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Victorkm posted:Just finished the first two books of The Completionist Chronicles by Dakota Krout, author of the Divine Dungeon series, and really enjoyed them. As an MMO player I can relate. Eventually you stop calling people by their in-character nickname and you just use their names. And if I regularily played with a guy who calls himself Occultatum, I would eventually go down the road calling him Tatum, Tato and eventually Potato.
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Sep 3, 2018 16:39
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Siegkrow posted:As an MMO player I can relate. Eventually you stop calling people by their in-character nickname and you just use their names. Well, he wasn't a player, it was just the alternate name for Joe's god who was called The Hidden God.
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Sep 3, 2018 23:14
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Oh mighty hidden god Tatum give us mighty harvests and delicious french fries.
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Sep 4, 2018 00:06
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Victorkm posted:Just finished the first two books of The Completionist Chronicles by Dakota Krout, author of the Divine Dungeon series, and really enjoyed them. I read it a while back, it's pretty fun I liked it but didn't love it, my friend who just copies whatever I get loved it though, been planning on getting the 2nd book soon, just finishing up some other things first. Right now I'm going through The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons, I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this, it's different at least and I'm enjoying it.
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Sep 4, 2018 17:12
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Man I wish I had a credit card to buy these books. Getting one in my country is a bitch and a half.
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Sep 4, 2018 17:27
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Siegkrow posted:Man I wish I had a credit card to buy these books. Getting one in my country is a bitch and a half. A lot of these are originally web serials, published on royalroad.com and so forth, where you can read them for free.
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Sep 4, 2018 20:03
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I think I had some complaints about the first book in the Crystal Shards Online series, Dodge Tank by Rick Scott in the other thread, mostly that the system in the book straight up ripped off Final Fantasy XI, and I don't think I said it there but IMO the main character Reece and his girlfriend Gilly are not quite 18 years old and are written as much more juvenile. The gist of the book is that Reece outside the Shards is a crippled teen whose stats in game have been reduced by his real life handicap, so all he can really do is be a miner. His mother is also slowly dying of cancer. In the world where this game is set, they have the technology to cure her cancer and repair his handicap, with enough money. While mining he discovers a rare drop from a mineral node, a scroll of Shadow Copy, a ninja ability that allows them to shrug off a hit every 16 seconds or so. Upon discovering he has this scroll, Reece is given an offer he can't refuse. A passing guild leader offers him enough money to cure his handicap and set him up as a Dodge Tank if he will get to max level and tank a world boss for her. The drops from the world boss would then be enough to cure his mom's cancer. I kind of thought the first book was pretty boring, and more juvenile than the character had any right to be. Most of the book is descriptions of grinding up levels and game text, but the ending is kind of neat leading into the next book. Turns out that the civilization in the books is just a city in a vault hidden somewhere in the world. The city is run on Nanomachines, and they are running out. When Reece defeats the world boss, he and his group are given the chance to move to the surface of the world, where AI nanomachine colonies have converted the surface of the world into environments mimicking the games that the crystal shards evolved from. But if they die on the surface, their consciousness will lose its connection to their body and they die for real. Reece's brother transitioned to the surface at the same time as his group, and is on a scouting mission for the government to bring more Nano back to keep the vault running. With the neat story developments, its a lot less boring than the first book, though the writing is still very juvenile. I just started the third book and I will update when I finish it.
