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Fine Structure, same author as Ra 17776 - haven't read, but I hear it's good. Jon Bois of sbnation wrote it
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Feb 5, 2019 23:44
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Worth the Candle maybe?
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Feb 6, 2019 00:02
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Jackard posted:Are there any good web serials not listed in the OP? Web novels are huge in China right now. We're talking 'will probably become as big as other major Asian cultural exports in a decade' big. A lot of them are getting translated to English these days and, frankly, a lot of them are pulpy wank at best, but there are some good ones. I would personally recommend Cultivation Chat Group. It's a sitcom-y deconstructionist take on the common fantasy setting that most Chinese fantasy (the proper term is 'xianxia', it's kinda like wuxia on steroids) shares, with Daoist cultivators cultivating qi, growing in ranks each exponentially more powerful than the last, forging medicinal pills, taming beasts, crafting artifacts and fighting demons from the netherworlds; but in this particular story the cultivators all exist in the modern world and our hero is a regular college kid who accidentally gets added to their Discord server. (Not actually Discord, but you get the idea.) And from there, he starts on his own journey of cultivation and thrown from one adventure to the next: within a few months, he'll ram the ISS in an enchanted helicopter, spend a month in space, drive in an enchanted tractor death race, make a lot of new friends, survive an airplane crash, organize the shooting of a AAA blockbuster movie with all of his cultivator friends having fun with their powers in lieu of any special effects and so on. It's a delightful read that I heartily recommend. Whatever default assumptions the author thinks you already understand as a reader of this type of stories, I feel, you will be able to easily grasp from context, so it's fine. My only caveat would be - give it a few chapters. It starts off a bit slow with our hero not immediately going 'oh yeah these people are talking about weird magic stuff THEY ARE OBVIOUSLY ALL REAL CHINESE WIZARDS AND NOT CRAZY PEOPLE" and it'll take a dozen chapters or so for him to, so to say, go from Refusal of the Call to Passing the Threshold and for the story to really get going. If you do enjoy it, I'd love to hear about it.
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Feb 6, 2019 00:10
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Jackard posted:Are there any good web serials not listed in the OP? Inheritors, Into the Mire. There are others I can mention which have their selling points but those two are the ones I think qualify most broadly as generally 'good.' Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Feb 6, 2019 |
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Feb 6, 2019 00:26
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I wasn't too hot on CCG until Venerable White turns up, which is where it starts to get really funny. The early section with Shuhang cultivating mostly in isolation just didn't do it for me. I'm not sure if I want to tell anyone who's not enjoying it to stick it out that long, because that is more than a few chapters in. On that subject, I recently got caught up on CCG. Shuhang spinning a cocoon is comedy gold. Serial hasn't been that funny since the tractor race. If someone's interested in looking at these Chinese serials but wants something more serious, I highly recommend taking a look at Ze Tian Ji. It's one of those rare xianxia novels that grounds its characters in a political context.
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Feb 6, 2019 00:33
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Megazver posted:Web novels are huge in China right now.
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Feb 6, 2019 00:51
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Jackard posted:Err, I'm already familiar with the other Web Novel thread, I was looking specifically for western authors. What are you looking for? Likes, dislikes?
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Feb 6, 2019 01:16
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Just off the top of my head? Fantasy, Science Fiction, Alternate Histories, Historical Fiction. Not superheroes or school Currently reading Mother of Learning; I've bookmarked Wandering Inn and Into the Mire. Recent book series include Emberverse and Ring of Fire. Jackard fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Feb 6, 2019 |
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Feb 6, 2019 01:32
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Jackard posted:Just off the top of my head? Fantasy, Science Fiction, Alternate Histories, Historical Fiction For Fantasy, then definitely Into the Mire. My own serial, Not All Heroes, is more of a sci-fi exploration of power and societal struggles than a superhero story, but might not be what you're looking for. I know of some people working on sci-fi serials, but none of them have been released yet. Sci-fi is a category that doesn't seem to gain much traction in the serial space, but that may be also because there haven't been any big attempts at it. I don't know of any that I'd sum up as alternate histories or historical fiction.
