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Yeah, it was all a bit weird with the "Ah, I was too weak all these other times, now that I have six times the power, knowledge and training... I'm still too weak? Except for when I choose not to be?"
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Apr 25, 2023 12:10
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Just finished the new/last Mage Errant book (The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells) and it's a pretty decent end to the series. If Book 6 was mostly set up, Book 7 is all payoff in two parts. It's like 860 pages long or something like that in the print edition. I could quibble with pacing (the book felt simultaneously too long/bloated—we bounce around a whole pile of POVs, some of whom are completely new and have basically their own little short story collections contained within the greater narrative—and too underdeveloped for some arcs) but it mostly sticks the landing and delivers on what the series promised. Gave me the same feeling as reading Memory of Light/the Last Battle on a lesser scale, where things are going off the charts crazy on epic battlefields. Lots and lots of action sequences to the point where they end up being the back drop for character "let's talk it out" moments. Curious to see how Waybound will compare.
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May 15, 2023 14:42
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I finished it last night and I'd agree with most of your comments, particularly the one about the "short story collections" feel. The chapter on the death of the white phosphorous mage was a prime example; it was fun to read but you could have cut it entirely without losing anything of significance. It's the sort of thing I'd expect to see released as a side story on a blog or as a Patreon reward. Given that - as you said - the author clearly knows when to pull back from the action and let it serve as a backdrop to the main cast of characters, it's odd that in places they just didn't do that. As a final book, I think it did a very good job of sticking the landing. I can't think of any loose threads, barring stuff like the wider multiverse politics/players which clearly aren't the focus of the story. I thought the reveal of the nature of the Last Echo was a particularly good choice, being very in-character and believable given the logic of the setting. As a side note, I loved the running gag of everyone being the "first and only" member of Clan Castris to join the Hidden Clan. Overall, it was a fun series and surprisingly well-executed. It's got all the hallmarks of being the sort of overly-ambitious project new authors are drawn to - a crunchy hard magic system, sprawling cast and politics, tying into a wider multiverse and taking seven books to conclude, etc. Somehow, the author pulled it off with few major missteps. I haven't read the author's stand-alone book yet, but I definitely will and I'm looking forward to seeing how their next series pans out. For anyone who was thinking of reading the series, or was waiting for it to be complete, I'd definitely recommend picking it up.
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May 16, 2023 09:46
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I might go reread it at some point but the big pacing unforced error of gluing what is effectively a quadrilogy to the sequel trilogy and then the murky middle of the trilogy is a hard thing to get over. Glad the conclusion stuck the landing though.
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May 16, 2023 15:42
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Waybound (Cradle #12) chapter one is out in text and audio: https://www.reddit.com/r/Iteration110Cradle/comments/13m319o/waybound_chapter_one_sneak_preview
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May 20, 2023 02:24
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Cicero posted:Waybound (Cradle #12) chapter one is out in text and audio: https://www.reddit.com/r/Iteration110Cradle/comments/13m319o/waybound_chapter_one_sneak_preview I'm saving myself for Kindle.
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May 22, 2023 02:04
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Yeah I greatly enjoyed the Last Echo, not as good as the Siege of Skyhold but still very enjoyable. Never did get quite a handle on the scale of Heliothrax, both physically and the size of their defences, but that’s just a small quibble.
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May 24, 2023 13:57
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All of Will Wight's current ebooks are free for 24 hours: Traveler's Gate Trilogy - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074CCBXYZ Elder Empire Trilogy (Shadow) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074CCVM2J Elder Empire Trilogy (Sea) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074C78XPJ Cradle - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0753FP6SP The Last Horizon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C11YDHB8
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May 31, 2023 08:32
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Cicero posted:All of Will Wight's current ebooks are free for 24 hours: Travelers gate was pretty fun but elder empire felt kind of meh to me, I think writing two trilogies from different sides was interesting but started to feel too similar to me. Hoping for some crossover short stories at some point. A week til waybound hope he sticks the landing on cradle 
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Jun 1, 2023 02:21
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I’m on book three of the four-part Primaterre series by SA Tholin and I’m still super impressed with it. There’s some really great, non-cliched character building in it for a series about space marines and love.
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Jun 1, 2023 03:32
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Another recommendation: J.P. Valentine (author of This Quest is Bullshit!) has published the first book in what feels like a space opera cultivation series. Some really clever ideas and concepts, I can’t wait to see where the series goes from here. https://amzn.asia/fweEhyT
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Jun 1, 2023 05:30
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I finished my reread of DCC early because I got the month wrong. Weep for me.
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Jun 1, 2023 09:23
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Coq au Nandos posted:Another recommendation: J.P. Valentine (author of This Quest is Bullshit!) has published the first book in what feels like a space opera cultivation series. Some really clever ideas and concepts, I can’t wait to see where the series goes from here. This was fine. Nothing amazing, but a fun enough way to spend some reading time. I'll keep reading the series.
