Earth Force (Relict Legacy #1) by Shemer Kuznits

Earth Force (Relict Legacy #1) Reviews

• 
  Phil

  Impressed
  
  Great read. Think Fallout meets Mass Effect. I must say that this author keeps delivering. I'm not sure if I'm looking more forward to the next Life Reset or Relict Legacy. Just give me more.
• 
  GaiusPrimus

  Another hit for Kuznits
  
  I truly enjoyed this novel. A slight different take on the post-apocalyptic Gamelit, but very entertaining.
  
  The author does a good job of very quickly drawing the reader in and then you just hold on for the ride.
  
  Looking forward to the next.
• 
  Tony Hisgett

  Although I like Science Fiction and Fantasy I haven’t tried many LitRPG books, however this came up as a Kindle Unlimited recommendation so I thought I’d give it a try.
  I have enjoyed a few role playing games in my time, but it became clear after a few chapters that reading about the game is not as interesting as playing it. It didn’t help that I couldn’t get a feeling for the ‘world’; it almost felt like I had missed a previous book. There was a lot of action, but they were just a collection of random incidents.
  Perhaps if I had more patience I might have been able to get into the book, but in the end I decided this wasn’t for me.
  
• 
  Wilhelm Eyrich

  Honestly I dropped this book about 45% through.
  
  The characters unnerved me and I think it was because they all seem to be tailor made for the specific thing they need to be to fit into the crew, just a cutout of a personality and job to fit a description. I didn’t feel any sort of attachment to them either and the weird way the author switches between POVs multiple times in a chapter was disjointing as well.
  
  I don’t think it was a bad book, it just didn’t interest me enough to keep me in. I can see why others would enjoy it though.
• 
  Ofer Biran

  Great book.
  
  I liked the idea and story, the writing is very catchy and I couldn't stop reading it, I recommend it to anyone who likes litRPG.
• 
  Sean Bai

  I feel let down.
  
  I have read the New Era Online series by Shemer Kuznits, and each book got a five star review from me. Each book had a wonderful city development feel to it, while also detailing a unique leveling and character class system in the form of a goblin warlord. Unfortunately this book doesn't quite have that feel to it.
  
  While the first few chapters were action-packed and had some new takes on familiar tropes, from 30-50% of the book, I found myself unable to care about the plot and the characters, to an extent.
  
  I liked the beginning. The warped, tech, and the classes were all unique. But as time passed, the plot felt like it was meandering. There was no clear goal or enemy, besides a giant monster to be beaten later. Characters go from Earth to outer space back and forth several times, and I didn't feel much conflict for a huge chunk of the middle of the book, and by the time there was some action around 60% in the book, I felt lost. Moon excavators, random spaceships ... they felt underwhelming.
  
  I can't talk about the plot without talking about the leveling system. This also felt lacking, because while the classes are all unique, I don't know much about the classes. Yes, I know it's Gamelit and classes and stats are not usually explained in much or any detail in this subgenre, but the classes like navigator and engineer just felt ... normal - hidden behind strange terms. The most interesting class belonged to Nathan, and I wish we had seen more of the unique aspects of each class and that there was more fighting to showcase these abilities. I think what made New Era Online unique was the mass of abilities the main character gained, and in this book, there is no main character. Rather, the story progresses from the perspective of the crew of four people.
  
  While it may be possible to read a story without a main character, we didn't really get to go into the minds of the main characters all too much. Yes, Nathan had an interesting backstory, and characters did talk about their hard stories here and there, especially halfway through, but I wish we learned more about the personalities of the characters.
  
  It was difficult to give this a three star review and I wish I could have given it a five star review, because I know how well the author writes.
• 
  Stanislas Sodonon

  
  Shemer Kuznits is officially my best LitRPG author, and this book is my best LitRPG book for the year 2019. And I had to discover that on the very last day!
  
  In my last review, I wrote that what I expect from LitRPG is a story using RPG as a backdrop, and in almost all books I've tried this year, I got exactly the opposite; long-winded game logs, interspersed with half-baked teenage wish-fulfilling "plot".
  
