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MonikaTSarn posted:I am kind of accidently following 10 different books on Royalroad at once. So much to read, its awesome. Many of them have 10 or more extra chapters on patreon, and I'd love to pay one or two of them a month to read ahead, then drop them again wait for new RoyalRoad chapters later. I read pretty much everything on my Kindle, but patreon releases are still a bit annoying since I have to open each chapter in a new tab, then Ctrl-A Ctrl-C Ctrl-V them in order. All while doing my best not to start reading them and get spoiled. I wonder if maybe they'll ever add ebook functionality, but I don't know how webserial authors ranks as a portion of Patreon's userbase.
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Feb 19, 2022 18:02
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Rob Filter posted:To be clear, anyone recommending Demesne is 1000% not a paedophile, nor is anyone ITT talking about the text. It was not my intention to imply that, and I apologize if I accidentally did. I've got no idea what the author was thinking with the name, if it was supposed to lead to some revelation about horrible parents or whatever, but I'm pretty much 100% sure it wasn't intended to market itself to creeps, as it's really not that sort of story. And yeah, the story itself is pretty much entirely unobjectionable, at least the chunk I read. I ended up dropping it because it didn't really hook me, but not because of anything creepy.
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Feb 23, 2022 05:46
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Kaja Rainbow posted:https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46799/the-nine-tails-of-alchemy/ I gave this a shot and it was decent? I mean it's not going to be declared a masterpiece, but for a web serial I had no issues with it. It's a VRMMO story about a murder victim stuck in a game while her body is technically alive on life support that just doesn't use litrpg stats but has spatial storage items and there's nothing really wrong with that. OTOH why the author thought it was fun to give us thousands of words about the MC going stall to stall in a market buying basic equipment for an alchemy lab I have no idea, but they seem to have gotten better and learned they can skip over the boring parts later. I don't know if I'll continue now that I'm caught up but it was a decent enough way to pass the time. Bremen fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Feb 27, 2022 |
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Feb 27, 2022 18:38
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Kaja Rainbow posted:Yeah it's just decent at most? I only wrote as much as I did because I thought that person's reasons for dismissing the story were silly, this story definitely isn't on my list of favorite stories. But I don't regret reading it because it had interesting ideas like varying signifiers of power being used instead of a numeric display of how many levels the person has. For example, auras for humans, rune tattoos for I forgot who, and number of tails for kitsune. That part makes a lot of sense to me. Having actually played a VRMMO, replacing as much of the traditional interface with real (or rather digital) signifiers is a very good thing, because text interfaces don't work so great in VR and take you out of the experience. For example in the game I played a paladin could call lightning bolts by holding their hammer over their head, and making potions involved having a cauldron change colors as you altered the temperature and throwing ingredients in at the right colors. The actually details like the economics in the game didn't really make any sense, and of course the tech was basically magic, but some of the details about what a "less gamified" VRMMO would be like seemed reasonable enough.
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Feb 28, 2022 02:12
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cock hero flux posted:I just read the entirety of Worm in 3 days and i think i may have burned out my retinas in the process. It's just so long. Did you even sleep? I took at least a week to read it and I was practically a zombie. Agreed on pretty much everything everyone else has said.
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Mar 7, 2022 01:11
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blastron posted:I fell off of Millenial Mage it for the same reason navyjack is considering it: she got very powerful very quickly and the theme of being broke never materialized outside of occasionally doing some math before spending money. Before she completed her first round trip, she’d gained powerful artifacts, figured out a magical secret by accident that will get her into the upper echelons of mage society, been inducted into a secret society, gained a patron, figured out something that looks like a secret of immortality, made a pet out of a powerful monster, and learned at least one new discipline at record speed. As I was reading it, my immediate thought was basically "And readers complained that Zorian got OP too fast?" But yeah, I'm with you. Millenial Mage wasn't a bad story, but the constant succession of incredibly unlikely coincidences making her life a non-stop rollercoaster of excitement on the way to incredible power just kept destroying my suspension of disbelief. I dropped it but have nothing against anyone who decided to stick with it because they found that fun.
