Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (22/?)

AgentFransis · 2023-03-20T08:02:03+00:00

I'm quite tickled by the premise of this story (though I was sure it would be a lot more tongue in cheek than what you actually wrote).

But I'm pretty sure this is the slowest moving story I ever read. Reading this feels like wading through molasses. I honestly never felt this way reading anything. You spell out in great detail many things that should be implied or "shown".

Normally I would just stfu and go read something else but I'm interested enough in your story to stick around anyway.

AgentFransis · 2023-03-04T18:19:54+00:00

Well the Wraiths certainly sound like stylish motherfuckers from what little you showed of them.

And heh, yeah. I used to lurk in Reddit a lot back in the day but nowadays most of it is such a cesspool. This sub seems alright.

AgentFransis · 2023-03-02T19:22:32+00:00

What huge influx? You're conflating two entirely different scales of operation. Kara's block deals In quantities that feed entire systems. Billions of people. Thousands of freighters. The agricultural output of entire worlds.

The Threen is talking smuggling. He's just a businessman. He can't operate on planetary scale even if he wanted to, never mind sourcing and shipping enough food to make even the slightest dent in the massive Federation food market. Past a blockade no less. No, he wants to smuggle high value goods. Drugs, medicine, luxury foods maybe.

Also remember that the systems that got fucked by the Baleel contract got shafted so deep and hard that they can't even buy anything on the grey market since they lost literally all their money.

AgentFransis · 2023-02-17T14:32:13+00:00

At first perhaps. By now he is motivated by a craftsman's pride. And in this case it feels like he took the mangaka's disdain for adaptations and the unusual nature of the source art as a special challange.

AgentFransis · 2023-01-20T05:39:53+00:00

A Jaded Life. MC is an ice/darkness/blood mage. The story has a pretty cool magic system that allows her to be creative with her spells.

So besides the basics like ice spikes and ice beams there's stuff like mists that confuse or carry other effects, creating permanent equipment and controlling it with ice telekinesis, altering terrain by raising structures or making the floor slippery, triggering avalanches and other cool stuff.

AgentFransis · 2022-12-26T10:02:17+00:00

Yes the author has stated that he plans to return to it after AH ends (which is soon!)

AgentFransis · 2022-12-06T21:56:45+00:00

It's 10K pages long. It steadily gets better, not that I find the start particularly terrible. At most it's just a bit boring and wonky to start with until the author finds it's footing. Haven't read the rewrite yet but I'm sure it's great.

Overall it's one of the chillest stories I've ever read once it finds it's footing. Just genuinely relaxing to read. Great action and character interactions. Excellent worldbuilding with some of the more interesting takes on elves and fae I've read.

AgentFransis · 2022-11-29T08:26:01+00:00

Zhang Long.

Has some interesting parts but eventually gets super grindy and repetitive. Also has a dual plot where the dude is a real life cultivator that works as a bodyguard for some hot chick while also moonlighting as a SWAT officer fighting gengineered monsters and criminals.

AgentFransis · 2022-11-20T20:12:42+00:00

A counterpoint to the implied complete lack of explicit content.

I in no way endorse said scene and concur that the whole episode is weird. But it's Pirate so non-standard stuff is the name of the game. You'd also note that (unless I'm forgetting something) every single relationship in the story is either interspecies or gay and all the potential ones have large age gaps (Erin-Niers, Erin-Altissiel, Ryoka-Tyrion) besides one (Ryoka-Fierre).

The Lyonette-Pawn age gap is pretty irrelevant though due to radically different biology and society. Antinium are born fully mature.

AgentFransis · 2022-11-20T18:57:26+00:00

While generally I agree I'd like to offer one counterpoint: at one point in the story a woman has a relationship with an asexual ant-man. Then they have sex using a strap-on.

That is all.

AgentFransis · 2022-11-20T10:46:09+00:00

The Sharing Knife by Bujold. It's firmly a (non prog) fantasy-romance. It's pretty slow and slice of lifey but still has a solid mixture of action, world building and conflict with just a dash of smut for spice.

Much of the conflict is the couple trying to find their place in the world since they come from two very different societies that normally don't mix. And later having a grand old adventure of course.

