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Weirkey is very, uh, deliberately paced. I enjoy it myself, but while it's structurally kinda similar to Cradle, the pacing almost never feels nearly as intense as Cradle.
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Aug 29, 2023 08:32
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Yeah Weirkey has odd pacing. They'll spend forever on figuring out windows in their character build and breeze past big stuff. Cradle is a bit video gamey in its progression, but Weirkey feels like a complete crpg system just with a thin layer of in world interface to it. The spirit house building is very odd. Still, decent enough read. Anyone got recommendations for breezy space adventure? Trying to palate cleanse bg3 and get ready for Starfield.
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Sep 5, 2023 03:05
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I liked weirkey because it's entirely possible and indeed a valid strategy to cheese your house by putting like a tarp up and going "tada, I have a roof" or hopping on a trampoline or ladder to cheese it by making you think you have another level
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Sep 5, 2023 03:38
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Finished All The Skills 2, pretty good. Getting a little more adventure-y and a little less slice-of-life, but I love the little dragon bud. Finished Quarter-Share, an Aubery-Maturin-lite from the perspective of a space deck-hand. First was great. The sequel, Half-Share, got REAL horny at end. Like, "and then they all hosed" level of horny. e: on second thought, Aubery-Maturin-lite is going to attract a caliber of readers that is misleading. its pure competency porn. tokenbrownguy fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Sep 5, 2023 |
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Sep 5, 2023 04:07
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Every book by the quarter share author I’ve read has the same beats and elements. If you like one series, you are probably going to like all of them. On the gripping hand, this means if you get bored you should just read someone else for a while because their other stuff isn’t going to do something hugely new. The author clearly has some naval experience to draw on, and the spaceships are definitely ships in space, for better or worse.
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Sep 5, 2023 12:39
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The quarter share books were ok until I think the fourth book. They were breezy books with very small stakes. It felt a bit like long way to a small angry planet, at least bits of it did. Anyway when I was checking the reviews for book 4 I see he goes to a new ship and it's like full of sexual assualt and rape?? Wtf this is not the kind of story I was looking for so I pretty much stopped at book 3.
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Sep 5, 2023 13:08
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yeesh, book three (Full Share) is getting HORNY again, and not in a fun way. i'm out. why hello there dungeon crawler carl 6
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Sep 5, 2023 22:04
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imnotinsane posted:The quarter share books were ok until I think the fourth book. They were breezy books with very small stakes. It felt a bit like long way to a small angry planet, at least bits of it did. i'm just going to buy some belts and them sell them for more, i am a genius! also everyone in the book wants to gently caress me and i'm a genius so i say yes! i assume it hasn't changed too much since 2012 when i read that book? branedotorg fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Sep 6, 2023 |
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Sep 6, 2023 00:19
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Yeah I stopped in half share when it was inexplicably becoming a harem novel
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Sep 6, 2023 21:44
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I've been muddling through the latest Weirkey since it released but it hasn't really grabbed me so I keep drifting off to other books. At least one of the characters could finally stop fiddling with his character build to do something else for a while. Re Monarch has a goofy name but those books do a much better job of wrapping their rpg-ish powering up and quick save abuse in a very plausible universe. I really enjoyed the first two but the third had a rough start. The first two Arcane Ascension books also did a good job of taking an absurdly video game-ish setup (people leveling up their very specific job system abilities in a randomly generated tower) in a very credible universe. It helps the characters in both are pretty solid and have decent growth. Their third book was also kinda rough maybe that's a genre staple.
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Sep 7, 2023 05:46
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Third AA was kind of a weird offshoot but not too bad. Fourth AA I dropped 5% of the way into the book because of its YA teen drama nonsense with garbage tier dialogue. I'll take a million pages of people in Weirkey plodding through their soulhome builds over that poo poo.
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Sep 7, 2023 06:12
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30.5 Days posted:Yeah I stopped in half share when it was inexplicably becoming a harem novel O good lord, there are enough of those around running into a stealth Harem would just be the worst!
