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I just found The Wandering Inn. I started on the RoyalRoad version and when I switched computers I also switched to the wordpress version the version on RoyalRoad isn't just a straight copy of the wordpress version. So far I'm liking the wordpress version better because it does a better job of explaining things and setting the stage. Anyone know which version the author likes better or considers canonical?
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Apr 2, 2019 03:14
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atrus50 posted:Posting to point towards the forum's own blake island series, which just finished its first year 2 book The Voice of Dog. It continues to have fun kid characters and this latest book starts bringing the political elements of Icephisherman's setting to the forefront. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3835049 The Voice of Dog starts here https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3835049&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=92#post484349445 I'll second this suggestion. Icephisherman is an entertaining author.
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Apr 3, 2019 22:16
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Been reading TWI. Just wrapped up the first chapter and looking back, Erin has turned out to be a way more effective and prolific killer than Ryoka. Kind of weird given how angry and fighty Ryoka is. Especially since a lot of Ryoka's problems could be solved by even more violence.Tom Clancy is Dead posted:I'm thinking about trying out Forge of Destiny. Has anyone read both the royal road and forum versions? Should I read the edited version as it comes out or dive into the forum one in reader mode? I'm not interested in the CYOA discussion. RR is better in my opinion. Especially if you're not interested in the CYOA stuff. You can switch to the forum version once you reach the end on RR if you want, but there's a significant drop in writing quality when you do. One thing that I didn't realize until I started reading the forum version is that not infrequently decisions that are being made get left out in the writeup; so there will be oddly out of place passages or references to something that only happened in the discussion thread. For example, one of the running themes of the story is that all cultivators take tons of drugs to help them cultivate and the writeups make references to this, but never discuss which drugs the MC is taking at any given time so all the references seem to come out of left field. There's also a whole resource management minigame going on in the forum version which the author just doesn't translate effectively into the writeups. You'll sometimes see the MC very concerned about running out of money (red soul stones) even though you almost never read about them spending money. When that happens it is because the MC is broke (again) because all the money got spent in a CYOA vote. FWIW, the RR version is better about this than the forum writeups. Even with all that, it is still one of the best cultivation serials I've read.
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Apr 5, 2019 14:52
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I mostly enjoyed the first chapter of TWI, but the second chapter is just painful. It seems like almost all of Erin's problems are caused entirely by herself, a lot of her friends are turning out to be not just funny-looking people but honest to goodness monsters. I just reached the chapter where she "hires" the princess-thief. The Interlude from Toren's perspective about the princess-thief-barmaid was gross enough that I skimmed past it but I have no desire to finish the chapter that's from Erin's perspective. It's just so obviously a terrible idea on every level. As a side note, I've been troubled by the way Erin treats Toren since he was introduced. She gave him a name, so she sees him as a person, but she treats him like a slave. Complete with beatings. Does TWI ever get better and is there some spot I can skip ahead to?
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Apr 9, 2019 19:27
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Larry Parrish posted:The new MoL is good, my favorite kind of chapter. I kind of like the later slice of life stuff more than the early ones. The scene with Novelty was good. The author's writing speed has dropped dramatically the last few months. I wonder if they're having a hard time figuring out how to wrap things up.