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Sep 9, 2018 02:21
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So I mentioned the Blue Mage Raised by Dragons, I finished it and it was a blast and I finally put my finger on what it was. It was a misunderstanding comedy, kind of along the lines of the japanese LNs of Tilea's Worries and I said make my Abilities Average so that's where the tension comes from and it's more light-hearted than even pretending to be serious at all. The general fantasy system being ripped straight from final fantasy games was a bit cringe for me...but I guess tons take there stuff directly from D&D and it works. I'm mostly just surprised book 2 has so far just kept the fun going and it didn't get old or tired considering how absurd the first book ended. Ohh yeah for people who liked Awaken online pick up the japanese LN series Infinite Dendogram it's good and very much in the same vein. Victorkm posted:I think I had some complaints about the first book in the Crystal Shards Online series, Dodge Tank by Rick Scott in the other thread, mostly that the system in the book straight up ripped off Final Fantasy XI, and I don't think I said it there but IMO the main character Reece and his girlfriend Gilly are not quite 18 years old and are written as much more juvenile. The gist of the book is that Reece outside the Shards is a crippled teen whose stats in game have been reduced by his real life handicap, so all he can really do is be a miner. His mother is also slowly dying of cancer. In the world where this game is set, they have the technology to cure her cancer and repair his handicap, with enough money. While mining he discovers a rare drop from a mineral node, a scroll of Shadow Copy, a ninja ability that allows them to shrug off a hit every 16 seconds or so. Upon discovering he has this scroll, Reece is given an offer he can't refuse. A passing guild leader offers him enough money to cure his handicap and set him up as a Dodge Tank if he will get to max level and tank a world boss for her. The drops from the world boss would then be enough to cure his mom's cancer. This might sound kinda weird, but while writing was bad and the characters were kinda bland for me. A lot of what enraged me was that it felt like the dodge tank build was kind of handed to him and it's like everyone knew it was OP it was just rare. It didn't have that feeling of creatively or problem solving that I normally like protagonists to have, it was like ohh this is apparently OP...okay. I got 1/2 way though the first one before just kind of forgetting about it.
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Sep 10, 2018 01:48
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:This might sound kinda weird, but while writing was bad and the characters were kinda bland for me. A lot of what enraged me was that it felt like the dodge tank build was kind of handed to him and it's like everyone knew it was OP it was just rare. It didn't have that feeling of creatively or problem solving that I normally like protagonists to have, it was like ohh this is apparently OP...okay. I got 1/2 way though the first one before just kind of forgetting about it. This is true too. Also its written in present tense which is just weird. Its like the guy had a good idea for situation and wrote a really bad first book and somewhat less bad second and third book to slowly reveal it to whoever is reading it. I'm pretty sure now after the first third of the third book that they are on the Moon, based on a remark from one of the titular Shard Wraith's and the earlier descriptions of the Wild areas between safe zones created by the Builder AIs being just a bunch of grey sand and rock. Also, apparently there are aliens that may be on Earth or might not be, trying to hack into the Builder AI and feed on the humans in the Citadel where they live. And maybe an inside man who is trying to politically maneuver the head of the council into putting the entire habitat into the Crystal Shards Still enjoying the actual story and reveal even if the writing is dumb as poo poo.
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Sep 10, 2018 02:53
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I just bit the bullet on the month trial for Kindle Unlimited and I'm wondering if there are any horror/supernatural mystery series that are worth reading. I'm having fun with Jeff Strand's Andrew Mayhem books thus far.
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Sep 12, 2018 16:16
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Lumbermouth posted:I just bit the bullet on the month trial for Kindle Unlimited and I'm wondering if there are any horror/supernatural mystery series that are worth reading. I'm having fun with Jeff Strand's Andrew Mayhem books thus far. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076MKKXT2 is decent, reading it right now. And maybe https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075XMPMQX
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Sep 12, 2018 16:32
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How much does Kindle unlimited cost?
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Sep 12, 2018 17:23
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Siegkrow posted:How much does Kindle unlimited cost? It's $9.99 in the USA, and it's important to note if you are an audiobook listener, you can rent a book for free with KU then use whispersync to get the audiobook version (Anywhere from .99-7.49 normally).
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Sep 12, 2018 20:27
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A story I sold earlier this year is free now if you have Kindle Unlimited. I already posted in the general SF thread because I forgot this one existed  Deep Magic Magazine posted:When Jean is born with a healthy heart, a wealthy family offers an exorbitant amount of money to purchase it. When the heart is sold, a high-tech replacement heart takes its place. It's a common procedure, so what's the harm? Follow along and find out the unintended side effects that haunt Jean and the recipient, Illyia! There's a great story by Ken Liu in the same issue. I don't get anything from you downloading it, but the magazine is great, especially if you have children who want to read SF short stories and you worry there might be some weird post-human erotica by Charles Stross or something lurking past the cover.
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Sep 12, 2018 21:08
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BananaNutkins posted:A story I sold earlier this year is free now if you have Kindle Unlimited. I already posted in the general SF thread because I forgot this one existed That's fine, this is in partial the zone for us to talk about SF/F that isn't high brow enough for the normal thread.
