Rapture

By: Daniel Schinhofen

Narrated by: Andrea Parsneau

Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's Summary

Alvin woke in a room that was not his, to discover that he had died and his brain had been bargained off cheaply to pay off someone else’s debt. It did not sit well with him. It didn’t surprise him that even in death, people were still using him for their own purposes. He had never exactly been a good guy, but everyone had their breaking point, and he had found his.

The bastards in charge had uploaded his mind into a virtual death game. The whole world could now pay to see him play it and probably die. Alvin questioned whether he was really a bad guy, if this is how they wanted to treat him. Regardless, he was not about to wait for death to come for him. He would kick open the damn Apocalypse Gates and see about crushing everything that challenged him. It was time to make the world aware that he was done with pretending to be nice.

Welcome to Apocalypse Gates!

(This audiobook contains adult themes, including gore, death, drug use, and graphic sex.)

©2017 Daniel James Schinhofen (P)2018 Daniel Schinhofen

HAve fun with the apocalypse and zombies

Daniel Schinhofen has written something I have been waiting to hit Audible for some time, Horror Survival LITRPG. Survivalist horror isn’t a huge setting in the genre, and I don’t know why. Sometimes it seems we are lucky if we get anything outside of a Western Fantasy Style book, which inevitable means that we’ll get some sort of a sci-fi version instead. I have been wanting to see some other fields get a chance at the plate. I could really go for a good Western (Red Dead Redemption) LITRPG, or something comedic, but most especially I want a horror styled LIT book on audio. I know there are some that have been written, but nothing I can find, and so when I found out this was survivalist horror I was ecstatic.

The book is really well written, and the characters are all standouts. I really adored Gothy, though, far more than any others. I like that Schinhofen slips in some jokes here and there without announcing what he is talking about. They are either you get them or you don’t, such as his wanting to rename the AI known as Scott into Betty. The book has a solid crunch to it, for you gamer fans. But there were some things I found strange, such as when the MC, Al, tells everyone that they are trapped in a video game. You just don’t see that very often.

One thing that set me off a little was the easy pathway to weapons and unlimited ammo. For the entire beginning of the book, Al does his zombie whacking with a wooden baseball bat. He has a hard time upgrading, because upgrades cost him XP, and he doesn’t get a lot of it to start out. Next thing you know he is upgrading guns so that they have unlimited fire power. Now, to me, part of what makes movies like NOTLD fun is that the people fighting the undead have limited weapons and resources. We sort of skip that problem really quickly, and focus on base building and saving survivors. On top of the zombies we also get a few other creepy creatures that show up by the end of the book, so I am really looking forward to what comes next in the series, as the escalation seems to be right on point.

Narration is performed by the excellent and adorable Andrea Parsneau, who seems to really enjoy playing Gothy. She really makes that girl shine. She does a fab job on the other voices, and maintains the pace and flow of the story effortlessly. I actually kind of got upset when she had to switch off her Scott voice for the AI’s new personality, as she really killed it with Scott. Other guy was fun, but, he was no Scott. I really can’t say how much I enjoyed her here. If we do have a rapture, and for some odd reason she isn’t taken I hope that she makes play by plays over a loud speaker. Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. Getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

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Great twist to the game genre. I highly recommend!

I really didn't know what to expect from this book. But I would say about 2 hours in I was hooked and pist that I only had 6 hours left. Give it a chance. Warning this book has adult sexual situations so make sure reader's are 18+ of age. Great job to the author and thanks to audible for bringing it to us! Please let the series continue! I will be looking out

good till it's weird

was good until the end when it becomes a Harley Quinn/Joker fantasy between a troubled kid and a borderline pedophile

Dear Schinhofen, can I come live in your imagination?

I love good LITRPG stories, given my broken body the idea of living in a new virtual body is inherently an attraction for me. Daniel Schinhofen is hands down one of my favourite LITRPG authors now that I found his writing or at least the Alpha World series and now Apocalypse Gates as a new series. If you like LITRPG and post apocalyptic stories you'll fall instantly in love as I did, if just one or the other you should enjoy yourself at the least, but I wouldn't be at all shocked if you fall in love with the stories anyway. I don't do spoilers in my reviews but I will say I was quite shocked to find sex scenes more explicit here than in Alpha World with a sucubus involved.

excellent

I was surprised at just how enjoyable the entirety of the book was. l normally find a post apocalyptic setting to be depressing, but the authors clever use of game mechanics made that the most enjoyable part of the book for me. The building up of the base and the scavaging for supplies to do so was a great hook to get the charters out in the world and the gradual ramp of difficulty from zombies to other opponents and interpersonal problems kept the action from ever getting stale. As for the sex personally I don't see what the big deal is, it really only escalates in the later part of the book and is easily skipped over if it's not your thing, since it's not like major plans are discussed during it. Frankly it adds a lot of depth two the characters involved, who are both emotionally damaged and in each other find the peace in being with someone who gets you when you know no one else can. Eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series as the characters and setting both show great promise.

