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A big flaming stink posted:Oh, uh yeah I should have specified that by "like spider" I'm actually interested in works involving transmigration in a similar vein. i was actually kind of interested in Shun and Katia's relationship before the loving Hugo parts ruined that. Chrysalis and The Snake Report on Royal Road are both transmigration stories, and level up/LitRPG stories.
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Feb 26, 2019 18:13
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Argue posted:Yeah, if TWI is my top pick for Western, Ascendance of a Bookworm is my top pick for Japanese, albeit for different reasons. This is largely an uplift story before it starts getting all Game of Thrones in later (untranslated) volumes, with the main character reinventing all sorts of things from earth (her excuse for knowing all the things: she's a librarian and a book addict who's essentially a living Wikipedia). Isn't TWI the only major transmigration Western web serial? As for Japanese, I would overall probably put Re:Zero above Ascendance of a Bookworm, because even though it has some dumb/goofy stuff the author is very good at crafting exciting scenes and distinctive characters and generally has less of the "amateur-ish" feel that pervades other web serials. I'd probably have Ascendance of a Bookworm and Grimgar tied for 2nd, with the latter being much better written (which isn't surprising since it's a published light novel instead of a web novel) but also different from most series of that genre.
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Feb 26, 2019 19:47
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Ytlaya posted:Isn't TWI the only major transmigration Western web serial? There is a lot of professionally edited western transmigration fantasy that does a better job with this stuff than twi if we’re allowing published instead of WN
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Feb 26, 2019 20:16
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Anias posted:There is a lot of professionally edited western transmigration fantasy that does a better job with this stuff than twi if we’re allowing published instead of WN 
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Feb 26, 2019 20:57
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Ytlaya posted:Isn't TWI the only major transmigration Western web serial?
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Feb 26, 2019 23:23
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Cicero posted:If by 'transmigration' we're just talking about going to another world, then Worth the Candle definitely counts, and you could maybe argue for The Daily Grind. Oh I think I got transmigration and reincarnation confused. The two I posted are about people who are reborn as a plucky little ant (go Anthony!) or snake (hail tiny snake god!)
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Feb 26, 2019 23:47
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Vacant Throne is fairly new but I think fits the bill. I'm enjoying it! She's not really inhuman if that's what you're after though, probably, we think.
Jade Mage fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Feb 27, 2019 |
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Feb 27, 2019 00:05
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Every Heart a Doorway (Series) Stephen R. Donaldson (Author - Both Thomas Covenant and Mordan't Need are portal fantasy) Jack L Chalker (Author - Changewinds, others - Not really portal fantasy but Well World is definitely something to read) Narnia (Series) Fairyland (Series) Shades of Magic (Series) Coraline (Standalone) Stormwrack (Series) Magonia (Series) So there's a lot of work that's been done here - even in trad pub. The WN format for isekai/portal fantasy is a bit different, but if you just want "person from earth ends up in a fantasy kingdom" take your pick from the above. Note that not all of that stuff is going to be to one person's taste, but it's all established successful works so some people like it quite a lot.
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Feb 27, 2019 00:06
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navyjack posted:Oh I think I got transmigration and reincarnation confused. The two I posted are about people who are reborn as a plucky little ant (go Anthony!) or snake (hail tiny snake god!) Transmigration generally refers to reincarnation, you were right. Specifically, it's the belief that the soul moves to another body after death. I think "portal fantasy" is probably a better term for the teleport to a new fantastical world stuff.
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Feb 27, 2019 00:19
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Partway through Cradle #4, and was Eithian's plan this whole time really to use the duel as a prop to taunt whats-his-face into taking out his bird rock in front of other people? That's... kind of an absurdly bad plan.
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Feb 27, 2019 15:40
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Jade Mage posted:Vacant Throne is fairly new but I think fits the bill. I'm enjoying it! She's not really inhuman if that's what you're after though, probably, we think. Oh, I've been reading this! It's pretty okay but the chapters feel like they go by in a snap, so I don't have a lot to say about it. I like Kasita, Irulon is insufferable.
