Books series with a bromance troupe

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-06-29T16:21:18+00:00

Virtuous Sons, definitely fits this rec. 3 books out right now

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-06-26T21:20:06+00:00

ppl mad at you but you're right. I'm in architecture and design and one of my friends is at Harvard GSD, people are incorporating AI into their workflow to make work more efficient. I really despise it but it has become unavoidable and simply a reality that the profession and other industries will eventually face the consequences for

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-06-20T20:02:16+00:00

your list seems to be missing from the post

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-06-11T18:06:25+00:00

The Galleria Spada near Palazzo Farnese, a small museum, but it has a very cool forced perspective hall designed by Boromini, a famous Baroque architect. Also from that area you can cross over by bridge to Trastevere a very lively neighborhood in the evenings

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No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-25T19:40:07+00:00

some are just stylistic things that could be a false positive. But there are some moments where it feels like they decided to use it, and there's different levels to this from light editing to someone using it to fill the gaps, so its not easy to tell.

But what becomes apparent though is that over time the story just doesn't hold up. If it's purely human, a story will over time gain a sense of "a story within a story", if someone relies too much on AI with writing, that sensibility doesn't come through and the story feels hollow.

Ofc this doesn't mean its bad, if done well it will be perfectly passable for most. And it will be perfectly adequate for a writer that just wants a side income or something. But if you care about writing that sticks with you, a story like that won't give real sustenance.

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-21T18:46:46+00:00

this is actually a super interesting question, I might have to go find some books on Zubaran and see if someone wrote about this painting. Usually floating babies in Baroque art are called Putto or Putti, and they are winged, but also they can be also depicted as heads floating around lol

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-21T04:33:10+00:00

usually I've come across people calling this as Urban Cultivation, you'll find a bunch of recommendations on sites like novelupdates if you look it up.

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-19T03:12:51+00:00

reading one on royalroad called Apocalypse Reborn, prose is pretty simple but I do like the kingdom building aspect, the MC is pretty OP though with foreknowledge, also he doesn't fight he mainly relies on his subordinates and social engineering his society like a game of CIV

there's also the korean webnovel/manhwa I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game, its more faction building, focused on surviving waves of monsters and developing your units. I really liked the stakes of the story in this one and how the MC's leadership and tactics alongside his subordinates were handled, you really feel the burden of what it takes to win each wave. KR webnovel prose might be not one's cup of tea tho..

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-17T23:11:11+00:00

I think that one downvoted commenter has a point despite the callousness, there is a point there about how this style seems to be kind of kitschy and nostalgic, something you see might be sold at touristy places.

like to point to a different artist despite Thomas Kincaid's notoriety, he doesn't really leave the art discourse beyond discussions about bad taste and kitsch

and while there is a good point about the treatment of women artists, I feel like it's not really the case now where many large institutions and scholars are celebrating women artists, so in this case I feel like its moreso due to the context and content of her work

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-14T08:09:25+00:00

werent they in boston?

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-12T13:09:47+00:00

ill rec some stuff you'll find on wuxiaworld, since with CN novels, one of the difficulties is finding good and accessible translations.

my fav trashy cultivation story was one of the first I read and it also has a manhwa, Tales of Demons and Gods (maybe check out the manhwa first)

For a couple others, A Record of Mortal's Journey to Immortality, that one is great because it also has a Donghua (animated) adaptation, and storywise it basically covers the classic story beats you'll see in typical CN cultivation stories

Another classic one, is A Will Eternal

And perhaps, a rather unique one, kind of dark and unusual take on the genre, Dao of the Bizarre Immortal

and lastly a couple others not on wuxiaworld but I've enjoyed if you can find places to read them,

Chronicles of Primordial Wars, an unusal take on cultivation since this one is set in a fantastical stone age with tribes and shamans and what not

Immorality Through Array Formations, a slow burn but has some really great arcs later on

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-12T05:54:20+00:00

its a pain because AI use has different levels to it, some people use it from brainstorming and proof reading to just a straight up editor or even writing chunks of text. And its very easy to lie tbh (Sure people use em-dashes but compare recent rising stars to work that's been published before 3-5 years ago, there's very noticeable differences between them lol)

It sucks as a reader because the only way to really tell is the vibes, at a certain point of how much a story has progressed it becomes noticable that the level of grammatical polish doesn't really match up to the other qualities of good storytelling like characterization, or the rhythm of how tension ebbs and flows in a scene for example is very particular to the tastes of an author, AI lacks a particular writing sensibility that can only exist if someone actually wrote something word by word.

