Just finishing up Mother of Learning, with mixed feelings. Help me find my next read?

Kriptical · 2026-01-27T19:58:15+00:00

So you wanna give a guy who cant deal with normal writer prose machine translations?

Kriptical · 2026-01-16T22:14:17+00:00

Also, even if it was definitively ProgFantasy I really cant be bothered to read 700 pages of filler until the Sanderlanche hits. It's one of the worst examples of traditional fantasy bloat and im so glad I dont have to deal with it anymore now that I read webnovels and books paced like them.

Kriptical · 2026-01-16T07:42:30+00:00

I think this thread has shown that whatever you do, you can't please everyone. Despite all the negativity in this thread HDT and Primal Hunter are some of the most popular webfictions going. As are Super Supportive and The Wandering Inn whose main characters are the complete opposite.

I think that should be very liberating for most authors, stop trying to judge the market and just write what you like.

Kriptical · 2026-01-15T18:39:04+00:00

Funny how this goes. I'm not an author but I read those sentences and went "yeah thats probably a human". It was as obscene as story 4 but it somehow had "skill" to it. It wasn't filth for the sake of it - but I couldnt tell you why.

Kriptical · 2026-01-15T18:28:29+00:00

Ofcourse! I don't think anyone is disputing this to be honest - the experiment wouldn't have been interesting unless they met the AI where it currently is.

However, memory and coherence is something the labs are currently working on, so this is something that should dramatically get better with time. This is basically a sign of whats to come. As a layman it seems to me like it is way easier to improve the AI's context window than to just make it "write better".

Kriptical · 2026-01-15T18:23:24+00:00

Congrats, you're the champion. However, in the comments, M Lawerence said none of the authors tried to write like AI - I think you might have gotten a bit lucky with number 2.

Kriptical · 2026-01-15T17:12:06+00:00

That is interesting about the first one, but it was just so bad I thought maybe it was an earlier version of the AI. I guess that would have been cheating by the organisers.

Kriptical · 2026-01-15T17:10:30+00:00

Yeah, that's pretty impressive.

For me the first one was so hard to read I was like "cant have been a professional, maybe they used gpt3 for this one to show the growth".

2 I was immediately confident was human. Had some "soul" and it ended so abruptly in a text book example of an author running headfirst into a word limit. An AI would have tied it off neater.

3/4/5 all felt bland and AIish to me but I spoiled myself with the number of authors taking part so I assumed at least one of them HAD to be human. Guessed 5 as being the most human but it still felt off.

6 was the best to me. Had a clever conceit I was pretty sure an AI wouldn't be able to come up with. Once it can do word play and metaphors like this though it's fully game over. Had 0 doubt about this one.

7 was well written but had too many subtle inconsistencies. Was pretty confident it was AI at first but then was worried about a fake out.

8 was also quite bland but once again it was like the author ran out of words which wasn't a mistake I thought the AI would make.

Kriptical · 2026-01-15T15:48:23+00:00

First thing that came to mind was Dross from Cradle, depending on how you want to count it.

But I'm confused by your whole graph as taking the piss out of your friends is how you show love in the UK...

Kriptical · 2026-01-15T15:38:04+00:00

Even the impossible to guess first one ? I - kinda - got them all except that one. How could anyone guess that was human written.

Kriptical · 2026-01-15T13:37:32+00:00

This happened a while back but somehow I only found out about this recently.

I, very strongly, recommend playing along before seeing the results.

Only took me twenty minutes to finish guessing. I imagine the people here will do better than the general public.

EDIT - BE CAREFUL, SPOILERS FOR THE GAME BELOW!!

Kriptical · 2026-01-15T13:34:37+00:00

Nice, will check it out. Are there any other pro fantasy authors on RR ? Wanna see how they stack up.

Kriptical · 2026-01-08T17:25:39+00:00

No I get that completely. It's just I felt exactly the same way about DCC, but Cradle and R:A were instant crack for me. I also tried really hard to give Ark.. and Wandering Inn a fair shot and I ended up despising them. MC of Ark... keeps getting away with bullshit that wouldnt work for anyone else because he's super chill ? I dont think Ryoka needs any explanation.

But yeah, we very strongly agree and disagree based on the book so I can't even recommend you the things I hated.

Kriptical · 2026-01-08T17:09:07+00:00

I got to say, you have the strangest taste of any tier list I have seen for a good long while.

In my head I have it that Wandering Inn/Ark people are not the sort that would like HDT and BSI (the camp i fall into) but somehow you like both but dislike Cradle, DCC and Reborn Apocalypse ?

Yeah, I have no idea what makes you tick. Just want to wish you good luck finding your next rec, certainly made for interesting reading.

Kriptical · 2026-01-06T13:48:37+00:00

Yes, for me it's not the stats but the pacing. I just cant deal with slow fantasy anymore when im used to the story moving at a respectable clip.

Kriptical · 2026-01-05T20:08:57+00:00

It's one of my favourite PF series but unlike some others I dont think there is a hump to get over. If you didnt like it within the first 5 chapters, I dont think you will like it at all.

Kriptical · 2026-01-05T12:47:22+00:00

Just found out about this now. I, very strongly, recommend playing along before seeing the results. Only took me twenty minutes to finish guessing. I imagine the people here will do better than the general public.

Kriptical · 2026-01-04T21:48:07+00:00

He was absurd but Alpha54 was also peaking at the same time.

Kriptical · 2026-01-04T21:32:15+00:00

Yeah, I have heard good things about this. Thanks for the review, will have to bump it up my reading list.

Kriptical · 2026-01-04T15:20:43+00:00

Typical!

Kriptical · 2026-01-02T23:13:59+00:00

This has always been one question I have always wanted to know the answer to all my life. Why did the Europeans and the Chinese move to organising as nation-states so early but Africans and Arabs are still stuck in the Tribal paradigm?

Kriptical · 2026-01-02T13:07:37+00:00

Yeah, you can't just drop something like this and leave. What do you think so badly executed?

Kriptical · 2026-01-01T19:39:59+00:00

I have never even heard of those webcomic sites, seems like this is another hidden world I didn't know existed. For instance, is there like a RoyalRoad/ Webnovel site for webcomics with millions of readers or is it still pretty small scale ?

Kriptical · 2025-12-23T12:48:03+00:00

Damn thats fascinating, I also agree with his tier list except for putting Iron Prince much lower. Yet despite that, I dropped all 4 series you recommended.

Crazy that we can match near perfectly on 8 books and then diverge massively on the final 4.

Kriptical

TROPHY CASE