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Feb 6, 2019 01:42
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I also like globetrotting and I guess they call it 'kingdom building'. Harry Potter was a major disappointment with the former. Rowling spends six books building up the setting, the hunt makes it sound like they're going to check out the world, and then they never leave Britain. So it's good to see this actually happen in Mother of Learning. Positive trends more than negative ones. Like I prefer post-post apocalyptic fiction where things are recovering, more than post-apocalyptic fiction where things are turning (or have turned) to poo poo and everything is hosed forever. Jackard fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Feb 6, 2019 |
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Feb 6, 2019 01:49
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Practical Guide to Evil has no write up in the OP beyond a link which is too bad because it is one of the most read and discussed serials in the thread. It’s about an orphan girl in a conquered good kingdom who is adopted/apprenticed by Fantasy Darth Vader and tries to leverage that into improving the lot of her people. It’s very good.
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Feb 6, 2019 01:52
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Jackard posted:Positive trends more than negative ones. Like I prefer post-post apocalyptic fiction where things are recovering, Unless you really dislike superhero-adjacent media, you're basically describing NAH here, too.
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Feb 6, 2019 01:57
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Yea pretty much. There are a few I could tolerate, but only because there was something else that hooked me strongly.
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Feb 6, 2019 02:14
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Man, poo poo suddenly became really serious in Ward recently. I'm not entirely clear on how that device of Cradle's works; the separated body parts apparently continue functioning, but it also mentions them bleeding, so it's not like they're "just" separated and the blood teleports from one body part to another. I'm very curious about what LL/Cradle's goal is in all of this, and how torture-killing Rain fits into it (because you know it's gotta). Regarding the action scene, I'm curious about how the hell Rachel ended up beating Nailbiter. I guess the dogs can immobilize some of Nailbiter's fingers with their bodies and then maybe one of the other dogs can get her? Megazver posted:Web novels are huge in China right now. We're talking 'will probably become as big as other major Asian cultural exports in a decade' big. A lot of them are getting translated to English these days and, frankly, a lot of them are pulpy wank at best, but there are some good ones. In a similar vein, My Disciple Died Yet Again is also pretty funny.
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Feb 6, 2019 03:17
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the tim tebow cfl chronicles and its sort of sequel but not really 17776 are not exactly what comes to mind when you talk of a internet serial but somebody mentioned them above and : they are alt history thing that has nothing to do with superheroes but maybe is fantasy/scifi/extremely funny
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Feb 6, 2019 08:59
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i think the main theme of ward is : its insanely loving stupid to not immediately kill your enemy as soon as possible. do not take prisoners(/wards?)
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Feb 6, 2019 21:43
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violent sex idiot posted:i think the main theme of ward is : its insanely loving stupid to not immediately kill your enemy as soon as possible. do not take prisoners(/wards?) Which is why I’m extremely hype for the upcoming chapters. Cradle better get it bad. No one hurts the Chicken...
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Feb 6, 2019 23:03
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Cicero posted:TWI non-patreon: Pyrite is cool and good. Quiet huge badasses are common enough in fantasy, but they're usually not this chill and smart and, like, humble. I'm glad he's still alive. On one hand, if nobody named ever dies, the stakes feel empty, but on the other, I like most of the characters enough that I'd probably prefer it that way since their participation in the slice of life stuff is tops. I envision him as Hudson from Gargoyles. (and the other gobs and hobs like Lexington or Broadway) I wonder if the fighting prowess reveal was meant to imply that he has more of a history than he's letting on, though.
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Feb 8, 2019 10:08
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Ward 12.z Homer really hosed up his cluster's theme by dating a Japanese-American woman rather than man! Then again I guess that depends on how you look at it. More importantly Vista better not die I swear...
