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Not yet, they're in the summer after the second year although they spend a good chunk of their time back in Britain, raiding the hells, etc.
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Jun 24, 2023 22:40
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I thought Mark of the Fool was pretty typical for the genre which is to say kinda bad. The story beats and the way the protagonist behaves and the light snark/sarcasm in the character banter just felt too predictable and tropey.
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Jun 25, 2023 08:06
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It's nice that the author is doing well, but I personally dropped it before it even went to Kindle.
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Jun 25, 2023 09:10
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Earlier this month, I visited Fantasticon in Copenhagen, where I met author Claus Holm, who sold me a copy of his self-published urban fantasy novel Tempus Investigations. The book is written like a novelization of a trashy 90's TV show about an immortal detective who can talk to ghosts and uses his powers to solve crime (when he is not busy lecturing random street kids about how their dead little sister wants them to say "No" to drugs). The story is divided into "episodes", each featuring a mystery-of-the-week, along with hints toward the overarching background mystery. The writing style is inspired by fan fiction in that there is very little description because the target audience is assumed to be familiar with the source material - which doesn't exist - so you can just imagine your favorite b-list tv actors in the roles. Anyway, I read the first episode and found it to be trashy in the right way. It is a gimmick I haven't seen before, so I thought I would mention it. SimonChris fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Jun 25, 2023 |
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Jun 25, 2023 11:56
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Good Citizen posted: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 Pretty much what it says on the tin, 3 shorter stories featuring the main viewpoint characters of the Villains Code (so prepare to be disappointed if you wanted POVs from side characters like Thuggernaut). It will apparently be relevant to but not essential reading for the next main VC title. Overall a fun/breezy read with less a "serious" tone than the main series (hard to be too serious when so much of it is holiday related).
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Jun 26, 2023 21:52
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Just signed up for Kindle Unlimited due to 3 free months and wanting to finish Cradle and... Maybe I am missing something, but it seems more full of trash than even Royal Road. Any suggestions?
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Jun 27, 2023 08:33
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Peachfart posted:Just signed up for Kindle Unlimited due to 3 free months and wanting to finish Cradle and... Maybe I am missing something, but it seems more full of trash than even Royal Road. Any suggestions? I like He Who Fights With Monsters but it’s very much a guilty pleasure due to the author and protagonist being extremely Australian lefties. Basic Stranger in a Strange Land stuff but a solid magic system. Dungeon Crawler Carl is a very good takedown of the sort of trash you’ve probably been seeing. LitRPG that doesn’t take itself seriously and makes fun of the genre. Beware of Chicken is mandatory reading.
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Jun 27, 2023 09:19
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Peachfart posted:Just signed up for Kindle Unlimited due to 3 free months and wanting to finish Cradle and... Maybe I am missing something, but it seems more full of trash than even Royal Road. Any suggestions? I'm also a big fan of Re:Monarch, and All The Skills ain't too bad. Some people like Fox's Tongue and Kirin's Bone.
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Jun 27, 2023 09:31
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avoraciopoctules posted: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 27, 2023 17:11
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Peachfart posted:Just signed up for Kindle Unlimited due to 3 free months and wanting to finish Cradle and... Maybe I am missing something, but it seems more full of trash than even Royal Road. Any suggestions? Dungeon Crawler Carl. It's dumb as hell but it knows it.
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Jun 27, 2023 18:44
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This thread talks about progression and other RR-type stuff constantly, but in general that isn't my bag - KU offers a hell of a lot more of actual quality stuff if you can find it. Look through this and the other SF&F thread for a while, you'll find recommendations a-plenty. Also, go to the kindle store and search for an author you like with a large backlog, it's very possible they have a few on KU. Discoverability on KU is terrible, allowing 'related items' to be ads for drivel rather than actual related items is a warcrime.