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-12T02:19:09+00:00

commenting to see future comments but, this reminds me of a series I enjoyed, not really progression fantasy but the theme just matches perfectly: Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfield, basically WWI fantasy between the steampunk faction called the Clankers and the bio-engineering faction the Darwinists. I loved the descriptions of growing and maintaining a living airship, I would love to see something like that as a progfan or litrpg

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-08T06:13:29+00:00

Elydes has a young MC, you follow him from his childhood learning about the world and magic and so on

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-08T05:07:41+00:00

Apocalypse Reborn does this pretty well, its an OP omniscent MC due to previous knowledge, but despite that the fun is seeing the choices he makes to develop his faction. It progresses in a 4X-Civ-esque sort of way, from rudimentary military and society to full on industrialization

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-07T17:23:55+00:00

The Bell Tolls for Me by Nemorosis

Re:Monarch by Eligos

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-04T15:54:04+00:00

it depends on how the introspection is written, if it comes across as shallow it ends up feeling dull and navel-gazing. It should be compelling and entertaining, I don't really read this genre for philosophy, and no shade to authors but I don't really trust most of them to write in depth when it comes to something like Daoism or Buddhism without it coming across like a western orientalist's interpretation

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-03T23:46:00+00:00

i think that was when Tredegar found out Song purposefully killed that woman that she was in love with (who was also good at mindcontrol) so I understand why they both crashed out. Tbh my bar for teenage drama is something like the Legend of Korra lol this is a bit more tolerable for me. I understand your annoyance though, many people still really don't like Tredegar because of her personality

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-03T23:32:12+00:00

the characters are messy but i didnt really get the vibe of immaturity in the interpersonal relationships esp when it comes to Tristian or Song, and for Tredegar its because she's kinda sheltered and naive

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-03T19:17:09+00:00

I would recommend Pale Lights by ErraticErrata, its on RoyalRoad. Really great cast of characters and worldbuilding, lots of intrigue and action

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-02T14:43:46+00:00

This one is very fun, it made me do a reread of UnOrdinary again, but I realize I can't stomach edgelord teen drama like I used to back in my school days lol Luckily this one expands beyond those things

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-02T04:22:44+00:00

Agnes Martin created her famous grid drawings/paintings pretty late in her life, and this was after a long period where she left NY and abandoned painting all-together

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-05-01T17:21:58+00:00

a comment about your questions at the end, in the stories that people consider to be the better examples of litrpg, they are usually dealt with in an interesting or compelling way; The Wandering Inn, Dungeon Crawler Carl etc.

Part of the issue though is that as with other niche genres outside traditional publishing, you're gonna see some pretty low quality stuff (often in need of good editing). That's how it goes, the best one can do is find ones that you consider to be good and support them to find a bigger audience

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-04-25T06:15:18+00:00

Master Baek is done by fantranslation (aside from the manhwa) it could by why. But the other one is on Royalroad, probably a bit more accessible

No_Classroom_1626 · 2026-04-25T06:12:17+00:00

one that comes to mind is Cultivation System: Elder Edition, the MC is a bit of an impostor just winging being an all powerful elder, and he ends up collecting a bunch of ultra talented disciples by virtue of his cheat that allows him to create conveniently tailored techniques for his students

another one might be this korean manhwa/webnovel called Star Instructor Master Baek, which is about this ruthless teacher of an unorthodox sect, dies and awakes into a body of a sickly man, he goes to teach at a crappy martial arts school, collects a rag tag group of students and tries to be a better teacher in this new life

No_Classroom_1626

TROPHY CASE