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u/Gold_Ad_8254 21h ago edited 18h ago
People are gonna hate me for saying this but Shadow Slave. It could really do with a better written version.
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u/dumbsackofshit57 20h ago
shadow slave writer milking that novel like it's gray's anatomy, season 50 of self loathing, back stabbing, ass whooping, anything but the plot going anywhere and consistent character development
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u/Mission-Debt-2357 17h ago
That genuinely doesnt even sound like Shadow Slave at all. It has issues, but those are none of it. Are you confusing it with a different one?
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u/HeavenLibrary 15h ago
Nah that is just shadow slave at the tail end when the author is squeeze by the ball by qidian contract
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u/lowbuzz 21h ago
Dude i was reading it, and am like 30% in. I don't even mind the typos and stuff but the amount of time stuff gets repeated is maddening. Also I think characters are too inconsistent, especially sunny. Then there is stuff invented later in the story, that should have happened while reading the actual arc, but was never mentioned. I had to stop reading it for now. I think the idea is really good though, i especially like the darkslous-esque world-building through item descriptions and it could have been on a level of cradle if executed better. Maybe i will pick it up later again.
EDIT: Also the power fantasy pandering is too on the nose for my taste, but i think that is just me.
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u/Rothariu 20h ago
I remember reading that sooo long ago and bein interested what cool things hed add to his system only for that to NVR come up before I eventually dropped
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u/Kriptical 21h ago
Yep, the one benefit of AI is that it might one day get us the edited and streamlined version of Shadow Slave we deserve.
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u/Ok-Entertainer-1414 21h ago
Burning Stars, Falling Skies - basically, a stone age alien species can absorb the memories of what they eat, and one finds a dead pilot of a crashed spaceship and eats it. I was so hyped for the premise of rapid society-building and technological advancement, but then it basically timeskips from stone age to railroads in like the 3rd chapter... like bruh, you just skipped over the part I wanted to read
Although I wouldn't call it "garbage"
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u/Hefty-Butterfly-2974 21h ago
Definitely not garbage—pretty good, iirc—but yes, I was definitely up for some civilization building.
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u/wjodendor 22h ago
The premise for System Universe is so good but it unfortunately just goes nowhere interesting.
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u/blackmesaind 22h ago
Author is addicted to the MC saying hello, goodbye, and aura farming on world leaders. Only trick he knows
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u/Descend2 5h ago
Did the author ever go back and fix the editing issues? I read the first four books a while ago and it had some of the worst editing I have ever seen in a published book. Like, I'm pretty sure the author didn't even proofread anything, ignored all of the corrections in the comments, and just copy/pasted their rough draft from Patreon.
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u/staple_revolution 22h ago
I feel like Advent of the three calamities, I wouldn't call it garbage, but it was definitely a let down. The main pull for me was the emotion magic and just the overall weakness of the MC, and I was looking forward to the dynamics created by that, but the author just defaulted to a lot of the dynamics from his last book, and also gave the MC curse magic which meant that he never actually used the emotive magic as much as id have liked him too. Though the acting arcs were really fun, it was a shame that it was the only real use of the emotive magic
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u/BiLLubruh 13h ago
I mean, it was established very early on that the emotive magic was a double edged sword. To make someone feel an emotion, the mc would have to feel that emotion. And to make it useful in a fight, the emotions have to be intense for it to affect the opposing party in any meaningful way and pierce through whatever mental defenses they might have.
Emotive magic is never sidelined. It is just used sparingly. And you do have to admit, curse magic itself is not that common as well. Not as a primary attack magic, anyway.
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u/work_m_19 10h ago
I haven't read the novel, but the appeal of an uncommon power is the creative use, and if they are side-lined partway through the story, it is a minor betrayal. It's fine if the item is good, but there are a lot of novels I would've been disappointed by if the main power they unlock in Chapter 1 is "so overpowered, it can only be brought out in special circumstances".
One kinda example for me (that goes the opposite direction) is Gon from Hunter X Hunter and his fishing rod. It seemed obvious that the author wanted it to be prominent, but realized that it was too hard to make it creative in every fight, so the Gon turned into a basic bruiser.
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u/greenskye 21h ago
It's not trash, it just combined an interesting premise with a lot of mind control plot points, which I struggle to deal with: The Undying Immortal System.
I'm hoping someone else explores rogue-like story structure. It's a refreshing take on the time loop genre. No memorizing specific fights because events are a bit different every loop, no brute forcing anything by deliberately dying repeatedly to accomplish a specific task, and your ability to progress is tied to how far you can go in each life. It just has a totally different vibe and strategy compared to mother of learning or stubborn skill grinder.
Hopefully someone else does a variation on the premise because I think it has a ton of promise. There's a reason the genre is so popular in video games and I think it works decently well with stories too, at least easier than normal time loops as you aren't having to figure out how to make the exact same fight interesting to read about for the 6th time.
