This is not an Apocalypse

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

I will be taking down everything except for book in 1 week on the 10th of April 2026, all other books will be available on Kindle Unlimited including book 5 which will be out soon.

Book 1, 2 ,3 and 4now also on amazon kindle -This is not an Apocalypse, Current Times

amazon.com - This is not an Apocalypse: Current Times.

Reviews and ratings welcome.

All four books are available on Amazon in kindle and paperbook format.

The story......

The world is changing, two years ago strange weather, various anomalies and strange creatures started appearing from nowhere all over the world.  Some creatures were completely alien and others were familiar looking as if they'd stepped from myth and legend.  What many of these creatures had in common however was their aggressive nature and predatory instinct.  Things that go bump in the night, that shifting shadow in the dark alley way, the cracking branch right behind you.  Nightmarish creatures now stalk the land.  Monsters.

That isn't the only change in a new world however, humans have also changed.  Some unknown phenomenon has granted humanity access to incredible power.  The very elements themselves can now be wielded by those willing to risk the dangers.  Earth, wind, fire, water, suddenly magic has become possible in a modern world and there are many who are eager to develop and embrace their newfound power and help protect their fellow man from monsters.  There are also many who are willing to make a profit from newfound opportunities this changing world provides.

Unfortunately for our MC Jack, embracing newfound power and going out to valiantly battle monsters isn't quite as simple as most other people have it.  He possesses the rare and not so sought after lightning element, considered the weakest element for certain reasons, pitied and looked down upon Jack is determined to become a successful monster hunter in a more and more dangerous world.

A slow burn story with world building, dungeon delving, character progression, Litrpg elements and more.WARNING-The MC is not a Mary Sue, he is not super competent, or super powerful or super intelligent nor a paragon of virtue, just a normal guy in a not so normal situation and him growing to deal with it in his own way.

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2022
Author
HoneyBadger1

Tags

LITRPGACTIONFANTASYADVENTUREMAGICSUPERNATURALMALE LEADHORRORPOST APOCALYPTICLOW FANTASYURBAN FANTASYPROGRESSIONDUNGEON CRAWLER

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.2/ 5.0
Followers
497
Views
98,519

