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Poor Man's Fight is an fun book and the series is great. The climax with Chekov's jacket is going to make a great movie sequence. As will the Basic Training showdown. I just finished the Frontlines series and I can't remember, did they have a reason why Earth 2 or whatever it's called was able to have trees & poo poo force grown so quickly?
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Apr 9, 2018 03:15
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pretty sure it was just a super good planet or something, I don't think there was an in-universe explanation of it
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Apr 14, 2018 04:46
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Definitely enjoyed Poor Man's Fight and the other books in the series. I really enjoy the blend of cool fights, space combat, and relatively grounded depiction of all the political poo poo that comes from war.
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Apr 17, 2018 06:05
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The Hobgoblin Riot, the sequel to Dominion of Blades came out on the 18th. Dominion of Blades is my personal pick for recommending to people who look down upon LitRPG because its really fun and very progressive and inclusive, which is a refreshing difference from most of the stuff shoveled out in the LitRPG genre. That trend somewhat continues in the sequel though in a different way. Its hard to give much of a synopsis of the series because it risks giving away certain spoilers which I thought were pretty fulfilling. Its sort of a comedic horror theme - like exploring a defunct and abandoned amusement park where everything is exactly as it was left when it was abandoned 87000 years prior and the animatronics have become self aware. And there are several crazy people who have been living in the amusement park finding its secrets and becoming more and more powerful while trapping and driving insane anyone who happened to wander in during the intervening time, and now they are after you. And if you die in the game, you are likely to be put in a situation where you will be driven insane as well. The sequel is sort of a tower defense situation, but with the other stuff as well.
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Apr 23, 2018 14:01
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You might enjoy The Daily Grind: An IT guy accidentally figures out that a certain door in his office, when opened at 3:32AM, leads to a weird, seemingly endless office-dimension. The office snacks are edible, but their packaging, like all other text inside, reads like neural network gibberish. The cash inside the desks and jackets and so forth seems real enough, which promises to solve a lot of his problems, even if it's mostly in small denominations. And sometimes denominations that actual dollars don't exist in. So that's good. Unfortunately, some of the office supplies inside want to eat him. But when has that even stopped someone gripped with loot-lust?
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Apr 23, 2018 14:23
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I'm currently working on an effort post on and off when I have time about, Cherry Blossom Girls, it's...wow...I think it's a shitpost in book form. Let's give some preview for this uhhh book. *Protagonist is a writer who writes Lit-RPG on KU, and the most blatent self-insert I have ever read. *The book constantly quotes famous books, and explains the reference to the point where it's jarring. *The book also references pretty much every major KU book I have read, these references are far more subtle. *Protagonist is writing the book you are reading right now to get the word out about GOVERNMENT COVER-UP. *The main character asks for advice from his online writing pal under the guise of writing advice as he is writing a new book and he wrote himself into a hole. *It's cover is the classic male protagonist surrounded by two hot women. *Chapter 2:You're a Psychic Shifter, and I'm a Terrible Writer My face was locked into a permanent cringe the entire time I was reading this last night. Megazver posted:You might enjoy The Daily Grind: Probably not really where to discuss this since it's not the webnovel thread, but I'm aware that the difference between WNs and KU is normally an editing pass. But, yeah The Daily Grind is pretty good.
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Apr 23, 2018 16:18
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I do occasionally feel the urge to write an effort post about something lovely, but tbh, it's not worth it. Write an effort post about good and share it. Help good art.
