Namarrgon posted:I really did not like the 'shard drives you to conflict ' part. Seems like you could remove it completely and nothing in the story changes. You don't need to remove because it isn't actually in the text as presented. Ytlaya posted:Yeah, this doesn't really explain why some powered characters aren't remotely violent (like Parian or something). I guess they wanted some excuse for why nearly all powered people end up as heroes or villains (which, by the nature of their jobs, fight one another). There's plenty of excuses you can infer from the text, though. Trigger Events are traumatic and occur in people under extreme circumstances - as a result, these people are more likely to do things with their powers to start their life of heroism or villainy. Mass propaganda on the part of teams like the Protectorate that make young people with powers want to sign up and be a superhero. 'When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail'. People just want to use their cool powers, and some people will use them for their own ends.
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Sep 1, 2016 00:40
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Milky Moor posted:You don't need to remove because it isn't actually in the text as presented. It's not in the WoG as presented, either. He said outright that while there's a 'conflict drive', in the vast majority of cases, it's completely indistinguishable from "chose someone to trigger who would have done that poo poo anyway." The cases we know of otherwise, that I can think of, are Burnscar, Leet (and the behavior modification isn't working), and Damsel of Distress, and one of those is because of a damaged shard (probably one damaged by Eden's crash).
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Sep 1, 2016 12:32
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Milky Moor posted:You don't need to remove because it isn't actually in the text as presented. Oh, for sure, it's completely unnecessary to add the "shards drive to conflict" angle. It's basically like handing a bunch of random people (with a stressful background/mental health issues) in a country guns and the fact that this would obviously result in a bunch of violence. There shouldn't be any need for the worm aliens to worry about people not using their abilities.
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Sep 1, 2016 17:01
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Man, Twig, it was all going so well... On another note, this Citadel thing isn't terrible: https://unillustrated.wordpress.com/monster/ Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 11:20 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 11:06
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Got round to reading Mother of Learning. It's quite good so far.
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Sep 7, 2016 15:33
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Geez, Sylvester is completely unraveling. I guess New Amsterdam's the new stop for Sy's City Destruction Tour...How many places have been completely wrecked by/during the Lambs missions? Brechwell, Lugh, the city they just left...
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Sep 21, 2016 02:12
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Had this recced to me earlier this week then spent hours last night reading through it. A Practical Guide to Evil quote:The Empire stands triumphant. Felt like a cool mix of the good parts from earlier-mid Codex Alera and PC Hodgell's Chronicles of Kencyrath series. Also, I just really enjoy plans that incorporate undead suicide goats. I like the fanart made for the series too. 
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Sep 22, 2016 00:12
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Any more recommendations that are not Worm? I've been reading A Hero's War http://royalroadl.com/fiction/2826 Jackard fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Sep 22, 2016 |
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Sep 22, 2016 01:48
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Ra is good. The Last Angel is ok space opera, the sequel is meh though.
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Sep 22, 2016 02:04
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CaptainJuan posted:Ra is good. How can you mention Ra and not mention Fine Structure? It wad a bit bizarre and required some work to really understand what was going, but that series was also fantastic. Unsong is another good webfic, and so is Mother of Learning (even if the update schedule for it is rear end).
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Sep 22, 2016 07:43
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Mother Of Learning is straight up the only serial I bother to follow that doesn't have an RSS feed. I always find it fun to read, and I've got a soft spot for stories that take tropes to their conclusions. I'd post a shout out to the solidly amateur Man Of Last Millennium for being the living embodiment of "every new author thinks he has invented the corpsicle story", but alas it appears to be dead. By the way, does anyone know what's up with the current deluge of incredibly formulaic Xianxia serials? I had no idea that stuff even existed in english. I know all the VR ones must have come from the koreans, but I had no idea anyone even read the chinese sclock. Can I dream of a future where every man and his dog is posting awful chivalric romances at this rate?
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Sep 22, 2016 11:56
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mossyfisk posted:Mother Of Learning is straight up the only serial I bother to follow that doesn't have an RSS feed. I always find it fun to read, and I've got a soft spot for stories that take tropes to their conclusions. They're getting translated, I guess? I think the epicenter is /r/noveltranslations/. Read Mother of Learning, yes. It is very good.
