I know this is a loose fic for "other people's _Fan_fiction", but I've been digging on a couple of web serials that are really doing good by me
The first is Overgeared - the beginning is _hard_, Grid is an absolute shit of a person. But once he gets his feet under him, he starts to really improve as a person. Korean, _very_ Korean, VRMMO based light novel. Ongoing.
https://www.wuxiaworld.com/novel/overgeared
The second is.. an odd duck. And NSFW!
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/8894/e...rge-chests
The MC is.. a complicated topic. The LitRPG elements are strong, and over time, the author has really improved. However, I found the story compelling from the get-go, and with the recent spoilery significant changes to the status of the MC, even more so. The sexual content is thick on the ground, but it's _on the ground_. The MC is completely asexual. Which doesn't help his poor extreme masochist succubus minion at all. Or his masochistic battle demon minion.
The spinoff, 'Small Chests are Fine Too' is a good read as well. Worth spacing it, starting it when Fizzy leaves the group and then switching back to the main book once finished.
Proposal: this thread be stickied and the name changed to be a suitable recommend thread for any and all original fiction we find in the wild.
I had one that I mentioned several WN and scanlations in, but a quick peek doesn't turn it up. Maybe it was in a different section? I don't remember.
(04-25-2019, 11:25 PM)Black Aeronaut Wrote: [ -> ]Proposal: this thread be stickied and the name changed to be a suitable recommend thread for any and all original fiction we find in the wild.
I can do that easily if people want.
One light novel I've enjoyed reading recently was "I've Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years And Maxed Out My Level!". The MC is a real-world office worker who dies of a heart attack brought on by overwork, so when she's offered a chance at a new life she wishes to be an immortal slacker. So she gets dropped into a JRPG-style world as a witch/herbalist type living on the outskirts of a small town, and lives a quiet, contented life... spending an hour or two every day killing the slimes that seem to be infesting the area.
And so three hundred years pass.
And then circumstances bring her to register as an Adventurer, and get her Level tested and all... and it turns out that a handful of XP from killing a few slimes every day for 300 years really adds up.
Naturally, Shenanigans Ensue.
It's fun, there's not a whole lot of conflict per se - it's more personal matters and getting along with people. Plenty of fun.
Just snagged the first volume off of Amazon for my kindle app. A review shall be forthcoming.
(04-27-2019, 10:36 PM)Black Aeronaut Wrote: [ -> ]Just snagged the first volume off of Amazon for my kindle app. A review shall be forthcoming.
Cool, let me know how you like it.
The LN version of Log Horizon is also very good.
(04-26-2019, 07:00 AM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: [ -> ] (04-25-2019, 11:25 PM)Black Aeronaut Wrote: [ -> ]Proposal: this thread be stickied and the name changed to be a suitable recommend thread for any and all original fiction we find in the wild.
I can do that easily if people want.
Yes, please.
I'm going to recommend a novel series I bought on a whim: "All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault" by James Alan Gardner. The first of the Spark/Dark series.
It's a mix of urban fantasy and superheroes with a very, very distinctly Canadian influence (the heroes constantly debate whether they should be engaged in fisticuffs with the bad guys over just talking out their problems). The setting basically posits that all the urban fantasy monster came out of the closet some forty years ago and basically started offering immortality for cash, but not just any cash, ridiculously obscene levels of cash. So now all of the super wealthy are vampires and other assorted things-that-go-bump collectively called Darklings, and ONLY the super wealthy. And the universe corrects this imbalance because superheroes (called "Sparks" because the wealthy sued them when they tried to call themselves superheroes because that was trademarked) started to exist.
The dialogue is snappy, the characters are interesting and the plot has suitable twists that you can both see coming and still enjoy being a little surprised at. Also the main character is genderqueer/genderfluid in a very frank way. The whole thing basically reads like a roleplaying campaign (including people deadpan complaining about the plot railroad) but the kind of campaign we wish we had and not the actual one that happens at the table. Kind of an idealized gaming session.
It does get very meta, like extremely meta. The clash between Light and Dark is not a metaphor in the setting. It's a simile. If that doesn't float your boat, avoid. If, however, you like snarky geek girls versus The Man you'll probably like it.
Epsilon, thank you - that just went on The List.
On a long-standing recommendation from a good friend, I just picked up the Iron Druid books. Harry Dresden with less fucks to give about taking life, and you're there. Writing is solid, characters are good, Oberon is a most excellent dog. Only downside I've seen so far is that the titular character is a bit Marty Stu and a bit blase, but he's 2100 years old, and spends a lot of the books terrified of his imminent destruction at the hands of pissed-off supernaturals, so..