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Sep 7, 2023 06:34
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I read the first book and while there isn’t any harem poo poo in there you can tell it’s heading that way. It was “fine” but I echo what everyone else said, it’s like he’s in a video game world or maybe the writer legitimately failed to ask themself why no one had filled such obvious gaps in this spacefaring empire like buying low and selling high. The idea to grow food with their recycled waste on a spaceship - brilliant! No one would have ever thought of that. I’ll not be reading any more books in this particular series though I do enjoy lower decks style stories in general.
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Sep 7, 2023 12:50
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An Outcast in Another World by KamikazePotato is pretty fun if you're down for a bit of progression fantasy. I think the best way to describe it is 'Dungeon Crawler Carl but slightly more vanillla' - it's got much the same premise of 'the world runs on RPG rules because the people in charge are questionably-competent sadists running a planet-wide LARP for shits and giggles', but it's a D&D-style medieval European fantasy that our protagonist got isekai'd into rather than DCC's unique brand of baroque insanity, and it adheres to a few more of the classic fantasy adventure genre tropes as a result. Good news is that it's got enough heart, charm, and basic writing competence to be more comfortingly familiar than tedious.
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Sep 7, 2023 12:55
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30.5 Days posted:Yeah I stopped in half share when it was inexplicably becoming a harem novel I'm going to start only reading completed series, I hate when stuff like this happens.
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Sep 7, 2023 20:27
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Started the Cradle series after reading this whole thread. It’s not bad so far, very compatible with an edible and reading to fall asleep.
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Sep 7, 2023 22:29
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Subjunctive posted:Started the Cradle series after reading this whole thread. It’s not bad so far, very compatible with an edible and reading to fall asleep. Truly the greatest of praise. Get ripped and have a nap with this book.
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Sep 8, 2023 00:20
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Ravus Ursus posted:Truly the greatest of praise. Get ripped and have a nap with this book. I can only say that without edibles it didnt put me to sleep, but I can see how that would have improved the experience
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Sep 8, 2023 00:38
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Cradle is so good, I need more reccs like that and less like Quarter share.
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Sep 8, 2023 00:46
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Darth Walrus posted:An Outcast in Another World by KamikazePotato is pretty fun if you're down for a bit of progression fantasy. I think the best way to describe it is 'Dungeon Crawler Carl but slightly more vanillla' - it's got much the same premise of 'the world runs on RPG rules because the people in charge are questionably-competent sadists running a planet-wide LARP for shits and giggles', but it's a D&D-style medieval European fantasy that our protagonist got isekai'd into rather than DCC's unique brand of baroque insanity, and it adheres to a few more of the classic fantasy adventure genre tropes as a result. Good news is that it's got enough heart, charm, and basic writing competence to be more comfortingly familiar than tedious. The main characters reaction to (this is one of the later book spoilers but I can't remember which one so don't scroll over unless you are up to date) the Dwarven nuke was amazing he just kinda loses his poo poo on everyone for how absurd it is.
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Sep 8, 2023 00:58
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Telsa Cola posted:The main characters reaction to (this is one of the later book spoilers but I can't remember which one so don't scroll over unless you are up to date) the Dwarven nuke was amazing he just kinda loses his poo poo on everyone for how absurd it is. I did like the reveal of the true nature of (late book spoilers) the Blight. Explained everything about them in a really elegant way while letting them retain their air of menace.
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Sep 8, 2023 03:42
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Bhodi posted:Cradle is so good, I need more reccs like that and less like Quarter share. Reborn, Book One of the Jade Phoenix Saga, might suit.
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Sep 8, 2023 04:23
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Anias posted:Reborn, Book One of the Jade Phoenix Saga, might suit. I still enjoyed reading it okay, but it's way, way below Cradle's tier.
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Sep 8, 2023 07:45
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PerniciousKnid posted:I'm going to start only reading completed series, I hate when stuff like this happens. ok so it ends with two of her partners meeting, but it's fiiiiine
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Sep 8, 2023 14:14
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Beware of Chicken is very Cradle-like and good. The MC does get cheat powers and it is an Isekai with all the tropes, but very enjoyable.
