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Quest System Earth: Initiated, A Review

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Hello, and welcome to a review of “Quest System Earth: Initiated,” a book by Michael Lopez. As it says in the Afterword, this is the first book in a series that chronicles the adventures of Jonathan Galas. I will likely be reading and reviewing the other books in this series, and as a slight spoiler for this review. I am excited to do so.

The Beginning

At the start of the book, we see Jonathan drop back into reality after spending many years on a faraway planet called Franesh. There, he was gifted with something he calls “The System.” The System is heavily based on RPG User Interfaces of D&D fame. Games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, or “The Witcher,” or other video game RPGs will use a similar idea to what happens here. There are 5 stats: Strength, Stamina, Agility, Intelligence, and Perception. Each of these is directly linked to the user’s human attributes of the same name. Jon says at one point, “…if you distribute the 25 points evenly, you’ll add 5 points to each attribute. Believe me, you’ll definitely notice the difference of a 5-point increase.” As you progress in The System, the real world becomes easier and easier for you as well, at least that seems to be the implication of the story.

Jon, whose name the author spells with an h, confronts his father first, who does not believe that his son has returned to him. After some drama, Jon convinces them that it is he, their son, who has been missing for 6 years. Jon uses the funds he accumulated on Franesh in tandem with the abilities he gained there, which include a ridiculously high agility stat, to gather funds, off which he subsists for the rest of the novel. Basically, if you think, “Where did Jon get that?” The answer is likely Franesh.

There is a family reunion with his siblings, some of whom believe and accept Jon back into the family, but one brother, Tim, denies it and uses his resources as a federal agent to begin investigating his brother. While he is doing that, Jon reunites with his childhood friend, Abigail, a.k.a. Abby. He reveals the truth to her, at least in part (we’ll get to that), and with the revelation of the system, Jon offers her the chance to grow stronger like him so she can protect herself and her family.

The Middle

The next stage in the book is old-school RPG dungeon hopping. With some new friends, Carl and Gary, who are other players of the System who were taken to a different world for a much shorter time than Jon, and are thus much less powerful than he, Jon and Abby enter a few dungeons and clear them with the intent of leveling Abby up so she can defend those she loves and her own life.

After a particularly harrowing dungeon, where the quest that they all received basically said, “New Quest: Survive.” The team pops out of the dungeon, Gary and Carl go home, and Jon and Abby have a heart-to-heart. Jon goes into detail about his time on Franesh, where he spent many years. He leveled up, became part of the community of the world, and eventually even married a village girl. His life was looking up until a princess from a nearby kingdom got jealous of the woman Jon had married, tricked him into leaving them alone to go be a hero, and sent a team of men to raze the village. Among the dead were Jon’s wife and child. This is why he had rejected Abby when she basically told him, “I’ve been waiting this long for you to come back.” She ended up telling him, “I can wait a little longer.

I appreciate the fact that the romance between Jon and Abby is clearly something that will likely be explored in future installments, but right now it is enough for them to just be friends, adventuring and taking down dungeons together.

During all this time, Jon’s brother, Tim, has been trying to take this thing that calls itself its brother into captivity. Every attempt has failed, hilariously. In the last attempt perpetrated by the U.S. Secret Agents, Jon breaks everyone’s arms and hitches a ride with them back to their HQ. There, he confronts his brother and tells him, in no uncertain terms, to back off. He says, in response to Tim asking what would have happened if Abby was hurt: “I would have killed all but one of the agents earlier, then followed the survivor back here and destroyed the building.” -pg. 147

The brotherly conflict in this book is satisfying and realistic in my interpretation. As someone who grew up with four brothers, how the conflict is resolved is amazing. The fact that Tim decides, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, is his best bet, is very understandable. Hopefully, we will see more of Tim going forward.

With his brother dealt with and Abby informed, Jon can move into the endgame for this book. There is still some black-suited agency coming after him, but it’s not American.

The End

The endgame here is Abby’s little sister, who, up to this point, has been pretty background and not important, but becomes, arguably, the focus of the last three chapters. Save chapter 19, the second-to-last chapter, which focuses on a brand new character whose existence was only hinted at earlier in the book. Melanie, Abby’s sister, is called “a Natural” in chapter 20, and we learn that she takes to her new powers very well. Killing slime and horned rabbits comes like second nature to her. By the end of the dungeon, she had leveled up several times and was excited to keep going.

