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As usual when I'm under a lot of stress I soothe myself by investigating what people love about stuff I feel an antipathy for, so I'm doing a deep dive into web serials. I read the majority of Will Wright's Cradle series (which I know isn't properly a web serial) a while ago and kind of liked it's pulpy outre feel but didn't feel the need to finish the story. What I wanted to do was check my understanding of the power rankings of popular/recommended web serials I'm at least tempted to read so I know what I want to devote my time to. The Wandering Inn: Mammoth, longest single author work in the English language, mostly slice of life but pleasing actual consequences and world changing stakes, the writing is spotty but gets better after the beginning and the ebooks have some kind of editing pass performed. The gold standard in web serial quality. Wildbow's Work: Largely loved because it was the first web serial to really attract attention, now commonly criticised for generally poor quality of craft and edginess, fan fiction vibes at a massive scale, no official ebooks because the dude is a weirdo and never capitalised on his popularity Practical Guide to Evil: A lot of high praise for this one, seems people like how edgy it is, heard rumours of a weak mid portion, no ebook outside of scrapers but a more revised version is appearing on the app Yonder Beware of Chicken: Tongue in cheek Xianxia style progression fantasy but also works sincerely, mundane events are regularly the most exciting ones, ebooks on Amazon Mother of Learning: I've actually been reading the first arc of this one and I've near inhaled it, it's very easy reading, basically silver age Spiderman and Superman ("I have to solve puzzles while keeping everything secret"), weird how young everyone is and how much they act several years older, a lot of pulpy rough edges which I'm enjoying, all of it is on Amazon Maxime J. Durand's work The golden boy of Royal Road, significantly his work is of a reasonable size and written intentionally to reach a conclusion rather than meandering to keep readers paying the Patreon indefinitely, everything is quickly available on Amazon Super Supportive The current hot product, high school superhero stuff, I haven't investigated much deeper, currently unpublished in ebook format
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Mar 13, 2024 09:21
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Cicero posted:Practical Guide to Evil is "edgy"? I dunno, the sources I was using for recommendation talk about the basic overview of the plot and then vaguely mention the main character does "evil" stuff or there's "dark" content. Good to know it's basically tame. Argue posted:I'll also toss in Ra and There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm, but he's more of the type to write books that he publishes in parts, as opposed to stories that are intended to be consumed as an ongoing thing. Already way ahead of you on qntm, he broke in to traditional science fiction circles a while ago based on the strength of his short stories. Argue posted:Well, if the quality of the prose itself is important, I don't think even the big TWI fans (okay, like myself) would think of it as Hemingway. If you compare it to a traditionally published novel? Yeah, it's lacking in writing quality. But it's well-written, and not just "well-written for a novel of its length", but for any story whose demands are: "cool stuff happens on a weekly basis, and the characters are (almost) perpetually fun to read about, and the author keeps presenting us with new ideas". It also helps that pirateaba (as exemplified by today's patreon chapter) is getting better and better at representing people and including themes that are difficult to write about. lol I don't think anybody who looks at The Wandering Inn's economy of words and knows anything about Hemingway would compare the two.
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Mar 13, 2024 21:45
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Nah, I was mostly worried about amateurish shock content that pervades fan fiction and other stuff around this level of pulp.
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Mar 13, 2024 22:17
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Finished the first 3 volumes of Beware of Chicken. It's pretty good junk. Love a good liberal humanism triumphs in a genre hostile to its ideas story (makes me think if a left radical implementation of a traditional cultivation setting would even be possible). Definitely felt like the balance tipped a little too far from farming cultivation to straight cultivation in the third volume but that's what a tournament arc will do. The best stuff as always is minor characters' reactions to the actions of the protagonist. I wish more pulp novelists adopted the Richard Stark structure of sustained protagonist section, sustained reaction section, then back to protagonist, it works very well. The romance stuff is awkwardly handled but you can see the author readjust as story goes on. Good stuff. fez_machine fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Mar 17, 2024 |
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Mar 17, 2024 00:19
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Peachfart posted:Arkendrithyst ended last week and I am sad. Any recommendations of similar stories of similar quality? Haven't seen much good new stuff lately on Royal Road. Has there been any noises about an Amazon or ebook release? Reading back through the thread, people seemed to really like this one.
