Magic Murder Cube Marine: Book One

Francis Francis Francis the 3rd was one hell of a Marine. He died doing what he loved, killing everyone around him.

After being vaporized in the line of duty, Francis is transported to a new world full of gods and magic. Too bad Hades is trying to kill him for declining a job offer and System holds a grudge for what happened during character creation. His new patron deity seems nice, but who knows if they can be trusted?

Armed with nothing but his lucky pink booty shorts, a pair of matching flip-flops, and 19 years’ experience fighting in the Marine Corps, Francis has one goal: find a way home to his fellow grunts, or be listed as KIA forever.

Grunts love this book, and you will too!

©2025 Shadow Alley Press (P)2025 Shadow Alley Press

isikai silliness

I love the author's sense of humor. The narrator is good but not how I imagined when reading this story on RR. overall I loved it.

one big comedy

this entire book is a joke and its great! lol even better if you was/are a marine, or any other branch or even if you just had family who served and you understand some of the humor. it's not required though, I think anyone with a sense of humor would enjoy.

nothing about this book really makes sense so don't think to hard about the details and just enjoy the comedy.

Great narration.

Fun listen! Just get past the vampires (first few chapters)

This was a very fun listen, the narrator does a good job with all the different voices, especially liking Francis and Willow. It's a bit over the top with 3 vampires in the beginning of the book but we quickly move on to a great story and smooth voice acting. (I'm not sure how the book is written, I'm assuming it's the narrator just following the written text)

Hilarious, Story Struggles a Bit

TLDR (In Grunt): Book is Funny AF. Brass made a few things too chaotic for this grunt to follow.

...This book is hilarious. Francis Francis Francis the 3rd is a ridiculous amalgamation of every 80s Bad*ss Action Hero ever made and every good-old-boy redneck Marine i've known; a guy who just loves killing things, but still has a strong moral code. The author's humor is obvious and other times surprisingly subtle and i LOL'd in public several times while listening to the MC's antics.

That said, i did struggle a bit with the plot of the book. not that its bad or unclear, its just... a bit chaotic, and at times i was completely lost about who or why we were fighting or being helped by this or that person, being, or god. Additionally, for something that is obviously the first book in a series, i would have preferred to have Francis spending a little more time just wandering around the world causing mayhem, rather than almost immediately getting tied down to a location. but that's just personal preference. Please Keep the LOL's coming.

Silly, Stupid, Cringey, Yet Still Funny and Entertaining

My only real complaints about this book were the thick layer of Millennial-ness that flavored the book and the unnecessarily crunchy LitRPG system. If you read the title, saw the cover, and still picked up the book, then I'm sure my complaints won't come as a surprise - especially the first one. For me, though, they tainted an otherwise awesome book a bit so I could never give this five stars.

With that said, I still really enjoyed this book. It was a laugh a minute, and Francis is one of the best isekai protagonists of all time. Honestly, I enjoyed all the characters - even murder cube. Here is hoping that we won't have to wait too long for a sequel.