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Jun 27, 2023 19:05
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Coq au Nandos posted:I like He Who Fights With Monsters but it’s very much a guilty pleasure due to the author and protagonist being extremely Australian lefties. Basic Stranger in a Strange Land stuff but a solid magic system. I read a fair amount but then their team of 6 main characters moved up to bronze rank and the author had to introduce 120 new ability evolutions and that is just too dang much. It's definitely, uh, goofy? I don't know the word for it. e: if you're looking at Dungeon Crawler Carl, Dominion of Blades is by the same author and also KU. The series was put on hold when DCC got incredibly popular, but it's the same level of quality as DCC in my opinion although a bit more tense. With DCC it becomes apparently after a book or two that he's not going to kill the main characters (or at least not until the end or whatever). With Dinniman's other books, the main characters can't die so he likes to wield fates worse than death and does apply them from time to time. e e: Also Tower of Somnus is all right, it's a VRMMO but avoids the usual problems by making it so that you have access to some of your abilities you gain in the real world, so it spends half its time as a cyberpunk adventure. 30.5 Days fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Jun 27, 2023 |
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Jun 27, 2023 21:33
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I’ve tried to read He Who Fights With Monsters twice and burned out at basically the exact same point - after he returns to the other world from his own world. There’s like 20 chapters in a row of various characters unrelentingly sucking Jason’s dick and it got unbearable.
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Jun 27, 2023 21:54
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Silynt posted:I’ve tried to read He Who Fights With Monsters twice and burned out at basically the exact same point - after he returns to the other world from his own world. There’s like 20 chapters in a row of various characters unrelentingly sucking Jason’s dick and it got unbearable. Yeah, I burned out at that exact point. I just don't get the thread praise for it - that said, no judgment it's just not for me.
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Jun 27, 2023 22:04
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KU has always been a quantity game, but the huge weight of the quantity makes a good case as long as you like genre fiction. Also the new Dungeon Crawler Carl is out next week
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Jun 27, 2023 22:17
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I'm enjoying cradle but it's rapidly becoming clear that this guy just falls into treasure rooms, literally, and amazing circumstances regularly happen to him. Maybe sometimes it's potentially deadly but he's always got enough resources to help him and any challenge only exists in order for him to grow and overcome it. Edit: it's like an RPG but regularly the Father Christmas dm gives him enough xp to level up 5x in a row
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Jun 28, 2023 00:52
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redreader posted:I'm enjoying cradle but it's rapidly becoming clear that this guy just falls into treasure rooms, literally, and amazing circumstances regularly happen to him. Maybe sometimes it's potentially deadly but he's always got enough resources to help him and any challenge only exists in order for him to grow and overcome it. Yeah, I mean any cultivation novel looking to follow the PC from low to high power is going to have to make the person exceptionally lucky or privileged as one of the conceits of these types of books is how hard it is to reach the top levels of power and how long it would normally take. I’d say the main advantages he gets are Suriel (who puts him on the path to joining up with Yerin), Eithan (Who is dedicated to raising him up fast, giving him a powerful path, teaching him techniques, giving him lots of opportunities to excel, paying for his arm, etc) and Ghostwater which is just a very lucky but dangerous opportunity that falls into his lap. Past that point he’s powerful enough that I’d say he’s earning everything he gets.
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Jun 28, 2023 01:21
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redreader posted:I'm enjoying cradle but it's rapidly becoming clear that this guy just falls into treasure rooms, literally, and amazing circumstances regularly happen to him. Maybe sometimes it's potentially deadly but he's always got enough resources to help him and any challenge only exists in order for him to grow and overcome it. Wuxia and the western progression fantasy that it inspired lean heavily into the recursion “start from the bottom” “overcome” “discover that we were a frog in a well and now are at the bottom again” cycle. So yes, MC’s in this genre run into all sorts of fortuitous encounters and weal/woe cycles because that is the story being told. “An unlikely hero journeys through seventeen layers of reality to find themselves atop the heavens, only to realize that the heavens have layers” is par for the course. If this sort of thing bugs you, fair, and also, read a different genre where the cyclical matryoshka dolls of frogs in well aren’t so central to the themes. Mystery or procedural one shots might be more your thing and god knows KU has plenty of books that are essentially Agatha Christie with the serial numbers filed off. Often hilariously so when the writer lacks Christie’s famous understanding of chemistry and instead substitutes seemingly randomly.