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Mar 14, 2022 03:18
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So, for a completely different take on broke mage with financial trouble, I've recently been catching up on A Practical Guide to Sorcery (not to be confused with that other Practical Guide). Siobhan is a young woman who wants nothing more than to enroll in the local Academy of Magic. Unfortunately, upon arriving to apply she gets caught up in a robbery and now the entire country (and university above all) are after her. She's not going to let that stop her though, even if it means using the mysterious magic book she ended up with in the confusion to disguise herself as a young man, or putting herself in debt to a local gang to get the money for tuition. Soon she's trying to juggle passing her classes with doing (relatively principled) jobs for the loan sharks, all while trying to keep her two lives separate. Especially when some quirks of her unique family magic and a few coincidences result in the growing legend of the "Raven Queen" working for the city's underworld, who most of the citizens believe to be an inhuman creature out of legend but the more educated know is "simply" an incredibly powerful blood sorceress with mysterious goals. Siobhan, it must be stressed, is extremely talented for a first year magic student but not nearly a superpower for the setting, much less a match for the reputation she starts getting. There's a certain level of "comedy of errors" style humor where everyone is coming to the wrong conclusions, and Siobhan is mostly clueless and consistently underestimates how seriously people are taking her reputation, though beyond that it's mostly a serious rather than comedic story. Overall A Practical Guide to Magic somewhat reminded me of The Name of the Wind though in that story the protagonist was deliberately cultivating a reputation and in this one it's mostly accidental. They're also both stories where the finances of the protagonists feel like real challenges to be overcome. I also got something akin to minor PTSD from some of the elements, since Siobhan having to deal with a lack of sleep/preparation for class after a night working underworld jobs is a recurring plot point, and somehow being unprepared for class was much more nerve-wracking for me than things like fighting monsters. Overall I quite enjoyed the story, though part of that is that I tend to like school setting stories. I also though the situation with the dual competing identities was a fun setup for this kind of story, since it meant the plot is neither all school stuff nor all action.
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Mar 14, 2022 21:01
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A big flaming stink posted:
I wouldn't say it does. Siobhan comes off as just someone in a rough spot doing the best she can, to me. But I liked The Name of the Wind (I haven't read the sequel) so maybe I'm not the best judge.
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Mar 14, 2022 21:59
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LLSix posted:The tone is much more pleasant than Name of the Wind, mostly because the MC starts out as a criminal and the author keeps this in mind, even if they do seem to be aiming for a middle-of-the-road morally grey MC. Unfortunately, like most things published on RR, there is a very strong "protagonist can do no wrong" energy to it. I think Siobhan is a bit above morally grey. She's flexible in regards to her morality for sure, growing up poor in a world that very much operates on the philosophy that the powerful do what they want, but she wasn't willing to sign on with helping the criminals until she got a guarantee they wouldn't ask for anything reprehensible. Honestly that probably puts her above 95% of the rest of the setting. Similarly the gang she works with are more akin to Robin Hood than anything. They're not exactly heroes but they're definitely the side I end up rooting for.
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Mar 15, 2022 03:26
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These spoilers are doing a good job of convincing me that what got me to drop TWI (Ryouka  ) isn't going to suddenly get better if I keep reading.
