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velk

Trakanon Raider
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Digging through the backlog a bit:


By the author of A Journey of Black and Red. I liked this one a lot more than journey, the once a week update schedule is a bit depressing though. The backstory is a bit weird, but seems isolated to the first two chapters so far. Random observation that main character really should be seeing bright red warning flags at ancient AIs using specious reasoning to avoid their hardcoded directives rather than encouraging this behavior.


For something different, this one is about some teenagers abducted by aliens. First book completed recently, I thought this one was good, kind of desperate efforts to survive while having no idea what the fuck is going on, against completely overwhelming odds with no support of any kind. Reminded me of a Pith a bit in that respect. Second book a little more laid back so far, if for no other reason than being able to communicate reasonably well.



Credible entry into the OP-man-smash style litrpg genre. The author of this one has a good sense of pacing and writes good action. Colorful leveling system, although pretty cryptic - on the one hand you won't get annoyed when the mc picks an obviously incorrect option, but on the other hand the choices are entirely meaningless to read about ( if you are into that kind of thing, sort of the opposite of Delve in that respect ).


I've had this one in my to-read list for ages, suggested by someone here I think ? Props to whoever that was, I only just got around to trying it and am kicking myself for not checking it out earlier, I think it's great. The description is kind of misleading, I was expecting a quirky office themed litrpg, and that's sort of true, but it's more incomprehensible weirdness like the Lost Room in tone, while still being more about the characters than their adventure as such. The 'monsters' they fight are often laughably threatening by normal fantasy standards, let alone litrpg tropes, but even relatively minor injuries are very real in impact in this story.
 
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Ukerric

Bearded Ape
<Silver Donator>
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I've had this one in my to-read list for ages, suggested by someone here I think ? Props to whoever that was, I only just got around to trying it and am kicking myself for not checking it out earlier, I think it's great. The description is kind of misleading, I was expecting a quirky office themed litrpg, and that's sort of true, but it's more incomprehensible weirdness like the Lost Room in tone, while still being more about the characters than their adventure as such. The 'monsters' they fight are often laughably threatening by normal fantasy standards, let alone litrpg tropes, but even relatively minor injuries are very real in impact in this story.
I ended up bailing out during book 2. Most of the quirkiness was still there, but not as good and new anymore. Plus they were too much reality-based (yes, they live through COVID times) and... well, it didn't click anymore. But book 1 is one of the best fantasy/scifi-ish dungeon stories I've read in recent times.
 

Xarpolis

Life's a Dream
14,053
15,565
Overgeared continues to be excellent. Chapter 1506 was released this morning. I really like this story.

 

Xarpolis

Life's a Dream
14,053
15,565
Magic smithing is doing okay for doing absolutely nothing. I wonder how long he can milk this before it becomes <$1000?
I guess there's a lot of people that have extra money and are happy to fund something that isn't doing anything.
Still 646 donors, and he's earning $2,336/month. It keeps dropping, but it's a VERY slow drop. And in the mean time, he's done absolutely nothing. Not even starting a new story.

Someone went ahead and posted his quit patreon link, so here's what is says.

Kosnik4 said:
Hello remaining people, I'm not dead.

That said, I failed you guys.

First off, it needs to be said I paused payment for July for everyone, so you won't be charged tomorrow.

I'm taking a long look at what I want to do going forward. Writing Magic-Smiting just hasn't felt exciting as it once did. I used to think about the story twenty for seven, trying to think up new ideas on what to write, but now everything feels like a chore rather than fun like it used to.

I'm thinking about starting a different story, one where I plan things out better beforehand. That doesn't mean I'll completely stop Magic-Smithing because I know what it's like when an author drops a story so many people are invested in, the updates would just be sporadic and probably posted for free.

I've learned a lot since I started writing, and objectively speaking, my plot isn't that well fleshed out and my characters are pretty two-dimensional even though they're liked. I've tried to force character growth without any lead-up to it, and it's causing me to put out these clumpy one-off chapters.

My friends and family are supportive of my writing but every time they ask me where I get my inspiration from, I dance around the subject because I've been essentially pulling everything from the top of my head since this story began. And since my writing has improved, I noticed what that means for the content I put out.

I would love to say I could fix my current characters, but that would require me to essentially rework the entire story, which would require me to rewrite over a thousand-page book, and I doubt I could force myself to do that. Plus, I doubt people would want to wait for that kind of revision.

This dilemma hasn't done anything good for me mentally, which is why I left everyone in the dark and tried to pretend like I could ignore my problems, which I know isn't healthy for many reasons.

