The Genesis Game: Volume I

World Apocalypse - Calamity Dungeon

By: Andrew O'Kelley

Narrated by: Curt Bonnem

Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

 The Black Seraph rises with one mission. 

Save humanity. From billions, only a million must survive.

The end of the era of humanity was marked by the appearance of the World Dungeon and the system of power it provided. No one gained more power than the tyrant known as the Black Seraph, the Angel of Genocide. Surviving at the expense of the rest of humanity, Seraph was able to complete the World Dungeon upon reaching the Altar of the End. A hollow victory, as he was cursed by the spirit of the dungeon for ruthlessly focusing on his empowerment.   

His power sealed away within the dungeon, Seraph was cast into the past, reincarnated into the body of his child-liker self, forbidden from hoarding power for himself and charged with the mission of ensuring the survival of humanity. But people do not change overnight, and Seraph must find a new path forward and learn there's more to power than being a tyrant if humanity is to survive the Genesis Game.

Some Reviews

"With these rebirth stories, you get a character who uses foreknowledge to become super strong. This story acknowledges bad memory bad choices and simple disinterest. In other words, the character is a normal human being. Love it."

"I hesitated a bit to pick this up after seeing negative reviews, but ignore them. Seraph is the ultimate anti-hero in the truest sense. He's not evil so much as amoral from his experiences. I'm really interested in seeing how he develops going forward."

"The MC was from my point of view believable. He does what needs to be done, I know many people might not agree but I found his choices realistic even though this is syfi/fantasy the choices felt realistic of a grown male. No crying and wishy-washy mistakes that gets everyone killed, you know letting the same shithead go 4000 time's under the mistaken belief that the bad guy's life is as important as the 30 people he killed and it would be wrong to take his life, then at the end he kills 40 more people. I REALLY HATE THAT. Great book I'm excited for book 2."

©2019 Andrew O'Kelley (P)2020 Spectrum Audiobooks

Dark GameLit!

Great story and narration!

Seraph gives up everything to beat the dungeon that was wiping out humanity. It wasn't enough. Sent back in time with his memories, this cold calculating man in the body of a boy must change the way he approaches the problem if he wants humanity to survive.

Curt does a fantastic job with the narration!

This one was interesting - it has a darker feel than most books in the genera.

I'm looking forward to when the next audiobook in the series comes out!

Wow could have been great

was disappointing especially the ending book is just too short the hero is some how. doesn't really change from his failure in the beginning and is such an ass his on father doesn't like him just when you really get into it it ends abruptly

wormwood

this was a really well done audio book.

loved the story, its a little on the dark side but not to bad. its well written. i enjoyed the twist on litrpg that the author took. character development is done well for a first book as well as the world building.

the narrator does a great job with the voices and the audio/ voice change for some characters. its well read and easy to listen too

i cant wait fir book 2

Some seriously great twists here!

I love the LITRPG genre. There are many complaints about the static format present in many of the series. I am Happy to say this series has already got some really great twists on this genre. Spoilers: the story starts with our hero reaching the end of the dungeon that has taken over earth and decimated humanity. Only to find that it was him and his “moral” decisions and actions are what’s truly doomed the human race. Fast forward. The dungeon granted him a 2nd chance to save humanity...question is can he manage to start over and face the tough decisions that will have to be made....and I must say the ending...DAMN totally out of left field. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

Dark... dark and... awesome!

I received a copy of this book I. exchange for an unbiased review.

That said this has right away become one of my top audiobooks. A very dark but not off-putting litrpg adventure with some crunchy numbers and some real character development right off in the first book. It's starts out with a bit of a litrpg cliche with a powerful man being the only survivor after conquering the tower, but with a twitch. this isn't some shining hero but a man who did what ever it took to win.... whatever it took is some dark stuff it turns out... and the story gets better from that point on!

Great New Author! Insane Production!

This looks to be Andrew O'Kelley's first audiobook, and it is a fantastic one at that. I love dark books and this one fits that description perfectly. The protagonist is the epitome of an anti-hero which is a good change of pace from what I have been listening to lately. The narration from Curt Bonnem is spot on. He really put his heart and soul into this audiobook and it shows. I look forward to the next installment. Spectrum Audiobooks has been knocking it out of the park with the last few releases.