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Mar 16, 2022 00:16
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avoraciopoctules posted:This first one is the one that made me drop the story. I don't have any issues with transhumanism stuff. In a hypothetical world where people can reprogram their own minds, I figure consenting adults should be able to do whatever. Some friends want to fuse their brains into one cybernetic brain-jar consciousness? Sure, as long as they know what they are getting into. In fact, I thought the magical hive mind stuff in Graydon Saunders' Commonweal books was pretty cool. If I recall correctly, the protagonists in Fates Parallel can still undo it, they'd just have to start their cultivation over (which is like six months to a year of progress for them). They decide not to. As for the rest, I've had this same discussion on Fates Parallel in this thread before, and it basically just seems to come down to having a completely different read of the story than some of its detractors, so I won't try to revive the old arguments. I think it's pretty clear no one's convincing anyone else in regards to Yue and her morality, or similar, and it just bogs down the thread. Bremen fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Apr 12, 2022 |
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Apr 12, 2022 03:07
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Kaja Rainbow posted:JKR being a terf is extremely relevant to me by the way since I'm a member of the group she's targeting and harming As someone who does read Harry Potter fanfiction, I've noticed several stories add trans characters and themes, I suspect specifically to thumb their nose at JKR's nastiness. Or at least make it clear they disagree with the comments the author of the original books made after they were published. Argue posted:That's Harry Potter and the Natural 20, and I've recommended it here a few times. The author somehow spun a solid character arc out of a premise that's essentially a goofy shitpost, and it has some excellent comic timing. Plus, it uses your knowledge of the HP books against you by diverging in unexpected ways that make a lot of sense, and the author is really good at carrying out the balancing act of not making either magic system clearly more overpowered than the other. Doesn't the author have Bellatrix? get transported to the D&D world and completely dominate a bunch of high level wizards, despite Milo having established that even a low level spell could block the Imperius curse? That was about where I decided to drop it. vvvv Agreed, and I hope I didn't imply otherwise. Also honestly even as someone that enjoys the occasional HP fanfic someone who skips them isn't exactly missing a lot of fine literature. Bremen fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Apr 14, 2022 |
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Apr 14, 2022 17:24
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Hungry posted:Wait, what? For one book, for a series, for what exactly? That's a hell of a lot more than I was thinking. Since I think Selkie's trying to avoid the appearance of shameless self promotion, I'll toss out that they write Beneath the Dragonseye Moons, which a brief check shows to be the 22nd most viewed story on RoyalRoad. I don't know how the Kindle Unlimited income is estimated but it sounds believable for such a popular series. I'm a reader, not a writer, but I definitely wouldn't hold it against any authors if they jumped to KU for even a tenth that much because I'd do the same if I were in their place. Bremen fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Apr 20, 2022 |
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Apr 20, 2022 04:55
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A big flaming stink posted:im enjoying a practical guide to sorcery. Though some aspects of the plot feel pretty contrived (siobhan just happening to meet oliver and the anti-scry lady) the degree to which everyone completely misreads the situation is loving hilarious And Siobhan completely misreading just how much everyone else has misread it. I remember near the end of book 2 when one of the student advisors gets corrupted and the other one asks the "Raven Queen" if she can save him, and Siobhan just wonders why an older student wouldn't know the common knowledge that going deviant was incurable - never expecting that her reputation was so ridiculous everyone expected she might be able to do what no other mage had ever done as a matter of course. I got a good laugh out of that once I realized what was going on. Bremen fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Apr 23, 2022 |
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Apr 23, 2022 00:23
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Does anyone have experience with Memories of the Fall? I had it recommended to me, and went to take a look and saw the early chapters had been rewritten, so I started with the rewritten version. The writing is fine, but it's really... obtuse I guess? That sounds too harsh for it but basically there's a thousand references to things I don't understand and it's kind of hard to follow the plot, and it occurred to me that might be a symptom of the rewrite that isn't present in the original chapters. Or maybe it's just because I go into a webserial expecting a fairly simply, straight forward story.
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May 7, 2022 16:55
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That was all more or less stuff I'd managed to pick up, but thanks. At the very least it reassured me having trouble parsing what was going on wasn't the fault of the rewrite.
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May 8, 2022 02:43
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nrook posted:I've been reading Memories of the Fall (starting from the in-progress rewritten book 1) and while it's quite well-written and well-realized, it also has been ten chapters of various viewpoint characters being hosed over politically in one way or another; I'm not sure anybody has gotten a real, whole-hearted win yet. I'm not saying my fiction needs to always be a power fantasy but I really hope somebody gets some catharsis at some point. As someone doing the same thing, yes, this so much. On the plus side, it's gotten me playing Amazing Cultivation Simulator again.