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Apr 18, 2019 22:50
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Argue posted:It's not the first time I've seen fantasy people mystified by exercise either. The secondary characters have no idea why the main character of Bookworm does calisthenics in the morning, and in this book series I recently read, Destiny's Crucible, the main character has a running and weight training routine all worked out and he tries to explain it to the townsfolk but they just think it's another of those wacky ideas from the local eccentric. Probably a subtrope of the genre. The milhist and ancient history threads have both discussed historical attitudes towards exercise and this isn't completely a-historical. If I remember right, 30-year war participants like Landsknechts had weapon drills. However, even though they were professional soldiers, they didn't do the same sort of close-order drill and marching practice every recruit gets run through in basic nowadays. They also didn't go in much for weight lifting or aerobic exercises. On the other hand, pre-Roman Greeks had a very good understanding of effective exercise regimes if some curious opinions on diet. For example, competitors for the Olympics would typically train for a year in advance and than for another month on site. Training included a warm-up session, often done to flute music, to reduce the risk of injury. The majority of the people I see at the gym skip stretching and warm-ups even though that's usually the first thing any trainer or exercise book covers. In addition to the wide variation in understanding of and attitudes towards exercise throughout human history; poor people tend to have a worse understanding of health and exercise than rich ones. That helps justify the situation in Bookworm I think. MC's family are far enough in the poor segment of the population that they're only marginally literate. It there are any exercise routines in that world, I'd expect them to be restricted to the nobility in the same way magic is. Edit: Modern exercise regimes really are kind of magical. In a 4 month period I went from barely being able to lift the 15 pound bar to being able to do 3x10 reps of bench pressing 140 lbs which was almost my body weight. That was only 6 hours of weight lifting a week although I did have a great trainer. LLSix fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Apr 22, 2019 |
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Apr 22, 2019 21:24
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Ice Phisherman posted:It's been a few months since I posted so I thought I'd do so again. I write a web serial here on this dead, gay comedy forum. Maybe you might like mine. Blake Island School of Magic is really good. Ice Phisherman does a good job of bringing the characters and their evolving relationships to life. Their previous writing experience shines through. There were some scenes that moved me as much as any AAA movie or best seller. The story has been going for years now. LLSix fucked around with this message at 21:28 on May 13, 2019 |
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May 13, 2019 21:23
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Caught up on PracGuide and Kairos is the most entertaining character. The scene(s) with the goat have been pure comedy gold. Cat's been bluffing a lot. I wonder when someone is going to call her bluff. Twice now she's solved a situation with a bluff without really having an alternate solution. Come to think of it, with the way the world runs on rules of threes, I bet the next time she tries it she gets called. What do you think of so many character's losing their Names? Amadeus especially just felt like cheating.
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May 27, 2019 01:18
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devildragon777 posted:Are the two situations when she stopped the cavalry at Iserre, and now with Kairos? Because I'm thinking that it could also turn into a power not unlike her cloak or her theft ability, composure/unflappability in the face of odds, which is something she's kind of been doing for a while (And talking/bluffing her way out of a tricky situation has been her modus operandi since she was a claimant to the Squire). Yes, you nailed the two I am thinking of. I like your thought regarding the Bard. I don't think you're right, but it would be a cool direction. I just realized Amadeus lost his name so Cat can make him a ruler. One of the few details we know about the Accords is that they'll ban Names from ruling. That also explains why the Bard was pushing Amadeus towards claiming a Name in their brief talk.
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May 27, 2019 02:53
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I've finished the first book of The Gods are Bastards and I don't know what to think. The writing is good, and the editing is the most professional I've seen in a web format. There's at least 4 different stories only loosely related and only one of them has managed to hook me. Also, the last chapter of the first book was excruciatingly clumsy. All the gods hanging out together in a bar is okay, but nothing explains why they'd be willing to let the empress use their secret-not-secret bar for spy-meetings. The second worst bit was the shoe-horning in a high priest saying "the gods are bastards." The worst bit was how almost all the gods agreed and cheered him insulting them to their faces.
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May 30, 2019 16:23
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tithin posted:Prac guide: Oops. Everyone should really stop talking to the Bard. Black got it right the first time. Just try to kill her on sight and minimize interactions.
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Jun 5, 2019 18:41
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I just blasted through all 30 chapters of https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/26294/he-who-fights-with-monsters It is pretty great. Not the most sensible decision making going on, but it is so fun I don’t really care. Anomalous Blowout posted:In unrelated-to-my-serial news, does anyone have any recs for completed serials that would be fun for a teenage girl? She’s read most of the big popular serials and prefers magic/mysteries to superheroes but also prefers contemporary fantasy over second-world fantasy. It’s for my seventeen-year-old niece so I’d feel extremely weird sending her something with a bunch of sex in it. I figured I’d ask here because my reading tastes are very different to hers, heh. Been awhile but Threadbare is pretty fantastic. It is about a teddybear that goes on an adventure to rescue his girl/owner. Story is mostly lighthearted with amusing pun enemies. You can find it on RoyalRoad. I think there’s even a published version.