Chapters(36 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

  • cdr_whiteRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I just binge read the second book and it is even better as book 1. This apocalypse hit the whole world and the main character actually lives in the UK which is a rather nice change from all those apocalypses hitting the USA. Speaking of the main character, he is well thought out and his progression from weak to strong happens in exactly the right pace. The other recurring characters also develop over time and we get to know them better at the same pace, the MC does.
    The story is well written and I only noticed a few minor errors there. There is a clear plot and a well thought out system of powers and progression.
    I greatly enjoyed binge-reading the whole second book now and I can definitely recommend this story. I am not sure about RRs ranking algorithm favoring daily posts over one big dump of chapters all at once but it definitely deserves a top spot on the rankings.
  • AkmedrahRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    TLDR: Book one is great and introduces the character and the world well. I would recommend a read!
    STYLE: The style of this story is great. It is well-paced, well-written, and consistent.
    STORY: The story is great. It is fluid and moves from one plot point to the next in a well-paced manner. My only issue with the story is that there are several points that seem to just fall off, not being talked about for a while, and then we get a one-line explanation of why they are not talked about anymore three chapters later. However, I still deeply enjoyed this book and would recommend it to all as a solid story presenting elements from several fantasy sub-genres.
    GRAMMAR: The grammar is fantastic. I do not know if the author has an editor, but either way, there was clearly some work and care put into this story.
    CHARACTER: My one major issue in this story is that the MC is portrayed as having a mouth that runs a mile a minute and is consistently getting saved or bailed out by those around him. I like the character, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. The characters, in general, are well-written, believable, and fun to learn about.
    OTHER: Overall, this story is one that I will most likely revisit at a later date. Give it a read!
  • Spinning GeckoRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    The new book in this series has done a great job at introducing new characters and new enemies while staying true to what made the first three books great. Interesting powers, creative fight scenes, and most importantly characters that feel like actual people instead of cut outs of heroes make this series fantastic.
  • GlassSpidersRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    Just a spark so far has been an entertaining read, even if it's not a masterwork of artistic literature. We have a protagonist who has some issues and get to watch as he gradually tackles them one at a time. The characters are not too deep but we are getting further development and growth as we go along. The world building is fairly detailed and pretty interesting in a slow descending into the apocalypse kinda way. I'm enjoying it so far and looking forward to finding out where it's going in future chapters.
  • HippioScipioRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    Overall - I found that in all the important respects this work did what it set out to do well and that I genuinely enjoyed reading it.
    Style - Clean, Smooth, and Well Done.
    Characters - I liked the MC quite a bit as they are well written, and what most impressed me was that so were the side characters.
    Grammar - No issues that I saw.
    Story - Well crafted, Engaging, and I shall be following along.
    TLDR: It's worth your time to read.
  • OorkholfRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    As portrayed in the presentation, the story follows Jack, a once again random white middle class man. He is stuck with the lightning element, wich will be described as a sub-par tool in this new changing world. But will end up trying his hand at monster-hunting. Where the Apocalypse is not really there, but not really absent.
    On the Grammar. Nothing to say there. As a non-native english reader, the grammar is perfect for me, and does not affect my reading experience
    On the style. While there is some room for improvement (some avoidable repetitions, some moments where it can feel a bit stretched), the story's style is a refreshing experience. Compared to a lot of other stories on RR where the rythm is just too fast paced and the whole story can only be described as a nervously fuelled fit of fighting, where you loose the track in the frist pages. It is completely the opposite here. The story takes its time to reccount the wereabouts of Jack, and while it can feel slow at times, it is good to have the time to breath between chapters. And the rarity of cliffhangers makes it also more enjoyable when they happen.
    On the characters: As of book 4, I have come to like the characters, some of them have decent evolutions, some other are stuck in there positions of colossal A-Holes, but with justifications. Some might find the different characters lacking a bit of a spark in them, this je-ne-sais-quoi that makes them weird or intense. But the choice of a pseudo-normalcy is also a nice surprise.
    On the Story Itself:
    As stated in the title, This is not an apocalypse. No ever snarky System, no overgods waging war over the baby integrated earth. And most importantly, no huge amount of worldbuilding dropped on our head from the start. We discover this universe at the same time as Jask start dwelling.
    What I love in this story is that the world is slowly changing, leaving people no choice but to adapt, while still giving them the chance to do so.
    It is easy to see the comparison wit
  • GoldenPoopRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    I honestly enjoy the novel, there was a point where I did get bored but I decided to give it 2 more chapters and turns out it paid off.
    The only things I dislike us the fact that once he managed to cultivate for a while and expanded his core that he couldn't move onto other things with electricity. The whole point of taking electricity from a creature was because it's mild and weak. Atleast the amount of electricity in any creature in real life is tiny. So shouldn't he have adapted to it by now?
    The second issue is the automatic aggression everyone has towards him when they hear he has lightning element, despite having been in the news shown killing two monsters that no lightning cultivator had done before. It should have made the news headline and everyone in the guild would have realistically heard it by now.
    I also think the whole cult thing is dumb. Because I highly doubt anyone would be stupid enough to believe those 4 horsemen are gods or someshit. They atmost would have cultivated for longer and are more powerful than most?? Unless they have some kind of brainwashing magic that hasn't been revealed yet.
    Even an idiot would realize they are just terrorist cultists when they were known for causing such incident as mentioned somewhere in the novel. Who would pray to sodebody like that and actually make them sound like they are some saviors when they haven't done anything but cause chaos and unrest.
    Still overall I like the action alot but find it dumb when it's only been like 2 years since this shit started and there are already A rank cultivators capable of destroying a 500meter titan. It would have been better if monsters were still weak as well as everyone else. But stronger monsters are spawning as time passes.
  • HughgentRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    I have been really enjoying this story.
    A rags to riches kind of power fantasy with a healthy dose of Monster Hunter thrown in.
    I found that the gaining of power really 'made sense' and that there was a real sense of effort from our protagonist. This was very well done.
    Time skips are reasonable and it didn't linger on any one part for overly long. Overall excellent pacing.
    I found myself wanting to read more regularly and binged the whole story in about 4 days. However, it wasn't 4 sleepless nights of a 'I need to read one more' kind of fervor.
    So overall it's good, very good, but not perfect.
  • MortonsonsRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 3.5
    I'm having fun with this one. It's basically the story of a 9 to 5 wage slave who decides to try something new that excites him more. So he decides to become a monster hunter. But he initially faces much prejudice due to having a rare elemental affinity that nobody knows how to grow. He figures it out by accident and decides to keep it to himself. Now, this is a sticking point for a lot of readers. I myself have my own working theory as to why this would be. Being the only one who can cultivate lightning makes him special. If more people knew, his specialness is threatened. The writer has some issues with punctuation, though.
  • Sk1lz3rRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 3.5
    Okay. Simply?
    I like the story. It has promise. The writing is not the best but it is good.
    The setting is interesting, your regular monster and mana apocalypse, without actually being an apocalypse. Society goes on to function as normal.
    The MC is a guy with a rare element, wich translates into nobody knowing how to use it yet. As a result he's looked down upon everytime he mentions anything hunter related.
    The setting is good, story is nice enough, writing is okay.
    My one gripe is the MC. Jack is a childish idiot. He does not think twice before acting and makes no preperations. He throws tiny temper tantrums instead of doing anything against the injustice against him. Basically? Jack is a child in the body of a 20(?) somthing year old.
    But the rest of the story is nice. I recommend trying the first 10 chapters, try and see if you like it.