Book Review: Systems Apocalypse Australia Book 1 by Tao Wong & K.T. Hanna

Town Under was an unapologetically Australian LitRPG full of mutated wildlife, sprawling suburbia and high stakes leveling up.

Australia has been turned into a dangerous dungeon world and Kira needs to get her family to safety asap. What started out as a night working in her lab like any other, turned into a nightmare. Her computer screens go blank then fill with text explaining that she now needs to survive if not escape this new post-apocalyptic world she, her kids and a million other people have found themselves in. Not only that but she needs to recruit a team, combat mutated wildlife that continue to level up and turn a huge shopping mall into a settlement ... within 10 days. Piece of cake, right?

Throughout her journey she picks up other survivors, some willing to contribute to the cause and others wildly resistant. They will all have to learn to work together and put their skills to good use if they want to get through this dungeon alive. Concerned for her family’s wellbeing, Kira needs to put her fears aside and use her skills as a plant biologist to figure out what is trying to kill them and what is safe. With the help of her kids and new team they work together to put together Garden City shopping centre to create a safety hub and home base.

To complicate things further alien like beings are turning up and warning them that they need to run mid mission; but Kira will not be deterred so easily.

This book was a little hard for me to judge personally. If I read it physically it would have been a DNF due to the sheer repetition of stats, numbers, and attributes throughout this LitRPG. However, I went the audiobook route and found it was easy to follow and entertaining.

One of the strengths in Town Under were the character dynamics. The dangers presented from the get-go meant our characters had to learn to work together fast, and to their credit they did. The dynamics between strangers were also authentic. Why would you trust someone claiming your home was now a dungeon world and you all had to get out NOW! The conflicts that came about from high tensions, the reluctant acceptance and eventual teamwork felt like it progressed naturally. They were not all in this together, until they had no choice.

Another fun aspect of the story were the monsters. These were Australian to the point they could have been cringeworthy but instead were a good deal of fun. We had mutated bats, bugs, dogs and it all felt very much like home to me. Ahh Australia, land of animals that can kill you at every turn. What I liked most about these battles is that the creatures levelled up with our party. They became increasingly difficult, and the characters had to get smarter in order to defeat them. These battles were not one sided (except a couple of the first low level fights) which gave it a great video game tie in element.

My criticisms mainly lie in repetition, every time Kira levelled up, or had to decide having to hear the long titles and stats play out got monotonous and I ended up listening to those sections faster than the rest. It also didn’t do a great deal new for the genre, but I still had a good time and knew what I was going into with a LitRPG. It’s the nature of the bookish/game world hybrid.

I can see this series becoming something like Dresden for me. Something I can listen to and have fun with when I need a break from big series but not something that makes me need the next book immediately.