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Jun 2, 2023 22:22
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My book is now published on KU: A Heart of Bones It’s an urban (more rural) fantasy/romance, featuring a bi main character (I’m bi, myself). It’s not a cultivation fantasy, or a million pages long, and contains no harems. But it is nearly completely (98%) goon produced. I am currently writing the next book in the series, but I think this one can stand alone just fine. It does contain some graphic m/m sex and a lot of swearing.
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Jun 3, 2023 14:33
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So, apparently every kindle pre-order of the latest Cradle book got canceled due to a trivial procedural fuckup by the author's team. What an absolutely terrible thing to have happen to a project right at the finish line.
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Jun 3, 2023 21:23
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Oof, yeah that sucks. I can't even get to a page to re-preorder it now (on Kindle; looks to be there dtill on Audible).
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Jun 4, 2023 05:59
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mastajake posted:Oof, yeah that sucks. I can't even get to a page to re-preorder it now (on Kindle; looks to be there dtill on Audible). Yeah apparently when something goes wrong Amazon's response is to remove it from existence. Just poof. Which seems a bit much when it is irreversible for some reason. Audible is on a different system so nothing changed over there.
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Jun 4, 2023 10:50
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Cradle 12, Waybound is up for Purchase now. May not be all regions but NA has it currently.
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Jun 5, 2023 03:07
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Weird. When I searched for it the Amazon page wouldn't load but found a link on cradle subreddit: Waybound Is it better for the author to buy an ebook or read it 2-3 times on KU? Wasn't expecting it this early so still have of Dreadgod to finish.
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Jun 5, 2023 04:15
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If you want the best option for the author, contact them directly and buy direct via donation. Everything else involves a middle person/entity that takes a cut. If you don’t want to do that, which is fine, buy the book. KU is a set amount pooled among authors, so if you have the funds/ability to pay outside of that pool it is generally better to do so. Waybound mostly sticks the landing imo. It has some rough pacing bits, but I think that about most of the cradle books.
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Jun 6, 2023 06:42
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I think Waybound crammed in a bit too much for one book. Spoilers for some of my other thoughts The Abidan plotline ended up being a bit of a wet fart. Makiel needed either more scenes or to have fewer outright villainous bits in previous books to sell any emotional impact. Eh, it was fine but I do wish we'd gotten something different out of it. Way too many powerups crammed in. There were 11 stage advancements by our intrepid little group of heroes and several of those could have happened in previous books or been glossed over. Little Blue and Orthos especially just felt extraneous and really, really didn't need powerup montages so they could continue to not really participate. Ziel could have used more scenes in previous books but had a pretty decent payoff for his arc. Still not sure why he got dragged into the main cast but at least he was an active member this time around. I enjoyed Yerin and Mercy's arcs overall though it was enormously wasted potential we didn't get a scene with Eithan and Mercy about her manifesting the Joy Icon after he had that whole running subplot about it. As someone who reads too much trash I enjoyed the little Reaper missions with Yerin being Isekai'd and Ziel saving Final Fantasy VII with new tax policies. Kelsa and Jai Chen never really ended up with any payoff. I'm not sure if I think killing off Jai Long was a mistake, but it cut a kind of interesting arc short and the fallout was incredibly perfunctory. Ditto the whole Sect of the Twin Stars which uh seems like it would be about 2 days from falling apart after Lindon finally ascended. Lindon and Yerin are so bad at naming things they just mashed their own names together for their kid which is both hilarious and deeply depressing. Overall solid ending. Some pacing issues for sure but pretty much every Cradle book after the first two has them to some degree or another.
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Jun 6, 2023 07:12
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KU only pays the first read through.