It's you as the readers that gave me this opportunity, so it's only right I ask for your opinions going forward.

Would you give another story a chance, or are you only here for Magic-Smithing? Would you read a story of a different genre, or are skill-based story's your thing?

Please give me your 100%, brutally honest opinions.

Again sorry for the silence, I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe, and thanks for putting up with me for as long as all of you have.

It's been 97 days since he posted that message, but 117 since he posted the last chapter. It's not coming back.
 
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Ukerric

Bearded Ape
<Silver Donator>
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It's been 97 days since he posted that message, but 117 since he posted the last chapter. It's not coming back.
Yea, I'm not holding my breath for an Arrogant Youngmaster Template A-style return.
 

Ritley

Karazhan Raider
15,698
34,169
Well, Perfect Run is done. I kinda thought he was going to do multiple books with this being the end of book 1, but his ending note is pretty definitive that Ryan’s story is done. Sucks because it was one of my favorite serials, but good that it ended on a high note.
 
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velk

Trakanon Raider
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I ended up bailing out during book 2. Most of the quirkiness was still there, but not as good and new anymore. Plus they were too much reality-based (yes, they live through COVID times) and... well, it didn't click anymore. But book 1 is one of the best fantasy/scifi-ish dungeon stories I've read in recent times.

Book 2 did take a weird turn into political rants, mass murder and domestic terrorism yeah ;p

I still enjoy it, but you are right, it's not up to the standards of book 1.
 
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Ritley

Karazhan Raider
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34,169
Book 2 did take a weird turn into political rants, mass murder and domestic terrorism yeah ;p

I still enjoy it, but you are right, it's not up to the standards of book 1.
I checked it out a few weeks ago and I honestly started hating it by the end of book 1. First half was great, but the second half just became less and less about the office dungeon, and never really progressed anywhere. None of the skills that they pick up ever mean anything, characters are all flat and incompetent in most cases. And then the first couple of chapters of book 2 just made me drop it all together, just terrible.
 

Ritley

Karazhan Raider
15,698
34,169
Been reading a few newer ones so figure id throw out what I’m reading/have dropped

Best of what I’m reading:

Beware of chicken - already talked about here quite a bit so won’t really go into it.

Wandering Inn - most recent story arc is a large step down and the author has way too many plots/characters flying around, most of which are good but there’s too much to split focus on. Still great overall though.

Ar’Kendrithyst - story starts out pretty generic but gets good and stays entertaining throughout. Main character is a bit of a Gary Stu though so if that bothers you then this will also probably bother you here.

The Path of Ascension - really good progressions fantasy type story, nothing groundbreaking but solid compared to most garbage you’ll find.

Pith - super good but author has had medical issues the last few months and hasn’t been adding chapters. Very downer story so don’t read if you aren’t in the mood for that.

Superworld - basically steelheart where something causes everyone to get super powers, except for the main character who hides it by faking being clairvoyant (think John Edward). Well written and my only complaint is that one of the plot parts for the second main character is pretty retarded, everyone hates her for what she is but it really doesn’t make much sense.

Reading that is OK/borderline:

Apocalypse Cultivation - earth gets an apocalypse and at the end of his life where earth is basically fully taken over, Jake gets a redo and is reborn as a monster at the start of the invasion. Pretty fun ready but it’s pretty straightforward with nothing too special going on.

Path of the Dragon Mage - well written with not much filler, story is essentially about a prince who gets exiled and takes his dragon egg with him (the royals all get one and line of succession is based off of who can hatch them, no one has for centuries). He connects with the egg and gets a system that lets him level up and gain skills. Some others in the world have this but most don’t and don’t even know about it. Relatively short chapters with slow updates is why I wouldn’t rank it higher.

Seaborn - author is in military and has had a few stops for a few months when deployed, currently it’s on hold. Story is about a sailor in a fantasy world, can’t give too much more without spoilering some of the earlier twists.

Iron blood arcanist - still on the fence with this and it’s a bit early in the series, dude gets isekai’d into what is not so subtly a parallel to nazi Germany, but fantasy. The bad guys so far are basically charicatures, but still giving it a shot.

Monroe - overall pretty decent, basically an aspie dude gets sorta isekai’d into a fantasy world and realizes that his cat back on earth will die unless he gets back to it somehow. Sounds dumb (and kinda is), but there’s a lot else going on so it’s still entertaining.

Defiance of the fall - basically filler since there’s tons of chapters, it’s OK but is pretty basic and we’re to the point where everything is just bigger numbers. Characters are all pretty flat.

