Ghost in the System: Book 5

By: Alexey Kovtunov, Benjamin Patrick Miller - translator

Narrated by: Jonathan Johns

It once seemed like the world had been shaken by the coming of the System, leaving no chance for humanity to survive.

But the System didn't always mean death! Yes, it had killed the majority of the population on the planet, making horrifying monsters out of the dead, who, in addition to everything else, had a tendency to evolve right in front of your very eyes. But that had also given people the opportunity to develop!

That was to say nothing of the surprising new abilities and capabilities that specific people acquired. Humanity could not be preserved through them. At the very least, civilization could not hold on by riding on the coattails of a few powerful personalities. But the ability to found a System settlement, that was a real chance. People had to stick together, their most fundamental social instinct.

Our own hero indeed had the good fortune to found his own settlement. But this would be a completely different story if it were just a regular settlement.

A city of Ghosts...sounds bad, doesn't it?

©2025 Alexey Kovtunov (P)2026 Tantor Media

As always in this series

I've enjoyed this book in the series, I'm just writing this to fill up the word count. This series is a great listen. Check out the first book for free if you get a chance or spend a credit and find out.

Wasn't worth it!

The storytelling/writing actually worsened in this, the fifth part of Ghost In The System.

The writing style made me doze off or fall asleep entirely at times. The author constantly goes off on babbling, lackadaisical tangents. He also skips 'showing' what happens to give a 'tell' recap by jumping the chronology.

There is also J. Johns, the narrator, who mispronounces many words due, I guess, to his dialect. He also faithfully reads errors in the text that slipped through what must have been subpar editing of the base text.

That said, the flow of the audio is very consistent... But I was near giving up on this audiobook, I know not how many times, but still persevered to the end on pure spite really, for the narrator's every violation of the word 'hadn't', which he pronounces something like 'hed'ent', nearly drove me bonkers.

I cannot recommend this audiobook at all, and I am in fact leaving this review to warn folks off it instead of getting a refund for myself since I do not think reviews get posted otherwise.

2.5/5 Rating