Origins

Who This Book Is For

Readers hungry for something genuinely different in the harem space who can handle a slow burn and appreciate character depth over instant gratification

Who This Book Is NOT For

Anyone who wants explicit content in book one — this is a slow burn harem with almost no spice in the first installment, and the opening chapters require patience through car and poker info-dumps

Our Review

The Setup

In a world where a catastrophic event called “The Crash” gave people superpowers, a double-amputee gambler known as “Short Stack” lives on the run from a drug cartel and a supervillain. His life is a mess of poker tables, borrowed time, and a beloved muscle car that is the only thing he has left. Then, during a chase, that muscle car transforms into a superpowered woman — and Short Stack discovers his true meta-human ability: he can turn technology into sentient female companions.

This is not your typical harem setup. The premise is wildly original, blending superhero fiction with harem elements in a way that feels genuinely fresh. Short Stack is not a chosen one or an isekai protagonist. He is a disabled man with wit, grit, and a power that makes him a target for everyone who wants to weaponize what he can create.

What Works

The creativity of the premise cannot be overstated. In a genre that runs on familiar frameworks — isekai summoner, dungeon crawler, academy student — Origins carves out entirely new territory. The idea of a man whose power literally transforms machines into women is the kind of high-concept pitch that sells itself, and Cebelius executes it with the craftsmanship readers have come to expect from him.

Short Stack himself is the book’s greatest asset. He is a refreshingly complex and vulnerable protagonist in a genre that defaults to power fantasy. Being a double amputee in a world of superhumans creates an underdog dynamic that feels genuinely compelling rather than artificially manufactured. He wins through intelligence and personality rather than brute force, and his first-person narrative voice is engaging — funny, self-deprecating, and sharp.

The world-building around the post-Crash superhero setting is intriguing, with enough mystery seeded about the origins of powers and the political landscape to sustain a series. Cebelius brings his signature quality writing to a completely different genre and proves his range.

What Doesn’t

The opening chapters are a wall. There is no other way to put it. Heavy info-dumps about car specifications and poker terminology nearly killed the book for multiple readers, and these are not quick asides — they dominate the early pages in ways that feel like the author indulging personal interests at the expense of pacing. Many readers report nearly putting the book down before the premise kicks in.

The “slow burn harem” tag is accurate to a fault. If you are coming from the Celestine Chronicles expecting similar heat levels, Origins will leave you cold. There is very little adult content in this first installment, which makes it a hard sell for readers whose primary draw is explicit harem fiction. The relationships also feel somewhat forced toward the end, as if Cebelius is trying to establish harem dynamics before the emotional groundwork is fully laid.

Some editing issues — misused commas and excessive ellipses — are noticeable in ways they were not in his other work. It is a minor complaint, but for an author whose polish is part of his brand, it stands out.

The Heat

A two out of five. This is a slow burn in the most literal sense. The first installment of T.A.P. is almost entirely setup, and readers looking for harem books with actual sex scenes will need to look elsewhere for now. The promise of heat exists in the premise and the harem dynamics being established, but it is a promise for future books rather than a delivery in this one. If you need your spice upfront, Origins will frustrate you.

Bottom Line

Origins is a fascinating, deeply original entry in the harem genre that asks for a lot of patience and delivers something genuinely different in return. Read it if you are tired of the same isekai-dungeon-academy pipeline and want a superhero harem with a protagonist who actually feels like a person. Skip it if you need explicit content in book one or if you are not willing to power through an opening that desperately needs tighter editing.

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