  This book is one that delivers exactly what I expect: a very good story, in a world that happens to have litrpg mechanics. Thank You Shemer!
  
  I won't go into details about the story. I'll instead talk about what is not to be found in this book.
  
  For once, women are not described by their appearance and guys by their inherent prowesses.
  
  For once the MCs (because there are actually two) are not in a level race, nor do they get the benefit of extraordinary EXP-raking coincidences. They actually work, and work hard for their gains, thank you very much. By book's end, the MCs are still rather average.
  
  For once, dialogue sounds realistic, and people's backstories are worked into the story in a believable way. A real attempt is made at explaining the whys of the new human psychology, and I really appreciate that.
  
  The characters were really well fleshed out. I especially enjoyed the engineer's character. He brings exactly the kind of shade I love in modern stories. On the other hand, I believe Nathan is useless throughout the book, just a ball of angst that has no other purpose than to be pitied. So he better come into his own and get some meat in the next one.
  
  All in all, the most satisfying LitRPG book I read this year. And that's saying something.
  One book at a time, Shemer is confirming his spot as a go-to authors in this new genre. Keep it up, dude!
• 
  David

  A good take on SciFi litRPG / LitRPG Apocalypse.
  
  Kuznits will not be boxed in. His new story has a totally different tone, style and pacing than his previous Life Reset series, and gives us a fresh more SciFi focused take on the litRPG Apocalypse idea (our world crashing down when RPG like rules/progression are imposed on us, and monsters start showing up )
  
  Another step beyond the standard for the genre is an ensemble cast worthy of a star trek bridge seen with a mostly balanced rotation of viewpoints and less than perfect characters.
  
  Definitely a stand out in the genre, I'm looking forward to the next release.
  
  4 Stars because 5 stars is reserved Shakespeare, Tolkien, and a few others
• 
  Michael Chatfield

  Great blend of scifi, LitRPG and apocalyptic genres. I'm really looking forward to how the conflicts and the characters will continue to evolve! Thank you for a great read Shemer!
• 
  Miles

  4☆
• 
  James Firth

  Enjoyed far more than I expected to. Concept more interesting than the blurb suggests and really well developed universe. Kept me wanting more. Would make a very good game (which I guess is the point).
• 
  Susan

  This book reads very much like litRPG or gamelit even tho it is alien nanite tech that is giving the characters their attributes and ‘leveling’ them up. For me, that worked really well. I loved that the story never got bogged down in characters figuring out how to distribute points after leveling up, etc. The story does have a friendly merchant alien, Alzygo, that acts like a help encyclopedia in a RPG PC game. And while that was a simple plot ploy, it did keep the plot moving along at a good speed.
  
  Nathan and Lana are two teens that found each other not too long after the world went to crap and have been struggling through. Then our warrior messenger, Noori, shows up and the three become a team. The Warped are dangerous and fighting one off is certainly easier with a little group than on your own. This trio soon discovers a small crashed alien ship, and shortly after that they run into Bulko and his gang. Both groups want the ship as it might hold valuable tech that can give them a much needed edge in survival. But the two groups soon join forces and together they meet the friendly merchant alien. That’s when a horrible truth about how the world was lost comes out. I found this part of the story, and the remaining questions, fascinating. Sure, much of humanity is lost but those who remain have an opportunity to avenge the dead. Bulko certainly is into that idea.
  
  I got sucked in by the characters but I stayed for the plot. So many questions! I especially like that I ‘m not sure who to trust. Even Nathan questions how much to trust the new tech, and hence yourself, because no one is free of the nanotech – it’s everywhere at this point. There were certainly lots of questions about how much to trust Bulko, but I liked him from the start. He’s a tough and edgy survivor. So far I like Martin, the leader of a fortified holdout, but I do wonder how trustworthy he will be going forward.
  
  Lana is adorably cute. Honestly, at first I thought she was like 12 or 13 but turns out, she’s a college student. Nathan, at 16, is the younger of the two. Lana does talk and act much like a 12 year old for the entire book, so I’m just going to ignore that whole college thing. I think it’s great that she and Nathan share some kind of psychic communication link because Nathan doesn’t talk. No one really knows why either and I know that puts some people on edge, but I think it’s just because he’s seen too many horrible things.
  
