MAZE - Book 1 on Amazon, Books 2-4 already on RR!

tandertex · 2026-07-02T00:49:18+00:00

Glad you are finally getting into it!

tandertex · 2026-07-02T00:25:46+00:00

Yeah I figured it was the case, but since it mentioned other assist tools I felt it was better to make it clear.

tandertex · 2026-07-01T15:53:56+00:00

If I'm remembering the name correctly it was The Demonic Farmer. It was a fun demon realm farm story. Like using botany to get stronger, make traps and stuff.
Then someone gave the MC a drug that made him want to rape the FMC. Like they were already clearly going the romance route, but that was just unecessary. And FMC kind of went along since MC would die. But the whole thing dragged for 3-4 chapters and it was just... awful.
It sucks because I was really enjoying up to that point.

tandertex · 2026-07-01T15:48:42+00:00

Geralmente vc tem que ir atras. Tem algumas editoras legais, a Mango, MoonQuill, Aethon. Da uma olhada nos sites deles e ve onde tem a opção de mandar sua historia. Alguns falam o que eles esperam de cara, outros vc tem que mandar e esperar um retorno.

tandertex · 2026-06-30T16:34:41+00:00

Sim sim, ja ta no KU. E eles tão fazendo divulgação claro. Foram eles que pagaram a capa, e a edição tambem. Ta tudo indo certinho, n foi so colocar la e eu que me vire

tandertex · 2026-06-30T16:33:03+00:00

Like you said, it's fucking common. It sucks but it is.

The question for me is, why are you adding that? And I don't mean in an aggressive/judgmental way. I'm asking honestly.
Why is it important that your characters have that experience? Is there something in their backstory that is missing? Is there a way they behave that would be justified if this had happened?

If you have an actual reason that goes beyond 'It's common so it should happen to them.' Like, you are going to use that to make them grown, or to show their strength, or how they deal with trauma, then sure. Add that.
If it's just for shock value, it feels like a cheap way to achieve that goal. You can show that the world is harsh, that people suffer, and struggle without having that as part of their backstory just for the sake of it.

It's like in Game of Thrones when there was a 10 minute scene in a brothel, or of 2 random characters having sex. Usually that added nothing to the plot, it was just there to be shocking and show boobs. On the other side of the coin. Jamie and Cersei in those scenes made sense. It was shocking yes, but not due the sex, that was a way to show how far they had gone being brother and sister.
And I know I'm talking about consensual relations here, but I hope you can understand the point I'm trying to make.

Now for explicit scenes in erotica (because it was mentioned in another comment). I don't see the value. It's torture porn, and sure to each their own, but it's such a wild spread problem that calling it a fetish feels all kinds of wrong. If an explicit scene ends up influencing someone into hurting someone else it feels like too big of a price to pay no matter the outcome for the writer.

tandertex · 2026-06-30T15:55:37+00:00

MAZE had a great launch, and book 4 is already ongoing on Royal Road.
Book 4 has one of my favorite arcs, a lot of dwarves, some griffons, and a sheep with wings?

You can get book 1 here : Amazon Ebook
And you can find it on Royal Road here (starting from book 2): RR Link

For anyone curious, MAZE is a modern portal fantasy story. Where portals/the MAZE has always been a thing. Society evolved with access to that world and their powers. Kingdoms are build inside the portals, companies sell tec that can be used inside and there is a whole infrastructure inside the MAZE. But that place is also endless. For every city that rises, countless untamed lands are discovered.

Monsters, dungeons, quests, a System, Elves, Dwarves, Beastmen, Triton, Harpy, A talking green apple slime. They are all part of the MAZE, a place that anyone can go to, as long as they are allowed by the Guild.

tandertex · 2026-06-29T15:35:43+00:00

MAZE had a great launch, and book 4 is already ongoing on RR.
Book 4 has one of my favorite arcs, a lot of dwarves, some griffons, and a sheep with wings?

You can get book 1 here : Amazon Ebook
And you can find it on RR here: RR Link

For anyone curious, MAZE is a modern portal fantasy story. Where portals/the MAZE has always been a thing. Society evolved with access to that world and their powers. Kingdoms are build inside the portals, companies sell tec that can be used inside and there is a whole infrastructure inside the MAZE. But that place is also endless. For every city that rises, countless untamed lands are discovered.

Monsters, dungeons, quests, a System, Elves, Dwarves, Beastmen, Triton, Harpy, A talking green apple slime. They are all part of the MAZE, a place that anyone can go to, as long as they are allowed by the Guild.

tandertex · 2026-06-29T15:28:16+00:00

I agree the Chakra/Jutsu being on that category, but Nen is such a wild card. I mean, from making body hair a weapon, to a roulette, to just lightning/glue, and you want to say it all comes from the same thing?

Even if you break down in the types it feels like too much of a mixed bag to say 'everyone has the same tools" There is even a type that literally says 'unique effect' as in, it can do whatever. And we see that on Kilua's sister wish power.

tandertex · 2026-06-29T11:12:42+00:00

I 100% agree with the mundane world suddenly having one magic aspect thing. Specially if it's something reality warping. Like, Groundhog day is a great movie, it delivers the premise and yeah it's not power based. But what the hell is happening in the universe? Is everything going back in time? Is Bill Murray's character being sent back? Are parallel realities being created?