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Sep 22, 2016 11:59
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Katreus posted:Had this recced to me earlier this week then spent hours last night reading through it. I've read a fair bit of it now, and I like it so far. At least compared to other popular webnovels I've tried it feels a cut above most in terms of writing/characterization, even if some pet-peeves of mine sneak in there too. I was a little surprised it went the military fantasy direction fairly quick, and seems to be sticking with it for the most part - the first chapters leaned heavily on politics (granted the protagonist didn't seem too suited) and general hero-ing after all. I certainly won't complain though. And hey, a more unconventional fantasy protagonist helps too, especially for this specific plot - generic farmerboy or whatever would definitely be less compelling, at least as a starting-point.
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Sep 22, 2016 22:39
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Insurrectionist posted:I've read a fair bit of it now, and I like it so far. At least compared to other popular webnovels I've tried it feels a cut above most in terms of writing/characterization, even if some pet-peeves of mine sneak in there too. I was a little surprised it went the military fantasy direction fairly quick, and seems to be sticking with it for the most part - the first chapters leaned heavily on politics (granted the protagonist didn't seem too suited) and general hero-ing after all. I certainly won't complain though. And hey, a more unconventional fantasy protagonist helps too, especially for this specific plot - generic farmerboy or whatever would definitely be less compelling, at least as a starting-point. Well, Black Knight was always the General, not the politician (that's the Empress), and a Squire is a martial-type trainee. And as you have noticed, as she is now, Catherine is much better at hard power, in comparison with Hieress' soft power. It is a weakness that she does recognize though, and I think with some of the recent developments - I'll point this out later if you don't pick it up once you catch up - I do think the politics will come back more into play in Book 3. Also, yeah, I love having a more unconventional fantasy protag. And actual LGBT characters that are significant. Woohoo. I love that it's not a big deal in setting too.
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Sep 23, 2016 02:54
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Katreus posted:Had this recced to me earlier this week then spent hours last night reading through it. Zombie goat, hello new desktop. This is a good series that I read after hearing about it in another thread. Its better than Worm, in my opinion, though I can't speak much for the latest stuff from Wildbow. The basic Name idea is pretty great and I also appreciate the fact that Squire gets the poo poo kicked out of her more often than not. I am looking forward to the Fifteenth being turned into the greatest fighting force in the Empire.
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Sep 23, 2016 09:58
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SerSpook posted:Zombie goat, hello new desktop. What thread was that? I'd probably be interested in reading some thoughts on it once I catch up (assuming it wasn't a throwaway rec of course). E: I would search, but funnily enough while I bought archives soon after registering back in 2007, just so I could search them properly...and both parts of it almost immediately poo poo the bed, spent years in limbo, and archives eventually returned sans search entirely. Curse you Lowtax! Insurrectionist fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Sep 23, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 11:50
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mossyfisk posted:Mother Of Learning is straight up the only serial I bother to follow that doesn't have an RSS feed. Fortunately you can sign up for update emails, so you don't have to worry about missing out on Xvim's teaching.
