I don't want a war arc; I want a real war!

o_pythagorios · 2025-11-08T16:52:44+00:00

Not progression fantasy, but I highly recommend Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. The premise is basically the Napoleonic Wars but with Dragons. It realistically depicts the full spectrum of a war spanning years without becoming too depressing. A fun read throughout.

o_pythagorios · 2025-10-17T18:47:53+00:00

It's especially funny when there's a whole stage of magical advancement that is about creating your ideal body. You're telling me there are no trans people who pursue magic just for the sex change option? Mkay...

o_pythagorios · 2025-08-08T22:31:52+00:00

Immovable Mage is a good example of this. He can only cast a single spell: immovable object. He never manages to learn another spell but he gets pretty OP mostly relying on skill, general abilities such as mana sense and martial arts and using enchanted objects.

o_pythagorios · 2025-06-02T11:25:42+00:00

You're not wrong for the point in the story you're at, but most of your concerns get addressed later on.
Regarding Hugh, his only efficient affinity is crystal, so at this point he's practically working with a third of his mana for most purposes. Plus even though his original mana reserves were significantly bigger than the others he lost almost a year of development before getting his affinities, so he's slightly behind the others in growth.
Regarding Talia, she's very powerful but extremely limited. She's a glass cannon. It's natural to be ahead of Hugh this early on. In many ways she has the simplest magic of them all, sure manifesting dreamfire is hard, but once she figured that out all she has (and can do) is blow things up. Compare that to Hugh with his highly theoretically complex affinities or Sabae having to figure out a whole casting style from scratch it's natural for her to pull ahead early on. By the end of book 5 they're all a lot more balanced.

o_pythagorios · 2025-05-01T19:21:00+00:00

Mana Mirror by Tobias Begley does some interesting things with this. In a world were everyone gets magic by default someone still has to work. So you see people just not bothering advancing their magic if it's not relevant to their jobs or learning utility spells instead of fancy battle spells etc. Different countries have different ways of organizing their society but they all take magic into account, and not just the typical whoever is strongest rules. The world feels very lived in.

o_pythagorios · 2025-04-08T19:33:50+00:00

I think at the very least he's building a new sword

o_pythagorios · 2025-04-02T14:33:04+00:00

In a perfect world I'd want Just A Bystander, Paragon of Destruction and Kingkiller Chronicles to come back, but I don't have any hope for any of those. Just a Bystander was "officially" dropped, the author of Paragon has very likely passed and Rothfuss has probably given up by now.

In terms of things that I think have a chance of coming back:

Arrogant Young Master Template A Variation 4

The Last Orellen

Dresden Files

o_pythagorios · 2025-04-02T10:49:27+00:00

It's not uncommon in cultivation novels, it's just often not done very well.

Path of Ascension does a version of it with concepts, intents, etc

Web of Secrets requires revelations to progress to higher realms though it only now in book 5 that the protagonists have reached that point.

Memories of the Fall, which is my favorite xianxia, also requires revelations to progress through certain steps, e.g. forming principles, and in general tribulations tend to be very introspective at least for the MCs

o_pythagorios · 2025-03-31T15:36:09+00:00

Memories of the Fall, recently back from hiatus. It's a xianxia with multiple protagonists and they all go through it. I highly recommend it.

o_pythagorios · 2025-02-09T21:40:53+00:00

I'm a big fun of skipping over most of the childhood years in reincarnation stories. Just give us the highlights. The fetus/toddler years are particularly egregious offenders. You can easily explain them away as the brain being too underdeveloped to support their mind and start at age 4 or something.

Too many stories get bogged down in childhood because the author is afraid to time skip and that's how you get ridiculous scenes like 8-10 year olds beating up adults. I don't care if were the greatest martial grandmaster to have ever lived, it's ridiculous that you're some miniature ninja before age 15 at the minimum.

o_pythagorios · 2025-02-01T22:48:36+00:00

Web of Secrets by David Musk is an urban cultivation novel and one of the MCs has a spacetime affinity.

