Age of Stone (Rise of Mankind #1) By Jez Cajiao

In all the games Matt has played, Dungeons are places to raid, places you dream of conquering, but when the world is stripped of electricity, and the first mana-twisted beasts start to prowl, the games all come to an end...

Matt's just an ordinary guy, but when he’s beaten, robbed, and left for dead, bleeding out at the bottom of a gully, it all has to change as he grasps frantically at his only chance for survival, coming as it does in the form of a glowing, dangerously pulsing light.

With his reality forever altered, Matt must quickly find a suitable place to deploy the Dungeon Core, fighting his way through the hundreds of people between him and safety, because if he doesn’t do it soon, a Core Detonation will solve all of his problems for him… permanently.

Welcome to the New World. Age of Stone (Rise of Mankind #1)

Free download Á eBook, ePUB or Kindle PDF ↠ Jez Cajiao

Solid but some underlying issues

Well written with solid prose and natural dialog. Nice progression for MC from absolute zero to a competent low level. Super heavy on the firearms, which isn’t really my cup of tea. MC learns sword skills early on and then basically doesn’t use it again for the entirety of the book. He only uses his magic in combat maybe half a dozen times, so look elsewhere if you’re after sword & sorcery.

My least favourite aspect of this is MC’s attitudes towards women (basically only good for sex), and the way women are portrayed in general (not a single example of a woman in combat or with agency unless she’s crazy). 339 My first LitRPG book. I was really looking forward to it, as the premise was interesting. Unfortunately, 1/4 of the book was quite good, because it was story driven and something was happening. 3/4 of the book was like going through a D&D manual, explaining stats and how the “world” works. To me, it had no literary value, but I guess that was not the general idea of this kind of a book.
Shame, because I really think the story had a potential, and playing “god”, or “dm” is something most of people in higher classess of our society are actually doing. Having a regular dude slowly progress in that kinda way could be a nice take.
If you are looking for a light reading break from playing D’n’D or any other RPG game (any form actually), you could probably find this enjoyable.
If you are looking for a good, story driven book, with characters that you can actually relate to, and are convincing, this will not be your cup of tea.
I know it wasn’t mine. 339 Book one

Mistakes: I found three. Two are plot holes.

Plot: A young man accidentally gets control over a dungeon core shortly after the world shutdown.

Characters: I am really hopeful that this series doesn't turn into a bunch of wish fulfillment sex as I really enjoyed these characters.

8/10 339 Damn is the MC stupid. He is sooooo dumb. Just keeps rushing into untenable positions without any sort of scouting, plan or real goals. Gets captured then by chance escapes. Sloppy plotting. 339 Notes:

Yay for libraries!

Solid narration by Neil Hellegers.

I like the idea of the dungeon core being as a part of a person. Fun concepts tied with the end of the world. Survival game strategy mechanics with a dungeon core.

Nice setup for the main character, Matt, and the other people that will become a part of his home base. I'll give Cajiao a thumbs up for trying to make the learning process for status screens & leveling to be within the plot line and not thrown in as a chunk right at the beginning. However, the transitions between learning about systems, fighting for survival and negotiating stereotypical male reactions were rough.

There were a lot of good ideas and stand out scenes. While the story was rough around the edges, I can see the potential for the series to be a lot of fun. I'll try the next book on KU and see how it goes. 339

It's way better than most I've read lately. The MC is realistic, but the plot armour is a bit heavy, and the antagonists all have the same kind of stupidity. Annoying.
But a good story all the same.
4 stars. Easily. 339 Not as good

As everyone claims it to be, but a decent system apocalypse type novel. MC is a little heavy on the ‘plot armor’, but definitely earns his wins.

Pretty clean, grammar wise. A touch stat heavy in parts, but such is the style of the genre.

I’m going to keep reading. There are *far* worse and not so many better. 339 Alert

“This was a fun book. I am glad that I read it. You should try it too.”

By all accounts, this is a perfectly worded review. Unfortunately, some of our fellow readers are offended that I am not pouring my heart out and offering a detailed and intimate breakdown of my thoughts on the books. As such they have reported me to the authorities and I have been warned against continuing my bad behavior. I will not. So I may be banned. If so, it was a fun journey with you.

If I enjoy a book, my goal is to promote it and help the author by encouraging others to read it. I am not going to share my reasoning, thoughts on the book, or any opinions that would influence your decision to read it. I am simply saying that I liked it. I would like you to read it and make your own decision. After all, you are a much better judge of what you will like than anyone here.

As always, I am open to debates and arguments, but also vain enough to seek acknowledgement, so feel free to roast me or applaud my efforts. Either is acceptable, because if you are paying attention to me then you are at least considering the book. And THAT my friends is exactly why you see my comments here.

Cheers 339 It reads a bit like a racist fever dream of a power fantasy. An angry young man going on a justified genocidal rampage against 'gypsies' who abduct and enslave people so he's in the right gunning everyone down he decides are bad, and saving all the girls. Some litrpg elements slapped on haphazardly as an afterthought to justify the turner diary fan fiction, but I suspect he wrote the anti gypsy hatescreed first since it's all just guns and shooting people, the dungeon core is mostly entirely superfluous.
It's hilarious that some Nazis in the reviews here are all upset because he gave some hollow lip service to anti racism at the beginning.
It's kinda that meme:

Also What others wrote is true, he’s literally getting captured half a dozen times because not only is he an idiot, his capturers are too. 339 Exciting New Reading

This is a new series and as such sets the tone for jow it qill work, in a busy LitRPG field and post apocalyptic one at that then this is surprisingly good from such a relatively newcomer. His other books were also suited to my humour and i can see him drawing upon his own work experience to bring this to the fore here. Some might find this a bit more adult although not NSFW levels but i think even later teens would enjoy as I find this a lot more gritty than some others in this genre.
This is substantial although i felt it could of lasted a few more chapters or 10 as I was drawn into it. Adding a hot babe and a protective element to this allows us to see no matter what happens out MC is the good guy no matter what and gives us something to root for as decisions take a bit of a hairy turn and another author added to my auto buy books from list. 339