I've been reading
Nine Star Hegemon Bone Arts and found it a cut above most translated Chinese novels. This is a Xianxia genre story following an embittered old chinese alchemist who finds himself reincarnated into an embittered young noble in the Phoenix Cry Empire, young man unable to Cultivate. For those unfamiliar, Cultivation is a concept that through meditation, medication and study one can extend one's life (towards immortality), seek enlightenment (to the point of divinity) and kick copious amounts of ass (becoming a DBZ character).
As a result of this inability, the protagonist has been a butt monkey among his peers - particularly as his father is one of his home nation's three greatest Cultivators - and a legendary general, etc. With his new knowledge he can work around this and finds himself in an escalating series of encounters as he finds out that he (and new friends he makes) have enemies far more serious than glorified schoolyard bullying. The author makes good use of this escalation to gradually expand the world we see as he runs into new enemies and situations.
For those made wary by stock Xianxia protagonists, the lead here doesn't their less appealing traits. While he takes no shit, he doesn't go looking for fights as a rule and is not abusive to those around him - in fact he has friends who stick by him even in dire adversity and goes out of his way to help them and to build them up. Nor does he tend to escalate situations - he meets trash talk with trash talk (he's very good at that) and violence with violence, but is also open to positive approaches and willing to excuse mistakes, winning over people who he was at first at odds with. Even his romantic encounters are started because he genuinely likes the young women in question.
I didn't think I'd come across an offering myself, but low and behold, this sucker came skittering across my tumblr dashboard.
This one comes filed under "Humans Are Space Orcs" tag, but there's a whole lot of WAFF along with laugh-out-loud moments, and lots of ET's going HOLY FUCK!!! It's a series of shorts about a human and his unlikely companion, and another human and *her* unlikely companion, and how they all kinda form an unofficial family together... And also humans acting like Space Orcs now and then, complete with the horrified realization that, yes, humans have adrenal glands and generate their own combat stims.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/159754...s/37264622
Holy crap BA, that's good stuff
Agreed. I enjoyed that thoroughly and wish there was more.
(05-19-2019, 05:47 PM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: [ -> ]Agreed. I enjoyed that thoroughly and wish there was more.
OK.
Dragon Tales
Dragon with an eye for public relations encounters female knight with too much integrity. Feels occurs.
So I've been lazy when it comes to visiting the board, but I just found this thread and wanted to second Wiregeeks recommendation for Everyone Loves Large Chests. It's definitely NSFW, but it's tons of fun, (the demon contracting scene had me laughing out loud). So if you like some adult in your fantasy check it out!
"Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle" is a manga I've recommended in a few places. It's all about Princess Syalis getting kidnapped by the Demon Lord and held for ransom while the Hero tries to get in to rescue her.
It's not about the hero. It's about the Princess. And gazooks is she bored.
So she's decided to nap her imprisonment away.
Unfortunately, it's been hard for her to get to sleep. So she sets out to quest for the perfect nap.
This is not an excercise designed to amuse her captors. This is one destined to drive them utterly insane.
The entire story is about the Princess' antics as she stuffs a pillow with Teddy-Bear Demon fur, cuts sheets from ghosts to make the perfect bedding, and picks up the Necronomicon for some light bedtime reading.... oh, oops.
And it's getting an anime.
D'OH GAWD I'VE SEEN THE MANGA FOR THIS.
It is.
FUCKING.
PRICELESS.
Eventually the Demon Lord's minions come to be absolutely fucking terrified of her because she has a tendency to kill the minions just so she can harvest them for the best materials for her bed and linens.
And this is to say nothing of all the times she accidentally kills herself and has to be resurrected because she ate something horrifyingly deadly because it has sleep inducing properties.
Vainqueur the Dragon
Vainqueur Knightsbane is your average dragon: a giant, fire-breathing lizard who loves to take naps on his golden hoard, kidnap princesses for fun, and make the life of adventurers miserable. Vainqueur's only pleasure in life is to watch his treasure get bigger, one coin at a time.
So when a would-be thief turned unwilling minion tells him about "classes," "levels," and "quests," Vainqueur wonders if maybe, just maybe, he should consider a career change.
After all, why bother hunting monsters for free when you can get paid for it?
... new chapter posted seven minutes ago.
(09-21-2019, 02:26 PM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: [ -> ]... new chapter posted seven minutes ago.
Oh goodness, I just binged the whole thing.
This one is freaking hilarious.