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Apr 23, 2018 16:44
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One of the other few good LitRPG-ish books I've read is Sword of the Bright Lady - though it's not KU, unfortunately and it's more D&D than video game, but it was an interesting thought experiment in the whole idea of only being able to gain 'experience' by killing other sentient creatures leads to people with levels being nobility (or their knights, if low level instead of unleveled) and peasants being fodder used in wars that literally only happen to kill as many peasants as possible both for you and the other guy so the winner can steal all the experience (you have to actually take it from the corpse, it's not automatically given, so winner take all), with the nobles being demigods with warrior levels and priests being able to resurrect people from the dead for the low cost of only a couple dozen peasants worth of XP and a lost level, so nobles are only ever in risk of losing their wealth instead of their lives. Naturally, since this is a portal fantasy he introduces gunpowder and completely upsets the balance of things when unleveled peasants can kill a noble with warrior levels instead of being farmed for XP like they're supposed to be. (He's a cleric, of course - why be a warrior when you can keep your army of peasants with guns healed/enchant their bullets in a pinch/use the XP farmed from dead nobles to resurrect dead soldiers). Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Apr 25, 2018 |
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Apr 25, 2018 04:08
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Furious Lobster posted:Went through a lot of the recommendations for dreck in this thread and found the books were mostly harmless & enjoyable, so thank you for those. It also had the unexpected benefit of making me want to read competent writing again so I'm in the midst of Pale Fire and having a good time. I feel the same way. I remember my 10th grade english teacher grumpily saying "We're not reading this for the plot" as if that was a thing for degenerates. I kind of get what she means now because most of these books are only plot. Stuff that I associated as fun and trashy before like Jim Butcher or Brian Sanderson feel like Dostoevsky by comparison. I enjoy some of them, but I often can't get over how so many of them are just bland statement of character actions. I guess people like that and they're fast to write? Oh and this is actually pretty good: https://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Path-Castes-OutCastes-Book-ebook/dp/B00HLJ80QE Sort of an Epic Fantasy version of Attack on Titan, but it's Indian mythology themed, which is pretty cool. SerCypher fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Apr 26, 2018 |
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Apr 26, 2018 18:28
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Been reading "Wraith's Haunt" series by Hugo Huesca about an IT major from Earth who plays a computer game that turns out to be a real place as he is brought there by the minion of the dark god Murmur and invested with the power of a Dungeon Lord. He's tasked to find out who is behind sending the gamer heroes to destroy dungeon lords and challenged to remain basically a good guy when using evil powers. In the first book, "Dungeon Lord," he and the bard and witch he recruits as minions comes into conflict with a nearby village and local spider queen and must locate and stop a terrible infestation of brain replacing parasites called Mindbrood. In book 2, "Otherworldly Powers" he comes into conflict with a local rebellion against the major political powers in the area while also trying to turn his dungeon into a comfortable place to live for himself and his followers. Both are rather comical, with the standout being creative use of his ability to summon dungeon imps in order to surprise enemies and intercept arrows in midair. I'm only a third of the way through the second book so far but very much enjoying them.
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May 10, 2018 05:12
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I went through Dante's Immortality: Beginnings and surprise (not) it was originally a webnovel from RoyalRoad. It was kind of wild with lit-rpg/isekai style grinding and levels but it's not a portal fantasy or a video game. Characters are treated like they are out of a chinese novel with just tons of murder for small justification. Plot pacing is extremely obviously a webnovel with it jumping around between different arcs that seem not super well planned out. It was fun and I really enjoyed it despite these problems. I should also mention it's doing the different areas are stronger than others and the character is of course from the outer edges the weakest area so even though Dante is extremely broken, but there are tons of people still way stronger than him. That being said I think I might of enjoyed this more than normal because I have been swimming in a sea of 2s-3s.
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May 10, 2018 14:07
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Sequel to Sufficiently Advanced Magic, which was a pretty great LitRPG, is out: On the Shoulders of Titans
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May 17, 2018 10:25
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Finished Son of a Liche, I didn't like it as much as the first, but the marketing department of the undead army was great.Cicero posted:Sequel to Sufficiently Advanced Magic, which was a pretty great LitRPG, is out: On the Shoulders of Titans Wow that's an extremely anime cover.
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May 17, 2018 14:58
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Yeah I don't like the cover nearly as much as the original's. The cover for Sufficiently Advanced Magic is good and cool.
