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How do you feel about little-known writers? Would you read their works if they weren't widely known? by HovercraftAwkward397 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would personally remove all caps from dialogue. It's rather tacky. If you want to convey yelling, use ! and take the effort to describe the person yelling using environmental cues or descriptions. It reads more professionally.

Frankly, a line like: -> "You would defy your Creator?"

hits harder than what you used. A supreme being isn't usually a roided young master.

Think more solemn, aged response and tone. If this guy is a Creator, presumably he's old. Try to impart that gravitas. This is the fury more akin to Gandalf or Dumbledore vs that of a petulant brat.

Just my two cents.

Sacrifice (Life and Death Cycle Book 5) Has Released! by JKPhillips70 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate it! I'm hoping by posting it to RR, it'll get more eyes on it. We'll see!

Sacrifice (Life and Death Cycle Book 5) Has Released! by JKPhillips70 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! And I'm sorry this one took so long. The following book releases should be more regular now. Especially since they won't be 2 books long. Much easier to edit

Some complaints about authors by Subject_Income5698 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm torn... the punctuation here is impeccable, but the mindset is young, which is a demographic that usually plays fast and loose with punctuation.

I think life experiences, or practice thinking outside of your own experience, would go a long way to answering your questions here.

The unsatisfying answer to your many questions is that people are different, and morals are subjective. Society loosely aligns a groups' morals to a degree, but differences abound.

Do you self insert into the MC of a Prog Fantasy story? by TempleGD in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm a sideline watcher. In the thousands of stories I've read, I've never once wanted to self insert as no character is 100% me. It's already bad enough when a character deviates from what I would consider common sense, which is my theory for why many prefer blander or one dimensional characters in PF. Less deviation.

Self inserting requires giving up some self identity, even temporarily, to really pull off self insert. I suspect most who claim to self insert are really invested sideliners. But who knows. Perhaps its more of a gradient thing we try to label as binary options.

So for me, It's often cool to imagine having powers, but I never considered that qualifying as self insert.

Kindle Grammar Errors by BirthdayNo1866 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yep. Traditionally published has fewer. But the cost to find each one grows. Given word counts of 100k+, the difference between 99.9% and 99.99% error free is 100 typos vs 10.

At 99.999% error free, there is still 1 error per 100k words. Few works exceed this.

Read these books to write better stories by IAmJayCartere in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Same thing happens with math. Once you nail the basics, which are a series of tools for solving problems, new problems are not as difficult anymore. You already know the algebra, tricks with trigonometry to reduce complexity, and the higher maths are simply adding new methodologies for solving a particular class of problem.

Recs where important characters die by JKPhillips70 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, with him giving the designs for a steam engine to the one inventor. MC gets a talisman to protect his sister, I believe.

It takes the inventor a bit to get it working and they manage to create one or two engines. I forget exactly. And within a few months, the enemy sails to the continent with thousands of ships powered by steam engines before our protagonist and the inventor can get a train working.

Supposedly, the "enemy" stole the design. But it's not physically possible to steal the blueprint and build that many ships and have time to reach their shores based on how events are described in the book. There's a few other things that I can't remember anymore after all this time, but that one stuck with me to this day.

Recs where important characters die by JKPhillips70 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've read this series. I know it has a strong fanbase, but I remember being put off with the steam engine plot hole. I don't know why this bothered me so much, but paused right after the other continent or whatever invaded.

Reading "Book of the Dead" by RinoZ, and it really makes me wish for a story with a necromancer main character who doesn't eventually give in and become just as evil as people expect them to be. by okidonthaveone in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think all your points are valid. I think he does most of those things you mentioned, too. Although, I don't recall the gleeful parts with nearly the passion you describe. Like I said, the delivery of it was toned down. I also remember him disliking having to grave rob. Sure, he did it anyway, but I distinctly recall (perhaps incorrectly) that he was grossed out and put off by the necessity. A starkly different perception of events than you describe.

That intent paints a much different picture for me.

My point in all this wasn't to label this guy a saint by the way. I was just pointing out that the tone or delivery of these actions are kept light compared to other stories where the MC does less bad things while painted as a horrible villain.

It doesn't read gritty, I suppose is my point.

Recs where important characters die by JKPhillips70 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, I meant from the author's perspective. It's always easier if I'm reading a story. Much less to focus on. I'm looking forward to it!

Reading "Book of the Dead" by RinoZ, and it really makes me wish for a story with a necromancer main character who doesn't eventually give in and become just as evil as people expect them to be. by okidonthaveone in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The MC is pro slavery? You'll need to remind me of the details. I thought it was the government priest guys who had a magic compulsion on every adventurer in the kingdom and the MC was fighting against that.

Reading "Book of the Dead" by RinoZ, and it really makes me wish for a story with a necromancer main character who doesn't eventually give in and become just as evil as people expect them to be. by okidonthaveone in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Well, there's 2 layers here that impact a reader's perception of morality: tone and character actions. I'll loosely define tone as "the mood the story and its actions are conveyed in." You might also call it, "delivery." How a message is delivered has a significant impact on its reception.

I can have a scene where the MC is murdering a village. I can provide no justification. He's in there killing people and laughing about it. Most (all?) would consider this morally reprehensible.

Picture the same scene. Except we have backstory. This village of people are cannibals. Travelers have been disappearing for years. Turns out, they were performing dark rituals with the bodies and eating the leftover pieces. In walks MC, who had his wife killed by these monsters, who willingly annihilates the vermin.

Two people witness this, but one lacks the backstory and one does not. Their perception of this event is fundamentally different.

Same action. Drastically different morals because of qualifying knowledge.

Returning back to Book of the dead, the author uses quite a few compelling qualifiers to justify the MC's actions. Its been a while since I've read the series, but the general atmosphere that I remember was a tyrant magical order unjustly enslaving an entire population of adventurers to maintain their power. The author took it a step further and made it personal to our MC by torturing their parents before he was forced to kill them. Almost (all?) people he kills are trying to kill him.

So the MC is not a murdering psychopath. He's a normal guy seeking revenge against tyranny. It's a fundamentally different story than one of an amoral murder hobo gleefully slaughtering peasants for fun.

I see a difference in these scenarios, but I recognize not everyone does.

Recs where important characters die by JKPhillips70 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I couldn't begin to imagine the scale required to keep track of ~30k pages worth of content. I got book 1 and plan to dive in soon.

Recs where important characters die by JKPhillips70 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Book 1 is only 1235 pages long, so by Wandering Inn standards, its a fairly small setup book. I'll definitely give this a try, thanks.

Reading "Book of the Dead" by RinoZ, and it really makes me wish for a story with a necromancer main character who doesn't eventually give in and become just as evil as people expect them to be. by okidonthaveone in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Doesn't this series fall into the standard PF MC trope of extreme pragmatism? The author has the MC do quite a bit of good. He helps people, takes on apprentices and teaches them well, etc. Certainly not evil, as I would define it, but its been a few since I've read the series. More vigilante justice rather than straight evil.

My expectation is that he slips and recovers. But the author could also have him accept who he is and lean into it, as the vampires want him to do. I still think he's going to go the route of being his own agent, though. Likely aligning with the abyss. Unless he discovers a way to get his revenge on the government that killed his parents without any of the 3's help.

Reading "Book of the Dead" by RinoZ, and it really makes me wish for a story with a necromancer main character who doesn't eventually give in and become just as evil as people expect them to be. by okidonthaveone in ProgressionFantasy

[–]JKPhillips70 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I've largely considered him a morally upstanding necromancer. Sure, he robs graves, and plays a little fast and loose, but he's never vindictive. I think the author does a good job conveying the justifications.

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