As of the time of writing this review, I’ve read all three available books.
A few minutes ago, Meghan Moretti’s biggest concern was getting the kids’ athletic clothes washed in time for practice this evening. Now, Earth has been forced into participating in some high-stakes intergalactic reality television. All electrical wiring has been slagged, and most combustibles neutralized. Some kind of evil space rodents are appearing on the front lawn, too.
Like any parent, Meghan’s first instinct is to keep her young children safely away from the monsters. When she learns that’s not possible, she has to find ways to help them thrive anyway.
What’s a mom to do?
It’s not a coincidence that I decided to pick up this series after becoming a father. Now, I’m a recent father, and only have one baby to take care of. The MC in here, Meghan, has three kids. I’ll be the first to admit, if our roles were reversed, I’d probably just die. Instantly. From the stress.
Instead, when the system comes to Earth, Meghan has a nightmarish time keeping her kids safe while also trying to do her best to help her neighbours and the wider community out. While I wouldn’t classify this story as base-building or kingdom-building, there are definitely many aspects of those stories which come through—just Meghan isn’t the Queen and dictating orders like many overpowered MCs in other stories.
In fact, for those wanting overpowered MCs and love the brtual stomping found in Defiance of the Fall, Primal Hunter, Accidental Champion, etc, you won’t find that here. Meghan (and her kids) are well above average, but they are by no means close to the most powerful humans. Meghan’s goal isn’t to become all powerful, it’s to get her and her kids through the apocalypse without being killed, maimed, or mentally broken by the bullshit they have to deal with. For me, this was a refreshingly different take. For others, this may mean the story doesn’t scratch the power fantasy itch.
In terms of the system and the power side of things, (no plot spoilers but tiny mechanics spoilers I guess): you get points for participating in killing monsters, at certain thresholds you can convert those points into a new ability, and abilities have synergy. The example from early in the book is if you take a skill to manipulate heat, and another to freeze things, you’re doing temperature/energy manipulation in two ways, so the two skills boost each other. This makes planning your build very important, and also highly penalises people who go for generalist builds. No Randidly learning everything in these books.
There are some plot lines dealing with the politics and emerging rulership struggles of an apocalyptic world, but once again Meghan isn’t trying to become world leader, so the books don’t descend into political machinations (hurray). The third book wraps as the larger plot with the alien observers becoming more and more relevant (no spoilers though), and I’ve very curious to see how Fluffy and the Soundless interact in the fourth book. I asked Erin when it was coming out, and it should be out in the next few months (fingers crossed). Please tag me if I miss it!