  The story does keep a decent pace, though at times it feels a little forced. Like I know we need to clear out some of the Warped so we can have a safe zone, but do we really need to do that before we have the ideal amount of ammo? Also, we got to check out the moon because, you know, aliens. And we also got to check out this mysterious outpost called Hammerfell too. But I wasn’t completely sold on the urgency. I think the tale would have benefited from the addition of some other factors, like oncoming harsh weather, limited food stores, and questionable sanitary living conditions.
  
  Nevertheless, the tale ramps up for a big face off at the end. All our Earth Force allies are pulled in for an assault on the Warped. Riches are promised, but some people just take joy in eliminating the Warped. The ending has some close calls, a few emotional moments, and a left me feeling victorious. It’s also a good place to leave off before our heroes go off to answer some bigger questions. 4/5 stars.
  
  The Narration, Sound Effects, & Music: My favorite voices were Noori and Bulko. I love their no-nonsense attitudes (even tho they are sometimes at odds) and I felt that was well captured by the narrators. I liked most of the sound effects, tho sometimes they got a little garbled during fight scenes, especially that big final one. For the majority of the book tho, the sound effects are well-timed and easily identifiable. The little bits of music are good too. I liked that all the characters had unique voices and the guys sounded like guys and the ladies sounded like ladies. It was also easy to pick out Nathan’s internal voice or, later in the story, his electronic voice. Soundbooth Theater has a choice in narrations when you buy from their site directly – narration only or what they call a Deep Dive (with all the sound effects and music). I think this is a most excellent thing to offer listeners. 4.5/5 stars.
  
  I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Soundbooth Theater. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
• 
  Gilbert Stack

  In Earth Force, Kuznits tries to imagine what would happen if the real world were turned into a video game. Everyone on the planet is transformed (unknowingly) into a video game character with the advanced healing we see in games and the ability to see each other’s levels. At the same time, some humans “warp” into monsters and begin killing and eating everyone else to become stronger. The novel focuses on a handful of people who figure out how to level up and start trying to defend the other survivors.
  
  The basic plot is okay, but the new “game” that the survivors find themselves in doesn’t have the level of detail that Kuznits’ excellent Life Reset series has. Characters are leveling up but it’s harder for the reader to engage in their decisions because we just don’t have the degree of information Kuznits makes available in his other series. In addition to that, the dialogue is weak in this book and often feels childish. In the other series, the hero rarely talks to real people so this weakness didn’t become apparent, but it becomes a serious annoyance in this novel.
  
  Overall, there is a lot of fun in trying to figure out the mechanics of this new world and how the characters will survive it. You can definitely imagine yourself playing this adventure and I suppose that is the point of the LitRPG subgenre.
  
  If you liked this review, you can find more at
  www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
  
• 
  Eric Cooley

  A very good start
  
  This is a LitRPG Sci-Fi story.
  
  It starts with 3 then rapidly adds a fourth main character.
  A good mix and interesting dynamic. An engineer, pilot, and two wildcard characters.
  
  Essentially something has happened and earth was struck with a cataclysm of biblical proportions.
  No no religious readings.
  Monsters are killing everyone. These monsters are called warped. Everyone seems to level 0, and t h e warped, dogs, wolves, just weird, and warped humans are insanely deadly.
  
  The four companions learn how to level up and start towards saving whatever remains of humanity.
  
  The LitRPG is done well. Essentially an augmented reality type. Everyone that survived has it. You have to get to level one to get a class. Then you can fight back. This seems to be the first group to do so in spades. They get lucky and observe a UFO crash. Then get lucky.
  
  Overall an interesting start. Hopefully the author can keep the momentum running.
  