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May 11, 2022 16:36
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Larry Parrish posted:Anyway to change the subject back to Memories of the Fall, I skipped over that one a few times because frankly it sounded too generic to bother with. And it kind of is, but I really like it. There's clearly a background plot, but I just finished Chapter 11 (they're REALLY long, lol, I didn't count but it felt like a couple hundred pages), and so far I really enjoy this. It's kind of melancholic and grounded in a way xianxia novels rarely are. Out of curiosity are you reading from the beginning or starting with the rewrite? I've been kind of struggling with the rewrite but I just read chapter 14, which is probably like 200,000 words in, and at the end is a note that "with this the rewrite has reached the end of chapter 4" and I was like, is this why everything feels so bloated? Though it is well written, I'll give it that, it just feels like the story is taking way too many words to tell the story it wants to.
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May 14, 2022 17:04
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LLSix posted:A Practical Guide to Sorcery felt to me like it's a fan rewrite of Name of the Wind. I think this is doing it a disservice. There are definitely similarities, but overall the story is much different.
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May 17, 2022 16:20
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Cicero posted:PGtS (54): something that's bothering me now is, why doesn't Siobhan simply anonymously give up the book? She cares about its secrets to some extent, sure, but she cares about not being found and imprisoned a lot more. It's obvious that the powers that be care about getting the book, not really her in particular. Yeah, ideally they'd like to get her too, the coppers anyway, but they don't care to the tune of enormously expensive magic rituals repeated over and over. If the book suddenly showed up in their hands, they'd take their win and give up the chase. I'm pretty sure she doesn't actually realize all of what's going on. She has no idea what the book is and thus has little idea that's why they're going to such an effort to catch her; they got her blood at a completely separate incident where she was allied to a crime group and used blood magic in front of witnesses, so she probably thinks that's the main reason they're after her, having not realized that the whole system is so rotten no one cares about the laws and it's just powerful groups manipulating the system to get what they want. And even if she did think they were after the book she'd probably expect what they really wanted is the amulet and she can't really give that back without a pardon. Which she probably totally could negotiate for but she doesn't realize that. PGtS is really as much about Siobhan misunderstanding what's going on as it is about everyone else misunderstanding what's going on with Siobhan. Bremen fucked around with this message at 22:14 on May 18, 2022 |
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May 18, 2022 22:07
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Hum, I'm still working my way through the rewrite chapters and while I totally agree that the themes are "people with power screw over others and there's very little they can do about it" there hasn't been any explicit threat of sexual assault at the point I'm at. The closest I can think of is it being mentioned one of the protagonists' clan is trying to profit off forcing her into a marriage (which, to be fair, is basically just prettying it up a bit) and her father and mother trying to block it. Or at least I think so - it's entirely possible more has been going on that I just missed because I look at the world through a different lens than the female MCs. But maybe that means the author has been easing off that in the rewrite. That said, the world is definitely set up as sexist in a way that gives things a vaguely creepy undertone. All of the female MCs come off as basically completely uninterested in either men or women (and to be fair, the male viewpoint characters mainly seem to as well), but non-viewpoint male characters are constantly making creepy comments about how sexy the female MCs are when they aren't around. Maybe that's intended to give a view on how that sort of objectification is a problem women in the real world, or maybe the author just wrote it in without ever realizing how it came off because hey, sexy female MCs, I dunno. At the point where I'm at in the story I'm not really comfortable making a judgement either way, but that might change.
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May 19, 2022 04:40
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cock hero flux posted:yeah but some people like that If you go back in this thread to when Worm was coming out pretty much the whole thread was raving about it. But Goons love to hate on stuff. But yeah, Worm is draining, it's like that for pretty much everyone. Finding something lighter to read afterwards, or even as a break, is a good idea.
