their character voices. They all sounded a bit too similar, which made it hard to distinguish sometimes. It felt like there were several familiar concepts from Dungeon Crawler Carl. With a little more practice and some more distinct voices, the narration could really shine. The underlying plot has a lot of potential. I'm looking forward to seeing more from this author and "maybe" the narrator.

Not too bad

Reminds me a lot of dungeon crawler Carl felt like a parody version. The ending was absolutely horrible.

Entertaining

Pulls from a couple different major books but still remains original and entertaining. Will try books two and other books by this author.

Started great ...

While initially I did enjoy the book it quickly worn out. The story feels more like insulting the MC then making him seem mad.

Delightful and refreshing.

I was hesitant to listen, something about the cover and description wasn't doing it for me... but got it anyway.

I'm very glad I did, a few good laughs throughout. The story doesn't seem to take itself seriously, while at the same time has great story and character progression.

Superb narration.

Stats don't seem to mean much - but it's built into the story in a way I enjoyed, and wasn't too contrived.

I'll be following this story and author.

love it

this book is hilarious from start to finish is dark is twisted but keeps the laughs coming

A Dungeon Crawler Carl Wannabe

He took the best things about Dungeon Crawler Carl and made it his own...just not as good.

Truly horrible could not finish.

I’m not sure what the other reviews for this book are talking about because I found it to be quite terrible. This is one of the worst audiobooks I've listened to in a long time. I understand the premise—the protagonist is supposed to be insane and talks to imaginary things, and I actually find that aspect somewhat interesting. However, the constant naming of the skill "dot dot dot, whatever skill name, explanation point zero, whatever" is ridiculous and serves no purpose. The excessive recitation of everything in the inventory is also unnecessary, especially when it occurs multiple times within the same chapters only to do it again in the next chapter is completely ridiculous. I don't care if the character has a torn shirt ect.. in his inventory; it detracts from the story going over it multiple times rather than adding to it.

Maybe the way the status page is written is intended to have some deeper meaning, but after six hours, I still see it as nonsensical fluff. I shouldn't have to be force-fed the idea that the character is crazy. If the author needs to write like this to conveyors characters insane then he's not a good writer; it feels like he’s just throwing words at the wall to see what sticks.

The disappointing part is that I genuinely like the premise—it’s interesting—but the execution is extremely poor and unnecessarily wordy.

In conclusion, I got this book on sale for $7.70, but if I could go back, I wouldn’t spend even $1 on it.

Do not waste your money or your time on this one; it’s truly bad.