  
• 
  Chris Yates

  Strange to begin with but awesome
  
  This is he first time I’ve read a Gamelit genre book, tbh, I’d never heard of it before. I will admit, at first I was a little off out and it all seemed too far fetched, even for a sci-fi fanatic like myself, however, I wasn’t able to stop reading it. I simply couldn’t stop from wanting to know what would happen next and where the book was going. The book crew and grew on me, it really became gripping. Definitely a must read for sci-fi fans and I’m going to purchase the rest in the series myself.
  
  Spoiler part ——-
  
  The author cleverly uses what’s going on to compensate for the absurdity of the situation the characters find themselves in. It works really well to make the characters actions and thoughts as true to human as possible, for the scenario. There are some things I didn’t see coming which caught me by surprise and I really enjoyed those parts. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book.
• 
  newpath

  I read this solely on the strength of the author's first three books, which were great(4/5, 4.5/5, and 4/5, respectively). This book... not so much.
  
  I actually read Earth Force right after finishing New Era Online and it made the difference in quality between the two so very pronounced. I think a big part of it is the switch from first person narration to third person limited in this book. It's done very badly. The author slips up a lot with the changes in POV, and switches into third person omniscient often. Also the beginning has some of the worst dialogue that I've ever read, full of cringy reveals and clumsy exposition.
  
  It gets a bit better as the story progresses, but the dialogue never improves, and the characters are never 1/10th as well expressed as the Dread Totem of GreenPiece. Here's to hoping the author learns and improves.
• 
  N.V. Cefalo

  4.4 Stars
  
  I was a huge fan of Kuznits other series, and this one seemed different and wanted to give it a try. There are plenty of things to love about this book, and some things to question. All these things would give too much away, so I wont get into the details. The idea is semi-original; I've read similar premised LitRPG books, but this was well done (I felt some of the competition was done poorly in comparison to this). The crew has some dynamic personalities going on, and the whole story arc is interesting. Even though its a long read, I felt it went by really quick..which is generally a good thing!
  
  If you are on the fence about this book, give it a chance, I am sure you will like it.
• 
  Vincent Bernhardt

  Interesting, but not really my thing
  
  Firstly, this is a good book. Plenty of well-written action.
  
  Though the author says in his notes that he added more foul language because that is how people would talk - yeah, if you’re reading this ... don’t do that. I don’t read for realism; I get enough of that in life.
  
  Yeah, that’s my pet peeve and maybe my problem, but if you want younger readers to read your book, do you really want to propagate bad language?
  
  I just didn’t find the characters engaging, either. And the path system is confusing - and I’ve been a gamer since the 90s.
  
  Though I enjoyed this book, I’m not tempted to follow their exploits. I might go read some of his earlier works and see if they can engage me.
• 
  Drew

  A great sci-fi read
  
  So I’ve read all the Life Reset books and they were great. This I feel is even better.
  
  An early sample I read felt disjointed and was disappointing compared to the other series. But the now edited and completed book is so much improved that I actually enjoyed it more than Life Reset.
  
  The MCs are good believable characters that grow as the book progresses and the fact they aren’t perfect makes the story that much better.
  
  I liked the levelling system and the use of the alien merchant to fill in more of the backstory of the plot and believe it’ll only get better with the next book in the series....😊
• 
  Jim

  Fun, upbeat young people accept and tackle our new reality
  
  Earth was just thrust into a future that it should have been able to ease into and adjust. Instead, it was and still is apocalyptic. Humanity may not survive, if they cannot find a way to grow stronger and to defeat the Warped, monsters in the new Earth hierarchy that are now the top predators around. Humans need to adapt if they want to survive leave it to some young teens and the lucky survivors they fall in with to get lucky. Finders keepers and all that.
  It made me smile quite a lot and was a fun interesting apocalypse story, I’m glad it’s fiction!
• 
  laeaurra flamehawk-mitchell

  Earth Force will save the day!
  
  It should be a show on the sci fi channel. Has a Walking dead crossed with SG1 feel to it. Earth 's covered in mutated people and animals.
  A daring group of survivors with new alien gaming interfaces band together to save the day. They find an alien spacecraft, fly up to the newly built alien Quik-E-Mart in orbit. And then come back to battle mutants in the mall, and level up to awesome. I can see the opening credits with crew action cameos. An enjoyable read.