LitRPG

I really liked Defiance but it just gets to be total insanity after awhile and I eventually dropped it. Once it departs from Earth it struggles to maintain coherency in a lot of ways.

In my opinion.

Nothing wrong with dropping a book series after it starts to degenerate or get stale.

That being said, I respect when an author doesn't attempt to just rehash the same discovery story of the first couple of books that introduce the small-time survival LitRPG. My second favorite genre is space opera, which many LitRPG books graduate into when the natural result of a cultivation system is interstellar battles between gods.

I also enjoy when an author or series fully embraces some particular concept and does not attempt to shy away from it. Kind of like a specialty in a series that stays at the fore front. I wouldn't want every book series to delve as deeply into the navel gazing cultivation that Defiant of the Fall does, but I enjoy that it stands among the most autistic of cultivation-focused LitRPGs.

For example, I just started book 9 of The Path of Ascension | Royal Road which


Conversely, I put down series that get a few books and don't seem to have any unique aspect they get into. Instead it's like the backdrop of a LitRPG book with no inspiring feature the author had to put to pen and really enjoy writing.


All that to say, enjoy Defiance of the Fall and enjoy the autistic cultivation in the later books. Or don't and start a new series when it gets to be too much. Don't hate read books!

This thread inspired me to add Chrysalis by RinoZ to my list.

Ukerric said:

I assume you're reading the first books off Kindle Unlimited, since book 10 went up last month.

What I like in the series is that each arc is well different (except when you stretch an interstellar war over 2 books, 10 & 11). Travelogues, politics (you may be OP, but politics >>> you), and trolling the Sects. And there are so many details that can be blown into full plot arcs if necessary.

(also, if you see a cat offering to train you... say no)

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I'm almost done with book 10, and I agree that switching it up a little has kept it much fresher through 10 books than most of the other series. I could really do without the lengthy explanations of every single skill they use in battles though, but I sort of get it too. There isn't really any other way to describe what they do than to just use the skill names, but I still wish he would figure out a way to condense it and skip all that crap. Do I need to know that his [Cracked Phantom Armor] shrugged off the blow a dozen times in one battle?

Also, I feel like early on we were told their skill slots were super limited. Now they seem to have dozens if not hundreds. I understand moving the important ones into and out of their core, but it feels like they now have untold numbers of skills just floating around the outside. Maybe I'm misremembering the explanation, or they go up drastically with level, but it just seems like they have a shit ton now. Which makes battle descriptions even more tedious.

Oh, and I noticed he picked up the annoying habit of "flaring" stuff like that (can't remember if it is Unbound or Primal Hunter, since they all run together) series has been doing for years. In whichever series that one is, he "flares his dexterity" to dodge something, instead of just fucking dodging. I think it is Unbound. Now in Path of Ascension he's "flaring his Concept" and such all the time. To be fair, that makes a little more sense than flaring dexterity, but still, once an author starts using a specific term ad nauseum it starts to grate on me. Like DotF and others having everyone fucking snorting all the time. I'm fucking triggered now by snorting!

I will say, however, that the addition of Shadow/Allie to the narrative has greatly increased my enjoyment of this series, which was previously trending downward like they all do after so many books (expect DCC). She's awesome, and I'd read a series based solely on her.

Ukerric said:

They gain one core skill slot per level, two inner spirit slots per level, and four (?) outer spirit slots per level. So, at level 25, that's 150 or 175 total.

My primary annoying bit is that they always blow raspberries at each other. All the time.

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That's absolutely ridiculous to have that many skills! I suppose that's why they can have something like Cleanse taking up a spell slot. Thanks for the info, had no idea it was that crazy.

I haven't noticed the raspberry thing really, but I will now that you pointed it out!

Totally unrelated side story, was at a Sacramento Kings game back in the 90s, and the scoreboard was making this annoying buzzing sound. I asked my buddy if it was bothering him like it was bothering me, and he gets this annoyed look on his face and says that he hadn't noticed it until I said something, and now he can't unhear it. Hah!

Tuco said:

This thread inspired me to add Chrysalis by RinoZ to my list.

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Started reading that series based on you mentioning it. It is fairly interesting. Being a lot different than the normal fare helps a lot. We'll see where it goes though, because multiple books of him being just an ant, I can't see that being enthralling. The author has obviously done something that people like though, so I'm hopeful for the future.

It is also possible that Reddit loves it because I'm fairly certain the author is an 8 year-old amped up on ALL of his Halloween candy at once. That's about the only way I can describe the writing style.