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Jun 9, 2022 03:58
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blastron posted:One thing I like to keep in mind when recommending fiction to people, whether it's a web serial, webcomic, TV show, or whatever, is that there's a fundamental difference in experience between reading it as it comes out versus reading it archivally. I really liked Worm as it was coming out. The gaps between chapters meant that each one had room to breathe, which meant that the crushing misery that saturates Wildbow's work was not a constant weight on my mind. The weird pacing issues didn't matter so much when I was spending maybe fifteen minutes max on each chapter, twice a week. I had friends who were reading it too, which meant that it was a frequent topic of conversation. Cliffhangers were exciting. We pounced on each new weird bit of lore. Plot twists and character deaths prompted deep speculation about what might come next. Conversely, I read Worm after it was completed and enjoyed it just fine without chapter breaks. I'd actually blame something else - time and discussion. Worm's bleakness is its most notable feature, and the most common thing to come up when someone starts talking about it, so if it's been several years since you've read it and you keep getting reminded about the bleakness, it starts to get easy to remember only that and forget the stuff that actually made you finish reading a 1.7 million word series (and no one's stubborn enough to hate read that much). Also I suspect Worm is just pretty unpleasant to reread in general, due to the whole bleakness and Taylor making constant horrible decisions being even worse when you know where it ends up. To pick an example where I do agree the difference between serial and consolidated reading making a difference, I read Mother of Learning the same way and found the ending fine (not great, not bad) but I suspect that had a lot to do with reading it all at once instead of one chapter a month and expecting an epic crescendo only for it to be just sort of a steady journey into an epilogue. Bremen fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Jun 9, 2022 |
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Jun 9, 2022 05:08
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To be honest, the discussion repeatedly swerving to Wildbow or TWI or whatever kind of makes the thread drag for me, not because I necessarily agree/disagree with those opinions but because I primary use this thread to find new stories and the x hundredth post about one of those everyone's already aware of doesn't help with that. I'm not a mod or anything though, so post what you want. For real, though, there are apparently (at this moment) 56,841 stories on RR alone and let's be honest, most of them stink. Finding good ones is hard. So that this isn't me being hypocritical, here are some less known stories I've been reading: Jackal Among Snakes Follows the often dreadful "Guy gets reincarnated into his favorite game" formula, but does a relatively decent job of it I feel. This one kind of combines elements of "reincarnated into an RPG" and "reincarnated as a villainess" genres (The MC is male both before and after reincarnation, but takes over a widely disliked midboss-ish character). If you hate the formula probably give this one a pass, but otherwise it has fun worldbuilding and characters. The MC is rather unrealistically quick to adapt to his circumstances but honestly I dislike the moping MC cliche so that worked for me, and he's both witty and clever with using his knowledge of the setting without crossing the line into annoying perfect. Rating: A very fun light read if you're as tolerant of the genre as I am. To Play With Magic A system apocalypse LitRPG with the caveat that the system apocalypse hasn't happened yet, featuring a small group of humans transplanted to an alien world with the goal of eventually returning to Earth in time to ameliorate the coming system integration. Though I have my doubts it will ever really get to the return to Earth part and will probably continue being mostly about exploring the alien LitRPG world. Definitely a numbers go up story, though less number heavy than something like Dragonseye Moon or (god forbid) Azarinth Healer. Updates slowly and inconsistently but at over two years old has accumulated a decent backlog. Rating: Enjoyable. Above average for a System Apocalypse LitRPG story but that isn't always saying much. Somebody Stop Her Deserves some kind of award for most misleading description. Presents itself as a comedy about a young supervillainess, rapidly adopts heavy elements of child neglect and body horror, including a race of monsters that body and mindjack people in order to turn their bodies into organic hives for their spawn. Tries to remain a comedy despite this. Also likes to play games with an unreliable (non)narrator in that it's never really clear if the titular child villainess is telling the truth or being extremely manipulative, which annoys me when all the other nominally heroic characters readily accept her arguments on why they should be her minions. Rating: I dropped it, as it checks a lot of my "avoid" boxes, but the writing is decent if it interests others. Apocalypse Redux: Another System Apocalypse LitRPG that got recommended to me, featuring the last man alive on Earth after humanity is destroyed by rampaging system generated monsters getting a chance to go back in time and do it over again. A fairly generic story for the genre with an OP MC and lots of fighting, but at least it updates quick and seems to be avoiding anything actively dislikeable. It also focuses on the preparing the world aspect instead of single-handedly killing all the monsters and becoming more powerful, which was a pleasant change. I liked To Play with Magic more but this one's here if you really like this sort of story. And this one does update far quicker. Rating: Average, which is still better than most LitRPG stories. Bremen fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Jul 23, 2022 |