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Aug 18, 2019 10:29
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Bhodi posted:I really enjoyed the writing and humor of this one, I just wish there was more. Author posts 5 days a week M-F. Even with "short" 2.5k chapters, that's a lot of words. I wish there was more too!
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Aug 20, 2019 02:45
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Peanut Butler posted:what are the current good web serials that aren't about superheroes or knights and wizards? So you're looking for science fiction? Or is it specifically superheroes, knights and wizards you object to? MC in Threadbare is a teddy bear in a fantasy world. MC in Forge of Destiny is kind of a thief, but since it is voter driven there are large stretches where the voters ignore that and don't have her steal anything. MC in Iron Teeth is a goblin assassin. The MC is also evil, so it's not my jam, but you might enjoy it. Burkion from SA is writing Lightning Brigade which is basically power rangers (I think, I haven't read it yet). I don't know if that counts as super heroes or not. LLSix fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Aug 22, 2019 |
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Aug 22, 2019 16:30
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Into the Mire: I'm 40 odd chapters in and I'm kind of hating everyone that isn't Calay and Gaz. Calay has saved the others' lives on multiple occasions now, and they're not only planning on betraying him, but are angry at each other that they're not betraying him quickly and thoroughly enough. I cheered when Riss got squished. Too bad she got better. LLSix fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Aug 26, 2019 |
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Aug 26, 2019 03:56
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Jason in He Who Fights Monsters just got Hegemony as a power. Bet the churches are going to love that. Doesn't sound mind-controlly at all.
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Aug 29, 2019 13:44
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Larry Parrish posted:I demand more mother of learning Already blew past the planned end of 100 chapters.
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Aug 31, 2019 14:08
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asur posted:Based on the Bard's comment it sounds like everyone has a choice and they always choose the name and power. Heirophant didn't get a choice.
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Sep 5, 2019 15:54
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SITB posted:I assume you meant Hierarch? Correct on both counts.
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Sep 9, 2019 18:39
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He Who Fights Monsters is amazing. Here are two recent chapter titles with brief summaries: Chapter 45: So Much For Atheism - MC meets his first god in the town square Chapter 46: Blatant Manipulation - MC talks to his first god I'm especially fond of the chapter 46 title. The actual content of the chapter makes the god seem completely reasonable and way nicer than they need to be. They help the MC out significantly and don't ask for anything in return.
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Sep 10, 2019 03:50
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Musluk posted:He sure is. Loved the goddess of knowledge episode. Though I'm kinda wary of where the nightingale plot is moving. The Nightingale villains are super gross. I'm super happy about how the Nightingale herself has handled things so far in the public chapters.
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Sep 13, 2019 00:16
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Omi no Kami posted:What I actually found surprising was the way the prose feels like it regressed- Pact and Twig each showed pretty dramatic improvements in basic writing skills (although they were both still rife with Wildbowisms), but if you told me that Ward was written at the same time as Worm I wouldn't have trouble believing it. Like, look at this gem from last week, and ask yourself- is this Victoria in post-coital bliss, or a robot desperately trying to convince you that it knows how to human? Definitely the latter. That quote has to be from a robot. ...Maybe it is? Did WB replace himself with a storybot?
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Nov 2, 2019 04:56
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Omi no Kami posted:I've been reading through Forge of Destiny on a friend's recommendation, and that's a surprisingly fun story for a nakedly numbers-go-up choose your own XianXia thingie! I really wish the guy'd just written it as a standalone story to begin with, though- there are some major twists I'm thinking specifically of how the protagonist accepted Cai Renxiang's offer of vassalage when she was apathetic about politics and didn't really have a dog in Cai's justice-for-all fight or any interest in cleaning up her province that are perfectly understandable from a tabletop RPG/numbers get bigger faster standpoint, but didn't feel particularly well set-up or utilized in the story itself. There's still a few players salty about that vote. Speaking as a CYOA runner, it's really hard to foreshadow future changes, because a lot of the time they take us just as much by surprise as everyone else. That's a big part of the fun.
