Time to Play Audiobook By Erin Ampersand cover art

Time to Play

Apocalypse Parenting, Book 1

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Time to Play

By: Erin Ampersand
Narrated by: Laurie Catherine Winkel
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About this listen

A few minutes ago, Meghan Moretti's biggest concern was getting the kids' athletic clothes washed in time for practice this evening.

Now, it seems that 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 kids safely away from the monsters, but an odd stroke of luck has her coming into some advanced information about this dangerous game. She learns that her kids will have to fight too.

What's a mom to do?

Time to Play is the beginning of Apocalypse Parenting, an apocalyptic LitRPG saga.

©2022 Erin Ampersand (P)2023 Podium Audio
Cyberpunk Epic Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Fantasy Epic Fantasy LitRPG
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What listeners say about Time to Play

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Loved it

Really enjoy LitRPG books and as a parent of a young kid, I just loved this book. Pretty typical LitRPG set up, but really enjoy the MC and the neighborhood.

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Great book

Really enjoyed this book. Love the main character. Loved the struggle to survive and how she and kids learn to adapt to new environment.

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Mom trying to protect and organize

I really enjoyed this story. It shows a mom of three kids trying to keep her kids safe but also getting them stronger. I liked the powers each kids choose with the help of their mom. I was also listening to the book, and the words did not always match. I hope by the time the book series finishes, we will fill out what happened to the dad.

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Sucked me in hard!

I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. the concepts are reasonable, dare I say even realistic in an unrealistic scenario. I appreciated the parenting side of things as a parent, but enjoyed and daydreamed more of the gamer side of things. can't wait to get into the next one!

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An apocalypse parenting tale with heart

Time to Play: Apocalypse Parenting, Book One by Erin Ampersand is an absolute gem! This book takes the concept of a litrpg apocalypse and weaves a compelling tale around a mom's struggles to protect her kids amidst the chaos. Meghan's journey is truly gripping, as she not only has to navigate the dangerous new world but also handle her newly empowered toddlers, which adds an extra layer of difficulty to the story.

The portrayal of the kids as actual little humans with distinct personalities is refreshing and heartwarming. It's rare to find such authentic and relatable child characters in a book, and the author excels at bringing them to life.

The survival aspect is well-crafted, with Meghan facing numerous challenges, including monsters and tricky neighbors, as she fights to keep everyone alive and fed. The implementation of the litrpg system in the story is intriguing and offers a twist to the genre.

Laurie Catherine Winkel's narration is commendable, even though there were minor hiccups, her performance overall is solid and adds to the enjoyment of the book.

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Fun realistic story without an OP MC

This is crafted well. MC is a normal mom, and doesn't get any OP skills. The world and changes brought with the system are fun, interesting, and creative. The crafting is believable , no suddenly skills that magically make armor and weapons, which in and of itself make the challenge level of the characters higher . The personal relationships with her kids and the other people in the world too are believable. give this a try if you're looking for a really good read, you'll soon be thru book three and eager for more too!

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Engaging, Unique, and Relatable!

I love how in a crazy world of monsters and aliens, the main character is still so relatable! It is such a unique take of LitRPG. Also such a fantastic narration. Excited to start Book 2!

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Apocalypse with the kids

Time to Play

The apocalypse has come! I’m just one moment all electric wiring and combustion has stopped working. This cripples the vast majority of humanity’s modern conveniences and weaponry. Worse still, monsters immediately started appearing. Meghan is at home with her three young children while her husband is out of state on a business trip. It’s up to her to get her kids and herself strong enough to keep them all safe.

I’ve always enjoyed the apocalypse books. The young single MC powering through all the troubles. This is not that book. The situation is far more menacing when you have young children depending on you. How do you make sure your kids pick a good starting ability? How do you keep them from using their abilities on each other? As a parent of children around the same age, this book hits different. It is phenomenally written! I’m looking forward to book 2! Laurie Catherine Winkel does a great job with the narration!

Content warning: language

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A relatable female protagonist

I loved the story and her relationship with her kids. It offers a unique perspective as most isegai and litRPG avoid children

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A Stand Out That Covers New Ground

I'm a huge fan of litrpg and progression novels with system apocalypse subgenre being one of my favorites, but many of these do tend to be quite similar - especially in their themes as the main differences tend to be in the game systems their authors imagine. *Apocalypse Parenting* is a breath of fresh air as it delivers tremendously on the beloved themes and game-ification that defines the genre while adding a new wrinkle by having the main character be a mother of three small children.

Not only does she struggle to keep her kids alive, but you are constantly seeing how strategic and tactical her parenting methods are. For example, at one point, the oldest boy is put to work using his fire ability to cook frozen chicken tenders. His three year-old sister wants to watch, but their mother needs to take care of other things and she doesn't want to allow her toddler to be accidentally burned by her eight year-old, so she tells the toddler that she can only stay in the garage (where the boy is practicing cooking above concrete) if she stays within a box drawn on to the floor. The toddler insists she wants a green box instead of the blue one that the mother drew, so - rather than arguing with a toddler - she just draws another box with the green chalk. As you can tell by that example, the parallels in problem-solving and tactics used by this mother to be a good parent are the same skills she can apply to taking on alien (and human) threats. I particularly liked how she recognized that it was just way easier to draw another box in five seconds than it would be to argue with a toddler over nonsense. That's some high level cost analysis skills for a toddler-sized problem.

Further, she writes the kids as little humans who each have their own personalities. Kids are less complicated than adults and tend to have simple motivations, but they're still individuals. Ampersand understands this, so instead of the kids turning into annoying damsels who must endlessly be rescued from their own stupidity, they're interesting people who tend to make quite a few mistakes based on their inexperience. Don't get me wrong. They're still little kids and thus their vulnerability is high, but they're people who make the best choices they can based on their needs and motivations. You can understand and forgive them and worry about them because they *are* adapting and learning as full characters rather than as adorable plot devices.

Laura Catherine Winkleman's performance is spectacular outside a few problem areas. I can think of three instances (which means there are probably more I missed or forgot) in the performance where she got the voice wrong for the line or she failed to perform the voice in the way it was narrated. The audiobook is still amazing, but to get a 5 out of 5 for the performance, the narrator needs to take the extra time to fix mistakes - which is unfortunate because most narrators can't get a 5 out of 5 even if they do the work to fix problems.

Speaking of notes, if Erin Ampersand reads this, I would suggest that the next book cover feature the children. They are what make this series unique and interesting. I'm also thinking the rainbow block font for "parenting" is a bit much. Maybe I'm not getting the reference to parenting books or children's books fonts though, so if you're finding an audience among parents, then maybe this is perfect for them? I think the cover would be a turn-off for me as a progression/litrpg fan had I not read the novel before I saw it. Now if this cover had a toddler with a tiny dragon on her shoulder, a little monkey boy standing behind his mother in a simian crouch (ready to dodge), and a little boy casting magic at the monster in front of their Mom, I'd be worried about those kids and. . . well, interested enough in the novel that I'd probably look past that font.

Overall, this is spectacular and I consider it to be an S-Tier novel that I plan on recommending to everyone I know who loves to read.

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