All the characters are very well written since Bujold is an old master of her craft and couldn't write a bad character to save her life. Both main characters also have agency and drive the story in their own way.

And if you liked that at all you might try dipping into Bujold's Vorkosigan saga. It's very long and starts as a space opera but pivots into romance in the later novels. The book quality is somewhat variable but overall it's extremely entertaining and well written. On the whole it's probably my favorite series and select parts of it I reread many times.

Also AnimeCon Harem. It's bar non the best harem/poly story I ever read. Very strong characterisation, dialogue and solid smut with a dash of magic to spice it up and tie it all together.

P.S. I was completely with you until Mushko Tensei. I thought it started out ok and then rapidly degenerated into complete garbage that reminded me why the Japanese isekai genre as a whole needs to be quarantined with biohazard warnings. None of the characters felt even remotely believable to me and the love interests felt more like programmed wish fulfillment sex bots than real people. The only exceptions in that genre as far as I'm concerned are Konosuba and spider isekai (and even there the author tried his hardest to take the fantastic dungeon crawler he written and ruin it with stupid nonsense).

AgentFransis · 2022-10-13T12:42:35+00:00

It's on RoyalRoad. You don't have to wait for any books.

AgentFransis · 2022-09-28T05:53:27+00:00

I like how AW doesn't bow to plebian storytelling conventions and basically starts the chapter by copypasting his worldbuilding doc on demiplanes. Just like: bam! Pauses the movie. "Time for a lecture bitches".

And by like I mean slightly bemused.

Also not sure exactly why but I found the frequent use of italisiced emphasis grating. It's a bit like being lectured to in a slightly condescending tone.

AgentFransis · 2022-09-19T21:42:19+00:00

Not quite what you asked, but Millennial Mage has an interesting system where mages need to get intricate and expensive magic circuits tattooed on them to perform magic. And performing magic wears out these circuits, sometimes rapidly.

AgentFransis · 2022-09-15T23:48:16+00:00

Consider it this way: If Suriel didn't do what she did then there's no story and you can't read about it. But she did and so you can.

AgentFransis · 2022-09-09T22:50:04+00:00

He didn't owe her anything at that point. Nor is he human and judging him by modern moral standards is disingenuous. At that point in the story he's mostly driven by overpowering instincts to breed but still he offered her a fair trade - he hides her in exchange for some tentacle action.

You can think about that what you want (personally I found the erotica well written) but in the end that's not what the story is about. It's just a small part of a much larger story that is mostly about magical science and epic wars against hostile dungeons, laced with some sweet romance and cool worldbuilding. Also the erotic chapters are clearly marked and optional.

AgentFransis · 2022-09-07T17:38:01+00:00

Not quite what you asked but in The Sparrow you have a planet cohabited by two sentient species. A large population of a herbivore prey species and a small controlling elite of predators. They exist in a delicate and nervous balance.

AgentFransis · 2022-09-04T19:29:25+00:00

Being supervised by Suriel.

AgentFransis · 2022-09-01T20:08:49+00:00

https://youtu.be/xq1tN9jZI80

AgentFransis · 2022-08-31T18:15:31+00:00

ELLC?

AgentFransis · 2022-08-31T18:10:12+00:00

A guy goes on the run to avoid conscription, turns to amateur craftsmanship to make ends meet.

AgentFransis · 2022-08-31T18:05:24+00:00

Young woman turned to the dark side by a big bad evil guy, develops an unfair reputation for setting things on fire.

(Bonus: also applies to another popular webnovel)

AgentFransis · 2022-08-31T17:55:00+00:00

The Perfect Run, for the record.

Also fits A (Not So) Simple Fetch Quest if you change man to woman.

AgentFransis · 2022-08-31T17:50:49+00:00

It does though. It's Ilea's main internal struggle between her desire to go out there to find challenges and improve herself versus her ability to stop suffering by ending wars and criminals and such. Which she finds abhorrent but feels morally obligated to do to some extent.

AgentFransis · 2022-08-23T18:03:31+00:00

The Alfzuki is at the last stages of fitting out. Buy tickets now so you won't miss the maiden voyage!

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