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Sep 10, 2023 04:58
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Beware of Chicken really isn't Cradle-like at all, other than being a cultivation story. It's heavy on slice of life where Cradle has almost none, the main character is practically the opposite of greedy for power, and the pacing is extremely slow, with much time given to exploring various side characters.
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Sep 10, 2023 20:20
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Beware of Chicken is a lot like Cradle if the main character decided to just farm and ignore growing in power. The rest of the farm and the barnyard animals do follow the progression fantasy mode. I don't feel like Beware of Chicken is slower paced, especially not part 2, unless you think switching to side characters makes something slow.
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Sep 10, 2023 22:13
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Eh, Jin and Lindon are about as diametrically opposed as two main characters can be and their stories/arcs completely reflect this. Jin also stops being the only main character fairly early as it moves to an ensemble piece, while in Cradle I think only Wintersteel structurally does that. And as the series goes on he plays a smaller and smaller role.
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Sep 10, 2023 22:36
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Beware of Chicken is like Cradle in that they're both good.
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Sep 10, 2023 23:25
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Beware of chicken is entirely missable until you have read a lot of other works. It’s fine, but it only rises to greatness if you have enough genre context to appreciate how ridiculously and slyly it lampoons ER gen. It is definitely not series 2 to read after cradle, it’s more like series 10 or maybe 30 depending on how into the weeds you want to get.
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Sep 11, 2023 01:13
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They're both cultivation protagonists that lean on the kinder, gentler side although they are by no means pacifists or cowards. They'd just prefer not to shed blood to resolve problems or reach conclusions. They also live in different worlds, where Lindon's seldom rewards kindness and Jin's is a lot more optimistic about things, although kindness is still not often rewarded. The biggest difference in how and why they tread different paths is that people know Lindon as this big mean bully who has eyes only a villain would, while Jin is known as a generous and magnanimous paragon.
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Sep 11, 2023 01:49
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Anias posted:Beware of chicken is entirely missable until you have read a lot of other works. It’s fine, but it only rises to greatness if you have enough genre context to appreciate how ridiculously and slyly it lampoons ER gen. What would you say are 2-9? It seems like quality drops off fast after Cradle, from my understanding of this thread.
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Sep 11, 2023 02:16
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Probably some of the content it lampoons. Renegade Immortal, A Will Eternal, I Shall Seal The Heavens. There is definitely some questionable stuff, I Shall Seal The Heavens and the parrot is probably the worst offender, but a lot of these web novels have some juvenile humor that I guess does not really get called out so it gets ignored. Think 90's style gay panic comedy. Other notable examples are I Eat Tomato's Coiling Dragon, The Desolate Era, Stellar Transformation. They are pretty enjoyable to read. Obviously all of these works are translated, usually fan translated so they are not going to be as good as Cradle in terms of spelling, grammar etc. They are not as tight as Cradle since the whole business of web novels in China is based on pumping out as much content as quick as possible. But it is still refreshing to see a bunch of different myths and legends, a lot of cool Chinese myths I had never come across before, overall the positives outweigh the negatives. Cultivation is the king of numbers going up, except you don't waste a poo poo load of time on stat sheets.
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Sep 11, 2023 03:12
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There seems to be kind of a dearth of easy to recommend cultivation fiction beyond Cradle. There's stuff that riffs on it, but not a lot that plays it strait. For the record, I don't care for the actual Chinese authored stuff, on account of the iffy translations and differing audience expectations. Offhand, my second recommendation would actually be the web serial Ave Xia Rem Y, which is a deliberate, well executed attempt to be an earnest take on the genre. Oh, and Forge of Destiny is pretty good.