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Sep 23, 2016 13:40
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SerSpook posted:This is a good series that I read after hearing about it in another thread. Its better than Worm, in my opinion, though I can't speak much for the latest stuff from Wildbow. The basic Name idea is pretty great and I also appreciate the fact that Squire gets the poo poo kicked out of her more often than not. Haha. Yeah, with lasting consequences too, which is nice. So, I wrote this elsewhere for what I think will come to happen (don't read unless you're caught up!): Book 2, Ch. 12: “It’s possible to bind or usurp a Name, with the right tools,” he agreed. “But a proper ritual site is needed to manage it. The only usable one in Callow is in Liesse, which would make the matter rather tricky.” Things we found out recently: - Final battle is going to occur in Liesse - Strange ritual being prepared that revolves around RETRIEVE - Childer, former contender for Squire Name I think my theory is right. The Rule of 3 has to be tied to a particular iteration of a Name, not the person. Otherwise, we'd be having Rules of 3 occurring all the time between a Name and a regular person, but there is no Rule of 3 for, say, Juniper and Squire. Of course, this distinction is moot for most Named characters because you usually can't lose a Name except by dying. This is corroborated with Black's musings in the epilogue of Book 1. He notes that Squire's condition of letting The Lone Swordsman live and thus, kicking off the Rule of 3 was branded into the the Name, not the person. On a meta level, this is the end, one way or another, of this version of TLS and this version of Squire, but there has not been enough narrative build up of Heiress' faction. It's too early for her to lose fatally because it's not a referendum on her vision of Praes. So far, it's just been foreshadowing, and her form of battle fits in very well with whoever Squire becomes. After all, if Catherine succeeds in the upcoming battle, her next battle will be to enforce her vision of actual success in reform (i.e. the new Praes) vs. Heiress' traditional Praes vision (the old Praes). Note that this also seems to explain why Bard thought it was so important for Black to be delayed such that he didn't hear the draw between Heiress and Squire. With Heiress' victory, obviously, a Name (TLS) vs. a Squire-less Catherine should easily be a win for TLS. She thinks that if Black knew that Squire was in a Rule of 3 with Heiress, he wouldn't have let Heiress come along to Liesse. I think that Bard, however close she is to the story, doesn't quite understand Names as much as Black has figured out though, especially since Black has been Squire at one point. Black knows that Catherine has basically done all she can with Squire now, and she's ripe for an upgrade, so he expects Squire to lose but Catherine to win. In his interlude in Book 2, he keeps saying "Catherine has Liesse in hand" and "The rebel army had died without the kind of battle that would make a pivot in the story unfolding across Callow. Liesse would be the closing of the rebellion, Liesse and Catherine." So, my prediction is: - Heiress successfully pulls off her ritual to retrieve Squire for Childer. This plays into the earlier Book 1 foreshadowing where Catherine specifically notes that she's sympathetic to Childer's desires and her only issue with it was that she would have to die for Childer to succeed. It's also a very Heiress-type victory that focuses on her strengths (intrigue), and it means that whatever else happens in Liesse, she'd have a concrete victory even if Catherine succeeds in enforcing her vision for Callow over TLS's. - Without this iteration of Squire, Catherine is no longer in a Rule of 3 with TLS. - When she upgrades to a new Name, she wins and somehow proves the strength of her vision for Callow. No more Heroes will come from Callow until Catherine fails to succeed in her reform. Katreus fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Sep 23, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 19:37
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Insurrectionist posted:What thread was that? I'd probably be interested in reading some thoughts on it once I catch up (assuming it wasn't a throwaway rec of course). The light/webnovel thread in ADTRW, probably.
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Sep 23, 2016 22:55
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I figured it didn't discuss western series, but perhaps. I've never looked at it myself past checking the first page or so ages ago, because while there are at least some anime and manga I actually enjoy, I'm at this point firmly convinced that there is some kind of law that they are not allowed to write a decent webnovel on pain of death.
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Sep 23, 2016 23:34
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Hero's War is western fantasy, far as I can tell, and that's where I found out about it.
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Sep 23, 2016 23:56
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Insurrectionist posted:I figured it didn't discuss western series, but perhaps. I've never looked at it myself past checking the first page or so ages ago, because while there are at least some anime and manga I actually enjoy, I'm at this point firmly convinced that there is some kind of law that they are not allowed to write a decent webnovel on pain of death. It mainly doesn't, it was brought up a couple of times. It actually talks about Chinese stuff more than anything after a certain point.
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Sep 24, 2016 00:16
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Thanks for the link to Practical Guide to Evil. Great fun, got caught up over the last couple of days.
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Sep 25, 2016 09:46
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I enjoyed The Practical Guide well enough, but Jesus Christ would it kill the author to draft their poo poo? At least give it a once over  And, I'll be honest, the constant teenage giggling over who is sleeping with who is starting to wear on me. It's not all that interesting in itself and it jars with everything else going on. Insurrectionist posted:I figured it didn't discuss western series, but perhaps. I've never looked at it myself past checking the first page or so ages ago, because while there are at least some anime and manga I actually enjoy, I'm at this point firmly convinced that there is some kind of law that they are not allowed to write a decent webnovel on pain of death. Try I'm a Spider, So What?! It's fun, it's cool, it's about a spider and it has a translation that isn't hot garbage, courtesy of Our Boy Blaston™. If we're doing recs, I've recently read Taint and Void Domain. The former I liked more than the latter, but I think both of them are worth checking out. Funnily enough, both of them have young, amoral female protagonists with spider motifs. I guess they're in this season? 