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Jul 23, 2022 02:24
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LLSix posted:I was annoyed when I discovered the characters never make it back to Earth. The writer dropped the story after "completing" it before getting back to Earth and picked it back up after more than a year with a jarringly different tone. If you go into it knowing the story isn't getting back to Earth, possibly ever, you may enjoy it more. Ah, I read it after the second book had started and kind of assumed eventually getting back was part of the plot, but in the same way eventually beating the dungeon is the goal of Dungeon Crawler Carl but not something I expect to see anytime soon because of how webserials work. I could be wrong but it feels like them going back to Earth would just be such a massive tonal shift from what the story currently is that it would be weird to actually continue after that. Which is disappointing because I think seeing what the characters actually do after returning would be fun, but anyone looking for a webserial that's actually about guiding Earth through a system apocalypse is probably better off with Apocalypse Redux or Interdimensional Garbage Merchant. Bremen fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Jul 23, 2022 |
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Jul 23, 2022 04:21
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Peachfart posted:Speaking about Dungeon Crawler Carl, I loved the book during the first few floors, and thought it started dragging on the train floor. I flat out dropped it for a few months after that, and then he pulled all his older content off Royal Road. Anyone still keep up with the story? Is it still enjoyable? I haven't read the most recent book yet, but I read up to the book covering the floor after the train floor and enjoyed it. Of course, I enjoyed the one with the train floor too so it may be I just enjoy different stuff than you; I can't say that it really felt like there was much of a tonal shift.
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Jul 23, 2022 04:43
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As someone who has long been interested in Fox's Tongue but delayed reading it because of the blurb these posts are exactly what I come to the thread for.
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Jul 24, 2022 17:03
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Cicero posted:I don't think there's a ton of (popular) RR stories with gay male protagonists? I feel like I once read one but I'm drawing a blank on the name. It does feel like stories with female protagonists are either majority or at least even split on lesbian or bisexual with female romantic partner protagonists, though. I've always kind of assumed this might be because the site is more popular with male authors/male targeted works and lesbians are hot/writing about kissing a guy is icky are still fairly common sentiments with some. To be fair, I don't have an issue with stories with non-hetero protagonists. Well, I generally enjoy heterosexual protagonists more for my own reading but I think it's good that webfiction is one of the few mediums that seems to break from the 99% hetero protagonist mold, even if I'm pretty sure gay men are still vastly under-represented.
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Aug 13, 2022 01:34
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DACK FAYDEN posted:lmao at this review Ok, after reading what happened with The Nameless Mage I have to withdraw every comment I ever made about authors prolifically writing lesbians while avoiding the faintest whisper of gay men. They're (sadly) entirely justified in avoiding the latter over fear of harassment and review bombing.
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Aug 13, 2022 17:12
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Selkie Myth posted:Nobody blinked at the MC of BTDEM being bi. I've gotten basically no comments on it. I did get comments that they didn't like that she was dating a guy, because... gasp, she's bi, but IMO that's more on the readers than the owners. As has been noted, I think the community sees a huge difference between bi/lesbian female protagonists and bi/gay male protagonists. I see tons of the former but very few of the latter, and I suspect the reaction in the comments each would get is enormously different. Bremen fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Aug 13, 2022 |
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Aug 13, 2022 21:28
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Peachfart posted:Honestly, I know I bring up this story way too much, but Ar'Kendrithyst has a few gay sex scenes and I never saw anyone complain about them. Also there is a semi-funny bit where Jane absolutely hates any women that Erick is interested in because she hates her mom, and is always encouraging him to go out with men. Ah. I hadn't read Ar'Kendrithyst but it's on my list, good to hear the comment section might not be quite as unpleasant as I figured it would be.