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May 17, 2018 15:08
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It's not sf/fantasy, but I just finished reading Elixir: The American Tragedy of a Deadly Drug by Barbara J Martin and it's an excellent work of nonfiction about the mass poisonings leading to about 100 deaths caused by a drug company using diethylene glycol as a solvent for the antibiotic sulfanilamide. Diethylene glycol is a close chemical cousin of antifreeze, by the way. This was the event that lead to the modern day authority of the FDA, and this book is an exhaustive account of the greed and incompetence that lead to this and the frantic efforts of the FDA agents to find every prescription sent out of the literal brain poison I have no idea what this is doing on KU, but it raised my hopes about the average quality of KU before they were quickly dashed. Read it you bums! In a similar vein, does anyone have any recommendations of other nonfiction books that don't belong in this trench as I desperately try to read Continue Online without hating myself? e: ok the bad book is actually enthralling i will continue to hate read it A big flaming stink fucked around with this message at 20:38 on May 18, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 23:44
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A big flaming stink posted:It's not sf/fantasy, but I just finished reading Elixir: The American Tragedy of a Deadly Drug by Barbara J Martin and it's an excellent work of nonfiction about the mass poisonings leading to about 100 deaths caused by a drug company using diethylene glycol as a solvent for the antibiotic sulfanilamide. Diethylene glycol is a close chemical cousin of antifreeze, by the way. This was the event that lead to the modern day authority of the FDA, and this book is an exhaustive account of the greed and incompetence that lead to this and the frantic efforts of the FDA agents to find every prescription sent out of the literal brain poison Thank you for this recommendation
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May 20, 2018 01:11
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I want to thank people who recommended Poor Man's Fight, because the series is actually really good so far. https://www.amazon.com/Poor-Mans-Fight-Book-ebook/dp/B00RH1NV4M It's basically playing the whole angry space marine thing completely straight. The main character doesn't really want to be a soldier, only joined to deal with his debts, and hates almost every moment of his life. He is unrealistically good at killing people, but all that does is give him medals he doesn't care about, lots of dead friends, more people trying to use him, and a very overburdened therapist. Unlike most of these military/sci fi series, he has PTSD, he doesn't want to kill people, and he becomes increasingly emotional throughout the series as he has to fight more and more. It is most definitely not a power fantasy. He can't even really have real relationships with anyone because of the restrictions of the military and how chaotic everything is. Reminds me of the Forever war, but in a way this is more depressing.
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Jun 1, 2018 18:19
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Book 5 of the Cradle series just came out, entitled Ghostwater. The series is an American's take on Wuxia, if you like LitRPG's or Brandon Sanderson-style fantasy you'll probably like Cradle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFWZP9C/
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Jun 4, 2018 14:00
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SerCypher posted:I want to thank people who recommended Poor Man's Fight, because the series is actually really good so far. It is pretty good, though the main character's flat out supernatural ability to always end up in the absolute middle of every single major political shitstorm in the galaxy no matter how hard he tries to pick the most out of the way safest jobs becomes pretty comical pretty fast - especially in the latest book, when he's not even in the military any more and it somehow makes it worse instead of better.
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Jun 5, 2018 00:20
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Cicero posted:Book 5 of the Cradle series just came out, entitled Ghostwater. The series is an American's take on Wuxia, if you like LitRPG's or Brandon Sanderson-style fantasy you'll probably like Cradle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFWZP9C/ Every one of these I start off going “why do I like this again?” And end up on “ok that was pretty cool, when’s the next one out?” They are a bit slow to start usually but ultimately enjoyable.
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Jun 5, 2018 12:36
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I still haven't started the Cradle yet but I am in the middle of Awaken Online: Evolution by Travis Bagwell. Its a series about a bullied kid who starts playing a new immersive MMO and ends up becoming the villain of the game when he learns to be a necromancer and pretty much murders an entire city and converts it to a necropolis city. The series follows him, the rich sociopathic bully who made his life miserable, and the bully's girlfriend who is having an even worse experience than the main guy. There's a ton of plot concerning the AI that runs the game world and technology being developed by the company that created the game that spring from said AI and game world. It's a neat little series and worth the read.
