I continued going after the first book of Defiance and the series keeps getting better. The writing has improved a bit but the real reason I keep going is that the further Zac progresses and learns about his unique heritage the deeper the story gets. The initial story of a thirty year old marketing exec being inducted into a System run universe and fighting alone to overcome an alien demon incursion isn't remarkable for the genre but we like rooting for the mortal underdog as he blunders his way along. Except it quickly becomes clear that Zac isn't exactly the underdog when it comes to his amazing luck and hints that his mother wasn't from Earth. His background is truly unique and it gradually appears that his cultivation and advancement will effect the entire multi-verse. Nope, no spoilers here, if you want an idea of what's going on you have to read book two.

Zac is camping with some friends when Earth gets inducted by the Multiverse System. Since Earth doesn't meet the Multiverse standard, it is fused with three other worlds to create one larger planet composed of random pieces of terrain from all four worlds to create a D-grade world. This is theoretically a great opportunity for potential Cultivators, since most worlds are inducted as F-grade. The first thing that happens is that one third of the populations are deemed potential Cultivators, i.e. they can naturally absorb enough cosmic energy to efficiently improve themselves, and are teleported to Tutorial Villages. Sadly for Zac, he's in the other 66%. All he got was the message about the induction and then a message that he's in the exact spot where something else is supposed to materialize and the System can't merge them. Since two beings can't occupy the same spot they have to roll for it, with Zac rolling 1-100 and the "Herald" rolling 1-100,000 because of its level. Who said the Apocalypse would be fair?