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Jun 6, 2023 10:23
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Anias posted:Waybound mostly sticks the landing imo. It has some rough pacing bits, but I think that about most of the cradle books. Zore posted:I think Waybound crammed in a bit too much for one book. Yeah I'd agree with all this. Waybound is like 600 pages of fan service where the crew is enacting beat down after beat down which I know isn't accurate to the text at all (IIRC most of the book they're juggling advancements just to keep pace with Monarchs & Dreadgods) but emotionally that's what it felt like. I have the same issue with the action scenes here as I did with Dreadgod where the power levels just got so high that the fights could've gone whichever way and I would've been like...okay sure why not. But the thing Waybound did better than The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells was sticking to the characters we've gotten to know. No random short story collections in here to pad word count; what padding there is consists of victory lap scenes like (Li Markuth getting beat up by Lindon at the next Seven Year Festival) which aren't really plot necessary but it's the kind of thing where fans wanna read about it. A lot of scenes like that, tbh, which is why it felt like fan service, and I think Wight did that intentionally just based on what he said on his pre-release livestream. Final book ranking for me:
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Jun 6, 2023 12:32
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Zore posted:Overall solid ending. Some pacing issues for sure but pretty much every Cradle book after the first two has them to some degree or another. Pretty much agreed on every point. I could read an entire book of short stories just about the gang being interdimensional problem solvers. I really enjoyed the author's collection of short stories about the different planes in the Traveler's Gate setting, and every scene in Waybound like that was a joy. Favorite little detail: The remnant of the first dragon he killed in Ghostwater has been dragged around for the entire series and ultimately became part of the Sect of the Twin Stars. Overall, a great series that felt like Will decided at the end of book 9 or 10 that he was going to wrap it up in book 12. Also, the kind of series that would massively benefit from an overall, first book to last book editor pass. Not for typos or anything, just a second look at what scenes pay off and what scenes don't and can we sacrifice this plot to make a different arc more complete? Not that I'm not used to that in the KU space (looking at you, Michael Anderle).
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Jun 6, 2023 12:42
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Zore posted:I think Waybound crammed in a bit too much for one book.  I had to re-read the Abidan stuff to make sure I wasn't misreading the ending, which was disappointing.Arbetor posted:Pretty much agreed on every point. I could read an entire book of short stories just about the gang being interdimensional problem solvers. I really enjoyed the author's collection of short stories about the different planes in the Traveler's Gate setting, and every scene in Waybound like that was a joy. I would love just a little more interplay with the gang hanging out in Abidan space. I think the book of short stories is a great idea
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Jun 6, 2023 16:31
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Waybound was basically an avalanche from beginning to end, overall I think it was a solid ending to the series. 8 Man Empire felt a bit shoehorned into it but the Larian bits were amusing. I'm a sucker for happy endings so I'm glad Eithan didn't get Voided, not that I really ever expected it to be permanent. Though part of me thinks it might have been a better story.
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Jun 7, 2023 21:15
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I liked waybound. I think that like uhhhh it probably would have been better to have a 13th book. It's like the was a rough plan at the end of book 11 and it was a plan with a lot to execute on so if you're going to fit it all into one book there can't be *too* many complications so after the first big dreadgod fight everything feels kind of perfunctory. I am the kind of dweeb who liked the 7 years festival scene though so I don't have too much of a problem with it. I even liked the 90s movie rear end epilogue.
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Jun 8, 2023 02:02
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roffles posted:Waybound was basically an avalanche from beginning to end, overall I think it was a solid ending to the series. 8 Man Empire felt a bit shoehorned into it but the Larian bits were amusing. Nah, they were in Dreadgod and obviously on Lindon’s side covertly (Hanging around for secret discussions with Emriss, purposely botching a job to let Lindon steal stuff, etc).
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Jun 8, 2023 13:22
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I was a bit worried that we wouldn't get a good wrap-up at the end when I learned Waybound was the end of the series, but it turned out to do a good job. I think a long epilogue is usually needed when a series goes on as long as it has and I'm glad it delivered. I understand that for thematic reasons it can work better not to have one. I'm usually not satisfied when that happens even when I know why it was done. Some of the plot was a bit rushed, and maybe another book would've fixed it, but the epilogue was already long and I think Will Wight was worried that if he split things up, the last book would be pretty much just be the epilogue. I wasn't bothered by the Abidan stuff being short. I always thought that was the weakest stuff in the series although it get better in the later books. It was great when Yerin just rushed through an isekai plot Its unlikely to happen, but I really want this to get an animated series.
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Jun 10, 2023 21:30
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Waybound was fine. Not bad but not great as a book although it was a decent ending to the series. It felt like everything after weeping dragon until the epilogue was checking off a list. It would have benefited from 2 books I think. Book 1 could focus on weeping dragon and Lindon realizing he couldn't get everyone up to his level in time while being worn down by monarchs. It was a neat idea but felt like it was rushed and needed some more time. The dragon bearing down on a weakened Lindon while everyone was stuck in the pocket world was a great climax and the fight could have been the end of the book. Book 2 would have everything with wandering titan and bleeding phoenix. They were set up to be intelligent and scheming but then that fizzled out into a drawn out battle. I thought for sure the plan to defeat both simultaneously would seem like a success and friends would ascend then Lindon realizes the phoenix was reborn in the giant egg across the ocean (it's a phoenix, c'mon). Maybe Yerin also sticks around due to their drawn out goodbye and they battle the super powered Phoenix together. All that and epilogue could easily fill out a second book.
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Jun 11, 2023 00:38
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I apparently have the opposite Waybound opinion: I think the main character arcs concluded in Wintersteel and Bloodline, and everything after was just fan service. Not that I hated it, but I think another book would've been a mistake.
