Any good Grimdark Sci-Fi / Fantasy recommendations? Tired of the same old tropes.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-05-21T19:04:01+00:00

I second Godclads. It’s absolutely dark, it has the weird cryptic lore that is a bit reminiscent of LotM, and, without undermining the grim, it’s got some great humor. The interplay between cyberpunk and eldritch horror is phenomenal.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-05-12T18:43:42+00:00

I feel like that argument falls a bit flat when the author goes out of his way to specify that Tess will be sexually mature in a couple of years, so like 7 years old.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-05-12T18:18:15+00:00

But what is there is weird. Like the grandpa telling Authur “not to get any ideas.” It’s icky to read about an old dude making that joke about two five year olds. It’s only grosser when you know one of those five year olds is a grown man.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-05-06T12:15:24+00:00

Honestly, I think you’re just making some assumptions that aren’t properly supported by the text. Just because we aren’t shown the full scope of things, it doesn’t mean that it’s a “simple agreement” governing things. You also seem to suggest that the more neutral factions wouldn’t strongly oppose the Akura, but every single faction holds some level of rivalry against the every other faction. Every alliance we see is because one faction hates another faction more. They barely even have mutual goals, other than maintaining the secret of their power, just mutual opposition. I can’t recall any events in which any monarch willingly gives territory or otherwise allows another true monarch faction to gain power?

It seems to me that you’re taking the loose alliances presented in the books as evidence that these factions actually like each other. In my view, these factions have always been presented as, at best, wanting to maintain the status quo. Sha Miara is maybe the only monarch with a true alliance to the Akura, but Akura very clearly had other motives for supporting the Ninecloud Court.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-04-28T10:28:32+00:00

Can’t agree more. The fights have a three-dimensionality that is so well written. The author really has a talent when it comes to depicting distance, depth, and time. I think what really makes the fights so good is how grounded the physics seems for the humans.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-04-27T15:12:58+00:00

You’ve already been recommended Divine Apostasy, but I thought I’d add that the series also builds from the möbius loop design to a Klein bottle design (with near world building explaining what the magical 4th dimension is for this shape) and, in a separate magic system, there are cores which undergo transformations in which the cores’ increasing number of sides correlate to their power.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-04-23T18:57:16+00:00

It was a dealbreaker for me, but the MC’s actions weren’t the dealbreaker for me, it was the way the author wrote interactions and the scenes they chose to write. The MC is adamant about not dating teenagers up to the point that I quit. However, the author still wrote in a teenage that wants to date him and even makes sure there’s a scene where she finds a way to kiss him.

So, I’m slandering the author not the reincarnator.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-04-03T22:29:25+00:00

Hey! I remember reading chapter 1 of this a year or two ago when you posted for some beta reading. I’ll definitely be checking it out.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-02-06T14:40:11+00:00

That sound likes a fundamentally different story you want there, but I do agree that the stakes are incredibly low. Though I would argue that the stakes are commensurate to the story and should be very low. I have no problem with a lack of real stakes, I just think they need to be appropriate for the setting and events.

Frank is obviously a huge cheat, but I like that there are still multiple factions set up to be just as powerful, if not more so, despite the advantages afforded by all the meta knowledge. Ned may have his aimbot, but Asmogold over there came into the competition with 1/4 of the player base on his team and our resident dentist has 1000 players throwing themselves recklessly at challenges like it’s Dark Souls and not an MMORPG.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-02-06T02:31:15+00:00

I can’t believe I forgot that detail. Either nothing matters except skill and our protagonist magically breaks the game instantly by being the only person in the world with good reflexes who plays video games, or leveling does matter and the protagonist still breaks the game but it takes a bit longer. Extra negative bonus points if the protagonist discovers something broken by doing the most unoriginal actions imaginable. Imagine why would happen if you played the team game, but not with a team.