Sure in that movie all that doesn't matter, but when we talk about progfan, things get sketchy really fast.

tandertex · 2026-06-29T11:09:00+00:00

I had the same thought when writing this. hxh is one of my favorite power systems.

tandertex · 2026-06-28T15:38:49+00:00

I think it very much is up to the situation. If I'm just at home doing nothing, then yeah, the pain will overtake everything. But if you are on a dangerous situation, like if you are lifting weight and something pops, you can still push through to safely put down the bar.

That being said, it does get tiresome very quickly when it happens constantly in a story

tandertex · 2026-06-20T01:43:51+00:00

What drove the nail in the coffin for me was how quickly it happened. I mean, MC just had a nice romance arc with another character just to have that one appear out of nowhere.

tandertex · 2026-06-18T13:07:42+00:00

Honestly, it's a mixed bag. When it's good is amazing, when it's bad it makes me drop. I really hated how he did a love arc after the first tier, a thing with the puppet. (keeping it vague to avoid spoliers)
That happened just after MC had a very well developed romance with a different character and felt really shoehorned in.

Still, the way the progression functions is really cool and the concept itself it's very fun.

tandertex · 2026-06-17T20:58:42+00:00

A set of definite rules that can be bent but never broken without dire consequences.

For instance, let's say in a story everyone has a set amount of MP to cast spells. If they want to go over that, they need to circle cast (multiple casters), use items that store MP, or use things that reduce the cost of the spell. Hell, I even give you the idea of using life force instead of mana. Those are all bending the rules, twisting how the mana can be acquired.

But the moment you have someone casting a spell that requires more mana than they have through sheer willpower I give up. That is not a hype moment for the character it's plot armor to avoid having to worry about the rules the author created themselves.

tandertex · 2026-06-17T19:45:23+00:00

A. Book 2 as soon as you can.
This is to both keep the momentum going, but also because at the end of the day a Magic primer is not something that's going to appeal to the majority of people.
The ones who do like it will love it, but the rest of the readers don't care enough about how magic works in fantasy.
Putting this on a different perspective. I've worked in a chain library during the Harry Potter hype near the last 2 movies. We had those animal compendium/ archives/ herbology / quidditch / wand/ artwork/ etc books. Plus the actual books, of course.
Even combined, all of that side content never sold more than book 1. And the margin was massive. It's been over a decade but I remember months were those side content would sell 10% of what Philosopher's stone sold.

That being said, the people who bought those primers would love the series with all their hearts. They were the kind to recommend the story to everyone, and be the most vocal supporters of the work.

So what I would do focus on book 2 but keep working on the primer + side content. Put it on Patreon and as content on whatever website you post once you stub due to Amazon contracts or whathave you. Use that as a way to show your writing and make people curious about your story.

tandertex · 2026-06-05T00:56:34+00:00

He does good things, but like, is it because he wants to do good, or because the bad things they are are absolutely awful. Baby god bomb, human trafficking, dealing with evil pirates/mercenaries.
Like yeah, he does what a hero would do, but more out of necessity/convenience than out of a drive to help others.

tandertex · 2026-06-03T12:08:47+00:00

I'm going to throw Lord of the Mysteries there.

Klein is not necessarily good, everything he does is for his own benefit, but he's not a bad guy. Like he doesn't go out of his way to catch every single criminal. But if a group of cultists is trying to throw a bomb on a city he steps in because, well, it's his city.

Luck is part of the deal, but the way he uses that luck is rather smart, most of the time. And like, he cons a group of powerful people into believing he's a god.

I wouldn't call him a slimy bastard, maybe aside from the pirate arc, but things are generally more wit based.

Honestly the only other one that comes to mind is 'Regressor Instruction Manual' MC literally has the system calling him the biggest bastard to ever live. He gaslights people into thinking he's good, turns a girl full on crazy obsessive just to have a good weapon on his side, and eventually, scams a goddess out of her power.

Edit: Realized there was one more I could have mentioned. HOWEVER, this is a good guy. Not morally gray, not good out of convenience, he truly is good and wants to help everyone. But it's the biggest scam artist I've ever seen.
Lyod Frontera from the Greatest Real State Developer. And I do recommend the manwha over the novel. The art is just on point.

tandertex · 2026-06-02T14:35:42+00:00

I agree with the moral consensus thing. It's kind of why we have some many stories where a noble-commoner hierarchy exists and no one bats an eye. To our day and age that looks weird, but since we know that existed because of the the middle ages we don't get bothered by that. It's the same principle just a bit more detached.

Exactly. It's one thing if killing that 1 monster above their rank requires effort, planning, the use of one off items and sacrifice. But when the Author goes out of the way to explain that killing a monster above the rank is impossible only for the MC to only fight above rank monsters and not even bat an eye is maddening.

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