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Mar 20, 2024 01:51
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Peachfart posted:Yeah, Arcs has said he won't do KU because he wants the story to remain free for people. It is on Royal Road though, and the story is great. hmm the only problem I have with not doing KU is that the income is so good that it means the series is far more likely to be published completely as an ebook The Gods are Bastards stalled out at book 1
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Mar 20, 2024 06:06
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Some more opinions Great Mother of Learning yadda, yadda, yadda you've heard all the praise and it's true. This one was a good one. Like most of time loop stories this worked best when it focused on the shifting ritual of repetition and response. Whenever the circumstances got epic, it lost some of the coherency that made the more slice of life/mundane portions fun to read. By largely containing the big stuff to the final book I think it achieved a graceful ending most progression fantasies don't. Still weird how young the characters are. You can definitely feel the author trying to ignore it as much as possible after realising everyone should be three or four years older. Very glad that the various embryonic romance threads never culminated. Skipped Threadbare and Co. I don't think I particularly like litrpgs, so a litrpg that is heavily influenced by Piers Anthony is a straight no. Bland, boring and unfunny of what I did read. Mainly started reading these because I thought the idea of three separate trilogies converging on a final trilogy was a neat structure. Valnquer The Dragon Unfunny and tiresome. Could not give a poo poo and the "parody" heavy handed sex stuff was gross. Still going to see if Perfect Run lives up to the hype. Worth The Candle is the only other litrpg on my list (mainly on the back of positive things said about this used to be about dungeon) so I'll see if I can stomach that better. Even though people say it gets sex weird in the later books.
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Mar 25, 2024 14:16
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gonadic io posted:Is no consolidated E-Book a complete deal-breaker for Super Supportive? You can get calibre plugins that do it from RR. It's definitely the best litrpg I've read imo. Thanks for the tip, the only thing I want is to be able to read on my kindle. edit: Hey! This means I can get The Gods Are Bastards in a readable format past the first book! fez_machine fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Mar 25, 2024 |
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Mar 25, 2024 14:55
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Trip Report Reading the first arcs of Wildbow's work: Worm and Pact I wanted to see how Wildbow evolved and whether I could bare his writing style and goddamn two things are readily apparent. 1. Worm has an effective opening arc, no wonder it hooked so many people and didn't let go. Super clear on the stakes and circumstances for the heroine. Multiple well defined choices and problems that entice the reader to read more. Only does what it absolutely needs to do. The exact poo poo you need to open a story. 2. He lost all that magic over the course of writing Worm as the opening of Pact is muddy as hell. Unsong Got too annoying too quickly. Lots to like but not enough. I will have to try again at some later point. The Enchanters Not a webnovel. Economic use of language rules.
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Mar 28, 2024 22:35
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Trip Report The Opening Arcs of Wildbow's work: The rest of Pact, Twig and the first little bit of Pale Hey, I really enjoyed the opening arc of Pact! Feels like it might lead to Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure style puzzle conflicts which I'm very into. Into the western occultism and esoterica theming. Still not as hooky or as focused as Worm's first arc but I'm on board. Kind of intrigued about how I'll react to its infamous frenetic pace. Twig was much less of a hit for me. The Bloodborne x Frankenstein world is cool but the core conflicts didn't interest me as much. Skipped Ward and the rest of Pale's first act because I plan on reading their predecessors. Overall, what I read was enough to convince me that the drop off in writing quality such as it is wasn't enough to deter me. I've certainly hated far more polished works than Wildbow's. This thread Decided to go back and see if there was any gold in the early pages of the thread. Only Into the Mire stuck out and while I wasn't too interested in Pith, I don't have any choice about whether to read it or not. Surprised how tolerable Larry was for most of the thread. I hope Milkfred only checked out the opening chapters of Claw and dipped out, nearly a decade is too long to keep hate in your heart for an author like that. The list Here's a list of everything I'm planning on reading that I've put on my kindle: Wildbow's work (Worm, Pact, Twig, Ward, Pale) Ar'Kendrithyst A Practical Guide to Evil Super Miniion qntm's work (Ra, Fine Structure, There is No Antimemetics Dvision) The Wandering Inn Super Supportive The Gods Are Bastards Only Villains Do That The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere Lord of Mysteries (I thought I should read at least one mega long Chinese web novel) Worth the Candle This Used To Be About Dungeons Into The Mire Hitherby Dragons Started reading but on the backburner Unsong The Perfect Run Read, finished and enjoyed Mother of Learning Beware of Chicken Read but wouldn't reccomend Andrew Seiple's work (Threadbare, Small Medium, Blasphemy Online) Vainquer The Dragon Under consideration Katalepsis Practical Guide to Sorcery Delve Necroepilogos A Journey of Black and Red The Destiny Cycle fez_machine fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Apr 1, 2024 |
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Apr 1, 2024 08:58
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Bremen posted:If you don't mind me asking, how'd you get this one onto your kindle? I've never found a good way to do that with the stories on their own website (I think it's wordpress?). Same method I used for Hitherby Dragons. I hand customised the web to epub browser extension. For most major webnovels with a wordpress page you don't have to put any effort as they're already in the database (except maybe making sure that they don't pick up fan art images) but IntoThe Mire is obscure. You have to start at the table of contents url, rename all the false and empty fields, and if the table of contents points to any 404ed pages (like Into The Mire does for Chapters 46 and 47) change the url to right address under the Edit Chapter URL button. It's important to note that web to epub will still generate an epub if it hits a 404 but terminates at the error (sometimes it generates an error message sometimes it doesn't) and the Edit URL tool is kind of finicky and janky so always double check. fez_machine fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Apr 1, 2024 |
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Apr 1, 2024 16:22
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Trip Report Two works by qntm (There Is No Anti-Memetics Division, Fine Structure) These were pretty good, There Is No Anti-Memetics Division in particular, although you can see that qntm's strong suit is short stories and not novels. Decided to leave Ra on the shelf, reading up on it and realising it has a similar gimmick to Fine Structure made me feel like I could take a break from qntm's quirks. I'll probably check back in later at some point. Super Minion Really good! Exactly as good as everyone says. Wildly imaginative in exactly the pulp way I'm enjoying in web serial stuff. Reminds me of pre-golden age sci-fi and early super hero comics, just highly individual creativity vomited out on to the page. Such a shame this was abandoned as I'd like to see more and the author make that mega-green they had coming to them. First Chapters of Worth The Candle Very fun so far. Skibidi Toilet This gen alpha youtube animation hit is a web serial and hits the exact same pulpy pleasures of web serials. Change my mind.