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Feb 27, 2019 17:01
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Irulon is definitely insufferable, but I like that she's as disliked in fiction as she is out of it. She's viewed with as much sympathy (actually probably less considering she's human) than the drakes. Most people view her as a volatile dangerous person they're forced to pay respect to and attempt to avoid her
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Feb 28, 2019 00:13
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Omi no Kami posted:Partway through Cradle #4, and was Eithian's plan this whole time really to use the duel as a prop to taunt whats-his-face into taking out his bird rock in front of other people? That's... kind of an absurdly bad plan. Eithan is bad at planning, see: every plan he has shown so far.
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Feb 28, 2019 01:04
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Omi no Kami posted:Partway through Cradle #4, and was Eithian's plan this whole time really to use the duel as a prop to taunt whats-his-face into taking out his bird rock in front of other people? That's... kind of an absurdly bad plan. The one thing I'm not clear on is if Eithan just happened to see Jai Daishou steal the Archorb from really far away using his power, or if he actually let him steal it. If he actually knew that he was planning to open the door to that place, risking a Dreadgod attack in the process, he basically shares responsibility for all this poo poo happening (I'm currently at the point where the blood is attacking and Lindon just parted ways with Jai Long/Chen who are going to Sacred Valley apparently - I hope this isn't the last we hear of them). It's also a stupid as hell risk given his long-term goals; that's basically rolling the dice at a chance of absolute death at the hands of an enemy he has zero chance of dealing with at his current level. I don't really see how "elevating the Arelius through loving over the Jai clan" makes sense as a big enough motive to not only lose Lindon's arm but also risk the destruction of the Empire, particularly given Eithan's goals that extend far beyond just improving his position within their little Empire. All of that said, I do get the impression that Eithan does care about Lindon, though it's not clear to me whether him starting a fight during the match was only to get into a fight with Jai Daishou and make him use the orb. I can't imagine Eithan would be okay with letting Lindon get killed, given what Lindon represents (particularly after confirming the nature of Lindon's Suriel orb thingy). Unrelated, but I really like the relationship between Lindon and Yerin. They're cute kids. edit: Has anyone read other stuff by Will Wright? I read some good reviews about that "Of Shadow and Sea/Of Sea and Shadow" series. edit2: Btw, am I the only one who imagines Jai Long's face as looking like Baraka from Mortal Kombat? Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Feb 28, 2019 |
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Feb 28, 2019 03:50
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Ytlaya posted:The one thing I'm not clear on is if Eithan just happened to see Jai Daishou steal the Archorb from really far away using his power, or if he actually let him steal it. If he actually knew that he was planning to open the door to that place, risking a Dreadgod attack in the process, he basically shares responsibility for all this poo poo happening (I'm currently at the point where the blood is attacking and Lindon just parted ways with Jai Long/Chen who are going to Sacred Valley apparently - I hope this isn't the last we hear of them). It's also a stupid as hell risk given his long-term goals; that's basically rolling the dice at a chance of absolute death at the hands of an enemy he has zero chance of dealing with at his current level. I don't really see how "elevating the Arelius through loving over the Jai clan" makes sense as a big enough motive to not only lose Lindon's arm but also risk the destruction of the Empire, particularly given Eithan's goals that extend far beyond just improving his position within their little Empire. All of that said, I do get the impression that Eithan does care about Lindon, though it's not clear to me whether him starting a fight during the match was only to get into a fight with Jai Daishou and make him use the orb. I can't imagine Eithan would be okay with letting Lindon get killed, given what Lindon represents (particularly after confirming the nature of Lindon's Suriel orb thingy). Hmm yeah... when chatting with Lindon just before the phoenix popped off, didn't Eithan specifically say that he'd intentionally cut off every other route available to Jai Daishou since he knew that looting the bird armory was something that would immediately piss off every single family? I mean it worked, but it seems really, really bad. I get the feeling that the book wants Eithan to come off like a PracGuide-style seat-of-his-pants improvisor guy, and his goofy abusive mentor interactions are fun, but the more we see of him working with other families, the more I can kinda sympathize with why none of the other clans like him very much. Also, yeah, according to... crap, I forget his name, Eithan's buddy who dropped the patriarch job like a hot potato because he's not a crazy person? That dude said that Eithan has been shoveling an absurd amount of the family's wealth