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Sep 13, 2018 00:38
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Been reading through Somnia Online book 1, Initializing, but I probably should have asked for a refund for the 5 dollars I paid for it. Its a weirdly tedious travelogue of the first few days after release in a futuristic VRMMORPG being played by the leader of a highly competitive guild. Similar to the series Resurgence that I described in the Sci Fi/Fantasy thread, the book is really annoying because the author ripped off all the base mechanics and the entire experience of levelling up from level 1 to 20 or so from Everquest, wholesale. Its really annoying, because these 12 people featured in the book act like every mechanic is super novel, when really they are just replaying through one of the first mainstream MMOs. The only saving grace is a really confusing series of interstitials about the dude who invented the headgear the game uses, the AIs that run the game world, and developers during the year leading up to the games release, and a bunch of hidden content that the main character unlocks for her enchanter class (Again, base stuff ripped wholesale from the class in EQ) that is somehow mixed up with the special prototype helmet her mom, a developer gives her and the AIs running the game who seem to have some sort of interest in her specifically. Anyway, I'd give it an avoid, though It definitely passes the Bechdel test. Not something I care about in particular but I know a lot of folk on SA do. And its a little overwritten, at least that was my first impression. But overall, boring, especially when you know 3/4 of what shes going to discover because you played EQ back in the day. Edit: And now I just realized that the main character is dead or braindead in the real world and exists wholly in the simulation. When she logs out of the game the governing AIs are giving her a simulation of her own house, parents, and best friend who she thinks is staying at her place for the launch of the game and playing with her. I'm pretty sure her friend is actually playing the game with her digital ghost or whatever and probably isn't aware she isn't still alive. It was actually pretty well foreshadowed but still managed to fool me for 80% of the book. That's pretty cool. Makes me wish the author had used some creativity to come up with a more original system for the game to use than she did. Victorkm fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Sep 22, 2018 |
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Sep 22, 2018 02:13
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So, a quick question (that might be more geared for CC, if it is feel free to redirect me). What sells the best out of all these subgenres? Is there anything that's particularly hot at the moment? e to clarify my purpose: I've had writer's block like loving hell recently, and I think a lot of that is I'm in a really bad financial situation and I don't want to spend insane blood, sweat and tears writing something that nobody in their right mind will ever read. I think a lot of the solution to this might be to find a bandwagon and consciously jump on it, so that the pressure is at least somewhat off me on that end and I can just focus on getting the drat thing done and making it good without the little voice in my head telling me "stop writing, this is a complete waste of time that you should be spending trying to make money." WeedlordGoku69 fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Sep 29, 2018 |
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Sep 29, 2018 05:07
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Friend of mine got his first book published by some small house. It tends to fall into the military space opera camp in tone, however it features people on an alien world with early cold war tech. So you get dogfights in early jets and tanks. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HR2D1NG/
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Sep 29, 2018 05:47
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:So, a quick question (that might be more geared for CC, if it is feel free to redirect me). The money is apparently in Romance genre fiction.
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Sep 29, 2018 13:45
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Borderline smutty romance fiction. For lonely housewives.
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Sep 29, 2018 15:50
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Here is a list of trashy Sci-Fi/Fantasy I've read recently that is at least decent. 1) Forging Hephaestus- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33369873-forging-hephaestus From the author of the Web Serial 'Super Powereds' this book is actually legitimately good. Everything from the world building, to the characters to the writing style is really charming and fun. It's basically about a thief who finds herself forced into joining the not so secret superpowered league of villainy. 2) King's Dark Tidings- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28385685-free-the-darkness An emotionless killing machine raised from birth by the greatest assassins in the land has to go out into the world and learn how to interact with people. Has a lot of similarities to Light Novels like Overlord in that the main character is insanely powerful but lacks knowledge about the world. 3) Nice Dragons Finish Last- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20426102-nice-dragons-finish-last A cyberpunk story (Think Shadowrun) about a young dragon who just wants to be friendly and non dragonlike to the dismay of his family. Spends almost the whole book as a human getting up to mischief and not being very good at the whole murderous lizard thing. Interesting for the setting if you've never read one in a futuristic setting that includes magic. 4) Dante's Immortality- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39775573-dante-s-immortality Street Orphan lives in a RPG type world where everyone is assigned a 'Class' at 14. Said orphan gains a huge amount of power from this, but lacks connections or money. Because of this most of the novel is various groups trying to manipulate and make use of him. Interesting inverse of the normal trope where the protagonist is powerful and smart and manipulating everyone else. Is apparently based off a web novel.