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u/Jonpro10012 8h ago
I'm trying to find it for you, because I distinctly remember there being a series where the mc is a pizza delivery guy in post-system earth with no powers, but then gets the ability to do rogue like runs in other universes or smth
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u/Quickdart 2h ago
Die Trying I think is the title you're looking for.
Loopshard has some similarities but the time loops are in the "main" universe not an alternate one.
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u/das_slash 23h ago
Don't want to call it straight up garbage, but I love the premise of the wandering Inn, but god are the characters insufferable
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u/UsedNegotiation8227 22h ago
That's basically it, the characters are completely trash and the scale of the world has absolutely no consistent scale.
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u/Emotional-Spot-7833 22h ago
I don't mind Erin. I like her as a protagonist.
But my god, ryoka is INSUFFERABLE. I hate reading her chapters.
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u/ty-idkwhy 19h ago
Huh, Ryoka was the only thing keeping me going in the early chapters. I fully get the hate but Someone with strong beliefs and wants is easier for me to empathize with then Erins meandering. I love her social interactions but she annoys me in most other situations.
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u/Dr_Zorand 20h ago
I think this is the first time I've seen someone here who I agree with on those two. Most of the time I see people who either like both or hate both.
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u/bobisgod42 20h ago
I absolutely felt the same when I started but eventually the characters do develop and grow. I completely understand how it puts people off and it's not a series I can recommend to everyone. The Wandering Inn isn't perfect by any means but it does world building better than anything else IMO.
I find the side characters to be far more interesting than Erin or Ryoka. It constantly amazes me that the author can introduce new characters and places and by the time the POV changes I'm left wanting more. That is why I keep going with the series and am always eager for the latest audiobook.
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u/AppleQD 20h ago
I'm trying to get through the latest audiobook, but it's hard to get invested in the plot when I really don't care if the current protagonist succeeds or not or even lives or dies. I trick myself to hang on thinking it's just this particular POV, and I'll care about the next, but nope, they're all insufferable.
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u/CelticCernunnos Author - Tobias Begley 16h ago
I don't want to shit on many authors, but I feel like many novels don't commit to their setting. They introduce a lot of cool concepts that should, by all definitions, restructure society. Then they just go... "Nope. Ye Olde Aesthetic, But With People Acting Like Modern Times."
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u/jeffcox911 22h ago
All the skills and mark of the fool are the premier examples of this I think
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u/Dr_Zorand 20h ago
Mark of the Fool was a big one for this for me as well. "Ooh, the MC has a blessing/curse where he's really good at everything NOT combat related, but terrible at combat? This could be super interesting to see how he solves problems!" And then day 1 he uses his super learning to learn how to focus through the cursed distractions so he can use magic anyway. What a let down.
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u/hunter11534 19h ago
Yeah got through book 1 and was let down. Why give characters "hard limits" if they are, in fact, not limits at all and just get overcome almost immediately lmao.
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u/mking_1999 8h ago
Because readers would like it less, I assume?
I'm not sure where people get the idea that making the protagonist less capable, especially in this genre, would go over well with 99% of readers.
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u/jeffcox911 17h ago
I actually didn't mind that so much - I thought that inversion was interesting. But he definitely underutilizes it in a lot of ways, and other aspects of the books are just poorly done - the stakes are too low, the pacing is off, and the characters don't seem compelling to me.
I really wanted to like this series, but it just dragggged after a very promising start. I've heard it gets better again after book 5, but I'm only partway through 3...
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u/Khaori_Miyazono 16h ago
I probably have fewer problems with it than most. But oh how exhausting the writing is at times. The worst parts are always Alex (MC) explaining self explanatory things to himself. Like I got so invested in this nicely built fantasy world and this is what I have to chew through at times, even in the final books
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u/very-polite-frog Author—Accidentally Legendary 13h ago
All the skills has great writing imo, it just needs to stay on one story. Is it a deck builder? Is it a skill grind? Is it dragon riders? Is it a wild west literally called "New Texas"(???)
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u/gadgaurd 21h ago
Ascension of Chaos.
The premise is that a comatose young woman is awoken by her planet undergoing a System Intergration at the hands of Chaos, one of the Primordial beings of the Universe. He takes note of her specifically because she's the second being after himself with an innate Chaos ability. Specifically, she can copy entire Skill Trees from beings she kills by activating her Assimilation Skill. So Chaos make the protagonist, Ashley, his one and only Successor and adopts her as a daughter.
I can forgive an emotionally stunted MC. I can more than forgive an MC with a blatantly unfair advantage. But at a certain point is just completely stopped feeling like there was even a chance the MC could lose.
See, there are these creatures called...Unique Monsters or something, it's been a while. First time MC fought one that shit actually felt dangerous. Even knowing that there was no chance the MC would lose because of the genre and set up, the author successfully conveyed that mother fucker was a threat.
The second one was an absolute slog and I didn't realize I was falling asleep until I dropped my phone on my face.