down Lindon & Yerin's throats in order to train them, and I can easily believe that he's okay with using the lowest-ranking member of his family on a risky dice throw, or that he's okay with betting their wealth and future on L&Y's ability to turn into DBZ characters, but combining those two things felt like a baffling decision- pretty much the only thing that kept Lindon alive was the fact that he punched Jai Chen real hard, which is something I'm fairly sure Eithan could not have predicted or planned on? At the time he locked them into a bet Jai Long was a super-angry jerkface who had done everything he could to kill Lindon, including trying to enslave him multiple times and straight-up attempting to murder him once. I was also about to say that it's not the best idea to try and turn your adolescent discipline into a demigod at the same time you manipulate him into getting his arm cut off and risk seriously pissing him off, but I suppose that Lindon is a pretty chill guy, so it's reasonable for Eithan to believe that he has an awful lot of rope available before he starts hanging himself. Omi no Kami fucked around with this message at 04:20 on Feb 28, 2019 |
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Feb 28, 2019 04:18
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Omi no Kami posted:
I'm generally not willing to buy the idea that Eithan is actually remotely okay with sacrificing Lindon. It would be one thing if Eithan were hundreds of years old and had all the time in the world to find other promising disciples/partners, but Lindon (and particularly the Lindon/Yerin pair) is a really rare find and losing him would represent a really big loss and set-up, particularly after how much Eithan has invested. It's possible that Eithan was just confident that he'd be able to stop the fight if it seemed like Lindon was going to get killed, and that he could kill two birds with one stone by getting into a fight with Jai Daishou (and forcing him to use the Archorb) in the process of saving Lindon. Regarding Jai Long being less willing to kill Lindon due to him healing Jai Chen, I think Eithan had predicted he would heal her. I mean, he's the one who sent Lindon to Jai Chen, and I assume it was for that purpose (or at least that he could anticipate he'd heal her, since he's obviously aware of the Riverseed).
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Feb 28, 2019 05:29
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Omi no Kami posted:Hmm yeah... when chatting with Lindon just before the phoenix popped off, didn't Eithan specifically say that he'd intentionally cut off every other route available to Jai Daishou since he knew that looting the bird armory was something that would immediately piss off every single family? I mean it worked, but it seems really, really bad. I get the feeling that the book wants Eithan to come off like a PracGuide-style seat-of-his-pants improvisor guy, and his goofy abusive mentor interactions are fun, but the more we see of him working with other families, the more I can kinda sympathize with why none of the other clans like him very much. The local branch of Eithan's family is relatively minor. Eithan is from the main branch on the other side of the world, and popped through a portal one day and took over the local branch. It's been heavily implied that Something Bad happened to the main branch, and Eithan believed that Northstrider had died around that time. I wouldn't be surprised if Eithan's situation is similar to Lindon's: he needs to gain power or accomplish some goal in a limited timeframe, and every risk is worth taking because every alternative is worse.
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Feb 28, 2019 05:53
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Avulsion posted:The local branch of Eithan's family is relatively minor. Eithan is from the main branch on the other side of the world, and popped through a portal one day and took over the local branch. It's been heavily implied that Something Bad happened to the main branch, and Eithan believed that Northstrider had died around that time. I wouldn't be surprised if Eithan's situation is similar to Lindon's: he needs to gain power or accomplish some goal in a limited timeframe, and every risk is worth taking because every alternative is worse. Huh, I think I have a totally inaccurate picture of how the politics look then- I was under the impression that the Aurelius family were a single large servant family that he was in charge of... so presumably (assuming he didn't kill the main family by mistake), he's only in charge of a splinter group of a larger family? The way that he seemed to be used to working directly with the underlords made me assume that it went Blackflame Emperor - [douchewad underlords] - main clans. Also, into book 5. Still a fun read, but I'm not digging the amount of time the main cast have spent under arrest or being press-ganged by the sky cops; it felt a lot more fun in the earlier books, when they were going on a big, dumb murderhobo roadtrip.
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Feb 28, 2019 08:11
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Cradle talk Eithan blocked the reasonable outs for jai d to force him to put his clan at risk, but didn’t expect the exact risk jai d would take. This is typical of eithan, he blocks the reasonable things and forces escalation that he sometimes handles, and other times has to resort to contingencies to survive.