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Feb 9, 2019 23:20
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yep, March is definitely the main villain right now some interesting tidbits in terms of what she's aware of
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Feb 10, 2019 00:59
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TWI current and patreon chapter: Goblin stuff is the most unrelenting  stuff possible
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Feb 10, 2019 11:48
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Silynt posted:The “flee from her heart’s desire” part of her geas is an interesting point that I was ignoring - what exactly is her heart’s desire, and why would working towards it be counter to her position as Intercessor? I think that question is probably central to determining her plan. I mean, if you think about it, what's the only time we've actually seen the bard flee instead of just cooly vanish? When the Hierarch declared that he would hang even the gods for their tyranny. I mean, he also was trying to sentence her to death but he didn't really have the power to do so there, and I'm pretty sure that going "I'm going to kill you!" won't force the bard's geas to activate or she'd be powerless to interact with anyone opposed to her. It was definitely not certain death, unless his Judge aspect or whatever it is is powerful enough to literally smite the guilty down where they stand or render them powerless when a verdict is declared. Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Feb 11, 2019 |
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Feb 11, 2019 08:50
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Wolpertinger posted:I mean, if you think about it, what's the only time we've actually seen the bard /flee/ instead of just cooly vanish? When the Hierarch declared that he would overthrow the gods themselves. Yeah, but I get the impression there are limits to how much reality can "warp" in this manner. Plenty of heroes just flat-out lose and get killed. The series is actually kinda inconsistent with this, I think. Some things are treated as completely immutable and inevitable (like the "law of threes" or whatever, where the outcome of the battles is basically set in stone), while others aren't. There are obvious limits to stuff like "heroes making a comeback" where sometimes the comeback just isn't enough and villains can flat-out beat them in fights as long as they avoid using their aspects first or whatever. And then there's the fact that the narratives reality adheres to seem like they can change depending upon the locations/cultures involved (which is partly how Pilgrim hosed up Black; Black was too used to Callow/Praes heroic narratives).
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Feb 11, 2019 09:21
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Super minion on Royal Road is trending pretty good. About a supervillain's experiment that escapes just as mutant season is starting. Not LitRPG.
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Feb 11, 2019 13:53
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Practical Guide After everything with his death/resurrection, I’m a little surprised to see Nauk get killed off-screen, and not even in the months Cat was away but just DAYS before she arrived. I’ve long thought that Abigail was being set up to take over as Queen when this whole war shakes out, so we’ll see where her story arc goes from here. For Cat, I wouldn’t be surprised if she falls back down the bottle over Nauk’s seemingly preventable death.
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Feb 11, 2019 17:46
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Silynt posted:Practical Guide I'm not that surprised; during that one interlude it was basically established that Nauk has been "dead" ever since his brain was burned out or whatever, and that he was only brought back to life as some sort of weird husk. I actually kinda liked how there was never any scene with Catherine getting all depressed about his "healing" not really bringing him back (as who he was, anyways), and it instead was just part of a greater series of events representing things becoming more "real" for Cat (like Ratface's death, which also occurred off-screen). It also sort of brings into focus the way non-Named are basically random NPCs as far as the universe is concerned; it's okay for them to die "off-screen."
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Feb 11, 2019 23:35
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Ytlaya posted:I'm not that surprised; during that one interlude it was basically established that Nauk has been "dead" ever since his brain was burned out or whatever, and that he was only brought back to life as some sort of weird husk. I actually kinda liked how there was never any scene with Catherine getting all depressed about his "healing" not really bringing him back (as who he was, anyways), and it instead was just part of a greater series of events representing things becoming more "real" for Cat (like Ratface's death, which also occurred off-screen). I'm going to quote Cat's conversation with Pilgrim at the start of book 4: quote:“That isn’t the kind of war I’m going to be fighting,” I said. “I’ve been down that road before. If I escalate, so do you. The thing is, you and I, we get to crawl out of those ruins. ‘cause someone Above or Below decided we mattered enough. That courtesy isn’t extended to nearly everyone on Calernia though, is it?” I think the understated deaths are a deliberate choice.
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Feb 12, 2019 17:46
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Does that even apply to Cat anymore? She doesn't have a name anymore.
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Feb 12, 2019 20:55
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Wandering Inn: The Half Seekers should have died. I like them but that should have been the end of their story.
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Feb 12, 2019 21:42
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I'm not sure how I feel about March's powers almost being Contessa-level bullshit. Like, her "enhanced timing" seems to basically amount to precognition and the ability to perfectly execute plans, which are themselves more or less perfect due to said precognition. It's also kind of goofy that she just happens to have access to a power enhancer. The stuff about people in clusters basically having their personalities gain/lose things from others in the cluster is interesting and I think is something Rain hypothesized about earlier. That's gotta be a pretty disturbing thing for someone in Rain's situation; not knowing how much of who you are is because you took things from the other people in your cluster, or how much of your cluster's bad traits are actually yours. Sampatrick posted:Does that even apply to Cat anymore? She doesn't have a name anymore. That's true, though it's not really clear how stuff like the Night situation or the Dead King connect with Names; it's clearly possible to gain power and significance at a level equal to or greater than that gained by being Named through other means.