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Nov 18, 2019 00:44
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Affi posted:I wonder when paradise lost will be rewritten as a web novel Probably never  I reread parts of it recently, and a huge amount of the humor is in the vote options. Stuff like that would be hard to translate into a novel.
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Nov 18, 2019 06:15
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Omi no Kami posted:It might definitely just be me then, but in TOD I find myself constantly in a position where I'm either saying to myself 'This isn't where I want to be as a reader right now,' or it hits an action scene and I just switch to aggressively skimming until it's back to social stuff. Also, I know the nature of the story doesn't allow for it but I was disappointed to see how many characters from FOD didn't make the jump to TOD. Objectively it wasn't that big of a loss, since the people who stuck around were mostly the ones the thread focused their time on, but it felt weird to watch the protagonist get to know a wide and varied cast of dudes, then kind of siphon it down to Bureaucrat Dredd, Closeted Snake Murderess, Poet Guy and like 10 jerks. Don't forget mud dude! He gets screentime whenever yrs can fit him in.
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Nov 21, 2019 03:23
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Omi no Kami posted:Mother of Learning is prolly my favorite serial. It has some mild pacing issues and severe language problems early on (the guy's a non-native English speaker and a lot of the early bits are pretty much one Croatian sentence blocked out into 4-5 short English ones), but unlike the vast majority of serials the dude planned the entire plot out in advance, and it really shows. I'd give it an A-/B+, my only real gripes being some writing problems and the fact that the last 15% feels noticeably weaker than the rest of the story. I agree with all of this. I didn’t realize the author wasn’t a native English speaker.
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Dec 18, 2019 16:56
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Ytlaya posted:My one gripe about the current "end game" situation is that (or even relatively simple WW2-ish planes and bombs) isn't such a complicated things to build that they shouldn't have some by this point. Haven't read Ward, but if it helps your suspension of disbelief, WW2 era planes are wildly complicated to build. As an example, the B-29 (bomber airplane) program ultimately cost $3 billion dollars, versus $2 billion for the Manhattan Project that developed the nuclear bomb. There's a whole tech-base that has to be built up to make military equipment. If you don't have the right material and industrial know how, it can be impossible to make adequately good equipment. Even if you look at older weapons, one of the suggested causes of the fall of the Western Roman Empire was that they entered a death spiral where their industrial output got progressively worse to the point they could no longer equip their armies with the same quality weapons and armor they'd managed only a few decades before. They still knew how to, in theory, but the lacked both enough experienced experts and money. Rome nerds, I know I'm wildly simplifying.
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Dec 19, 2019 06:07
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biracial bear for uncut posted:So I read through Mother of Learning, it was pretty good except for the occasional typo or "I'm pretty sure they meant another word that phonetically sounds the same, but isn't that word". Is that one dead or is the author still writing? I found TGAB utterly uninteresting. I hope you enjoy it more. Since you asked for alternatives & I don't know of any web steampunk that's good... Practical Guide to Evil is very good and has a huge amount of content He Who Fights With Monsters is great fantasy with a strong comedic element Forge of Destiny is good Xianxia Actually, Girl Genius is entertaining steampunk (it eventually gets repetitive but until then it's fun and its a Phil Foglio comic) LLSix fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Jan 23, 2020 |
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Jan 23, 2020 02:44
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LibrarianCroaker posted:Who's Phil Foglio? He's an artist with a distinctive style and at least genre-famous. It seemed worth mentioning because if you've seen any of his art at all, you probably already know if you want to see more. He did a bunch of Magic the Gathering art, art for the MYTH series of books, a bunch of magazine comics (Dragon, etc...).
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Jan 23, 2020 05:03
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Jade Mage posted:Man, gently caress the Gods Above in Practical Guide. They can just be needlessly petty sometimes. At least with Below you know where you stand It helps to remember that our perspective is mostly from the villains. Of course the Gods Above seem like dicks.