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Apr 7, 2024 11:27
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Yeah, I'd say webcomics, web serials, and the more narrative stick fight animation type things are all part of a new pulp gestalt
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Apr 7, 2024 13:49
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ahahaha the toilet animation has reached the inevitable jump the shark moment of any web thing by introducing grand scale lore that was secretly behind everything and the toilets speak english now this is the last time I will talk about it
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Apr 7, 2024 21:48
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IShallRiseAgain posted:Skibidi Toilet is just a SFM/Garry's Mod youtube poop. Its not a new phenomenon at all. Its decades old at this point. When did I say it's new? I said it's a hit in Gen Alpha circles. Also it's only SFM youtube poop for about 5 minutes of its now hours long runtime. It is now a serious battle for the fate of the world with constant escalation and deep lore web animation.
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Apr 11, 2024 00:46
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Currently reading through the back half of Worth The Candle Dump your social stats, Shinji Also a little annoyed at how everyone knows that the world harshly punishes if people do a trick to become long term overpowered and then everyone in the party and the protag goes "wow! you're temporarily overpowered! What if we made this indefinite with a little trick?". Usually, there would be people chiming in about how do we avoid creating great harm and spending page after page discussing the possibilities but there's relatively little to none. It feels bad, like the author wanted to show off this setting element and forced it through.
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Apr 25, 2024 23:32
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Richard Stark laughs at you. The detailed plan succeeds, it's the aftermath where things get screwy. edit: Finished Worth The Candle, feels like it fell off mid-way through as it became far more interested in interpersonal dynamics/politics than interesting applications of skills. I didn't hit a moment like where people in this thread apparently ducked out because of sex weirdness. I read webserials for the weirdness and the sex was usually either primarily relationship stuff or brief, very hard to believe anyone was getting off on the stuff. Felt fare more like dipping into the author's various neurosis, which is blatantly what the whole serial is about. Overall, it was an interesting read, a pretty good ending if not really cathartic. fez_machine fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Apr 28, 2024 |
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Apr 28, 2024 04:22
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DACK FAYDEN posted:it was the bit with the house What I meant was that it didn't put me off from reading the rest of the series like others did. Probably an advantage of reading it as one whole rather than serially as it ties in with consent, forgiveness/redemption, and how various people learn to grow after doing hosed up poo poo being major themes of the series. Also a lot of what people (1 poster) was labelling as sex weird was implications posting.
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Apr 28, 2024 13:19
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Finished In To The Mire Pretty good, but apart from some setting details here and there, just felt like accomplished standard fantasy rather than insane web serial fantasy
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May 1, 2024 03:07
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Read Delve A real litRPG maths sickos webserial. Competently written, if very slow, I can't imagine reading this one serially. Get the feeling this was heavily heavily influenced by Mother of Learning and Worth the Candle in various ways, especially all the self soul manipulation antics. I've got to say, let's bring liberal humanism and industrialisation to fantasy land is getting less and less interesting the more I read in that subgenre. A real problem of litRPGs in general is compounding abilities, which is a narrative/balance problem in real life RPGs as well, there's just so many options that combat becomes overwhelming. Far prefer the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure thing of finding new applications of very specific powers. fez_machine fucked around with this message at 14:27 on May 4, 2024 |
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May 4, 2024 14:22
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DACK FAYDEN posted:did he finally fix his own soul / get out of his own head The soul surgery never really ends, but he definitely fixed himself. The story also dealt very deftly with some internal time dilation where the protag turns his soul in to factorio/computronium. Like got it all over with in a single chapter. Big stuff is happening, but as always step by step. I think the big hiatus has been in part just to figure out where exactly the story is heading. It certainly feels like the author has written themselves into a massive Dragon Ball-style combat corner too early.
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May 4, 2024 21:58
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