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Sep 25, 2016 14:54
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I didn't really mind the teenage giggling as you put it, though I agree it stands out, mostly because it just kinda highlights how everything else going on in the story really isn't exactly typical teenager fare. Helps I've seen some far worse stuff in that department while searching for stuff to read I suppose. I checked out Taint at some point, and honestly I couldn't get into it at all. Partly for the Wuxia-inspired ridiculous power-levels complete with tiers and hierarchies and poo poo that's too mechanical and impersonal for me, but mostly I just can't enjoy the style of writing at all. I read Void Domain too and honestly I'm really disappointed in it - I actually liked it quite a bit at first and I'm generally liking the core cast I suppose, but at this point it feels like every time a new plot-point or character or relationship is introduced I groan and get annoyed and dislike it. It's hard to stay interested when you're dreading the next development, not because it's tense or dangerous or whatever but just because you know you'll probably not like it. A lot of it isn't even stuff I can point at and say 'that's bad!' or whatever either, I just feel like it spends so much time on plots and characters I find boring or uninteresting or in a couple cases a little creepy. I'll have to check out spidernovel, even if it's a reincarnation concept.
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Sep 25, 2016 17:10
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I just finished migrating my friend's webfiction Hitherby Dragons to a wiki-based hosting solution that loads much more quickly, so I'm interested to a) get people to read and like it and b) see if people have any comments on this way of hosting the content.
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Sep 25, 2016 20:49
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Insurrectionist posted:I checked out Taint at some point, and honestly I couldn't get into it at all. Partly for the Wuxia-inspired ridiculous power-levels complete with tiers and hierarchies and poo poo that's too mechanical and impersonal for me, but mostly I just can't enjoy the style of writing at all. I know exactly what you mean, I wasn't expecting to like it at all but it really grew on me. I don't know how far you got, but it took off for me somewhere in the Planar Prison arc once our protagonist gets out of the tower and starts interacting with people again. It helps that Akasha doesn't give even a single gently caress about power levels nonsense, and usually ends up making the people who do look like idiots. (If you want to see something take the piss out of xianxia-style level grinding &c, you could try checking out My Disciple Died Yet Again- the translation's about as poor as I'm willing to tolerate, but I still find it pretty funny. Zap, zap, zap, zap your sister!) Insurrectionist posted:I read Void Domain too and honestly I'm really disappointed in it - I actually liked it quite a bit at first and I'm generally liking the core cast I suppose, but at this point it feels like every time a new plot-point or character or relationship is introduced I groan and get annoyed and dislike it. It's hard to stay interested when you're dreading the next development, not because it's tense or dangerous or whatever but just because you know you'll probably not like it. A lot of it isn't even stuff I can point at and say 'that's bad!' or whatever either, I just feel like it spends so much time on plots and characters I find boring or uninteresting or in a couple cases a little creepy. Yeah, I'm not massively in love with it. Though my problem with it is more that it's overstuffed, and that a great many of the characters interact in ways that make little to know sense to me. I really have no idea why so many people trust or even like Eva as much as they do. It is nice to see an urban fantasy story that doesn't bother with a masquerade, though- that's always the worst part of these stories. Rand Brittain posted:I just finished migrating my friend's webfiction Hitherby Dragons to a wiki-based hosting solution that loads much more quickly, so I'm interested to a) get people to read and like it and b) see if people have any comments on this way of hosting the content. Moran does webfiction?  That's going to be a trip.
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Sep 25, 2016 23:33
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Rand Brittain posted:I just finished migrating my friend's webfiction Hitherby Dragons to a wiki-based hosting solution that loads much more quickly, so I'm interested to a) get people to read and like it and b) see if people have any comments on this way of hosting the content. So should everyone else. I don't remember any of the major characters being young spider-themed women, which is a thing now? But it's still good.