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Oct 1, 2018 08:33
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SerCypher posted:Here is a list of trashy Sci-Fi/Fantasy I've read recently that is at least decent. Forging Hephaestus is fan-loving-tastic if you ask me. I hope there's more to come.
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Oct 1, 2018 23:20
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Victorkm posted:Forging Hephaestus is fan-loving-tastic if you ask me. I hope there's more to come. Yes! It's my favorite of all his little universes. After reading it I searched around to see if there was anything else like it, but there really isn't much good non DC/Marvel superhero stuff. Worm from Wildbow is really good, but it's pretty depressing, it lacks the humor of Forging Hephaestus. If anyone else knows of any good superhero stuff let me know.
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Oct 2, 2018 01:11
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Victorkm posted:Forging Hephaestus is fan-loving-tastic if you ask me. I hope there's more to come. Drew’s website says he’s releasing a sequel sometime next year.
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Oct 2, 2018 03:36
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SerCypher posted:Yes! It's my favorite of all his little universes. I hate to throw this out there, and I wouldn't say its all that good, really, but I rather enjoy the Cape High series by RJ Ross. Its pretty juvenile. Its about a future society where superheroes have formed a self-governing system of Halls that rests beside and apart from the whole of normal humanity. Fights between superheroes and villains are mostly akin to professional wrestling drama these days, and villains that deviate from this norm are dealt with by both the heroes and the villains. If the infraction is bad enough, they are placed into the Cape Cells, a high tech prison that cuts off their powers and keeps them away from humans and supers until they reform. In the cape cells is former villain Technico, who is there because he glassed a large valley with a death ray trying to impress his girlfriend at the time. He's just discovered he has teenage twin children whose powers are just coming in. So he convinces the head of the Central Hall to release him from the Cape Cells and set up a high school program for teen supers to make sure less and less go the true villain route. It's super sappy and full of teenagers deciding who will be whose boyfriend and girlfriend, and lots of really goofy dialogue, and I think they are really fun reads. There's like 30 of them now.
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Oct 2, 2018 10:43
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SerCypher posted:Here is a list of trashy Sci-Fi/Fantasy I've read recently that is at least decent. Thanks, I am rather enjoying this. Also, holy poo poo, there are so many pages.
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Oct 2, 2018 20:32
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Megazver posted:Thanks, I am rather enjoying this. Also, holy poo poo, there are so many pages. Yeah it's pretty long. I tend to listen to these types of books on Audible rather than on Kindle, so I tend towards the longer ones. I've started listening to generic litRPG mmo book #327 "Life Reset" For some reasons goblins are in vogue as player characters. It's alright, just too many numbers like most litrpgs.
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Oct 4, 2018 18:31
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I'm so bogged down in the sequel to Somnia Online. I hate that I can't seem to stop reading a book once I get a ways into it.
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Oct 5, 2018 13:48
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The sequel to A Blue Mage Raised by Dragons was even better than the first. This is extremely my jam. I also noticed the Cradle series is on audible now so that's cool. SerCypher posted:Here is a list of trashy Sci-Fi/Fantasy I've read recently that is at least decent. Forging Hephaestus and Nice Dragons Finish Last are good enough they have even come up in my ohh you want to read some good SF/F you havn't heard of. King's Dark Tidings is some fun trash. Dante's Immortality is...it's kinda wild...it's a royal road novel and obviously has strong influences from basically all the sources from the webnovel scene in general, it's by far the worst written of the lot and has lots of problems but ohh god it scratches that edgy itch I wanted so badly.
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Oct 7, 2018 22:05
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SerCypher posted:If anyone else knows of any good superhero stuff let me know. I thought I made this post, but I guess I didn't, or maybe it's been orphaned in some other thread by accident: It's not actually relevant to the thread, not being from Kindle Unlimited at all, but I strongly recommend Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible as as example of high-quality superhero stuff.