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Jun 5, 2018 13:27
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In LitRPG news, both J.A. Cipriano and Michael Scott-Earle have been banned and had their books removed from Amazon in the last couple of weeks. Both were consistently in the top #50 science-fiction authors on Amazon, so if they weren't self-pubbers this would be a massive deal that would rock the industry and that nerd blogs would scream bloody murder about. Neither of them wrote high literature or anything, but as an author myself it loving sucks to see two guys who had a ton of books and fans basically have their careers ruined overnight.
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Jul 17, 2018 02:30
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Edit: Did a search on it, people are speculating that rivals are purchasing clickfarms to vote up rival's books, which gets them banned by Amazon for violating TOS. If that's actually happening that's an awful, underhanded way to get at more successful writers. Otherwise it's that the actual authors were using clickfarms, or that Amazon bots are just badly coded and banning things due to content, or misinterpreting actual reads as clickfarms, etc. Impossible to know with how opaque Amazon is. Reminds me of youtubers getting their videos blocked/demonetized and not having any avenue to ask youtube why. They seem like great platforms until they're not... Ccs fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Jul 17, 2018 |
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Jul 17, 2018 02:31
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It's just crazy to me. MSE is (right now, because Amazon's algorithms haven't updated) the 5th best-selling sci-fi author on Amazon and the 6th best-selling fantasy writer. Random erotica authors who cross lines getting the banhammer I understand, but you'd think with someone that big they'd at LEAST reach out and try to figure out what's going on before completely removing them from the platform. I'm a self-pubber who does some LitRPG stuff because it's selling insanely well right now (I'm nowhere near as successful as MSE, but I'm in the top 100 sci-fi guys atm) and I am scared shitless right now.
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Jul 17, 2018 02:53
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Popular Human posted:In LitRPG news, both J.A. Cipriano and Michael Scott-Earle have been banned and had their books removed from Amazon in the last couple of weeks. The books I've tried from either were, like, super-trash, even by selfpub or Litrpg standards, but that sucks. Hope things get cleared up.
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Jul 17, 2018 08:46
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Popular Human posted:In LitRPG news, both J.A. Cipriano and Michael Scott-Earle have been banned and had their books removed from Amazon in the last couple of weeks. The amazon self published market place sounds, frankly, win as hell.
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Jul 17, 2018 09:33
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It's actually an issue with Kindle Unlimited rather than Amazon Self-Pub. KU authors get paid by page-views monthly, the pool of KU subscription bux gets split based on personal page-views vs total page-views. So unscrupulous authors were hiring click farms to do KU trials and take out all their books and click to the final page, marking the whole book as read, but they were also hitting legit authors as a smokescreen for their activities. So, some of the legit authors are getting banned as false positives, and even more LitRPG authors have removed their books entirely from KU. It's been a big topic on the KU subreddit, along with people bitching about or being in love with Aleron Kong and his The Land series.
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Jul 17, 2018 13:47
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Victorkm posted:It's actually an issue with Kindle Unlimited rather than Amazon Self-Pub. KU authors get paid by page-views monthly, the pool of KU subscription bux gets split based on personal page-views vs total page-views. So unscrupulous authors were hiring click farms to do KU trials and take out all their books and click to the final page, marking the whole book as read, but they were also hitting legit authors as a smokescreen for their activities. So, some of the legit authors are getting banned as false positives, and even more LitRPG authors have removed their books entirely from KU. It's been a big topic on the KU subreddit, along with people bitching about or being in love with Aleron Kong and his The Land series. So do we know who is innocent yet or is it all speculation? All of their stuff is still up on audible at least which is pretty big for these guys but still worrying for the industry.
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Jul 17, 2018 15:22
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:So do we know who is innocent yet or is it all speculation? All of their stuff is still up on audible at least which is pretty big for these guys but still worrying for the industry. Earle apparently got an email that saod he was banned for manipulating DPR systems including KU. Aside from that, it seems to be theory and speculation since people say Amazon isn't talking.
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Jul 17, 2018 17:44
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Victorkm posted:So unscrupulous authors were hiring click farms to do KU trials and take out all their books and click to the final page, marking the whole book as read, but they were also hitting legit authors as a smokescreen for their activities. loving hell. Amazon needs like a warning system, or freeze payment to authors who they think are gaming the system rather than removing the books and banning the authors.
