Apocalypse Farmer

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The day the world ended was the day Ethan got a power and a weapon. The dumbest pair imaginable: Soil Sense and a garden hoe.Ninety-nine percent of humanity is gone, a glitching alien AI rewrites the rules, and monsters prowl unchecked. But Ethan cangrow. Killing monsters grants short-lived boosts in power, but farming gives him deep-rooted and long-lasting experience with the potential to make him trulymighty. A broken past and a wounded world haunt him as Ethan struggles to reckon with the new reality. Forming an unlikely team composed of a crotchety old farmer, a loyal dog, and a robot spider, he takes on the adventure of a lifetime: survival. Plant. Protect. Grow.If he can grow something strong enough to bind the ruined land, the harvest might just save the world. Cover art by Duy Phan

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2026
Author: SpencerHedrick

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 718
Views: 56,531

Chapters(38 total)

What readers say about Apocalypse Farmer

“Come for the apocalypse, stay for the found family. And Joel. Character: I loved Ethan in an instant. Well, first it was Joel, but right after that, Ethan, because he has a plant best friend. It doesn’t get any better than that. No, really, Ethan is instant…”
Ayela ArcanaRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“So far this is a really fun read! The characters feel grounded in a slice of life sorta way while existing in a really interesting mysterious world. Ethan is a convincing character and I can relate to him as someone around his same age. My curiosity is cont…”
BrocklySproutRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(6)

Ayela ArcanaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Come for the apocalypse, stay for the found family. And Joel.
Character: I loved Ethan in an instant. Well, first it was Joel, but right after that, Ethan, because he has a plant best friend. It doesn’t get any better than that. No, really, Ethan is instantly likeable. He goes from being overwhelmed to beating the sh*t out of monsters with a hoe in this crazed way. Then plummets down into adrenaline crashes. This is a very well fleshed-out character, and his internal monologue is part of what makes the story read so well.
I loved the budding relationship with Henry and Scuppers. That’s what takes the fights and struggles of the opening chapters into a richer, slice-of-life story, and those characters are why I wanted to keep reading. You can really sink into them!
Story: Ethan wakes up after the apocalypse with his world upside down, and he doesn’t figure it out right away. He’s gotta fight monsters, take care of Joel, deal with memories of Samantha, and handle a malfunctioning screen with green text.
There’s a lot of depth to the story too. Real grief. Fever dreams processing painful memories. This book isn’t afraid to dive deep into the character’s psyche, and that is what kept me reading.
Grammar: I only found one missing comma, so no issues!
Style: Well-written third-person narration.
If you’re looking for a story you can binge and feel good while doing it, open this book now!
BrocklySproutRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
So far this is a really fun read! The characters feel grounded in a slice of life sorta way while existing in a really interesting mysterious world. Ethan is a convincing character and I can relate to him as someone around his same age.
My curiosity is continually sparked with this one and I'm hyped to see the next chapters!
Heir_to_the_throne_of _AetherRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Apocalypse Farmer opens with a genuinely clever
subversion of the apocalypse genre — while everyone
else gets combat abilities, Ethan gets Soil Sense.
The humor of that gap between expectation and reality
carries the early chapters well.
The prose style is a standout. It frames scenes the
way a show would — visual, immediate, easy to follow
without feeling sparse. The pacing moves efficiently
without sacrificing atmosphere.
Where it gets interesting is the emotional grounding.
Ethan isn't a stoic power fantasy protagonist — he's
genuinely affected by what's happened to him, by
Samantha leaving, by being alone. That vulnerability
makes him feel real even if it won't be everyone's
preference.
The plant Joel is a quiet detail that does a lot of
character work without announcing itself. Looking
forward to seeing where the farming system develops.
Though the worldbuilding so far raises interesting questions
about how a farming-based ability scales in a world
built around combat progression. Most apocalypse
systems reward violence — watching Ethan carve out
a different path through cultivation and growth
is a refreshing angle that sets this apart from
the typical system novel. The setup has real
potential if it commits to that identity fully.
Solid foundation. Following to see where it goes.
Mori FriedmanRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Gardening to heal.
Characters are introduced very slowly but are highly developed. There is a lot of past grief and old memories mixed in which forms the core of the main characters. Regrets and love lost create opportunities for new growth. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a certain houseplant achieve sentience. Of course, considering everything the MC has put it through, it might try to bite him first.
The initial action is fast paced and well done. Fight scenes are nuanced nicely and move along well. First few chapters are pure struggle to survive and learning the new rules of the world. Despite the well written action there is an emotional core to the story driving the characters onward. You will care about the characters root for their healing.
The reader will subconsciously learn a bit about gardening and soil cultivation. You might even be tempted to show a bit more care to own plants.
Profanity is unnecessarily rough at times, but suitably done at others, and there is a scene that stops just short of the bedroom.
The style is pleasantly rhythmic following action-process-action-process which gives the story room to breathe and explore possibilities. Each action scene has a theme which really helps keep them interesting. Grammar is clean with only a few spelling errors that should be cleared by the first few reader assisted edits.
PaulettehRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I found this to be a compelling read. This last heartwarming chapter was such a welcome relief to the stress of the previous chapters. You have created some strong characters who are working their way into my heart. I’m rooting for them and am excited to follow their journey! Well done, Spencer! Keep up the great work!
UgalaaModeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I really enjoyed this read through of Apocalypse Farmer. I feel like the author has a very solid grasp on how to write a LitRPG but the character writing in this story is really good and I'd like to talk about that. We haven't seen too much of the System yet, as broken as it is in this story, so most of our content has been about Ethan, and also Henry.
I haven't read many LitRPG stories that go this far out of their way to really build up the MC and the supporting characters before any major arcs have started. Now, don't get me wrong, we're clearly in the 'beginning' arcs for the MC, but there's been no massive events yet so far besides maybe that huge battle in the last few chapters. Besides that, and a few other odd fights and things, it's been character writing and exploring the apocalypse.
I don't have a problem with this at all, because the author managed to give Ethan and Henry pretty interesting backstories during the opening chapters. While the backstories themselves are fairly simplistic and are not exactly super complex, they don't really have to be. They're just close enough, combined with dialogue and other things peppered throughout the chapters, that they still feel real -- they're just down to earth and more believable that a normal person would have those kinds of mundane, regular problems and issues.
We haven't even really gotten into System grinding yet, so if this story does that part really stellar as well, it's one I'll keep coming back to. I'm keeping my eye on this one!