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Feb 12, 2019 21:47
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Well, the Dead King has a Name right? And so does Sve Noc. I could be making assumptions but it has at least seemed like those are Names. Also, the Saint of Swords is going to be given a sword with a story engraved on it about an incredibly powerful being having her power and authority subsumed by the night lmao. This will either end with Sve Noc eating the Saint or with the Saint betraying Sve Noc.
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Feb 12, 2019 21:58
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Tom Clancy is Dead posted:Wandering Inn: The Half Seekers should have died. I like them but that should have been the end of their story. Non-Patreon TWI: I sort of agree. I like that TWI isn't the most grimdark thing around, but I feel like these last few chapters had a shocking amount of plot armor on the main characters involved. Rags and Pyrite survived, Garen survives, the Redfang goblins, Bird, all the halfseekers (mental health aside on Jelaqua) and Erin lost only a few teeth. It's not like I mind it too much, but after the deaths of Brunkr, Zel and Tremborag I'm worried the author is going to pull the rug from underneath this warm fuzzy feeling I have when everyone comes out OK. 
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Feb 12, 2019 22:09
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Sampatrick posted:Well, the Dead King has a Name right? And so does Sve Noc. I could be making assumptions but it has at least seemed like those are Names. I don't think this has ever been stated to be the case; both just did some kind of magical stuff to gain their powers. IIRC Sve Noc made some sort of deal with Under, and the Dead King just did some gently caress-off ritual to gain his power.
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Feb 12, 2019 22:39
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im pretty sure the dead king at least was named before
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Feb 12, 2019 23:02
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Sampatrick posted:Does that even apply to Cat anymore? She doesn't have a name anymore. (PgtE) At the moment she might be kinda a nobody? She's the high priestess of a brand new religion with no real personal power. I wouldn't expect narrative-based shenanigans to work out very well for her right now.
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Feb 13, 2019 00:33
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Tom Clancy is Dead posted:Wandering Inn: The Half Seekers should have died. I like them but that should have been the end of their story. It was a good place to kill any of the people involved. Personally I expected some of the goblins to die.
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Feb 13, 2019 03:20
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TWIGladi posted:It was a good place to kill any of the people involved. Personally I expected some of the goblins to die. Among the Halfseekers, I expected Jelaqua to either be the only death, or the only survivor; I was sad when I read the line "watched as the tale of the Halfseekers drew to its close" but lolled when they all survived. I expected at least one named character to die, but now I'm torn between liking all the characters involved and thinking the plot armor is getting pretty ridiculous. Aside from that, though, I'm a huge sucker for "and my axe"/"you mess with one of us, YOU MESS WITH ALL OF US" scenes so I was otherwise pretty taken with the chapter. I'm hoping something similar happens later with Liscorians stepping in to defend the goblins. Argue fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Feb 13, 2019 |
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Feb 13, 2019 12:07
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It’s The Wandering Inn. I expect them to either hug it all out, or have some terrifying body horror and a slaughter.
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Feb 13, 2019 13:11
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Plorkyeran posted:(PgtE) At the moment she might be kinda a nobody? She's the high priestess of a brand new religion with no real personal power. I wouldn't expect narrative-based shenanigans to work out very well for her right now. Narrative shenanigans aren't about Names, they're about filling a proper Role for the story. The three way showdown between Cat, Willy, and Akua is a great example of this - Cat didn't win because she was the Squire, she won because she filled a role relevant to the story of sword in the stone. Being Named likely eased things (it certainly helped getting her there), but she could've been a "nobody" and things would've still played out in her favor, simply because she had the will to step into the story, and pieces were set up just right. In other words Cat's fine. She clearly still has a role in story at large, and she's extremely proficient in adapting herself to fit smaller stories, and bend them to her benefit.
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Feb 13, 2019 17:08
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I got caught up on TGaB and started Prac guide and my only question is: does the writing get any better? I’m on chapter 3 or so and, while I realize it’s marketed as a YA web novel, I am not a fan of the dialogue.
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Feb 15, 2019 00:53
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