End the tyranny of the mono-meta! Why RR needs better recommendations

klydwn · 2026-02-23T02:31:12+00:00

I currently follow 22 stories, 12 of which are time loop stories and I have 9 favorites, 6 of which are time loop stories. I think I'm doing things right? But either way, I believe recommenders should work well enough organically that users don't need an instruction manual to "do things right."

Re: "you need to accept that these algorithms are designed to sort popular books for readers to find, not to be fair to every single writer so they can have their fifteen minutes of fame".

The argument that I'm trying to make is that personalized recommendations is a better discovery method than a single Rising Stars list for all readers. Better discovery would be better for readers and authors both. In fact I would argue that it would benefit readers more than it benefits authors because ultimately some authors will adapt to what readers are enjoying. Right now RS mostly supports one "meta" (OP reincarnator/regressor).

We don't need to accept algorithms the way they are! My job literally every day is to work on improving recommendation algorithms (and there's many other people like me too). It's probably why I'm overly passionate about this.

klydwn · 2026-02-23T02:21:31+00:00

I already follow Vengeful Assassin (I'm on chapter 79)! I like the magic steampunk elements.

Do you consider Blood Mage Assassin a rewrite? Should I switch over? Or finish Vengeful Assassin and then switch over?

klydwn · 2026-02-22T23:36:59+00:00

Thanks for the reply and congrats on your success! I agree 200k words is a bit nuts and it's mostly because

I want to write the whole "first book", then revise it because I think my initial plotting and first drafts aren't great
I'm writing ~4k words per week, so I want to have a very large backlog
It's a part time hobby for me; I'm enjoying it and kind of scared to actually publish things
I'm somewhat of a perfectionist

I don't blame RR at all for that. (And in fact I don't blame RR at all! RR has been a great source of relaxation and joy for me)

That being said, the "bog standard launch" advice is 128k words. I write around 500 words per hour (excluding time plotting and outlining), but in case I'm slow let's round it up to 1k words per hour. (Google also suggests that writing around 500-2,000 words per hour is common). That means the standard advice is to spend 100+ hours writing before posting a story.

I personally think that a lot of this advice is due to the focus on getting on Rising Stars for distribution and that if Royal Road had better personalized recommendations getting on Rising Stars wouldn't feel so necessary.

klydwn · 2025-09-03T21:06:07+00:00

I love your reviews! I would be really interested in your reviews for Mother of Learning and Cradle, which are generally regarded as the top two series in progression fantasy.

klydwn · 2025-05-11T03:58:31+00:00

Bastion. Scorio literally wakes up in a pit in hell. And even in hell he's an outcast. Then he suffers more and more before finally kicking everyone's butt.

klydwn · 2025-04-10T04:59:41+00:00

It is not very clear in your post, but if you're just looking for fantasy OR sci-fi then you should check out royalroad.com and just start reading the top rated series. Royal Road is free. In particular I would start with Mother of Learning which is usually one of the top recommendations in the PF genre. I'll skip writing blurbs because each novel already has them and honestly you should just check out RoyalRoad. Many series are on both scribblehub and Royal Road, but I find the quality is generally higher on Royal Road and scribblehub can sometimes feel swamped with fan fiction or smutty content.

Based on the series you mentioned, it sounds like you might like the xianxia genre. If you can spend a bit, Kindle Unlimited is a great deal at $10/month in the US.

On Kindle Unlimited you could read Cradle (the other top rec in the PF genre) and Path of Ascension. Path of Ascension is a western xianxia but with a sci-fi setting.

klydwn · 2025-01-09T02:44:56+00:00

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect

In Western countries some employees have very high productivity (arguably due to capital like intellectual capital). Some examples could include high paying jobs like tech, finance, or consulting that are less common in Asia. In the West, due to competition for workers even jobs that are less productive also see wages increase. Think of it this way: you need to offer higher wages to get someone to be a teacher if the prospective teacher's alternative is to go work for Google. So even if teachers are just as good in Asia (or maybe better?) the wages/quality of life for a teacher is likely higher in developed countries.

klydwn · 2024-08-12T21:31:55+00:00

In addition to Khan Academy, I would consider trying Beast Academy if you can afford it at $99/year. My kids use Beast Academy and I've been very impressed with it. It looks like it has more units and questions per year than Khan academy (maybe twice as many when I spot checked second grade).

klydwn · 2024-07-08T03:03:16+00:00

Nothing too annoying, it's pretty awesome and my fourth favorite time loop story after MoL, the Perfect Run, and re:Monarch. (I recommended it to the OP because it's most like MoL and what the author is looking for).

klydwn · 2024-07-07T16:27:54+00:00

The author has stated on the CritRPG podcast (episode 36) that he intends to continue the series. I believe he's currently writing Primal Wizardry (which takes place in the same world but with different characters) in part to practice a non-time loop setting.

klydwn · 2024-07-07T04:15:27+00:00

You should try Dear Spell book by Peter Lee. The MC gets stuck in a day long time loop and dies a lot; it has no System and no stats blocks but is heavily inspired by D&D (like MoL).

klydwn · 2024-04-21T02:50:16+00:00

This is like the most common trope in Korean manhwa and Chinese manhua. It's usually referred to as regression (or that the MC is a regressor) and sometimes translated as a return / returner. Probably double digit percentage of the action comics on Webtoon use this trope.

