Nexus Runner

De: Frank Morin

Narrado por: Keith Brown

Welcome to the Game!

Lucas Altan and his friends are among the thousand people ripped out of Colorado and teleported to an alien planet. He wakes up alone, with an overly friendly AI as his only companion.

Here, magic is real and the clock is ticking. The rules are simple:

Find your team.

Fight through four stages of monster-infested wilderness before time runs out.

Fail and you die . . . and condemn everyone on Earth too.

Lucas finds he’s got a knack for killing monsters, winning unique loot, and surviving against long odds.

Wielding fast wits, cool spells, and a magical sword that can’t cut anything physical, he needs to level up faster than the odds stacking against him. It’s the only way to save his friends and not become that guy who let Earth die.

This fast-paced action fantasy litrpg adventure hurls Lucas into a crucible of combat, magic, and nonstop adventure. Perfect for fans of DCC and Primal Hunter.

©2025 Frank Morin (P)2025 Frank Morin

DNF

It's been a while since I hated a book as much as I did this one.

I tried to force myself to finish, but the longer it went on, the more I despised the main character.

I don't know who likes this kind of story, the kind where the protagonist is hilariously over-qualified (unrealistically, despite his young age), yet is somehow so fantastically useless. He literally goes from failure to failure, failing up into one ridiculous upgrade after another, and somehow does absolutely nothing with said gifts of value besides quivering with fear and terror non-stop.

Or forgetting to use his new abilities. CONSTANTLY.

His plans? Idiotic.

His fighting style? Keep floundering around until a lucky break goes his way.

His personality? Ugh. F***ing cringe.

The constant, embarrassing pop-culture references? Made me want to rip my ears off.

The unwanted meta-commentary? Well, I will say that the one genuine laugh this book got from me was-after having a moment where the author legit lambasts 'basement dwelling gamers'-he had his hero making out with a damsel in distress like he's Conan the barbarian. "Look, I'm not one of those losers!" - Proceeds to tick off every loser trope imaginable.

Then there's the 'game.' What a pointless, uninspired waste of space. The arbitrary rules and snarky AI 'helper' (gee, really strained the creative muscles with that one, didn't you?) made what should be a power fantasy I enjoyed through a protagonist vicariously an annoying slog (even if that would never happen given how much I despised said protagonist anyway.)

I'm genuinely astounded with how someone could write a book with a character that's so...unlikable. It's honestly impressive.

Anyway, I mostly just left this review so my future self will remember how much I hated it so I don't accidentally get the sequel in a fit of madness.