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Jun 28, 2023 01:32
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redreader posted:I'm enjoying cradle but it's rapidly becoming clear that this guy just falls into treasure rooms, literally, and amazing circumstances regularly happen to him. Maybe sometimes it's potentially deadly but he's always got enough resources to help him and any challenge only exists in order for him to grow and overcome it. team overhead smash posted:Yeah, I mean any cultivation novel looking to follow the PC from low to high power is going to have to make the person exceptionally lucky or privileged as one of the conceits of these types of books is how hard it is to reach the top levels of power and how long it would normally take. Anias posted:Wuxia and the western progression fantasy that it inspired lean heavily into the recursion “start from the bottom” “overcome” “discover that we were a frog in a well and now are at the bottom again” cycle. So yes, MC’s in this genre run into all sorts of fortuitous encounters and weal/woe cycles because that is the story being told. “An unlikely hero journeys through seventeen layers of reality to find themselves atop the heavens, only to realize that the heavens have layers” is par for the course. I will say, past a certain point Eithan or rather, who he really is is, on some level, guiding him up and up and up on the path. He is exceedingly lucky though, that's sort of a central conceit of the genre as Anias and team overhead smash already said.
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Jun 28, 2023 03:10
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Xianxia, it's a specific subgenre of wuxia, fwiw
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Jun 28, 2023 07:42
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Yeah, it's not really possible to follow a Xianxia protagonist defying the heavens in a reasonable amount of time without them cheating on some level. Cradle is honestly a lot less offensive than most imo. Jade Phoenix Saga starts out with an MC who's in an even shittier situation than London and then quickly gets a comically overpowered cheat that makes everything Lindon gets look like trash.Xand_Man posted:Xianxia, it's a specific subgenre of wuxia, fwiw
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Jun 28, 2023 08:08
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the better ones (and i use better very, very loosely) will at least try to have a reason for the protagonist getting bullshit opportunities (eg they have karmic luck, or theres an omnipotent being manipulating things) the worst ones just forget what powers the protagonist has and they just become the best at everything without even having to get an appropriate powerup ("oh right my god-tier fighting technique also lets me do alchemy perfectly btw")
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Jun 28, 2023 10:06
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Honestly, Lindon's main asset is reflected in his powers - he's hungry as gently caress, and willing to go to absolutely insane lengths in pursuit of that hunger. Suriel just gave him the necessary hope and fear to do most of that mad poo poo himself - from there, it was mostly just a case of him being crazy enough to put himself on the radar of much more powerful people and nice enough to earn the friendship of a sufficient number of them.
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Jun 28, 2023 10:50
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Yeah Lindon's secret super power is that he's a polite and respectful young man.
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Jun 29, 2023 08:08
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Its also why the first book having the scene where he's beating up 8-11 year olds in the tournament and almost crying with joy is so important, it establishes exactly how low he's been his entire life and how much he will do to push against those limits. Because frankly about 70% of his powerups are things no sane person in the setting would touch with a 10k foot pole. Even the people who go through their own versions of 'training from hell' like Yerin still instinctively balk at things Lindon willingly does to himself in pursuit of getting more powerful.
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Jun 29, 2023 08:23
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Yerin is an interesting contrast because she's our main window into the 'normal' career path for powerful/talented sacred artists. She's all about fair fights and conventional training methods from reputable sources while Lindon is scrambling around in the background doing something completely batshit.
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Jun 29, 2023 12:50
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The high point of the series is when Lindon goes gleefully berserk when he finally gets access to a straitforward point-based contribution system for fighting dreadgod cultists.
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Jun 29, 2023 13:06
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Haystack posted:The high point of the series is when Lindon goes gleefully berserk when he finally gets access to a straitforward point-based contribution system for fighting dreadgod cultists. I think Cradle is bearable partly because the main character is self-aware of how lucky he is, and also he doesn't get truly dick-wavingly powerful until like 10 books in. Also the treasure rooms are usually extremely punishing and so usually feel earned.
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Jun 30, 2023 01:46
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I have come, fellow goons, to shill for a book that reminds me of the library at mount char. It is, unfortunately, a litrpg on kindle unlimited but I urge you to give it a chance. So far the number go up element isn’t hugely distracting or intrusive. The book is Bronze rank brewer The spoiler has the blurb, but honestly I’d recommend you skip it and just dive in. You are reading the book for the somewhat charming relationship between Hawkin and Thrush. Imagine if someone wrote a book about Wesley and the Dread Pirate Roberts, and you might have some of the sense of it. If by the time Hawkin engages in impromptu metalworking with his companion you aren’t hooked, feel free to bounce. The Blurb posted:Hawkin rejected adventure to pursue a slower pace of living. Isolated in the wilderness far away from civilization, he fends for himself using the axe he earned on the Lumberjack quest path—the quest path he'd gladly disabled long ago.
