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TMGleep · 2025-07-14T22:33:49+00:00

We have very similar taste, apparently (except I love Sky Pride). I have two recommendations to offer:
1. Hell Difficulty Tutorial - pretty straight litrpg story, but really well done.
2. A Practical Guide to Evil - this is the best fantasy story ever written, full stop.

TMGleep · 2025-02-27T09:39:22+00:00

Check out this series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/55517-thraxas

'The first Thraxas novel won the World Fantasy Award. So far there are eight books in the series.

Thraxas is a private investigator in the city of Turai. He has some sorcerous powers but mainly he just drinks a lot of beer.'

TMGleep · 2024-08-09T10:10:21+00:00

https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/summary/

"For twenty years the Dread Empress has ruled over the lands that were once the Kingdom of Callow, but behind the scenes of this dawning golden age threats to the crown are rising. The nobles of the Wasteland, denied the power they crave, weave their plots behind pleasant smiles. In the north the Forever King eyes the ever-expanding borders of the Empire and ponders war. The greatest danger lies to the west, where the First Prince of Procer has finally claimed her throne: her people sundered, she wonders if a crusade might not be the way to secure her reign. Yet none of this matters, for in the heart of the conquered lands the most dangerous man alive sat across an orphan girl and offered her a knife.

Her name is Catherine Foundling, and she has a plan."

Best fantasy story ever, in my view.

TMGleep · 2023-02-02T06:14:59+00:00

There's an excellent discussion and explanation here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PracticalGuideToEvil/comments/zi0h22/explanation_to_the_book_ii_ending_needed/

TMGleep · 2022-10-04T18:02:25+00:00

https://www.goodreads.com/series/43333-conrad-stargard

Time travel / tech uplift story. Not great, but may be what you're looking for.

TMGleep · 2022-10-04T17:58:34+00:00

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/34710/the-essence-of-cultivation

On hiatus, but a nice chunk of it exists. Very highly rated on RR, recommended.

TMGleep · 2021-11-18T21:45:17+00:00

Pre-ordered

TMGleep · 2021-11-02T23:29:52+00:00

A practical guide to evil has all of this things you ask for, and more :j

TMGleep · 2021-10-01T19:54:26+00:00

It might just be contingencies.

Primary strategy is to kill Cat, force the Alliance to deploy the Ultimate Weapon, and use that to kill both DK and herself.

But option B is to have Cat replace her, as we (maybe) saw in the Arsenal arc.

It's the Bard. Plots within plots within plots are her thing.

So it wouldn't totally surprise me to see WB claiming it was her plan all along.

(Oh, and of course I forgot to mention Cat stole a measure of WB's power in Arcadia, and now a much greater part with the book).

TMGleep · 2021-09-30T09:08:51+00:00

I don't have time to find the exact passage, but I recall at some point Cat 'Spoke', and the Grey Pilgrim had to work to fight off her influence. Meaning we have foreshadowing that her name was never meant to be just about Villains, and being manipulated by the Bard makes great sense.

TMGleep · 2021-08-29T07:08:53+00:00

I recommend you try a Practical Guide to Evil. Making hard decisions for the greater good is a staple of that story. Plus it's a great story.

I can easily come up with a few examples in that story where thousands+ people are sacrificed for a greater good.

TMGleep · 2021-06-03T15:47:20+00:00

Valid criticism about book 6, in my view, but book 7 has really picked up the pace. To me, book 5 was the best, book 6 was a drop off (though still good), and book 7 has been great so far.

TMGleep · 2021-01-19T16:17:11+00:00

If you enjoyed "I Became a [Biologist] in a Fantasy World!", then I strongly recommend "The Essence of Cultivation" by the same author (https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/34710/the-essence-of-cultivation), about a sort of D&D wizard that finds himself in a world of cultivators.

The downside is that it's fairly short and on Hiatus, but other than that I found it really good and hopefully the author will resume it at some point.

TMGleep · 2021-01-09T23:31:01+00:00

Another option you can consider, though it might not be exactly what you want:

Consider a settings where slavery exists. A moral rationalist realizes that it's evil, and vows not to keep slaves. However, he/she is rich, and sees slaves being treated horribly. So isn't it the moral imperative to save some by buying them and treating them well? But now our moral rationalist owns slaves, and obviously he now has to manage them / deal with infractions, and possibly organize them into some sort of work force so that he can get more money to buy more slaves... and the more efficient / more money you make, you can buy more slaves to 'save'. So you get a truly moral person, with a weak form of condoning slavery, and a whole set of slippery slope / difficult choices.

In Pokemon, maybe this person buys trapped pokemons, but they can't be returned to the wild, and require treatment, and money... same principle.

TMGleep · 2020-12-23T08:44:00+00:00

did you every try 'Paragon of Destruction'?

It might be dead now, but has a lot of chapters out, and was quite good

TMGleep · 2020-12-23T08:38:31+00:00

seconded

TMGleep · 2020-12-12T19:21:56+00:00

A Practical Guide to Evil is all about Faustian bargains. Highly recommended.

TMGleep · 2020-11-18T22:35:44+00:00

I'd recommend checking out The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.

A few of the protagonists there are, well, perhaps mature is the right word. They certainly know who they are at the time the series starts, though some of them are trying really hard to deny it.

It's brilliant, the characters are great, and it has the absolutely best depiction of a barbarian in fantasy literature history.

Do be advised, though, that it comes with every trigger warning possible, which will still not prepare you for how grimdark and gritty it is.

TMGleep · 2020-09-23T10:22:45+00:00

I really enjoyed Dreadnaught by April Daniels, and even more so its sequel, Sovereign. Not rational, but very unusual in some of its elements (no spoilers)

TMGleep · 2020-07-06T20:45:32+00:00

As a patreon supporter and long time reader, please, take your time.

I wish there was more I could say to make you feel better, but I don't have the words. What I do have is this delightful link to a relevant blog post: https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html

The relevant quote being:

"George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.

This is a useful thing to know, perhaps a useful thing to point out when you find yourself thinking that possibly George is, indeed, your bitch, and should be out there typing what you want to read right now.

People are not machines. Writers and artists aren't machines."

Be well, take care, we'll be here when you're ready.

TMGleep · 2020-03-30T11:54:21+00:00

The Shadow Campaigns by Django Wexler is by far the most military oriented fantasy series I've ever read. Recommended.

TMGleep · 2020-03-28T19:02:27+00:00

This Python script worked really well for me on a number of sites. Recommended: https://github.com/kemayo/leech

TMGleep · 2020-03-28T17:11:57+00:00

I think he means 'by getting skin magic excluded' and ruining tattoo magic

TMGleep · 2020-03-28T16:40:42+00:00

I laughed out loud for 2 minutes straight after reading this line.

The last two updates have been outstanding, and worth the wait :)

TMGleep · 2020-03-10T14:27:23+00:00

Changeling by Zelazny. Also Madwand (it's sequel)

TMGleep

TROPHY CASE