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Jun 11, 2023 05:48
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That's a good point. It might have helped with pacing for the book but not the series. I felt that way after reaper so I'm satisfied with the way cradle ended and glad it did end.
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Jun 11, 2023 11:13
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PerniciousKnid posted:I apparently have the opposite Waybound opinion: I think the main character arcs concluded in Wintersteel and Bloodline, and everything after was just fan service. Not that I hated it, but I think another book would've been a mistake. I'd probably read a book of short stories as a waybound follow-up though.
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Jun 11, 2023 15:09
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RDM posted:Yeah, the last two books are pretty much an epilogue already. Making it longer would have made it worse, not better. I would also read some stories about Lindon coming to terms with a leadership role in the sect, anywhere in the Reaper to Waybound timeline. The neglect of that stuff (and the associated characters) makes me wonder if that was an idea that got discarded because Will couldn't make it work or make it interesting, but maybe there's a short story or two in there somewhere. That seems like a good place for the sort of character arc that was missing from Lindon's story as he spent 3 books just flexing on everybody. Yerin and Lindon leading their respective sects, the adventures of the Jai siblings, Kelsa building her identity under the shadow of her brother, there's all kinds of Cradle stuff that could turn out interesting. Kyoujin posted:That's a good point. It might have helped with pacing for the book but not the series. I felt that way after reaper so I'm satisfied with the way cradle ended and glad it did end. I'd say the series should've ended with Bloodlines-ish but I don't know how you'd wrap up all the plot stuff adequately, even though the interesting character stuff was done for Lindon. I guess Will Wright didn't know either. PerniciousKnid fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Jun 13, 2023 |
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Jun 13, 2023 18:22
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My biggest gripe was that Lindon building himself some super armor never happened. It was foreshadowed multiple times since like book 6 that Lindon was planning to construct some armor that provided a massive power boost, but that never played out in the end. Sure he made some Dreadgod gear out of their corpses in the end, but a finished version of the armor that he used to gently caress up that old Abyssal Palace Underlord in Wintersteel never appeared and never even got mentioned really. Ultimately I enjoyed the hell out of Waybound. A solid end to one of my all time favorite series. I want a Boruto style spin of about Lirin.
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Jun 13, 2023 19:25
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Drew Hayes just released a new book which appears to be an anthology taking place in the Villains Code world. I’m in the middle of another book right now but will definitely be picking it up as soon as I finish
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Jun 23, 2023 17:18
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Looks like this is the place to talk about cradle. I saw it was free a few days ago so I got them all, and I just finished book two. It's really enjoyable.
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Jun 24, 2023 02:17
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Silynt posted:My biggest gripe was that Lindon building himself some super armor never happened. It was foreshadowed multiple times since like book 6 that Lindon was planning to construct some armor that provided a massive power boost, but that never played out in the end. Sure he made some Dreadgod gear out of their corpses in the end, but a finished version of the armor that he used to gently caress up that old Abyssal Palace Underlord in Wintersteel never appeared and never even got mentioned really. I forgot about that but now I'm mad too. redreader posted:Looks like this is the place to talk about cradle. I saw it was free a few days ago so I got them all, and I just finished book two. It's really enjoyable. It's pretty good, I'd say it peaks around book 8 or 9 but it's never bad. I've reread the "bad" ones a few times still, albeit partly because I have small kids and frequently need a non-challenging fiction read.
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Jun 24, 2023 03:32
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Recently read through what exists of Mark Of The Fool, which another Royal Road To Kindle Unlimited dumptruck job. It's really pretty good (as far as that sort of thing goes)! The protagonist is a standard clever fantasy MC in alternate universe fantasy britain, when he becomes one of 5 Chosen Heroes in fantasy britain's recurring heroic prophecy. He then decides gently caress that and leaves. There's some kind of spooky secret behind the heroic prophecy that gets investigated. There are three volumes on kindle, the fourth comes out in a few weeks. There's up to book six and change on royal road.
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Jun 24, 2023 22:06
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30.5 Days posted:Recently read through what exists of Mark Of The Fool, which another Royal Road To Kindle Unlimited dumptruck job. It's really pretty good (as far as that sort of thing goes)! The protagonist is a standard clever fantasy MC in alternate universe fantasy britain, when he becomes one of 5 Chosen Heroes in fantasy britain's recurring heroic prophecy. He then decides gently caress that and leaves. There's some kind of spooky secret behind the heroic prophecy that gets investigated. There are three volumes on kindle, the fourth comes out in a few weeks. There's up to book six and change on royal road. Does the story leave the magic school behind for good at some point? I think that's where I bailed, last time I tried reading it.
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Jun 24, 2023 22:17
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