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Jun 30, 2023 02:26
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So Library at Mount Char is good? I was looking for portal fantasy and that was on the list of recommendations but it wasn't free on KU so started with one of the other recommendations (a darker shade of magic).
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Jun 30, 2023 03:32
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Yeah library at mount char was good. Definitely give it a read as well. Depending on your local library hold times, you might be able to read it via the Libby app tonight.
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Jun 30, 2023 03:40
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Anias posted:Yeah library at mount char was good. Definitely give it a read as well. Depending on your local library hold times, you might be able to read it via the Libby app tonight. Oh yeah I forgot about libraries and ebooks. I'll definitely check that out, thanks!
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Jun 30, 2023 05:25
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Anias posted:I have come, fellow goons, to shill for a book that reminds me of the library at mount char. It is, unfortunately, a litrpg on kindle unlimited but I urge you to give it a chance. So far the number go up element isn’t hugely distracting or intrusive. The book is Bronze rank brewer  I have never been so torn on a book rec. I LOVED The Library at Mount Char but I do not, generally, enjoy LitRPG (Delve has been the only one I read so far) and the title absolutely does not appeal.
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Jun 30, 2023 05:33
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Kyoujin posted:So Library at Mount Char is good? I was looking for portal fantasy and that was on the list of recommendations but it wasn't free on KU so started with one of the other recommendations (a darker shade of magic). Library at Mount Char is good but not at all a portal fantasy or a progression fantasy or whatnot. It's kind of like the darker bits of Sandman, I guess. Anias posted:I have come, fellow goons, to shill for a book that reminds me of the library at mount char. It is, unfortunately, a litrpg on kindle unlimited but I urge you to give it a chance. So far the number go up element isn’t hugely distracting or intrusive. The book is Bronze rank brewer I've read a fair amount of this when it was initially being posted on RR. I must admit I am very surprised to hear that anyone thinks it's similar to LaMR. What are the similarities, in your opinion?
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Jun 30, 2023 11:04
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I started reading it last night and I detect no similarities to Library at all. Granted, it's been a while, but still.
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Jun 30, 2023 12:11
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Megazver posted:Library at Mount Char is good but not at all a portal fantasy or a progression fantasy or whatnot. It's kind of like the darker bits of Sandman, I guess. Thrush feels very much like they would fit into the LaMC mythos and the tension between them and their various interlocutors mostly holds. Without spoilers that’s the biggest source of similarity. Additionally, both works feel influenced by a somewhat Grimm take on the sorcerer’s apprentice, and they both also have a uniquely calm voice for elements of horror/gore/divinity. This clearly has other influences and is likely to go in different directions ultimately, as the author is writing a very different plot, but the plot was never what made LaMC good. (To me)
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Jun 30, 2023 15:00
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I need to read Mount Char - I kinda bounced at the blood hair helmet guy, it was a little too stupid for me which was very early on, I should give it another shot.
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Jun 30, 2023 16:35
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Megazver posted:Library at Mount Char is good but not at all a portal fantasy or a progression fantasy or whatnot. It's kind of like the darker bits of Sandman, I guess. I think they were more mature portal stories not typical Isekai stuff. A Darker Shade of Magic has 3 parallel worlds that used to be connected in London. The MC is one of the remaining few who can still travel between the different 1820ish Londons.
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Jun 30, 2023 21:12
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Captain Monkey posted:I need to read Mount Char - I kinda bounced at the blood hair helmet guy, it was a little too stupid for me which was very early on, I should give it another shot. It bugged me too but then I realized that the kids in a lot of ways are Gods of their domains. If you read a myth about Ares or Cu Chulain matting his hair with blood till a spear could not pierce it, you’d be accepting, but the juxtaposition with the real world makes it bizarre.
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Jul 1, 2023 02:59
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Anias posted:I have come, fellow goons, to shill for a book that reminds me of the library at mount char. It is, unfortunately, a litrpg on kindle unlimited but I urge you to give it a chance. So far the number go up element isn’t hugely distracting or intrusive. The book is Bronze rank brewer I like books with nice main characters that are all about the power of friendship. I'm digging this one.
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Jul 1, 2023 20:39
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