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Sep 11, 2023 03:20
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Subjunctive posted:What would you say are 2-9? It seems like quality drops off fast after Cradle, from my understanding of this thread. Depends on language. If you are comfortable reading in any of the asian languages or their near neighbors, read through that corpus of works. Ditto if you are comfortably literate in Russian, they got into the wuxia stuff before the English writers and some of their takes informed cradle et al. If you are English only, but comfortable reading translation stuff, consider picking some of the well translated stuff but don’t be afraid of bouncing off it after you get a sense of the story cycles, lots of the translated things run very clean loops. Even if you are not comfortable with translated works, you should make time to read journey to the west. (Or watch overly sarcastic productions YouTube video on it) Afterwards, consider at least poking your head back into the better translations, both the ones you liked and the ones you went wtf about, and see if your opinion has changed. (Maybe an off the cuff rec of coiling dragon, against the gods, or the gods are bastards as a survey). You don’t need to stick it out on any of these, but recognizing that some kid having a divine treasure that cleanses poison or some MC loving fruit track back will help you recognize the English/Russian authors calling back these elements. Suriel’s marble in cradle, a divine treasure signifying the direct intervention of the Phoenix to change the mc’s fate echoes these other stories, for example. I think for the pure English side of things, Jade Phoenix, Iron Prince, Randidly Ghosthound, forge of destiny, and even Weirkey, Azyl Academy, or Mage Errant are all closer to usual takes on the genre played straight and will make more sense than Beware of Chicken. I’d recommend people read Selkie’s Beneath The Dragoneye Moons before BoC, even though it’s not really cultivation and it should probably be two series…but I digress. Honestly, and I hate this, I’d rec Fates Parallel before BoC to a genre newbie although Fates Paralell has massive huge enormous consent problems and my standard advice is Do not read Fate’s Paralell. Basically, beware of chicken is excellent but a large part of what makes it excellent is that it casually dunks on all these other works in a deniable way. Reading it by itself is sort of similar to reading Garfield without Garfield with no context. Or watching an abbot and Costello skit with whoever was playing the straight just absent. And that’s a lot of words. Hope it helped. Anias fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Sep 11, 2023 |
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Sep 11, 2023 03:21
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I think the idea that you need to read the whole modern xianxia canon to understand Beware of Chicken is overblown. Just being aware that a genre exists that it’s spoofing is good enough. My first serial in the genre was Cultivation Chat Group (a Chinese comedy series) and it wasn’t like I didn’t understand it; merely some jokes went over my head. Cicero’s point was more that it doesn’t have much in common with Cradle as fiction, despite sharing the same general type of setting.
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Sep 11, 2023 03:30
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nrook posted:I think the idea that you need to read the whole modern xianxia canon to understand Beware of Chicken is overblown. Just being aware that a genre exists that it’s spoofing is good enough. My first serial in the genre was Cultivation Chat Group (a Chinese comedy series) and it wasn’t like I didn’t understand it; merely some jokes went over my head. Cultivation Chat Group is genuinely one of the funniest serials ive read but its so god drat bizarre I have no idea how to recommend it to people. or even really how to describe what's funny about it. It's utterly absurd to the point of being pythonesque. It also a very 90s-high-school take on gay jokes, but honestly if you get (justifiably) upset at that kind of tone then avoid anything thats not originally in english. Some of the non-satires are genuinely repulsive and not at all in a self aware way.
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Sep 11, 2023 03:47
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PerniciousKnid posted:Beware of Chicken is like Cradle in that they're both good. I agree with this. I recommended Beware of Chicken to someone who'd never even read Cradle but they still liked it. If you've watched some fantasy kung fu movies you get the vague vibe enough  For the post-Cradle KU reading: Unbound is a litrpg cultivation-ish series that's solid enough if the litrpg stuff doesn't make your eyes roll back into your soul (which is a reasonable take). It clearly has inspiration from Cradle specifically even to the point of the MC ending up basically a void sage. I still enjoy them. I've tried to read a couple of the translated xanxia books but they are so terse, presumably from the machine translation, I didn't find them a pleasurable read even if the books seemed alright. Is Randidly Ghosthound a parody? That's certainly a title they've got there.
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Sep 11, 2023 04:42
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People generally find I Shall Seal The McDonald's to be funny even if they haven't read ISSTH, this isn't exactly esoteric stuff we're dealing with here
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Sep 11, 2023 09:23
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FuzzySlippers posted:Is Randidly Ghosthound a parody? That's certainly a title they've got there. I mean it's a parody of itself. But not on purpose.
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Sep 11, 2023 12:14
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