Broken Tech Review: A Strong Book 1 the Series Never Continued

What this series is

Broken Tech is a sci-fi LitRPG set in a future where ancient gods and cyborg technology collide. The underclass lives in the Fields — a resource-farming society that serves its overlords in all the ways that matter, even if "slave" isn't the official term. The power progression runs through the arena: fighters duel one-on-one for favor from the ancient gods (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Norse), who reward the victorious with upgrades to their implanted tech. Different power sets counter each other, matchups matter, and the only way up is through combat.

The MC is Slip, a kid from the Fields who's always been a little different. The arc is familiar: prove himself through grit, get accepted into the competitive dueling circuit, discover his tech interfaces with the gods' AI in ways other fighters' doesn't, leverage that into a style no one anticipates. From there it's train → fight → train → fight, steadily ascending toward something larger.

What makes Book 1 actually work

The premise hits several standard genre boxes: humble origins, underdog protagonist, unique power set, and I'm the first to acknowledge it. The trope checklist is visible.

What lifts it is the mentor. He's the father of one of Slip's friends: a man consumed by Greek mythology and the history of how the ancient gods lost their power. He doesn't just run Slip through drills. He teaches through the lens of Greek philosophy and stoicism, weaving the stories and lessons of the ancient world into every training arc. If that framing appeals to you at all, it works. The mythology integration really came together in a way to make the master-apprentice relationship quite strong, and that relationship is what carries the book through its length.

The dueling system is also different from the LitRPG standard. No dungeon crawling, no open-world exploration, no party dynamics. Pure one-on-one arena combat where power sets are designed to counter each other and strategy matters. It reads more like a structured fighting tournament than a typical system progression, and that specificity gives it a distinct feel within the genre.

The training arc caveat

Book 1 runs just under 21 hours, and a meaningful chunk of that is training. More than I usually tolerate. The mentor earns most of it: the mythology framing makes the grind purposeful, but if extended training stretches without enough combat to break them up hit your ceiling, know that going in. The rhythm is train → fight → train → fight, and the training runs long.

Why D despite a strong Book 1

This is a rare D where the content isn't the problem. I enjoyed Book 1 and was ready to continue.

The problem is what comes after. The Infinite Spear dropped in July 2023. The Cosmic Blade followed in December 2023: a quick turnaround that looked like momentum. Then nothing. As of July 2026, nearly three years have passed without a Book 3, without an announcement, without any public signal that the series is continuing. Audible lists two books in the series. That's almost certainly where it ends.

D on this site doesn't always mean poor writing. Here it means: the series is almost certainly dead, and there's no point starting something that won't go anywhere. Even if a Book 3 appeared tomorrow, a gap that long would require going back to the beginning, which means two credits just to reach the new book. The math doesn't work.

The cadence grade is D. The series status is abandoned. These aren't reflections on Marc Mulero's craft. They're the reality of the situation in July 2026.

The one exception

If The Infinite Spear is available free on Audible Plus, Greek mythology fans should listen to it. The mentor's philosophy-heavy approach to training (stoicism, ancient wisdom, the history of fallen gods woven into every lesson) works as a standalone experience regardless of where the series ends. You don't need Book 3 to get something out of Book 1.

Just don't spend a credit. And don't start it expecting the series to pay off.