I feel like now is a good time to bring up a gripe I have with the book as a whole. The parents of these children are brought up to inform the reader that they definitely do exist, but they are never consulted for any major decisions. Jon is basically an Adult; his trials on Franesh forced him to mature much faster than he should have needed to, so I understand his independence, but Abby and Melanie are very much children and still dependent on their parents for housing, clothing, food, and the rest of their being. So when Jon offered, and Abby so quickly accepted The System, I cringed. Shouldn’t the parents have a say in whether or not their children accept this deadly responsibility? Then they ask Melanie, a FIVE-YEAR-OLD, if she wants to be like a video game character. Meanwhile, Jon knows and understands the concept of “Player Killers” very well. Putting this five-year-old on the target list of blood thirsty villains. I hope this is addressed in the next book.

In chapter 19, before Melanie gets her chance to shine, a self-proclaimed PK’er or Player Killer, arrives on the scene. He is a Russian diplomat by the name of Aleksei Kozlov. He calls out Jon without taking a moment to consider that there may be someone more powerful than himself. Jon puts that illusion to bed quickly and tries to end things without bloodshed, but the Russian pushes the point and pays for his arrogance with his life. One of the Men in Black who was there working security for their diplomat tells Jon that he has left Russia defenseless against the gates. Jon fixes this by granting this patriotic Russian The System and the ability to fight the archways in defense of his motherland.

At the end of the book, we know there is more to come. Jon’s killing of a Russian diplomat is caught on camera, and we are left wondering what will come of this. The Feds, the Russians, and the local police all want to bring Jon in, but none of them have anyone strong enough to make Jon bend.

Review:

Final review:

“Quest System Earth: Initiated” by Michael Lopez is a fast-paced action story written for a younger audience. The formatting stands out from among its English peers, but I have not read many Korean or Japanese Light Novels to compare this one to. There are some editorial issues, such as spelling, that could be addressed as well. However, despite its flaws, I am looking forward to reading the next adventure of Jonathan Galas and the “Quest System”. If you are looking for a very quick and easy read that will keep you turning pages way past your bedtime, give it a read!

Final Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Be sure to watch the video version of this review on my YouTube Channel, linked below!

Too Much Positivity?

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By: A.B. Timothy

Let me preface this by saying, read what you want, review how you want, and talk about your books and reviews however you want. What follows goes for me and people who value my opinion on things.

Is it really 5-stars?

Oftentimes, readers, and consumers generally, will give the content they just consumed a grossly positive rating. This can be the high of a meal at a new food place in town, the satisfaction of finishing that book you’ve been reading for the last two weeks, or the excitement of a movie. But we need to slow down as consumers and really consider the piece we just finished, compare it to other pieces we’ve consumed in the past, contrast this feeling and story against stories and feelings we’ve been given before, and final decide where this new experience ranks among the pantheon of the past.

Processing

When I finished reading “Fortis: The Return of the Vulture King” by C.K. Kesterson I immediately wrote the plot summary portion of my review. This helped me process what I had just read and understand what I was feeling now that I had finished it. I was able to really consider my experience and my time reading it.

Comparing

After the summary was written, then I mentally compared it to other children’s literature I had read in the past such as “Percy Jackson” or “The Chronicles of Narnia” or “The Hobbit.” These comparisons helped contextualize the story found in Kesterson’s work. That made me realize, while it wasn’t on the same level as “The Hobbit” it was in the realm of “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “Percy Jackson” which made it an easy 5-star for me. I am reading another indie book right now, called “Quest System Earth: Initiated” which is gearing up to be a 3-star book. The story is amazing but the editing and formatting are so far subpar.

Contrasting

You have to look at the material and see it in conversation with the other works you’ve read. How do the characters in this book hold up to the characters in Wheel of Time? How does the romance compare to the romance between Annabeth and Percy in “Percy Jackson”? In the light of these great works we can see the detail in these new works. Without contrast we have a hard time seeing the issues where they lay.

Finally, review

Be honest. As you review something, the worst thing you can do is sugarcoat your criticisms and hide them behind flowery language. To improve, artists must face the reality of their flaws, otherwise they will never grow. If someone did not tell me, “Your scenes are blank. I can’t imagine anything.” I would never have grown to the point of most readers saying, “Wow, your imagery is so vivid and colorful.” Critique and well-mannered but negative reviews are what push is to greater heights.