Fun game concept but unnecessary amount of sex

The narration is great. The story is good and interesting until the end when it slows down and has alot of extra sex scenes. I mean 1 or 2 is welcome and understandable but constant, graphic description isn't really necessary. If I wanted to spend half an hour listening to people talk dirty to each other I could just watch porn.

Gritty Apocalyptic Fun with Great Narration

APOCALYPSE GATES was a great book made even greater by the narration of Andrea Parsneau, who also narrated the excellent WILD WASTES books.

This book really hit my sweet spot, delivering action, horror, complex characters, community building, and a cool story, all within a LitRPG / Gamelit framework. I really liked the way APOCALYPSE GATES handled stats, character progression, equipment, and the characters' awareness of the game in which they were trapped. These elements add to the story instead of slowing it down. I read a lot of LitRPG. Sometimes, the stats can bog down an audio book version, but not here.

The main character is definitely flawed, almost sociopathic, and that makes him interesting... especially as he interacts with other characters, forms relationships, and begins to change. On a related note, this book's handling of "personability" scores was awesome.

Oh-and Jarvis. Jarvis was awesome, too.

I'll definitely pick up the sequel, and in the meantime, I'll listen to anything Ms. Parsneau narrates... even a grocery list.

If you're a fan of gritty stories, action, flawed characters, and LitRPG, grab this book!

Great start

The book starts off nicely, with a good pace. Ends with a bit to much sex. And too be honest I cringed a bid over the sex content.
Overall a good book, with a great story. Shame with standstill ending more focus on sex.

Going to try the next installment. But if it keeps on with the sex, I will probably drop it.

Excellent book ruined by gratuitous sex

I decided to try this book again, having given up in disgust the last time. I love the premise (LitRPG zombie apocalypse) and the storyline, but the extreme sex portions were too much for me again and I had to give it up. It wouldn't be so bad if the graphic sex scenes were discreet and could be easily skipped, but there are almost constant sexual references after the main character (an adult) hooks up with a high school girl with obvious mental issues.

Amazing and most enjoyable!

absolutely loved this! great narrator! cannot imagine finding a better story teller. she brings it all to life!

A geek's daydream

If you like post-apocalyptic action, then the book isn't half bad. It runs into problems, however with its generic and undifferentiated dialogue, lack of plot direction and unrealistic male to female relationships.

It gave me the impression that the author doesn't understand human interaction that well, and simply wrote down his desperate fantasies.

Worth a read for the action and the premise, if you can forgive the above mentioned faults.

Brilliant book really enjoyed it

This was such a good book but I listen to it fully in one day from start to finish.
I really hope that next book comes out shortly and I will deafly be getting it love the characters love the genre

I can't get through this book.

I'm not sure why this has so many positive reviews, I really got bored very quickly with this book. Man gets stuck in computer game, man meets girl, Man kills zombies... repeat, repeat.

slow start

it was a slow start which almost made me give up but once you're into the main story it's amazing. loads of humour.

Brilliant Audio book!

This was a brilliant Audio book and a great story with an awesome concept. Brilliantly narrated too.
Looking forward to listening to part 2.

Good overall listen

This is is good book with a unique story and I enjoyed it overall. The problem was the narrator. Andrea Parsneau didn’t necessarily do a bad job except the main character is male and she just couldn’t get the gravitas required for his character, nor the other male characters except maybe the cowardly doctor. This book would have done better with either a good strong male narrator or better still Andrea as the female characters and a male narrator for the men. As I say, Andrea didn’t do a bad job and the book is worthwhile, it’s just it was lacking in general because the main character just didn’t have the oomph needed as a lead

good listen overall

I really enjoyed the plotline but struggled with female narration of a male lead at first...

another great story

Like apocalypse story's? litrpg? A somewhat morally dubious MC? I do! and this book doesn't disappoint!

exciting from the very start and doesn't let up!

Brilliant!

I have been hesitant to dive into the Apocolypse Gates books as I am not typically a fan of the post apocalyptic genre. That said I could not stop listening to this book. The narrator's performance is brilliant and there are no wasted moments. I can't wait to read more in this series.