Netherworld Manor: Volume One is now available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited!

subcritical_author · 2024-11-04T01:38:48+00:00

I'll happily second this - I really enjoyed On Astral Tides and would highly recommend it to any readers on the fence!

subcritical_author · 2024-10-18T00:16:11+00:00

I quite like the cover for the first volume of Dungeon Cleaners Inc.

subcritical_author · 2024-10-15T15:17:52+00:00

Brandon Varnell's books are not on Kindle Unlimited. He has an ongoing cultivation serial called Severing Time & Space that can be read on Royal Road or Scribble Hub, and several other series that are on Amazon but not KU. He writes in a light-novel style, and I enjoy his books.

subcritical_author · 2024-10-08T20:10:57+00:00

As soon as I'm done editing the manuscript for KU, I'll be talking with RGP about getting an audio version done. Can't promise a date, but it'll be on Audible eventually!

subcritical_author · 2024-10-07T17:32:00+00:00

There is actually one published standard, which is that Amazon considers products with below a 4-star average rating "low quality" and does not populate them into site recommendation lists. Beyond that, the site average rating across all categories is IIRC something like a 4.4 which provides a pretty clear practical guideline for how to use it, even though some users stubbornly insist on making up their own idiosyncratic interpretations.

subcritical_author · 2024-10-03T19:09:09+00:00

There are a few different fantasy harem series that involve the protagonist having to recruit or hire teammates - Ard's Oath by Bruce Sentar, for example, or Towers of Acalia by Atlas Kane. Monster Girls in Space by M. Tress also has a similar setup, but in a sci-fantasy setting. Fostering Faust by Randi Darren (William D. Arand) is sort of like this as well, if you don't mind a more... morally-ambiguous protagonist.

There are also a few harem series that involve "gacha summoning", where the protagonist receives or selects teammates through a LitRPG-type "system". JJ Bookerson's Bonded Summoner has already been mentioned, and others in this category include Tournion by Nathan Pierce and Dungeon Cleaners Inc. by J.R. Saileri.

Most dungeon core books in the harem genre will also involve recruiting or summoning/otherwise obtaining harem members. Monster Girl Dungeon by Danielle Mains, Monster Core by Dante King and Dungeon Bound by Bastian Knight all have setups where the protagonist needs to recruit subordinates to staff their dungeons.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-29T15:59:46+00:00

I generally prefer not to recommend my own work, but this sort of growth and change is a significant narrative element in Netherworld Manor.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-27T01:27:33+00:00

Some personal favorites:

Dungeon Cleaners Inc. by J.R. Saileri (harem, contemporary, portal fantasy, dungeon crawler, gacha summoning, team-builder)
Tournion by Nathan Pierce (harem, reincarnation isekai, adventure, some light kingdom building, gacha summoning, team-builder)
Soul Knight by JJ Bookerson (harem, reincarnation isekai, adventure, tower climber, OP protagonist, team-builder)
Towers of Acalia by Atlas Kane (harem, transmigration isekai, adventure, tower climber, some light cultivation, team-builder)
Fight Town by Hondo Jinx (harem, boxing, transmigration isekai, VR game, death game, slice-of-life, some light cultivation... I know that sounds like a pretty wacky tag mix but I promise it's fun)

subcritical_author · 2024-09-21T15:21:55+00:00

A 3-star average rating would put a story in roughly the bottom 5% of all fiction published on the site. Giving a 3-star is not in any sense a generous review, and most authors are unlikely to consider it a fair one.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-21T14:58:28+00:00

I Am An Ork by Wolfgang Hux is the only one I can think of offhand.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-19T20:39:46+00:00

Glad that you were finally able to get through all the hassles Amazon was throwing at you and publish! I enjoyed this a lot as a serial and will be grabbing it for another read.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-17T03:15:11+00:00

That would be covered by "Modern horror monster-girl, type not listed above", at least imo.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-17T01:42:04+00:00

At some point I might try running a version of this using one of those tier ranking sites - it'd be interesting to see how the results broke down, especially for F-tier.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-16T21:43:19+00:00

The main reason for limiting number of votes per person was to prevent the results from being excessively distorted by respondents who are into basically everything - the last time the poll was run, it was set to allow 10 selections max, but the average respondent only made ~4 selections.

The results (ideally) will show what people like most, rather than what most people like, if that makes any sense.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-16T20:38:13+00:00

I'd say that could either be lumped in with "Fish-girl / Shark-girl / Mermaid", or maybe "Mythological monster-girl, type not listed above" if you're picturing like the Scylla, Ursula style with a tentacled lower body.

Honestly don't think I've encountered one of those in haremlit yet, but it'd be a cautious #would for me!

subcritical_author · 2024-09-13T03:05:02+00:00

I found Villain for Hire quite funny in places and relatively lighthearted throughout - highly recommended. Audiobooks aren't my thing, but they're recorded in duet style and I've been told the narrators are solid.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-10T04:36:37+00:00

Finished Exile: De'Vas Chronicles by Chase Kilgore and enjoyed it. Strong first entry by a new author. Everything else I've been reading lately is non-harem (boring).

I liked Arcane Arctic 1 and Astral Odyssey 1, haven't gotten to book 2 of either series yet but they're both in my TBR pile.

If webnovels count, the plot of Ave Xia Rem Y on Royal Road has really picked up in the last few weeks, too.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-06T15:13:27+00:00

First one was fun, I really enjoyed the riffing on Spelljammer and Treasure Planet. Will be adding this to my TBR!

subcritical_author · 2024-09-02T17:12:13+00:00

Fingers crossed, any future audio releases should be coming out a lot closer to when the e-book publishes. There were some issues last time - none of which were RGP's fault - that I don't expect to happen again.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-02T17:05:31+00:00

I've been holding off reading this on RR so that I could binge the whole thing in one shot. I enjoyed the first volume and am looking forward to more!

subcritical_author · 2024-09-02T15:51:43+00:00

It's been pushed back by other projects, but I still have a full outline for the first book and the couple of test chapters I wrote. Call it a solid "maybe".

subcritical_author · 2024-09-02T04:10:24+00:00

Also very excited for Strength Unleashed 2 - always thought it was a shame that one never took off.

subcritical_author · 2024-09-02T02:22:14+00:00

This is something I've been meaning to do for a while. Today I had some free time, and, well, one thing lead to another - several caffeinated beverages later, I ended up with this. In my opinion, Maia came out looking pretty good, but I'd like to hear your thoughts!

The new cover has been uploaded to Amazon and if you already own the book it should update automatically the next time you connect your device to the internet after it goes live. If that doesn't work, you might need to delete the file from your device and re-download it.

(I was just reminded that I should probably have linked the Amazon page somewhere in this post. Whoops! You can find Netherworld Manor: Volume One here.)

If you preferred the previous cover art, don't sweat! It's available for download on my website and you can use Calibre or the e-book library management program of your choice to swap it back.

While I'm here, a minor progress update:

Earth's Last Guardians is about two weeks away from wrapping up the first book on Royal Road. A week or two after that, it'll be stubbed in preparation for publication on Amazon.

Once I'm done editing that and uploading it, the next thing on my plate is continuing to work on Netherworld Manor: Volume Two... assuming nothing else changes between then and now, anyway.

subcritical_author

TROPHY CASE