If you’re interested in seeing what all the fuss is about and want to see how my scenes now come alive off the page, go pre-order my book on Amazon.

Summer Soon! More Posts??

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Hey blog readers! It’s been another minute since I’ve come on here to chat. This year has been wild! My book has been edited, the cover art painted, the design crafted, the content formatted, and the documents uploaded to Kindle Direct Publishing. During this time I have been derelict in my blogging duties. I have thought often of the blog, during my time away, and am quite pleased with many of the updates and changes that WordPress has made to the back end. I am writing this post in what looks like Times New Roman with maybe a ten-point font. That is not what it shows up as for you on the reading end, but it does help me enjoy the writing experience a great deal more.

I have also been in school this spring semester which has taken a great deal of my time and energy. It is part of the reason I have been absent. This means with summer coming I should be able to post a bit more often soon. I am taking a two-month course at my local community college, this summer, well two of them, but one is online. When those end I will have a few months before my University courses start up in the fall.

I am going to use this time to crank out as much prose as humanly possible. That way, during the semester I can edit and get all the other things done for a release in December. I would like to have the first two books to the trilogy done this summer and have the outline for the third well in hand. The second book is gearing up, if my vision holds true, to be almost 200k words long. But at least I am in good company. The average Wheel of Time book is well over 300k words. This first book is looking like it will be over 100k too.

I plan to post more blogs and more short stories as time wears on, but I don’t know how many or of what quality they will be. I have been doing more Handwriting the Bible, I just haven’t posted an update here in a while.

Anyway, I hope you’ve had a great spring so far and I hope you are ready to hear more from me as the summer comes and goes.

Was Your Laptop Stolen?

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Sadly, yes. But now I have a new one! It’s true, about a month ago, on a Thursday evening, a homeless person in my town broke into my car and stole my laptop. I have been without a portable laptop computer for about a month now, but finally I have one again. While it isn’t my old machine, it will do the job! I lost no progress on any major project I had been working on outside of the cover design of The Shards of Arthur’s Shield. I have since made it anew and even better than it was. You can see it below:

How cool is that? The quest begins on May 22nd via Amazon on Paperback or E-book. If you buy it on E-book the copy is yours to do with what you will!

I plan on being a bit more active on this blog here in the next few weeks as we approach the release date and I look forward to my next release coming December 2026!

More magic, more myths, and more adventure is on the way!

Early-March Update

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January and February have come and gone. Let’s set some goals, shall we?

Social Media Goals

Novel Goals

> X Growth
As per my last goal, I smashed 220 in January and made it to 240+ by mid-February. By the end of February, I had made it to 256+ followers on X, and now I sit at 259. My goal for March? 270 followers by the month’s end.
> A Monthly (formerly weekly) Short Story
I haven’t written a short story in a minute. I plan to change this to a monthly short story of about 2-3k words.
> A Weekly Newsletter
This, too, will be changing to monthly with the March edition out this Saturday.
> Daily Motivational/Non-fiction blogs
These are being discontinued for the time being. I would like to make one per week at least, but I can’t make any promises.		The Shards of Arthur’s Shield <
████████████░ 99%
I got my editor’s feedback and am now implementing it in one last read-through. I am also writing the Epilogue as we speak.
The Early Years of a Great Mage <
The time has come. The Student will begin to learn the ways of magic. (Coming December 2026)
Brothers’ Feud <
The Brothers’ Feud has had a name change and has been split into three books. The First of which will be coming in Spring 2028

How’s it going?

February was hard and stressful, with school, edits, and work, I have barely given myself time to breathe. But now, a rhythm has been discovered, and I believe I will begin to regulate again. I cannot wait to start writing the first in my first Trilogy, coming out this December. The name has changed, but I will keep “The Early Years of a Great Mage” as a working title.

Hello, I am still six-feet above ground

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Good morning, afternoon, or evening (just covering my bases). I have returned to the land of blogging and am excited to write this post. It might just be the coffee flowing through my veins as I sit at the coffee shop I so love (Cartel Roasting Co. in Tucson, AZ, come check it out, seriously), or it could be a sudden burst of inspiration from… uh… nope, coffee is all I’ve got to explain it. What gets you guys writing? Does the coffee stop the yawning long enough for your eyes to focus on the page, too, as it does me? Let me know in the comments.

