Nullform #1

Read Time: 2 Minutes

Imagine waking up in a world where you don’t own your own limbs, and you have no personal memories from your life before. You rent them from “the system”, so before you’ve even woken, you’re already in debt. Can’t pay your debt? Lose an arm. Still can’t pay the debt? Lose a leg.

Lost all your limbs and can only inch around like a worm? Better cling to the unlikely hope someone will take pity on you and help you survive, because the system sure won’t.

An interesting mashup of horror, fantasy, and LitRPG genres. Orcs, Goblins, Halflings, Zombies and Elves are all there, but nothing like you’re thinking. I’m including LitRPG because there’s a system interface and a gamified approached to staying alive, but this is really more horror fantasy than LitRPG.

Waking on the floor with someone shouting at him, and only the number eleven on his chest to identify him, our MC (Elb, as he later names himself) wakes to a nightmarish world. His body is strong, but his limbs used to belong to someone old and frail. One elbow barely function, and no muscle mass to speak of.

All the other people are in the same situation and won’t lift a finger to help you. Some form gangs to survive, others just give up. Elb refuses to accept the reality and does whatever he can to improve his lot, and those that would be willing to help him.

This is an intensely disturbing dystopian nightmare, and one I couldn’t stop listening to. It’s well written and fast paced as our hero has to work as hard and as fast as he can to stay alive.

Some truly awful things are going on. From the usual you’d expect from the strong exploiting the weak by taking what they have by force, to sexual assault and all the way through to turning the lowest of the low into livestock.

The narration by Jeffrey Kafer is excellent, and his voice suits the story well. A few very, very minor background noises but nothing that was frequent or off-putting.

The first seven books in the series are available already on Audible, with the 8th slated for future release. You can grab (at time of writing) the first for free through Audible Plus if you’ve got that.

I’ll be adding all the books in this series to my wish list though – I need to hear more!