Things I’ve put on hold:

Menocht Loop - Started out really strong but I feel like we’re at the point where he story should have ended awhile ago but the author didn’t want to start something different. Will probably catch up at some point.

Re: Monarch - another strong start that has meandered for a bit. Author also stopped updates for awhile and just recently started back up, so I’ll probably wait awhile on it.

Knight and Smith - slow updates are really why I put this on the back burner, it was still good.

Finished series:

Perfect Run - one of the best web serials that’s actually completed, definitely read it if you haven’t.

Dropped:

Dungeon Crawler Carl - too slow, too much trying to be clever with levels and ultimately I just stopped caring.

Blessed time - characters are all retarded.

Deeper Darker - dropped awhile back, just got a bit too out there.
 
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Lenardo

Vyemm Raider
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2,454
Beware of chicken might be going on a short hiatus, author is getting burned out imo, needs a break.

started superworld yesterday-it is really good, but the author hasn't fleshed out wtf is going on main plot wise. main reason why everyone hates jane, a BLOOD empath copied the powers of hundreds of people, got super powerfull and insane and -essentially- BLEW UP AFRICA (10 years ago in the story) now everyone fears and hates empaths due to that incident.

i am thinking that maybe a twist will be
captain dawn IS the bad guy -the empath possessed him and captain dawn is trapped in the empath's body-which we see slowly recovering in those brief "asides" or captain dawn IS a empath himself or the plain no twist version is the guy who blew up africa is waking up- granted the guy was the son of a literal nazi
 

Ukerric

Bearded Ape
<Silver Donator>
7,862
9,413
Beware of chicken might be going on a short hiatus, author is getting burned out imo, needs a break.
If you ever tried to write a webseries, you'll find out that burn-out is a permanent threat.

I admire those people who get webnovel contracts and stuff. That's why they include the right to pull out your story and reassign it - all their authors flame out and burn.

Travis Deverell (Shirtaloon - "He Who Fights with Monsters") is also nearing burn out after two years of non-stop Jason shenanigans. Same for Selkie Myth ("Beneath the Dragoneyes Moons"), he's close to burnout as well. In fact, it looks like the perspective of Nanowrimo is inducing premature burn-out to everyone. I remember the first covid "writathon" from RR and how painful it was.
 

Xarpolis

Life's a Dream
14,053
15,565
If you ever tried to write a webseries, you'll find out that burn-out is a permanent threat.

I admire those people who get webnovel contracts and stuff. That's why they include the right to pull out your story and reassign it - all their authors flame out and burn.

Travis Deverell (Shirtaloon - "He Who Fights with Monsters") is also nearing burn out after two years of non-stop Jason shenanigans. Same for Selkie Myth ("Beneath the Dragoneyes Moons"), he's close to burnout as well. In fact, it looks like the perspective of Nanowrimo is inducing premature burn-out to everyone. I remember the first covid "writathon" from RR and how painful it was.
Fortunately, Park Saenal is still going strong with Overgeared. So far, it's up to chapter 1,517 has been translated to English, and it doesn't look like it'll ever slow down. The writer is a monster. 4 chapters every week.
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday. I love this story.
 
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Ritley

Karazhan Raider
15,698
34,169
Beware of chicken might be going on a short hiatus, author is getting burned out imo, needs a break.

started superworld yesterday-it is really good, but the author hasn't fleshed out wtf is going on main plot wise. main reason why everyone hates jane, a BLOOD empath copied the powers of hundreds of people, got super powerfull and insane and -essentially- BLEW UP AFRICA (10 years ago in the story) now everyone fears and hates empaths due to that incident.

i am thinking that maybe a twist will be
captain dawn IS the bad guy -the empath possessed him and captain dawn is trapped in the empath's body-which we see slowly recovering in those brief "asides" or captain dawn IS a empath himself or the plain no twist version is the guy who blew up africa is waking up- granted the guy was the son of a literal nazi
Oh no I get it, it’s just retarded. She’s not a blood empath, so it’s not even really relevant. They even go over how they teach in school the different types of empaths, so literally 100% of the people that meet her hating her for it is just stupid.
 

velk

Trakanon Raider
2,512
1,094

Read all of this one today - it's really good. Given the author there's a 90% chance it gets abandoned unfinished, but I'd say it's well worth reading anyway given the first book just completed.
 

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
<Gold Donor>
40,698
102,080

Read all of this one today - it's really good. Given the author there's a 90% chance it gets abandoned unfinished, but I'd say it's well worth reading anyway given the first book just completed.
Macro said on Patreon he's taking a break from Soulmonger to write the next book for Generic Apocalypse.