In other news, the Kickstarter is live! Check out “The Shards of Arthur’s Shield” on Kickstarter today by clicking here (or on the picture to the right) and clicking the link you find on that page. The most expensive option is less than a triple-A game. This is all about building trust and hype, so tell your friends and “Trust me on this.”

I will be posting a progress update today, too, as it is the first Tuesday of the month. But know that the book is nearly finished. I will be doing one last read through with the notes from my editor in mind during the first half of March and will finalize the formatting by the end of march and I should have author copies in my hands sometime in April! I still can’t believe this is real, can you? I am finishing the rough draft of the Epilogue today, called “Jonathan’s Rest.” It is a heavy-hearted short story with which the story of Thomas will conclude and allude to what is coming in December this year ;).

From Death to Life

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By: A.B. Timothy

“For by grace are ye saved, though faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” -Saint Paul, Epistle to the Ephesian Church

As Christians, we are called to a higher standard by our saviour, Jesus Christ. We are called to keep his commandments if we love him. We are called to go to him for forgiveness when we fall short because, as Paul in Romans and John in 1 John tell us, we will and do fall short of God’s glorious standard. But we have an advocate with the Father.

Why do I bring this up? Well, recently, there has been a string of women converting to Christianity out of a lifestyle of debauchery, selfishness, and greed. The latest example of these is this:

This meme was posted to make fun of a woman who has recently announced her conversion to Christianity. This woman, Ashleigh Thao, joins a cohort of women who have been making an exodus from a lucrative lifestyle as an infamous internet adult material creator.

The meme expresses the feelings of a lot of jaded young (and many older) men who see these women as having taken the easy road to wealth and well-to-do-ness before “turning away” and keeping all their illicit gains and living a life of ease on the backs of men they led into lust and adultery.

This is an easy thing to feel. I myself feel jealous sometimes. Where is the “quick and easy” way to riches and fame for men? This is the thought on the mind of many young men who are struggling to make an honest living and keep their heads above water. This misses the point, however, I think. This was not a “quick and easy” thing for these women. This choice scars their reputation for the rest of their lives. It hangs like a dark cloud over their families for the rest of time. Does this mean their lives are worthless and unusable by God? Absolutely not. Praise God for that.

“He started with an old, dirty canvas;
My sin left me tatered, bent, and marred.
Then this artist turned his light upon my sadness,
And began to wash away the blackest part.”
-The Booth Brothers, “Masterpiece of Mercy”

God is a worker of wonders, the God of Second Chances, and the Blessed Redeemer. If you find yourself getting upset with these women, do me a favor and go read the Gospel of John chapter 8 again. Look at the woman caught in adultery and ask yourself, who are you? Are you the woman thrown down into the dust before the Master? Or are you a Pharisee in the crowd demanding of the Master what is to be done with her?

What do you think Jesus stooped down and wrote in the sand? Why do you think he wrote it in sand? We know the finger of God has power to carve his words in stone, but Christ chose to write these words in sand, which will be blown away or walked through within the hour and be lost. Why do you think those words were not written in the pages of Scripture?

What if the words were:
“Lust,
Anger,
Murder,
Greed,
Blasphemy,
Lies,
Treachery,
Betrayal.”

What if the words were the sins in the very heart of the Pharisees who stood accusing the woman caught in adultery? Can you imagine your deepest, most private sin being torn from the hidden dungeons of your heart and cast before all your friends? Then imagine Christ rises from the dirt and looks you in the eye and says, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

When the Pharisees all dropped their stones and ran away, I can relate to that. We must remember, brothers and sisters, that we are sinners too. I have been guilty of Lust, I have been guilty of Greed, and I have been guilty of Envy. I could go on for another thousand or more words about my own personal sin, but here is the amazing thing:

“Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
-The Gospel according to Saint John the Beloved

Jesus, God, Creator of the Universe, for and by Whom were all things made that were made, bent down into the dirt that men wash off their feet; and asked the woman, “…where are those, thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?”

She said, “No man.” Jesus said unto her, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

If the God of Creation, the Uncaused Causer, the Unmoved Mover, the Word Spoken at the Beginning, the EGO EIMI (I AM) did not condemn this woman caught in adultery, how can we, those whose most righteous acts, according to the Prophet, are but filthy rags, condemn her, or any of these modern women who have turned from their wicked ways.

