Self-Necromancy

A Dark Fantasy LitRPG

De: Chikao J

Narrado por: Dan Belmont

Kidnapped, buried alive, and attacked by monsters, Kalvin's having a terrible day. If this is what he gets for crawling out of his grave, maybe staying dead was the better option?

When Kalvin wakes up, having been buried alive in a graveyard, he figures it was a hospital error, an easy mistake for them to make since he’d been half-dead and on life support for years. But when the entire cemetery comes alive and everyone begins to claw their way to the surface, he figures it might not have just been a mistake.

Kalvin doesn't get long to contemplate his unlife, though, before he and the other grave crawlers find themselves torn apart by rampaging monsters—only to wake up clawing his way out of the grave once more.

Trapped in a terrifying, impossible time loop, dying just to be reborn once more in an endless cycle, it's up to Kalvin to find a path out of this nightmare.

©2024 Chikao J (P)2025 Chikao J

Not bad for LitRPG, needs heavy editing.

The story is unique enough in a genre that is currently flooded with detritus that it proves interesting. Unfortunately the writing style leaves something to be desired. Without spoilers I can say that the time loops were an interesting mystery but the way they were implemented forced me to go back and listen to some sections multiple times to figure out what was happening. Maybe it is better in print than audio? The ending was okay, felt a little rushed, but tied up nicely. I'd be willing to purchase the next book, as the time loop is done with. I do urge the author not to fall into the OP Protagonist trope, it is fine line to toe and often falls flat on its face.

As to the narrator, I've listened to several of his works. I think perhaps he was not the best choice for this particular book. Sometimes his narration is so dry it's like listening to someone reading a dictionary out loud. I occasionally found myself zoning the audio out when he went into his dry spell, not a good thing to have happen in this type of entertainment.

TL/DR: If you can't spare the attention span to read 2 paragraphs perhaps this book/audiobook is not for you. Though I will say it is a decent story and I hope the author does better in the 2nd novel.

Groundhog day in a cemetery

A fun lit rpg mystery, can't wait to see what our zombie friend does next.

An honorable zombie protagonist

This is an undead plus time loop plus tower plus LitRPG story. All those elements are meshed successfully and I'm looking forward to the next book.

Narration and punching bag MC

The narration is weird and monotone. You can get used to it, but it’s not great. The MC is a bit of a marty. Give him any attention and he’ll overlook crap treatment and mourn your temporary death. I wish he had remained detached honestly.

He is also really bad at picking upgrades. Great fighter, no sense of basic gaming knowledge in a world with towers and gamelike interfaces. The balance also makes no sense.

Abagail is an annoying hypocrite. She acts self-righteous but doesn’t seem to have an issue being a jerk. She is riddled with guilt she might have killed a murdering sociopath but can’t apology for almost getting a sick bystander beat up. She’s also nicer and more respectful to literally everyone else, while the MC pretends not to notice. And she goes out of her way to be vague while demanding answers for things that are none of her business. And he gives them, which is even more annoying. She even uses the fact that he saved her as leverage for demanding more of his secrets and he sees no issues with it. She is an entitled character but the story really pushes her interaction with the MC. It’s painfully obvious it’s going to keep happening and equally painful to have it be such an annoying and borderline abusive relationship that the MC just okays. Of course she comes with some common sense advice he just couldn’t have to make her more important. MC acts like an idiot in a lot of ways that she brings up. Then acts in the same dumb ways the next chance he gets. It makes it hard to root for him when he chooses to make things so much harder for himself for absolutely no reason. She explained to him why it was dumb and he does it anyway. He just makes dumber decisions as the book gets closer to finishing. He wastes resources and just avoids helping himself.