Need the book 2

I really enjoyed the story and I like the ruthlessness of the main character I think I could identify with his selfishness at some points but the book ends at a point where do you think the book would just start beginning for that reason I can’t give us a five star so good book I like the story I really like the performance I think it really goes well with the character but where the book ends absolutely sucks

Delightfully Dark

This book had a similar vibe to Towers of Heaven and Reborn but our MC is pretty evil. This makes for fun character interactions and unpredictable plot developments. Curt Bonnem did a great job giving a voice to all the characters.

I like a dark MC but....

This guy is just a corpse. I don’t mean he is an evil undead either, he is just completely devoid of any emotion except anger and regret. Being in his head is not fun. It’s just the first book, but I can already tell that things like friendship and romance will never be in the cards for this character. He is just vicious to an absurd degree. When he could solve a problem easily by just pretending to be nice, he will deliberately make things harder for himself just to be an a**hole. It doesn’t come off as confident or even arrogant, it just seems petulant.

What would you do to save the world?

When the Black Seraph destroyed humanity to save save it in the Calamity Dungeon he was rebuked and sent back to try again. The problem was he really didn't seem to learn his lesson. This was a good LitRPG story that features a darker MC having to rethink the way they have always done business and the costs of remaining the same. Well narrated and acted.

Very good

I really like the story, the MC, the mechanics (what I've seen if them so far), but this is half a book. I would happily recommend the book, but would advise you wait until the second is released. It's very well written and the attention to detail is refreshing, but it's not enough.

*SPOILER COMMENT*
This book is just an intro to the MC, story and mechanics that is normally the prologue, again breath taking detail, but they enter the dungeon at the end of the book and there are two "battles". I wanted to get immersed, but I'm still waiting for the story to begin XD

What a start!

I was provided a copy of this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review. I like dungeon core and Litrpg books but do tire of the goody-goody-two-shoes approach so it was nice to try a less savoury hero and what a great ride it was. A brutal anti-hero who does what is necessary to ensure the human race can survive the future he knows is coming, genius plot. Great book and really looking forward to delving in more in the series.

Nothing new, but tried and true.

It was a decent story, nothing major in twists.
But lord the repeating gets a little too much.

"He went to the end of the hall. Walking the hall, he arrived at the end, he was at the end of the hall" yeah, I got that, move it along please.

This is not a qoute, but you will have moments like this through out the story. I hope they fix it in the next one, Which I Will likely get at this was a good story overall in the litrpg genre.

Although it is quite lite on the stat bit. But I find I dont mind that so much.

Alright

Almost lost interest towards the start of the book, but it picked up in the second half.. not great but not bad to me.

Reset Premise works well

This author takes an interesting approach to the idea of a character getting sent back with a chance to redo things, in most cases when this idea is used, the protagonist tends to be more benign or positive character from the outset or becomes that way almost immediately in their second chance.

In this case, the main character was ruthless and power-hungry before the reset and starts out the same way in his second chance with the changes he makes being focused on securing his previous power that much sooner, but as the book progresses he does find himself changing in more ways than that and there is plenty of scope for more of this in subsequent books.

The narration and audio production of this book work well with the narrator's performance delivering distinctive tones for the various characters and the additional audio effects used at times are not too obtrusive and do help to set the scenes more.

Overall, a strong opener for this series and I will be interested in seeing how it progresses in future instalments.

[Note - I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.]

epic reborn story

This book is a hidden gem and I am excited to see what happens next.

The story follows an MC who goes back in time and attempts to conquer the dungeon to save humanity. However theres a twist, he isn't a saint! He kills anyone and everyone as though they are ants.

I really liked this book, it seems more realistic than other reborn books as the MC hasn't got an identic memory and isn't trying to follow the same path he originally took.

I also like the MCs interactions with the other characters, it makes sense, considering he is from a future that will take place. (You would understand more if you get the book)

Overall this is an amazing read and I'm looking forward to more of our Dark Lord.

P.s. Narrator did a fab job!

Can't wait to hear what will be next!

Quite unique story that kind of starts from the end, then to the absolute beginning and with flashbacks to fill in the storyline - it is done in such a good way that you have a feeling of both knowing where this story goes to & having no clue what will happen next. This dungeon crawler is also made more lively by fair amount of special effects and narrator who does excellent job with all the character, although it seemed like in the beginning it took for him to get going - but in the end the going is really really good, so hoping that next volume will be out really soon!
"This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."