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Jan 28, 2020 17:21
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Anomalous Blowout posted:Hey so uh I feel weird posting this but Hieronymous and The Shortest Path are both chill with it so I guess I might as well. Congratulations!
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Feb 10, 2020 03:33
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MoL I feel like Zorian's Golems are fair. They're one of the first signs he's getting tough and they improve in a steady and mostly reasonable fashion. Story laid more than enough groundwork and repeatedly explained how he got all the design work done for them (mostly by hiring genius's and looping their own designs back to them). The early chapters also say he has a talent for it.
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Feb 13, 2020 05:05
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MoL The epilogue has a bunch of "- break -" lines. Usually the author uses those to indicate that someone is playing mind games. At first I thought that we were supposed to infer that not everything that is happening is real, but there's no "- break -" lines in Zorian's I win chapter, so now I'm just confused. What do you think the purpose of those "- break -" lines is? Milkfred E. Moore posted:Well, first things first - this thread doesn't really discuss serials or look at them in-depth. You're asking them a question they're fundamentally unable to answer beyond, like, 'I like the characters' or 'it's fun' - like, wow, no poo poo. But that won't tell you what actually hooks the average serial reader and makes a serial get big, which is the real question here. Luckily, I compiled a whole bunch of information on this very topic over on the decaying WebFictionGuide forums about a year ago and, despite big ripples going through the serial community, it still holds true enough. This all rings true to me. Thank you for the advice.
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Feb 15, 2020 17:30
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Myriad Truths posted:Thus far I have read/mostly caught up on Worm, Pact, Twig, Mother of Learning, Ward, Forge/Threads of Destiny, Practical Guide to Evil, Wandering Inn, Not All Heroes, Worth the Candle, Into the Mire, The Gods are Bastards, and Katalepsis. So a lot of the OP. Still going through that though. How's Ra? The stuff about the ending being changed struck me as odd. Also, anything popular ATM that's not in the OP? He Who Fights With Monsters https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/26294/he-who-fights-with-monsters
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Feb 23, 2020 22:54
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Peachfart posted:So, just wondering, but why are 99% of these stories about real life leveling or superheroes? My House of Horrors is pretty good. It suffers heavily from translation issues. I used to recommend it fairly often but it got hit hard by China's crackdown on web serials.
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Feb 27, 2020 21:59
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Affi posted:Slight hwfwm patreon spoiler Clive calls her out on it in a later chapter Some of both. He reposted a comment in RR from the patreon discussion. Unfortunately his comment turned out to be grosser than the raw text in my opinion. HWFWM author posted:
Boiling out the weasel words that reads a heck of a lot like - it's okay to beat up your loved ones. Especially if you don't kill them and the doctor can fix them up afterwords. Yes, nuance is important, but excusing domestic abuse, much less holding it up as something cool and good, is gross.
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Mar 6, 2020 19:45
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Cicero posted:I don't remember how rough it was at the beginning, but at this point, Practical Guide is some of the finest fantasy around, period (other than the typos). I, usually, like HWFWM a lot, and I agree. Practical Guide to Evil is on another level.
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Mar 7, 2020 20:11
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Ytlaya posted:It's fun meeting these other Named folks. This was forshadowed in the earlier chapters I think mostly in the bits around the marriage of the summer queen, but I'm not sure. Cat speculates about the creation of autumn/spring courts a few times.
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Mar 10, 2020 19:50
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Nurglings posted:Does TBB have it's own Chinese cultivation novel thread or would discussion of them go here? Sort of. There's a web novel thread where that chat usually happens.
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Apr 5, 2020 01:29
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| # ¿ May 8, 2024 12:21 |
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Caught up to chapter 6 in Katalepsis. It's not light reading, but once I start, I have a hard time putting it down. I'm kind with Evelyn on Praem, although I think I'm not supposed to be. Praem just keeps getting creepier.
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Apr 13, 2020 21:58
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