Time to Play

The start of a rollicking, unputdownable LitRPG series that Matt Dinniman calls "pure gold" in which everyone on Earth is forced to take part in a worldwide survival competition--everyone, including Meghan Moretti and her three lovably chaotic kids.

Picture this: You're home with your three kids, racing to get soccer uniforms washed ahead of practice when the power shuts off. Your cell phone goes dead. And a voice coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once booms:

Congratulations! Your planet has been selected!

And just like that, Earth becomes the newest unwilling participant in a high-stakes intergalactic game show competition. What that means becomes terrifyingly clear as monsters drop onto the front lawn, an interface appears in your field of vision, and you--and your nine- and six-year-old sons and three-year-old daughter--are each offered a choice of supernatural abilities.

Part of you wants to laugh. Your husband's away on business, coming home late tonight. Well, he was. But you clamp down on your rising panic. It doesn't matter how much harder it will be. You're a mom. Your kids need you; it's up to you to keep them safe. You can do this.

Then, in quick succession, you discover: 1) your toddler has unilaterally decided her supernatural power should be for her beloved turtle stuffie to come alive. 2) every person on Earth will have to fight, no matter their age. You're going to have to teach your kids to stand on their own--and yourself to let them.

This is Meghan Moretti's morning, and where Erin Ampersand's rollicking, unputdownable LitRPG adventure series, Apocalypse Parenting, begins.

Author: Erin Ampersand
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 08/18/2026
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 9.26h x 6.17w x 0.89d
ISBN: 9781250470171

About the Author

Erin Ampersand is from a minor branch of the Punctuation Peerage. Neither as elegant as the noble Parentheses, nor as respected as the heroic Dashes, the Ampersands are considered little better than the scurrilous Interrobangs.

In addition to books, Erin loves puzzles and games of all sorts, from tabletop RPGs to videogames, although she is rather bad at platformers and hopeless at first-person shooters. She owns enough board games to capsize a standard canoe.