Carl Stubblefield crafted an interesting story but neglected to ground it with with the proper context. There are clear references to it being Earth and what with the many cultural touchstones of late 20th and early 21st century seems to be not too distance in time from them. However, this Earth has people with super powers and futuristic space stations. The author failed to mention whether this was a multi-verse Earth or even a VR Earth, what with the clear RPG character elements. The MC was somewhat of an enigma and not much was revealed about his backstory in book 1 although often alluded to. The MC’s progression was something like a deferred coming-of-age genre where he didn’t start progressing until his late teens. Then, for all the ominous warnings of the final boss being almost god-like in his power, the MC was able to defeat him fairly handily in the end with only a few months of training. I did find the DanceDanceRevolution-like force multiplier Deus Ex Machina literary device used as a means to introduce cultural references like a jukebox kind of creative.
Still, with the very talented Travis Baldree provided the narration performance, there is a lot to like about the book.