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Sep 26, 2016 07:02
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Oh, that reminds me that I ought to link a really good piece for people who want to find out if something is good without going through the set-up, so I'm going to link The Summoning of the King.
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Sep 26, 2016 07:54
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Rand Brittain posted:I just finished migrating my friend's webfiction Hitherby Dragons to a wiki-based hosting solution that loads much more quickly, so I'm interested to a) get people to read and like it and b) see if people have any comments on this way of hosting the content. Hitherby is lovely. I think it could probably use an introduction by a third party that, like, explains in plain terms what to expect and how to enjoy it, like all those classic novels get. If you're reading this and have never heard of Hitherby before, off the top of my head, check out The Legend of Perfectly Defensive Samurai, or Ragnarok or The Land Where Suffering Is Remembered.. As for hosting it on a wiki, I must admit I don't think this is the best option. If it's speed and hosting you're concerned with, perhaps you could make it a Jekyll blog?
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Sep 26, 2016 09:24
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Autonomous Monster posted:I enjoyed The Practical Guide well enough, but Jesus Christ would it kill the author to draft their poo poo? At least give it a once over I take it you mean copyedit/proofread here? Because yeah, that's bugging the poo poo out of me.
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Sep 26, 2016 09:35
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thespaceinvader posted:I take it you mean copyedit/proofread here? That'd work too, but I'll eat my own kidney if a second draft would have caught all these problems and more.
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Sep 26, 2016 10:17
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Megazver posted:Hitherby is lovely. I think it could probably use an introduction by a third party that, like, explains in plain terms what to expect and how to enjoy it, like all those classic novels get. Perfectly Defensive Samurai is great, thanks!
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Sep 27, 2016 14:24
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I dropped Worm after the time skip where the expanding scope had the author spamming kaiju and cloned villains and other dumb poo poo
Jackard fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Oct 3, 2016 |
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Oct 3, 2016 19:53
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Jackard posted:I dropped Worm after the time skip where the expanding scope had the author spamming kaiju and cloned villains and other dumb poo poo Yeah it definitely goes downhill after that. Final arc gives a massive payoff though. (I'm not even sure if that qualifies as a spoiler)
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Oct 3, 2016 22:35
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Katreus posted:Had this recced to me earlier this week then spent hours last night reading through it. Thanks for this recommendation, I'll join the fan club. Guess I need to read the Hodgell series, I've had one of the books on my shelf for years and haven't gotten to it yet.
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Oct 3, 2016 22:41
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Jackard posted:I dropped Worm after the time skip where the expanding scope had the author spamming kaiju and cloned villains and other dumb poo poo Yeah there's a massive drop in quality around then, it kinda sucks for a while. Pretty much everything after the behemoth fight is just increasing levels of "why is this happening"
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Oct 5, 2016 02:15
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I actually don't mind the S9000 as a concept... but I have no idea how it works with the shards and everything because it seems odd that one shard could work for hundreds of clones. WB's acknowledged that the time skip and what comes after is a big problem in the story, so, I'd expect and hope that it is substantially altered.
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Oct 5, 2016 02:28
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The clones would just run out of power after a few weeks instead of a few decades, yeah?
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Oct 5, 2016 02:30
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bagrada posted:Thanks for this recommendation, I'll join the fan club. Guess I need to read the Hodgell series, I've had one of the books on my shelf for years and haven't gotten to it yet. Um. I like the main character, and her adventures, but there is definitely some stuff in there that makes me want to cringe. Fair warning that the 2nd book in particular is, to me, hard to understand what's actually going on in it and is a distinct tonal shift (darker) from the first (IIRC, the author wrote that while she was suffering from depression). What reminded me of the similarities is the time that the MC of Chronicles of Kencyrath was at their version of a war college. I believe it was the 4th-6th books (To Ride a Rathorn, Bound in Blood, Honor's Paradox). That being said, one big issue is the ... marriage tendencies of MC's House, Knorth. Honestly, I just try to skip past everything involving the MC's twin. Glad you liked A Practical Guide to Evil though.
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Oct 5, 2016 07:22
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