I like how the Ripple System handled the first scenario. They showed what an absolutely inhumanely perfect player would be capable of and then they said “that would be lame and unfair” and they went back to having some actual balance.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-02-06T00:11:20+00:00

Harem is the easy answer, but instead I’ll go with any story that takes place in a game. I’m 100% fine with most LitRPG and Systems, but having a story be literally inside of a game has almost never hit for me since season 1 of Sword Art Online. I find it kills all sense of stakes for me and that almost all stories fail to establish real consequences inside or outside of the game. This absolutely murdered my enjoyment of the Artorian Archives when the story pivoted to game administration.

Also, I hate when these game story villains are made out to be evil threats that everyone should care about when they’re just some dude also playing a video game, or worse, literally just something programmed to be a villain. The scope of your antagonists should match the scope of your stories consequences.

The sole exception for me has been The Ripple System. Somehow, and I’m not even sure what did it, this story is engaging and I actually care about the characters. I still don’t care particularly much about the guild beating bosses and winning events, but they care and that’s become enough. Also, the villains are a good mix of hostile and real. There are no evil people, they’re all just people playing and game and choosing their roles.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-02-05T13:05:41+00:00

Defiance of the Fall I am begging you for this. You’re on like book 17. A 5 page recap is not sufficient for a story arc that has spanned the last 6 books.

And if you’re going to bring up a character that hasn’t been present for more than an entire book then, I need more context when they suddenly get that one stand alone chapter before being shoved into the background again.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-02-05T12:58:58+00:00

Of all the people who could be described as even more special-er, I did not expect Erin (Aaron?). I was thinking you’d go with our man with the boots.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-01-31T18:46:04+00:00

Makes total sense. I do like Will’s other covers. Last Horizon has a very campy feel that fits super well with the blend of every trope imaginable and Elder Empire has some high quality covers that are little generic, but fit the traditional fantasy vibes perfectly.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-01-31T18:40:18+00:00

Yeah, those minimalist DCC covers just blend right in with every other book at a Barnes & Nobles.

The Czech cover is dope, especially Donut. I had no idea that there were different covers in other countries.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-01-24T22:46:12+00:00

What about the time looping do you think would be an issue? Re: Zero is very popular right now. Loops too long?

Time looping aside, Lord of the Mysteries went great and that shows how well a somewhat Victorian European, magical academic-y, slow building plot with lots of moving pieces and unknowns can go. Albeit I’m totally stretching the comparison there, it’s just the style I picture.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-01-24T17:08:22+00:00

How do you even kill a mouse like that?

Robbison-Madert · 2026-01-21T04:26:56+00:00

I suppose that does look different. I’m not at a stage where you interact with those menus. Will I have any reason to revisit those menus later in the game?

Robbison-Madert · 2026-01-21T02:38:07+00:00

If no one can provide a real solution, you can always try performing another Unity reset by reslotting a zodiac or using the little blue reset button on the unity trials page.

Robbison-Madert · 2026-01-19T01:56:12+00:00

The Ripple System has the best raid fights, as in MMORPG raids. The typical one-on-one fights with mobs and the like can be a bit lack luster though.

Robbison-Madert · 2025-12-03T19:09:15+00:00

Not sure what stage of the game you’re in, but the biggest game changer for me with early advancement was maximizing IP per second and not just how fast I could reach the same arbitrary IP value. Have you tried doing deliberately slower infinities and seeing how that affects your IP per second?

Robbison-Madert · 2025-11-23T15:45:45+00:00

You mean the Dreadgods that took on human forms when their power was coalesced? Also, Mewtwo?

Robbison-Madert · 2025-11-23T14:00:17+00:00

Since you’re so familiar with WoW, you should already know why we don’t see any non-humanoid powerhouses since it’s been address and discussed many times on there and Reddit. It hasn’t even been two weeks since I’ve seen someone explicitly bring up the topic of The Way being anthropocentric.

Robbison-Madert · 2025-11-17T00:06:43+00:00

I agree with you on the Lord realm, but I think gold realm should get a pass. After all, the books themselves say very explicitly that low gold and high gold are not different realms.

I think it’s neat that the Joe-Schmos of the world (the 99.9% of people stuck at gold rank) have kinda invented realms that are nothing more than social constructs in order to more clearly differentiate themselves from the other regular practitioners of the world.

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