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Aug 14, 2022 01:38
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Does anyone have any suggestions for good web serials or Kindle Unlimited books that feature crafting or running a (preferably fantastical) business heavily? I've recently been reading Blessed Time and there was one chapter where the protagonist decides since the crisis is over he's going to set up an enchanting shop before everything goes to hell, and it made me wish the story had actually covered the shop angle. There's nothing wrong with slaying dragons and saving the world but right now I'm in the mood for something a but less hectic. I enjoyed that part of Magic-Smithing a lot, but it died and then died again. Something similar would be nice. Beware of Chicken kind of fits but isn't really what I'm looking for, since the "business" of it is more a running joke and note the focus. I also have Dao of the Deal on my list of stuff to read which might be similar.
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Aug 24, 2022 05:40
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Thanks for the suggestions everyone.nrook posted:Tori Transmigrated is decent and very concerned with project management, if that’s what you’re looking for. I read what was out a few months back. It's not quite what I'm looking for (the business aspect gets mostly glossed over), and it was kind of annoyingly slow paced, but I've been planning to catch back up. Might as well bump it up the list. MonikaTSarn posted:You can try 'The Runesmith' - lots of crafting and a shop eventually - just be warned, the writing is kind of weird. I'll add it to the list. Cicero posted:I mean there's The Wandering Inn but I assume you're already aware of that. Yep, and I'm in the minority of the thread that doesn't really care for it. Argue posted:I don't remember its title but a bad one I read (bad is similar to good, just worse) with heavy business running is the one where humanity introduces aliens to capitalism and it improves the quality of life in the whole universe and McDonalds franchises out to space and the story extolls the virtues of McDonalds' business model. So yeah I've forgotten the title but you should be able to recognize it by the fact that its last entry before going on hiatus was a full blown non chapter that was an essay about why Texas was REALLY freezing. Don't worry about remembering the name on this one because the politics already scared me off. Wittgen posted:I've heard a lot of good things about Legends and Lattes, which is about high level D&D adventurers retiring to run a coffee shop. It is just a book and not a web serial though. I actually had a friend recommend this to me but the impression I had was it was mostly lesbian romance (I have nothing against that, but it's not really one of my interests for reading). Might as well give it a second look. LLSix posted:(stories) Thanks, I'll give these a shot. You don't exactly hard sell any of them but let's be honest, this is the webserial thread, I'd be deeply skeptical of anyone presenting a story as flawless. RBA-Wintrow posted:Dungeon Item Shop This sounds like exactly what I was looking for but I'm a bit scared off by the stupid protagonist part - I'm deeply frustrated by MCs that repeatedly make bad decisions. This is the main reason I repeatedly dropped TWI as mentioned above. Still, I'll give it a shot - I did manage to make it through Worm, after all.
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Aug 24, 2022 16:29
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Kyoujin posted:Seconding Jack Among Snakes. It's a very bingable and inoffensive story with consistent updates. I've been enjoying A Practical Guide to Sorcery, here's what I wrote about it a ways back: Bremen posted:So, for a completely different take on broke mage with financial trouble, I've recently been catching up on A Practical Guide to Sorcery (not to be confused with that other Practical Guide).
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Sep 8, 2022 01:52
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Kyoujin posted:Yeah, and honestly if he set himself up to be next in line with Orion's backing, a bunch of his old allies would be ok with that or eventually come around. Having just caught up with Jackal Among Snakes, I think the problem with this is Orion both loves his whole psychopathic broken family and believes the whole "divine right to rule" bit. Argrave could probably talk the rebels into keeping Orion around as a pope, but it's extremely unlikely that Argrave could talk Orion into not delivering holy justice onto the rebels that killed his (non-Argrave) family. And even trying risks getting brutally murdered if he underestimates just how much control Orion actually has. Meanwhile Argrave has already helped the rebels enough that taking advantage of Orion's offer to side with his family is probably off the table, not to mention when he considers it he notes that the Rebels are now probably going to win thanks to his help so it's a bad time to change sides. All in all there's no clear solution and I think that's great. Too many web serials get lost in being a power fantasy and forget tension and uncertainty can be important in a story too. And I'll second JaS is one of my favorite ongoing serials right now.