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Feb 28, 2019 14:08
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Anias posted:Cradle talk Eithan blocked the reasonable outs for jai d to force him to put his clan at risk, but didn’t expect the exact risk jai d would take. This is typical of eithan, he blocks the reasonable things and forces escalation that he sometimes handles, and other times has to resort to contingencies to survive. Yeah, all five of the books were fun reads, but at least for me Eithan is probably the weakest part of the narrative. He is simultaneously singularly responsible for giving Lindon the opportunity to develop like 90% of his cool stuff, and also kinda incompetent and tangential to the plot. Like, given both Lindon's poor initial education and the hilarious degree to which the deck is stacked against low-power people he needed something to jump from hobo to magic hobo, but the way Eithan popped in, sprinkled some wuxia around the room, then just kinda awkwardly stayed taped to the story feels like it could've been handled better. Also, I suspect this is a criticism that most xianxia-adjacent stories share, but I felt that the depiction of Lindon and Yerin's development is kinda hamstrung by the lack of normal people on camera. Like, way back in book 1 people treated that one gold-level dude with reverence and astonishment, and now they are all seemingly surrounded by nothing but truegold and underlord-level practitioners. I appreciate that that's a consequence of both practitioners intentionally putting themselves in danger to evolve, but none of his breakthroughs in the back half of the series feel as dramatic or satisfying as his early advancements, they're more like "Oh hey, your 6 is now a 7, you now have enough DPS to horribly murder that dude who you stood no chance against 30 minutes ago" "Huh, cool, thanks." Omi no Kami fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Feb 28, 2019 |
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Feb 28, 2019 19:33
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Omi no Kami posted:Like, way back in book 1 people treated that one gold-level dude with reverence and astonishment, and now they are all seemingly surrounded by nothing but truegold and underlord-level practitioners. Like, the instant they leave, gold goes from a mythical status to something random wild animals and seemingly a majority of the populace has. That's the default for the planet, not how Sacred Valley works. Also that 'one gold dude' was actually much higher than gold, which is part of why Suriel intervened.
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Feb 28, 2019 22:44
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Yeah, that guy wasn't actually Gold; he said something like "oh yeah I guess given the ranks you use I'd be gold" just because Gold is the top anyone in Sacred Valley is aware of.Omi no Kami posted:Yeah, all five of the books were fun reads, but at least for me Eithan is probably the weakest part of the narrative. He is simultaneously singularly responsible for giving Lindon the opportunity to develop like 90% of his cool stuff, and also kinda incompetent and tangential to the plot. Like, given both Lindon's poor initial education and the hilarious degree to which the deck is stacked against low-power people he needed something to jump from hobo to magic hobo, but the way Eithan popped in, sprinkled some wuxia around the room, then just kinda awkwardly stayed taped to the story feels like it could've been handled better. I actually like Eithan. I think he's an interesting character, and trying to figure out his motivations and background serves as a good mystery. It will also be interesting seeing Lindon and Yerin transition to just being his companions rather than his underlings/students; mentor figures are fairly common in fantasy stories, but having a mentor transition to a companion will be neat. He also obvious is of high importance to the plot, since his family are the descendants of Ozriel, who influenced Fate by giving them the glass gem to pass down.
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Feb 28, 2019 23:20
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Cradle still: Yeah I like Eithan, and I think the reaction to the Akuma name and some of the stuff in ghostwater gets back to that same reverence of the early makuth guy. I'm hype for Underlord tonight
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Feb 28, 2019 23:43
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Is there no better thread to talk about Cradle, a book series?
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Mar 1, 2019 00:49
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At the very least I think this conversation should move to the ADTRW translated webnovel thread, because the story is specifically modeled after Chinese webnovel tropes that don’t have any English analogues. And I say that as a huge lover of the books.
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Mar 1, 2019 01:31
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Sanderson thread and Kindle Unlimited probably work better than here yeah. Although Cradle does feel kind of like a web serial sometimes.
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Mar 1, 2019 01:31
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A fair request. I’ve been blowing through metaworld chronicles recently, feel sad now that I’ve caught up to the author. Anyone else enjoy them?
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Mar 1, 2019 02:27
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Anias posted:A fair request. I like it. I appreciate the amount of detail the author puts into the world building and scenery, it makes the world seem more real even though we've only seen a fraction of it so far.
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Mar 1, 2019 23:17
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Prac Guide, Peregrine IV, holy gently caress. Good and evil in this story are very far from black and white. I'm curious how this "no unnecessary suffering by any means possible" fits with the war against Catherine, I'm going to have to reread their conversations/negotiations. I wonder if Grey Pilgrim is being set up by this chapter to pivot away from being an antagonist.
