Proliferation

Wormhole Mana, Book 2

De: Tom Larcombe

Narrado por: Shawn Compton

Max has his home area protected now, with Maggie's help. He's trying to bring more people into the safe zone they created and while he does that, he's also fixing some electronics to work alongside the mana that's infusing everything.

Despite the quarantine and its promise of danger, a number of people are intentionally trying to enter it after hearing the tales of what goes on inside.

Meanwhile Prometheus has learned that radioactive materials can help open the wormhole further, allowing the mana to flow through and assimilate the Earth more quickly.

With the influx of additional mana from Prometheus's actions, the overly large, mutated animals are showing up more often now. Because of that, the safe zone walls have to be improved, and while they're at it, they decide to enlarge the area within the walls since they're getting more people than they'd anticipated.

With the number of people in the safe zone, and Max's depleting stock of beer, they decide that there needs to be at least one trip to a larger town, to scavenge things from the areas that were evacuated. Unfortunately, not everyone left when the evacuation was called, and now there are human dangers to face as well.

©2024 Tom Larcombe (P)2025 Tantor Media

we need more books

love how they expanded the story and to see get a glimpse of what you will see in book 3. I am so excited for the next book.

Still original and a great story

The characters make this story and story is very original for me and I am very much enjoying it and looking forward to more. The audible version does a great job bringing it to life

enjoyable.

ive enjoyed every minute of the story. tje hook at the end is a bit scary. this isnt a horror book. i can see how anoyher author vpuld take it there.

A Really Conflicted 4 Stars

i am so conflicted on rating this book. On one hand, i'm sad the next one isn't out yet, i do want to know what happens when a certain person comes to visit the Max Mags Guns Emporium. ... i mean the Max & Mags Safe Zone. On the other hand.. this is just an "Okay" Series. a solid 3. Honestly, i added an entire star because someone finally FINALLY realized that libraries exist and hold useful knowledge! Lets do a Pro/Con List

Pros:
* The premise is really great, with a somewhat unique take on how/why the Mana/System is introduced to Earth
* a somewhat unique Slow Roll out of the system - will it stop growing? or will it take over the world?
* a intriguing Evil Mad Scientist AI ... that no one seems to realize is an Evil Mad Scientist.
* Libraries are really useful in a potentially post-internet world!
* Most of the Military Dudes are just regular Dudes, not evil storm troopers
* Max is NOT a complete Sociopath, he is, in fact, a generally Good Guy
* Most of the people in Max's safe zone, and that he meets in general - are mostly Good Guys
* Bunnies with Big Sharp Pointy Teeth - Rawr!
* Hermit-Crab-Super-Spider <3
* William is the best character, prove me wrong.

Cons (most of these spoilers are from book one):
* The Government / Military Response is extremely passive. Sure, they're half-heartedly covering this up, and there are apparently scientists - somewhere - studying this. But there's no way they sent ONE DUDE in to infiltrate the Mad AI Super Secret Base, and then just "oh well, guess we can't get in. we'll try a mini nuke. that didn't work? guess we'll just watch from afar and hope it goes away." If they truly couldn't get to Prometheus they would be grabbing people off the street, cutting them open, interrogating, running experiments. Max and Ron would be in a secret underground lab somewhere. Ditto with the old folks. the entire first town would be a military plaza. we're supposed to believe they didn't because.... the Mana might be bad for the their soliders? even though they have proof that its at least short term survivable? right.
* Prometheus is obviously insane and our "good guy" protagonists are helping it? because... people are getting younger and Max got a hot kitsune girlfriend? they have no idea what the long term plan is, or the long term side effects. they just "trust" that Prometheus wants whats good for everyone. O.M.G.
* Everyone is a nymphomaniac alcoholic. Seriously the only thing anyone thinks about is Sex and Beer. I mean, i think the beer thing was supposed to be a joke and it just... got out of hand? also the number of times someone justifies having "just one or two beers" and then proclaiming they're fine - just reeks of self delusion. (Listen, i dont like beer, its gross. but i dont care about people drinking. this just seems to be the only thing anyone in this world thinks about 24/7)
* We get it, everyone is young again, and all they want to do is each other.
* Seriously we GET IT, everyone is just nailing everyone else all the time.
* Also, yeah, LOL nobody looks like their drivers license anymore cause everyone is super young. WHY are we still having this conversation weeks/months into this thing?
* Puns are never funny.
* 16 yr old kid is most famous youtuber on the planet, documenting all the Containment Zone news. I understand that lots of people wont *believe* what they hear/see; but why does everyone act like they have no idea whats going on when faced with the reality of the situation?
* Book One - Army Dude freaks out when forced into an insane world - so we lock him up and pawn him off the first the people who will take him. Book Two - Pretty Bitchy Lady forces herself into the insanity then can't handle it - lets spend several weeks diagnosing how bad her parents were which led to her being a terrible human being. Right. there are no double-standards.
* Teenager gets depressed when she falls out of the Top 10 youtubers spot. Dad's Response "this is totally rational, lets take you to some dangerous situations and film it to get you right back on top! Your fragile Ego is the most important thing after all! ... and its not like we started this as a way to show the world what was actually happening here, its all about your popularity, honey."
* Dad is separated from daughter for months, has no idea whats going on in her life, but is so excited when she kidnaps herself so she can come live with him. Now that she's suddenly back, tho, he can't be bothered to litterally MOVE A DESK out of the spare room so she can live with him. He just sets her up at the old lady's house next door, so that he can play house with his hot fox girl friend.

** Finally. CELL PHONES EXIST. Max spends lots of time fixing cell phones, talking about fixing cell phones, explaining in detail how he fixed the cell phone... NOBODY USES THEM. Man, i wish we had a way to talk between trucks in our convoy. i know! lets get some walkie talkies. I wish i could talk to someone outside the zone, i know! Lets get an illegal HAM radio setup... I wish we talked to the other (unnamed) town more and told them more about how all this works... i guess we'll just drive there once a month. We're a day away from home and have important life-saving information to share! i know! lets drive back as fast as possible and hope nothing gets in our way. FFS!! ... i'm not even going to rant about the internet and the ability to chat with ANYONE ANYWHERE about ANYTHING.... lets just keep pretending that we're cutoff from the rest of the world in all ways including the physical.

Loved it

This is turning into an amazing series. The characters are awesome and the world building is really well done. Looking forward to book 3 already.