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Jul 17, 2018 21:44
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From what I can gather from the LitRPG subreddit Michael Scott Earle is now permanently barred from Amazon (not just KU) and he was making 200 grand a month through Kindle Unlimited through whatever sketchy thing got him barred.
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Jul 28, 2018 01:55
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Dang. Did they prove that he was actually the one doing sketchy stuff?
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Jul 28, 2018 02:56
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Apparently he posted the email he got from amazon and somebody copied it onto Reddit quote:Hello, So who knows! Subreddit was thinking it was some sort of page count fuckery
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Jul 28, 2018 03:42
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I saw on the r/fantasy subreddit a few days back that he was apparently also trying to copyright/trademark some generic litRPG related terms and "man holding weapon" book covers, ala Games Workshop suing that one woman for writing furry scifi books that have space marines in them, or the recent "cocky" romance novel drama. https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/16/17566276/cockygate-amazon-kindle-unlimited-algorithm-self-published-romance-novel-cabal God the hubris of throwing away nearly a quarter goddamn million dollars a month writing the equivalent of Remo Williams/Mack Bolan/The Survivalist/Wingman pulp stories because you've just gotta boost yourself to Number 1 while making half your fans mad at you because they think you're gonna sue anybody who writes a bad Sword Art Online knockoff. 
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Jul 28, 2018 06:25
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C.M. Kruger posted:I saw on the r/fantasy subreddit a few days back that he was apparently also trying to copyright/trademark some generic litRPG related terms and "man holding weapon" book covers, ala Games Workshop suing that one woman for writing furry scifi books that have space marines in them, or the recent "cocky" romance novel drama. He was also trying to trademark "Space Knight" as part of his brand or something. People are still freaking out about the ban a bit but it's looking like everyone is coming to the conclusion it's rampant word count abuse and probably other stuff too we don't know about. His books average like 183? words a page while most other litRPGs were 300. Also he was involved with many other people doing sketchy stuff. 200 grand a month I really really doubt, I knew he was making some decent cash but I was thinking 6+ figs a year not 6+ figs a month.
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Jul 30, 2018 20:11
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:200 grand a month I really really doubt, I knew he was making some decent cash but I was thinking 6+ figs a year not 6+ figs a month. He was one of the top hundred authors on Amazon, so I'd believe it. It's around what I've heard the top romance people are making.
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Jul 30, 2018 23:21
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That article about drama in the Romance writers community mentions authors dropping $50k on advertising for a single release to stay on the top of the charts, which I could see being a reasonable expense for somebody pulling in that kind of money.
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Jul 31, 2018 21:09
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Just finished the first two books of The Completionist Chronicles by Dakota Krout, author of the Divine Dungeon series, and really enjoyed them. In Ritualist paralyzed former army medic Joe is offered the ability to digitize himself into Elon Musk's new VRMMO by an old friend, and unlocks an unique class offered by a hidden god during character creation. In Regicide Joe is guided by his hidden god to become more powerful, while the human kingdom led by Joe's guild goes to all out war with the nearby Wolfman nation. I tore through both books in a day and a half each, and really enjoyed them. Krout is great at coming up with novel game mechanics, though he continues to be unable to come up with good fantasy names. In the Divine dungeon books, characters were named stuff like Dave, Frank, and Steve. In this series the most creative name is Tiona or Occultatum even though he just goes by Tatum. Even so, it's something I'm used to from Krout. There are many references to the Dungeon books which are fun if you've read them, but won't interfere if you havent. So it's a recommend.
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Sep 3, 2018 13:25
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The Elon Musk bit aged well. And it's a 2018 book, lol.
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Sep 3, 2018 13:42
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If you have a certain degree of tolerance for a book being VERY RUSSIAN on an occasion, you might enjoy Arthur Stone's STYX series. It's kind of like The Walking Dead meets Mad Max with some gamelit flavor.
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Sep 3, 2018 15:11
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