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Nov 11, 2022 04:34
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Larry Parrish posted:Dude what's with authors and like... Being afraid of sticking to what their story is lol. It could have just stayed a political drama with him and his wife's weird relationship evolving but no, we need dramatic xianxia bullshit and showdowns and a meditating in a cave arc because it's a xianxia and they all have that. When there was the first cave chapter I actually groaned out loud I haven't read that specific story but the impression I got from the summary was the author probably started writing the story with a plan for the setting but not a plan for the story, and so just started... well, flailing is a great word for it. I've seen it before in webserials and it's always disappointing.
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Nov 18, 2022 18:52
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Cynic Jester posted:The man has been murderhoboing across the map since the story started. The biggest difference between some of the other collateral and his brother is that his brother is also a complete sociopath who would never leave him be. Induen has a history of murdering for fun, including the mother of the body the MC is trucking around in.. I don't really consider it a break from the established character, especially when he's been planning on doing it all along. A few comments the MC made make me pretty sure Induen was going to do something really, supremely horrible in the game, and so the MC had been planning on killing him first the whole time. So it wasn't really a sudden swerve so much as the opportunity came up and it felt sudden because the MC just jumped on it to do what he'd already planned. He does a bad job of explaining that, though, so even the other characters are pretty shocked when they run into Induen and the MC immediately starts talking about it as a great opportunity to kill him. As for the kingdom, remember Induen was despised and his hobby was orphaning children. Not "secret hobby" as he did it openly. And the witnesses couldn't tell who started the fight. Also the MC doesn't really consider himself to be Argrave and thus doesn't really see Induen as his brother. Bremen fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Dec 2, 2022 |
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Dec 1, 2022 23:59
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avoraciopoctules posted:Thank you for the continual discussion of Jackal Among Snakes. I tried it twice previously, didn't find myself hooked by the end of first chapter, and switched to something else. The third time I ended up trying it after seeing something intriguing in the Web Serial Thread, though, I ended up reading 30 chapters in one sitting. The characters are much more likeable than I thought at first. It could definitely use an editor, but I'm definitely enjoying seeing where this goes. Jackal Among Snakes is one of those stories with a premise (game wiki editor ends up stuck in the game and uses his inside knowledge to change everything) that sounds like it can't possibly make an actual good story, as opposed to at best mindless entertainment. But somehow it finds a way. It's got some great worldbuilding while also actually sticking close enough you can definitely tell how it's a world based on a (fictional) game, not just the author arbitrarily saying it was a game. Bremen fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Dec 6, 2022 |
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Dec 6, 2022 04:20
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Grognan posted:ok why is the mc's name Lolilyuri is this a joke? I have no idea why the author decided to do that but I can at least say it's not indicative of the rest of the story.
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Dec 6, 2022 06:04
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Bee Bonk posted:That's good to hear, I'm glad that your audience is supportive! I suppose it's harder to get into Katalepsis without knowing what you're signing up for. I do sometimes wonder if authors of stories that are more stealthy about trans inclusion get comparatively more grief for it. Like Quill & Still, where the references are pretty obvious to "Fans of Celeste" as the author calls them, but might easily slide by unnoticed for most other people. For what it's worth, I didn't pick up on the trans themes in Katalepsis, though I didn't get very far in (nothing wrong with the story, but at the time some aspects of what was going on with the sister were not what I wanted to deal with). That's just the trans stuff though, I can't imagine anyone not picking up on the lesbian elements, though somehow people always find ways to surprise me.
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Dec 7, 2022 07:18
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