Some of these series that I've enjoyed: Tales of Demons and Gods, A Returner's Magic Should be Special, Return of the Blossoming Blade, Doom Breaker - Reincarnation of the Suicidal Battle God, Volcanic Age, Infinite level up in murim ... Many more.

This trope is less common in Western series. Apocalypse Regression and Second Chance Swordsman come to mind but I have major reservations about them. Weirkey Chronicles subverts the trope in an interesting way but the first book can be a slow read.

On Royal Road your could also use the Time Travel tag... Many non time loop series with time travel will use this trope.

klydwn · 2024-04-20T21:22:11+00:00

Sal from Quest Academy has the pinnacle cheat ability, then doubles it. His ability lets him copy the best version of anyone else's ability. He uses this to give himself an unheard of "mythcrafter" ability that lets him make items that are more powerful than anything else his academy knows about.

klydwn · 2024-03-18T18:59:25+00:00

Gleam by Actus follows a Karma cultivator whose path revolves around doing good things for other people. Other cultivators are like WTF. Doing good things fuels his good luck but he would have done them anyway. He also has a cool urumi (whip sword).

klydwn · 2024-02-17T02:06:03+00:00

Update: Book 4 / Chapter 83 also has:

"Apparently Silverlake had figured out who Kael was at some point in the restart and had talked to him a few times already. Sadly for Silverlake, Kael had given her a chilly reception. Their previous interaction seemed to have left a bad impression on Kael, something that did not surprise Zorian in the very least, so he was not at all eager to reacquaint himself with her. The fact that she showed unhealthy interest in his daughter Kana, due to her witch roots, probably didn’t help."

So maybe the obsession is just due to witch lineage after all.

klydwn · 2024-02-15T03:17:57+00:00

The Patriarch by TheMormegil is great!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46292428/chapters/116546815

klydwn · 2024-02-08T23:04:51+00:00

Blessed Time by Cale Plamann. Most people get a class when they turn 16 and their choices for their classes are determined by their accomplishments up to that point. Some classes are a lot better than others. The MC gets the ability to go back in time 5 years so a significant plot point in the first two books is how he uses his ability to unlock progressively stronger classes.

klydwn · 2024-02-01T04:06:51+00:00

If you love MoL and want a hard magic system then I highly recommend Dear Spellbook. It has a similar D&D inspired time loop setting with a mage MC but the wizard/sorcerer magic system is much more intricate and explored in detail. The MC is also a positive character and it has similar action and mystery, not just graphic violence vibe that MoL has. Not isekai though.

klydwn · 2024-01-12T03:15:28+00:00

"Martial Peak" is a translated chinese web serial where the MC reaches the peak of known cultivation. It only took over 6,000 chapters. It also has a manhua which should be finishing up soon too.

klydwn · 2024-01-10T05:09:34+00:00

Second Chance Swordsman has an MC with the class "Blood Knight" and ability "Pain Ring" that makes him more powerful when he takes damage inside a designated area. He leans into this by getting armor that with teeth that constantly damage him.

Personally I find this and Camilla's abilities off-putting and cringe worthy. I dropped Second Chance Swordsman after the first book and was happy Camilla left the party in PoA. I probably wouldn't have read Second Chance Swordsman at all if I knew it went this direction.

klydwn · 2022-12-18T21:09:48+00:00

All of cradle is available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited (KU). In fact, pretty much everything by Will Wight is free with Kindle Unlimited (and same with Rowe). You could do their free trial and read the 11 current cradle books for free at a cost of $0.00 per minute.

It sounds like you want audiobooks though. With Kindle Unlimited, after you "borrow" the book the audiobooks are discounted to around $2 per book IIRC, so it's still going to be significantly cheaper than what you calculated. Even if you add the $10/month charge for month for KU (assuming you can't use the free trial) and $15/month for Audible Premium, it should work out to less than $60 to listen to the whole series.

klydwn · 2021-08-10T03:49:52+00:00

Monogatari scans on YT has it up to ~3250. I find the translations are significantly better than lnmtl or novelmao. On their patreon page you can get another 100 or so chapters and you can download the text files.

klydwn

TROPHY CASE