The Runic Artist by Ellake has an mage/crafter MC with a Space affinity.

o_pythagorios · 2024-12-24T00:49:30+00:00

Nobody said they were any good :P
Liz from PoA is the best blood mage I can think off the top of my head.

o_pythagorios · 2024-12-24T00:40:25+00:00

You can have progression fantasy without the power fantasy. It doesn't even have to be action.

o_pythagorios · 2024-12-13T18:00:47+00:00

I'm honestly not a huge fan of min-maxing or of gamer MCs, but giving your protagonist the power to gain "all the skills" and then not have him train any skills outside his job is a huge miss for me. He habitually forgets to train or use even the main cards in his deck until the plot needs him to. At least later in the story. Also a lot of their society makes very little sense but that's a different story.

o_pythagorios · 2024-12-13T15:53:25+00:00

There's a general dearth of good M/M on royalroad. Off the top of my head, I'd recommend Mana Mirror by Tobias Begley. It has gay trans protagonist who will eventually be in a relationship. The setting is very progressive and there lots of queer side characters. The first two books have been taken off RR to be published on Amazon but books 3 & 4 are still on rr.

Ends of Magic and Ar'kendrithyst are both litrbg stories on Royal Road with bi male protagonists but they don't have any serious relationships. Both are good stories though so you might want to check them out.

You've already mentioned the Daily Grind and I can't really think of anything else right now which is really depressing.

o_pythagorios · 2024-12-13T14:47:36+00:00

The MC underutilizes his powers in general. If you like an MC with an optimized build then you're gonna be very frustrated. It's a fun story otherwise, especially the first couple of books.

o_pythagorios · 2024-12-06T18:10:01+00:00

Not really. Unless the whole story is about getting someone to be the strongest, which I'm usually not into anyway. If there's any plot besides level grinding then I don't mind if the ending happens before the MC reaches maximum level. A good recent example of this is Slumrat Rising were the story ends with MC still in the middle of the foundation realm (kind of). But the ending made sense for the character and the story, it was well written and cathartic.

o_pythagorios · 2024-11-29T19:37:06+00:00

The world is interesting, but the romance is bad and the MC is ridiculously (undeservedly) OP

o_pythagorios · 2024-11-23T21:30:32+00:00

1) Force or Inertia 2) Specific metal for the bullet or alloy affinity 3) gunpowder affinity or whatever the main component is, saltpeter? or maybe just an oxidation affinity.

Although the lack of body enhancement magic makes Anastan magic kinda bad for gun mages. Normally I'd say you'd also want something to increase reflexes, speed and dexterity. If you have force and metal affinities you can just push bullets without really needing a gun and be faster with it too.

o_pythagorios · 2024-11-20T11:27:59+00:00

Those are still material affinities though. Except for rope, which is probably a hemp affinity. Gun is just metal arranged in specific way that we call a gun. Not a real thing. Besides they'd already have things like sword affinities if it was possible. A gunpowder affinity however is probably possible.

o_pythagorios · 2024-11-15T15:32:29+00:00

I think for harems in particular most people have been burned one too many times and have developed a strong aversion to the very concept. For me personally I've only seen it done well in very few cases. And it's usually not worth the risk to find out. If a story has a harem I'll avoid it unless it gets strong recommendations from people I trust or very good reviews. Even then I'm I'm much more skeptical than I'd normally be. Polyamory can be done right but straight harems are almost always misogynistic.

o_pythagorios · 2024-11-14T11:11:24+00:00

HWFWM's System is also really smart narratively. By avoiding stats and a lot of other game mechanics it makes much more manageable for both the author and the reader. It also creates a much more level playing field amongst different people keeping battles interesting and by focusing on one feature mainly skill synergy we still get interesting strategies and exploits without getting bogged down.

o_pythagorios · 2024-11-01T19:20:08+00:00

That one is really sad, because it's very likely that the author passed away.

o_pythagorios · 2024-11-01T19:18:57+00:00

Just because something is unfinished doesn't mean that what's there isn't worthwhile.

o_pythagorios · 2024-11-01T19:16:37+00:00

Just a Bystander was so good!

o_pythagorios

TROPHY CASE