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Oct 18, 2018 05:26
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:
This turned out to be one of those goofy harem series that are all the rage. Not as rapey as some of them (because boy howdy do the protagonists with 'magical compulsion but the women are okay with it' or 'animal pheromones' abound) but they're mostly there to reinforce that the dude is so awesome and exhibit A is multiple women want to be lain with him. Dawgstar fucked around with this message at 11:40 on Oct 22, 2018 |
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Oct 22, 2018 11:37
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Dawgstar posted:This turned out to be one of those goofy harem series that are all the rage. Not as rapey as some of them (because boy howdy do the protagonists with 'magical compulsion but the women are okay with it' or 'animal pheromones' abound) but they're mostly there to reinforce that the dude is so awesome and exhibit A is multiple women want to be lain with him. Yeah it is that, but I think a lot of the problem for me is that the dude doesn't seem extremely awesome. He is just a strongman but has basically 0 personality or complex problem solving skills, it's just me shoot and fight thing, me good at shoot fight. Rather than like having the character come up with a clever plan or something, the women around him instead are the ones that break them out of the situation but it doesn't feel clever or ingenious from them either it's normally ahh my unique character skill here will instantly solve the problem. Maybe it gets better, but I couldn't feel the energy coming out of the writing, I didn't get that feel of the author thinking awwww yeah this is the coolest poo poo while writing it that I often get from a lot of trashy books in KU.
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Oct 22, 2018 17:48
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:Yeah it is that, but I think a lot of the problem for me is that the dude doesn't seem extremely awesome. He is just a strongman but has basically 0 personality or complex problem solving skills, it's just me shoot and fight thing, me good at shoot fight. Rather than like having the character come up with a clever plan or something, the women around him instead are the ones that break them out of the situation but it doesn't feel clever or ingenious from them either it's normally ahh my unique character skill here will instantly solve the problem. No, you're quite right, that's pretty much what it is. Were-Tiger Space Marine is as generic as possible so YOU can feel like the one who is actually the were-tiger who loves all the lovely ladies. And no, from my understanding they don't really get better. More dopey and thus maybe more entertaining depending on what you're willing to put up with, but not really better.
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Oct 22, 2018 20:28
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Dawgstar posted:This turned out to be one of those goofy harem series that are all the rage. Not as rapey as some of them (because boy howdy do the protagonists with 'magical compulsion but the women are okay with it' or 'animal pheromones' abound) but they're mostly there to reinforce that the dude is so awesome and exhibit A is multiple women want to be lain with him. wait i'm sorry what, there's an entire series about The Were-Tiger Who Fucks?
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Oct 29, 2018 03:50
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:wait i'm sorry what, there's an entire series about The Were-Tiger Who Fucks? Isn't that just Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter?
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Oct 29, 2018 13:32
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:wait i'm sorry what, there's an entire series about The Were-Tiger Who Fucks? Oh, my dude, the 'paranormal space opera' series known as Star Justice is on its eleventh book. And it's only one of the harem series the author pens, all of them about somebody who is so impossibly badass the women just can't help but throw themselves at him. He also does the 'Tamer' series wherein some guy who works for animal control is teleported to a world with hot women and dinosaurs and tames them both.
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Oct 29, 2018 16:59
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And then he has a Lion's Quest LitRPG series that's 3 books in that it seems like he will never pick up again even though they are really fun because he was doing so well with his harem garbage.
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Oct 29, 2018 22:25
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Dawgstar posted:Oh, my dude, the 'paranormal space opera' series known as Star Justice is on its eleventh book. And it's only one of the harem series the author pens, all of them about somebody who is so impossibly badass the women just can't help but throw themselves at him. He also does the 'Tamer' series wherein some guy who works for animal control is teleported to a world with hot women and dinosaurs and tames them both. Sounds like he read a few too many (i.e.one) John Norman novels as a teenager.
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Nov 7, 2018 23:36
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Dawgstar posted:Oh, my dude, the 'paranormal space opera' series known as Star Justice is on its eleventh book. And it's only one of the harem series the author pens, all of them about somebody who is so impossibly badass the women just can't help but throw themselves at him. He also does the 'Tamer' series wherein some guy who works for animal control is teleported to a world with hot women and dinosaurs and tames them both. Does he gently caress the dinosaurs
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Nov 8, 2018 00:51
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A human heart posted:Does he gently caress the dinosaurs Probably No, but the covers of the books show some definitely non standard women shapes and a strange fascination with axes so arachnaphobics stay away.  Doing cover work by commission for this genre has to be hilarious. You want a what? Doing what? With an axe? Are you sure?
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Nov 8, 2018 23:51
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