Aether Earth 1953: Do Not Go Gently Audiobook By Matthew Kent cover art

Aether Earth 1953: Do Not Go Gently

A Historical Apocalyptic LitRPG

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Aether Earth 1953: Do Not Go Gently

By: Matthew Kent
Narrated by: Boise Blue
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East Texas, 1953.

The skies burn green and violet as strange auroras ripple across the night. Radios crackle with ghost voices. Then comes the message—visions behind people’s eyes, screens lighting up where no television should be.

They call it The System.

For veteran John Seraphin, the war was supposed to be over. But when rifts tear open and monsters crawl out of the dark, the laws of nature rewrite themselves, and machines fail. Now he becomes something new: a soldier in a world that’s leveling up against him.

Every choice earns experience...or extinction.

America stood on the edge of the Cold War.

The System has other plans.

In the dawn of a new apocalypse, it begins with a System prompt.

©2026 Matthew Kent (P)2026 Royal Guard Publishing LLC Action & Adventure Fantasy Military War
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First off, I very rarely ever give higher than a 4 because I'm a realistic reviewer. So don't think for a second, that this is not a good book. It was actually one of the best I've read in a while.

I always when giving my reviews go over the things that I did not like first which in this book will be very few And far between. i would like to formally. Thank it's a writer of this book. Although I did not enjoy his first book, I thought it was ridiculous. And he severely discrediting himself by that atrocity, he made up for everything that he did wrong in that book with this one.

For whatever reason, I'm not sure why. But about halfway through the book, the man hired to read this masterpiece. Decides to start mispronouncing the words, and I don't understand if he started doing it on purpose, or if he honestly just does not know how to pronounce certain words correctly. it doesn't take away from the story. It's just kind of one of those things. It's slightly annoying, and you can't help but notice.

I do understand that this is supposed to be 1953 east, Texas. But for whatever reason, the characters do not embrace the fact that they are going to be in a new type of world that they have to leave their current technology behind. And embrace a new one. if you're a gear and nerd like myself, or most people that are into Dungeons & Dragons or role playing games in general, then this book is going to annoy you. Just like it did with me. there is no epic gear. There is no awesome amulet, there's no armor reconfiguration. None of that, they talk about it. But they never actually do it. which brings me to the biggest. The problem with the book and a majority of you are going to notice this at well, but I will say that it does not take away from the story. Because of the way the writer is, it involves so many other things.

The leveling system is like a 7-year-old child that suffers from ADHD. That also does not have any type of coordination or ability to stay on track. the ability scores and the leveling system itself doesn't really make any sense, because not only does the character not follow the path of his build in any way shape or fashion. But the stat points themselves don't really mean anything. The experience points distribution. Non-existent almost to the point to where doesn't matter it's not that it just doesn't make sense, but the leveling system itself just isn't what it's supposed to be for a role playing Game. to give you an example even though he has increased his strength stat only one time I might add. Which is just ridiculous when you say it out loud. But it doesn't matter that he tripled his strength, or at least. He never mentions it whatsoever in the book. And that's just as obvious with the rest of the stats. the character progression is basically non-existent. The only thing he really does pay Homage to is the intelligence stat that gives him the ability to do certain things. Throughout the book or so, he says. it's the most annoying part of the writing again. I don't let it ruin the story for me, and I don't let it ruin the great characters that he created, which is my favorite part of the book, which I'll go into a little bit more now. But it is something that you are going to notice, and it is frustrating.

This is the first book that I've read, probably in about 6 months that had absolutely no politics. In it, whatsoever. when they're talking about things like racism, they are simply talking about the fact that it exists and about why it's not good for society. There's no Black Lives Matter. There is no feminism, there's no LGBTQ plus nonsense, none of that. This is a non woke nonpolitically, correct book. it simply characters trying to survive something that they don't understand and dealing with it. And each other the best way that they can knowing and realizing that they will die if they do not come to terms with each other's issues and problems. it was a breath of fresh air. there is a lot of mention of God and of religion because of the time period and the location that they are in. So if that kind of stuff bothers you, then this book is probably not gonna be for you. The main character is religious and does believe in God and it's actually really nice to actually see that in the writing for those of the people out there that are religious and do understand what I 'm talking about. You're gonna love this.

The characters are amazing and the fact that the writer knows how to implement emotion Vs logic is perfect. Even when introducing new species and introducing people that don't have the same opinions of the main character or characters. The character building and creation and development is almost perfect. the main character is not overpowered. The main character does not have so anything about him that says that he is a perfect being. He is simply a man trying to do the best that he can with what he has.

It's pronounced "Soot" not "Suit"🤣

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The narration isn't great. Many mispronunciations. One very irritating feature was cartridge nomenclature. Instead of pronouncing .30-06 as, "thirty ought six," like the whole world does we are treated to, "point three zero oh six," or somesuch bullcrap. Same with "point four five ACP" instead of forty-five ACP. It just screams amateur hour every time it happens, and it happens all the time.

The writing is middling. Things can't just shimmer, they must shimmer like heat waves rising from asphalt. Okay, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with it is that the same description is used about a dozen times. Same thing with other phrases like, "It gleamed like an oil slick at midnight." Good the first time. By the third time it seems lazy or AI generated.

The ratio of action to the mundane is skewed to the boring, yet the MC and crew experience a meteoric rise. The fights seem perfunctory. One guy shoots a monster a monster with a shotgun, another guy shoots it with a Browning Automatic Rifle, a third guy stabs it with a magic sword from Italy, a girl loots the body. That is about 95% of encounters.

The MC becomes the Judge Dredd of the whole world within a day or two of the apocalypse. Not Joking. The guy is King Crap of Turd Mountain so fast that the only thing he can do is whine about it.

Finally we see Hawaii declare independence, the Lakota Sioux declare independence, and enough other themes (Romani and Black racism) that it seems out of step for 1953, and more like fuel-injected wokeism. We can't have a racist hero gradually won over by friendship with a black friend, no, he has to be super ally to all oppressed in 1953. Sure.

This book has an interesting premise that is hurt by its execution, but it is better than many other entries in this genre.

It gravitates toward mediocre.

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