Tower of Somnus Omnibus, Books 1-3

De: Cale Plamann

Narrado por: Andrea Parsneau

First contact gone wrong. Humanity judged and found wanting. Unlimited power up for grab.

The Galactic Consensus arrived on ships as large as skyscrapers, crafted from glittering alloys that no human scientist could even begin to understand. They followed the trail of century old television transmissions to welcome us into the galactic community… only to recoil in horror at what they found.

They concluded that humans were unfit to be trusted with the advanced technologies that member-states of the Consensus freely traded with each other, installing a relay to warn other ships that we were under embargo, but more importantly, allowing humans entrance into the Tower of Somnus, a multiplayer game of sorts that could be played in one’s sleep. The hope was that humanity would learn proper behavior from playing the game with our more civilized neighbors.

Katherine ‘Kat’ Debs, a hereditary employee of one of the megacorporations that ruled the world, eked out a meager existence in a massive arcology of glittering glass and chrome. She dreamt of one day earning enough money to buy her freedom, and was more than willing to break a law here or there in the process. When she is offered an opportunity to enter the Tower of Somnus free of corporate control, she jumps at the chance. After all, the 'game' was more than just a status symbol, players retained the fantastic powers they earned in the game in the waking world as well.

A perfect opportunity to take control of her destiny, or die trying.

©2022 Cale Plamann (P)2022 Cale Plamann

A refreshing take on the "dream video game"

This was a great listening experience; I enjoyed the story very much. I'm usually very critical of the stories I enjoy (the more I like it, the higher my expectations), but I only noticed a couple of minor points in this one -- mostly about subject/object pronoun use (think "I" vs. "me"). I guess I was also a little concerned about how readily the main character could "eliminate hostiles," and at least one case where she did so unnecessarily (though she seemed to realize it afterwards).
While I say this as a man, I found the narrator's male voices to be more varied and convincing than many of her female voices. It was kind of impressive, honestly.
Also, I would caution against listening to all 3 books in rapid succession. By the time I was wrapping up the third volume in this set, it was starting to affect my thinking. My daughter asked me, "If you have to split an apple between yourself and two friends, but can only make one cut, how would you do it?" I thought about it for a minute, but the only response I could think of was, "Line them up, one in front of the other. Stab through the first, into the second. Walk away and eat the apple."

magical cyberpunk!!

I really don't want to spoil this absolutely great series it's just that good.
for you like cyberpunk and perhaps magic? why not both in a litrpg style? well that's only the start of the good things to come yet, with great world build and dynamic characters everywhere both to be liked or not aswell as great story progress that will leave you wanting for more.
the voice actor did a great job aswell lots of depth and excitement. do you read combat parts of a book faster because it's more exciting? this great voice actor does and it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time!
so in short you need to check this great series out

all in one

I'm really starting to like this author. his books are fun and peppy. the third book in this series doesn't actually start until chapter 28 or thirty. I had to reread them because I missed some good scenes.

TLDR: they are fun.

good, not great

The world building is really cool, the cyberpunk future reality that manages to be more interesting than the fantasy gaming and leveling portion, which just feels tacked on. not entirely, of course, there's some decent synergy, but it would've been nice if more plot or sub plot was done in the tower rather than it just feeling like where she can chill with aliens and gain levels/powers.

An epic balance of cyberpunk and the dreamscape!

I really enjoyed this omnibus. The story is believable and the characters are fleshed out. Andrea delivers an amazing performance.

Bravo 👏

I find it a unique story about a clever young woman Cat as she attempts to survives a soul crushing corporate dystopia, full of villainous gangs, moded out samurai, and wicked CEOs and their web of politics and murder, then add another layer of complexity; As Cat slumbers she can access a dream like interplanentary game where skills are earned by dungeon diving and have the amazing benefits of permanently improving the person/subscriber in reality. Mix in a montley crew and a insioudious alien plot, then you have the iceberg of this book. Great action written throughout complemented by the wide ranging vocal acumen of the voice narrator.

Discount Shadowrun Meets Discount Star Trek D&D

For those who like lots of a fights and don't care as much about a strong plot to unit them, this book will probably be a good fit. The magic system seems fairly well built. Unfortunately, after finishing the first two books in the omnibus, I've found that the story never really captured my attention and I'm still not invested in the characters.

While there are some elements that the author can claim for their own, most of the worldbuilding seems to be generic imitations of other creative universes. The "real world" portion very clearly draws from Shadowrun, but seems to lack the depth that makes that franchise unique. The aspect that this story can claim is unique is the fact that the fantasy D&D VR simulation is a dreamworld rather some kind of technology.

Aside from the occasional mention of being unable to sleep, however, this aspect rarely seems important to the story itself. The plot feels rather threadbare. It feels more like the author wanted a vehicle to preach about real world politics than they wanted to tell an interesting story. I always have to mark a story down when they explicitly go out of their way to engage in exposition dialogue to express opinions about the real world. Exposition dialogue can be boring enough as it is when it's necessary to help worldbuild fantastical elements. It's atrocious when just describing reality.

One big thing I'll give this story over something like Primal Hunter - at least the author or publisher has seemingly hired editors. The writing itself isn't plagued with passive voice, repetitious word use, or awkward phrasing like I've seen in a few other popular litRpg series.

preachy as hell

corpo bad. use pronouns right. men bad. these are the messages im getting from just the first 9 chapters. im tired man. i dont need this preachy bullshit

Boring MC and a soulless world

The MC has no character traits other than being tough.

This book features lots of combat and nothing else.

Do you like 4 armed lizard men and or giant otters?

Too bad you get those.

This book features terrible people in a soulless world where corporations work everyone to death. So ya no one has fun. Especially the reader.

I like the story but...

While I understand that many are drawn to this audiobook for its RPG elements, I found the excessive focus on battle descriptions—many of which did little to advance the plot—to be tedious. The overarching story was far more engaging and could have benefited from a stronger narrative focus.

The narrator’s standard voice was excellent, and her portrayals of male characters were generally fine. However, some of her female character voices were grating, bordering on unbearable. In the third book, two of these characters frequently shared conversations, and their astonishing high-pitched, whiny tones were so harsh that I physically winced while listening. The pitch was unnaturally high—far beyond any normal voice I’ve encountered in real life—and when listening at a comfortable volume for narration, these voices became painfully loud. While the engineering levels may not have changed, the way electronics and the human ear process high frequencies made these characters particularly difficult to endure, forcing me to lower the volume every time they spoke.

Having listened to over 800 audiobooks, I’ve never struggled with discomfort caused by a narrator’s voice as much as I did here. And they were so unnatural, it distracted from immersion in the story.