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
-The Prophet Isaiah’s Book, Chapter 64 verse 6

While I do not believe sinlessness is a requisite for salvation, as John says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not within us.” We are called to be holy as God is holy. But if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, and if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

But what if the woman falls away and gets back into that sinful lifestyle? We pray, that’s what. We pray that God would convict their soul and give them no rest and no peace until they repent and turn away. That is on the assumption that they were ever saved to begin with.

John says: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”

Someone’s conversion is between them and God. If you confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, you are saved; that’s what the Bible says. So, if someone confesses Christ to you, we ought to treat them like a brother or sister in Christ. When they do or say something that contradicts that conversion testimony, we should reprove them, which literally means, to “prove again,” by asking them to repent of the sin and confess to Christ again.

At the end of the day, we, as Christians, are called to judge with righteous judgment, but also to live peaceably with all men. If you try to peaceably reprove someone and they tell you off, wipe the dust off your cloak and move on. Do not waste your time arguing with them if they refuse correction.

Only time will tell whether or not the conversion of these women is legitimate or a grift for clout. In the meantime, join me in praying for these women, that God would preserve them on their walk with Him and bless them with the gift of increased faith and that He might multiply their grace.

“But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.”
-The Gospel According to Saint Luke Chapter 10 verses 10-12

God bless you, dear reader. Thank you for reading. Follow me if you wish to keep up with what I’m writing.

Keep the Word,
Keep the Faith,
Keep it Up.

In Nomine Patris, et Filiie, et Spiritus Sancti.
Amen.

Post #100 and Some Announcements!

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By: A.B. Timothy

pexels-photo-1339870.jpeg

This is it! 100 posts here on my WordPress blog. Very cool! Over these 100 posts, I’ve amassed 6 followers here on WordPress, 245 followers on X, and thousands of interactions across the two platforms. I am forever grateful for all of the support. Just the other day, I was having dinner with a friend who is also an artist I am working with, and he randomly brought up a post I made right here. I was flabbergasted, to say the least, because I never thought anyone would ever actually spend time reading the things I write here.

Now, onto some announcements.

Announcements

I have been working on the website over the last several weeks, trying to make the viewing experience here as seamless as possible. Now I have one more page to add, and I believe the construction will be done for a while. Today, I will be adding a Kickstarter page to the website, which will link you directly to the Kickstarter Pre-Launch page for “The Shards of Arthur’s Shield.” There you will be able to follow my progress on the Kickstarter and even get notified when the event goes live on March 1st, 2026.

I will also begin blogging on X and Substack, in addition to WordPress. X is the platform where I have the most reach right now, and being able to link to or share an article from X to X is much better for the algorithm. But fear not, my most loyal 6, I will be posting those same articles right here on my website. If you want my articles fresh and first, follow me on X @ABTimothyAuthor.

This journey has been very fun and has let me stretch my creative muscles with the short stories, the non-fiction blogs, and the reviews. I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. It’s only up from here.

God Bless you, dear reader, and God Bless me as I write.

Doing A Bit More

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By: A.B. Timothy

Have you unexpectantly found yourself with a bunch of free time, like me? I recently had a Tutoring student who I would tutor for four hours a week tell me he is taking a break for two weeks. This has freed up so much time for those two weeks, so what am I doing with it? Well, what do you do when you suddenly find yourself with more free time? Tell me in a comment below.

I have decided to start getting caught up on a lot of reading I wanted to get done for the past few months, but haven’t yet. Is that my own fault? Maybe. But does that mean I can’t course correct now? No! You will never get anywhere in life if you give up before you even start. Never stare up the stairs, my friends, only step up the steps.

So if you find yourself with a sudden influx of free time, don’t waste it, like you might be tempted to, but rather use it! Tackle that backlog, fold those clothes, edit that book, or walk that dog. Don’t sit around and doomscroll X or Instagram (unless you are doomscrolling my X @ABTimothyAuthor, in which case keep going).

Today, I got to my “office” (coffee shop) three hours earlier than I would have on a regular Wednesday, so what am I going to do with all that extra time? Well, so far, I’ve read today’s Bible reading in my “Bible in a Year” plan, I’ve promoted my show “Keeping The Beacon Lit” on X, and now I am writing this article. What will I do with the rest of my time? Probably get a bunch of editing done on my book, The Shards of Arthur’s Shield, and troll around on X promoting myself and building my following (importantly, not doomscrolling).

What will you do? Tell me below, let’s chat about it!