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Mar 2, 2019 11:13
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Tom Clancy is Dead posted:Prac Guide, Peregrine IV, holy gently caress. Good and evil in this story are very far from black and white. I'm curious how this "no unnecessary suffering by any means possible" fits with the war against Catherine, I'm going to have to reread their conversations/negotiations. I wonder if Grey Pilgrim is being set up by this chapter to pivot away from being an antagonist. If we take him at his word to Cat it's just a matter of scale. He sacrificed on a personal level to spare suffering on a nation-wide level, throwing his nephew/surrogate son under the bus to do so. Now he's sacrificing Callow on a nation-wide level to spare suffering on a continental one by ensuring the Crusade can properly face the Dead King.
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Mar 2, 2019 19:21
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Ward: I'm not the biggest fan of shards thinking and talking like humans, that seems to undercut a lot of the cosmic horror/xenofiction potential- stuff was more fun when I thought of them as poorly-programmed biological computers with no higher logic. Also, while I didn't enjoy the chapter partway through I had the idea of WB writing a long, self-indulgent chapter from the point of view of Taylor's locker as it wallowed in the bullies' schadenfreude, and it took me a lot longer to stop giggling than it really should've. Omi no Kami fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Mar 2, 2019 |
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Mar 2, 2019 22:13
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I haven’t been reading Ward but I remember (end of Worm spoilers) people disagreeing over whether it was Taylor or Taylor’s shard controlling her body at the end as Khepri and your spoiler makes it sound like yes, Khepri was the shard for suresies
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Mar 2, 2019 22:28
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Hawkgirl posted:I haven’t been reading Ward but I remember (end of Worm spoilers) people disagreeing over whether it was Taylor or Taylor’s shard controlling her body at the end as Khepri and your spoiler makes it sound like yes, Khepri was the shard for suresies Yeah, like, (Worm + Ward) Parahumans' worldbuilding has never been my favorite thing in the world, so I could be completely misremembering, but my understanding for all of Worm and most of Ward was that shards were nonsapient biological computers whose one and only job was to interface between the brains/processing centers of target lifeforms and the superpower stuff they wanted to test. It was implied that Taylor's connection with her shard was super-close from the getgo (I think I remember her watching video footage of herself, and realizing that she was doing a lot of clever maneuvering/bug clone stuff that she had no memory of), and I always pictured that as the shard essentially using her consciousness as a framework to pilot her. But hearing the shards explicitly sit down in the negaverse and go "Wretch likes walkies, wretch no like mean girl with plot armor" comes off as super-duper silly to me.
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Mar 2, 2019 22:35
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I also agree with having perceived the shards as not having any sort of mind/personality and just being these sort of "frameworks" for guiding behavior or something.
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Mar 2, 2019 23:02
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TWI patron: Pls no Ryoka
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Mar 2, 2019 23:55
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Omi no Kami posted:Yeah, like, (Worm + Ward) Parahumans' worldbuilding has never been my favorite thing in the world, so I could be completely misremembering, but my understanding for all of Worm and most of Ward was that shards were nonsapient biological computers whose one and only job was to interface between the brains/processing centers of target lifeforms and the superpower stuff they wanted to test. It was implied that Taylor's connection with her shard was super-close from the getgo (I think I remember her watching video footage of herself, and realizing that she was doing a lot of clever maneuvering/bug clone stuff that she had no memory of), and I always pictured that as the shard essentially using her consciousness as a framework to pilot her. But hearing the shards explicitly sit down in the negaverse and go "Wretch likes walkies, wretch no like mean girl with plot armor" comes off as super-duper silly to me. you've got to be making GBS threads me
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Mar 3, 2019 00:10
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the new ward chapter looks super interesting, i haven't finished it yet
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Mar 3, 2019 01:41
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Reading cultivation chat group and are all xianhua protagonists psychopaths like this guy
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Mar 3, 2019 04:15
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:you've got to be making GBS threads me I can see how the idea could sound good on paper, but yeah- executionally it really didn't work for me.
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Mar 3, 2019 04:23
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Stairmaster posted:Reading cultivation chat group and are all xianhua protagonists psychopaths like this guy yes that's the appeal of it
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Mar 3, 2019 04:33
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