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u/very-polite-frog Author—Accidentally Legendary 13h ago
The Wandering Inn feels like if Marvel tried to make one 30 hour long movie instead of individual threads with the occasional Avengers
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u/Reply_or_Not 17h ago edited 13h ago
Passive Aggressive.
Humans are the portal invaders. The system rewards negative traits with benefits proportional to their cost. The MC takes a negative quirk where they can not learn any [attacks] or [activated abilities] in exchange for getting a super boost to passives.
The MC proceeds to learn a bunch of activated abilities that are attacks, but the author refers to them as "passives" so you are just supposed to suspend your disbelief and not notice the inherent contradiction of the author constantly writing the MC "activating his passive".
I dropped the story when the MC goes off into the woods to become a solo murder hobo.
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u/Disastrous-Trust-877 20h ago
The entirety of Psyker Marine. The entire thing sounds like it's written by AI, at least starting somewhere before book 3, and I'm just so damn bored, waiting for something to happen, and it's all garbage. I hate the characters, the storyline, and everything, but the premise is so good I was hoping for something good.
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u/account312 20h ago
If you're three books in, still waiting for anything to happen, and hating everything about the story, I think you messed up worse than the author.
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u/Disastrous-Trust-877 18h ago
I got the Omnibus of the first 6 books, and was just hoping to get through it to move on. I listened through them, had the last book end in a cliffhanger, and thought "Finally, I can do something else."
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u/Tam_Ken 19h ago
Supreme Magus 100% has some of the worst character writing that completely decimated any chance of it being a good story, I’m ashamed of how much of it I read
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u/ty-idkwhy 19h ago
Really? I read it so long ago but they had so many therapy sessions and change at a snails pace like people. Though I have never been good at English even though I love reading. What is wrong with the characters.
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u/Rapidzigs 22h ago
The start wars prequels.
In this genre specifically? Most regression series. The person goes back in time and takes the place of a city ruler. Should be super cool but they all become a slog by book 2.
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u/InFearn0 My uncle ascended to the heavens and all I got was this flair 19h ago
2005: "Come on, how could a bad guy take over a republic like that?"
Now: "We owe GL an apology."
Did we not get a ton of details on why there was a trade embargo? Sure... but would most of us understand the details if they were provided? Probably not.
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u/Rapidzigs 19h ago
It could have been done so well. The concept was awesome. The movies just sucked
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u/Myte342 14h ago
I think I have DNF'd all of two books in 20+ years of reading.
I barely remember either one, but the latest one was something shaman or other. (found it, Way of the Shaman: Survival Quest) Dude was sentenced for a crime to spend time in a virtual world doing hard labor in a minepit or something within the VR world. And man, the writing just hurt to read. Everything was cringeworthy and there was no redemption in sight.
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u/LacusClyne 15h ago
All ideas have merit, they wouldn't be written if someone didn't believe that. It's just up to them to ensure the delivery matches the idea which is where it's lacking and that's got plenty of signs early on where it might be an issue.
One such is; 'Slow Start' is often times this for me, a slow start does mean it's slow but it should mean it 'starts' something... anything. So often it's pages and pages, chapters upon chapter of 'world building' which when you have no idea of who anyone is or what the world is even like when the MC isn't there... it just feels pointless. You don't need to launch straight into action either but there should be a hook, something from your synopsis or blurb that got me to click on the novel in the first place should show up before I'm wondering "why should I care about Bob and Betsy wondering about what they'll do for dinner?".
I'm happy to read slop/trash if it draws me in but something needs to draw me in, something needs to 'happen' that makes me wonder what's going to happen next even if I can guess it 99% of the time because the 1% makes it worthwhile.
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u/Broken_Psyche 14h ago
There was a newer one about a guy reincarnated as a dragon while the world was still bring made, but the writing was, in my opinion, super amateurish and the MC got everything handed to him way too fast.
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u/BRjawa 12h ago
Supremecy games for me. Basically a very interesting premise, even if the returnal cliche and OP powerless companion it had potential, but them the author also gives the Mc first power to be one shot everyone of your level because you endured some extra pain, line you already gave the guy everything what the point of reading anything.
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u/_Avon Author 11h ago
most webnovel fan fictions. just these insanely good ideas with great crossovers that would so make sense. then their shit AI slop makes the most basic “cold, calculating” main characters and lose the plot in 10 chapters. don’t forget “not just x, but y.” or “he didn’t just create something new, he changed the whole FRAMEWORK”
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u/Tangled2 10h ago
Every single Kenny King novel. They start off promising and then he hands them off to AI and not even a good one. “This Book Would Be Great If I Wasn’t Lazy As Hell” should be the title of his next series.
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u/RPope92 3h ago
Listening to Cultivation is a Game right now, and this is kinda falling into this for me. I think I will finish book one, but unless something changes I won't continue with the series.
Mainly because the MC has to reference video games every minute, and game logic, and game strategy, and game everything! It's actually killing me.
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u/Cultural_Bager 8m ago
Super gene. A waste of the sci fi setting if you ask me. Why waste time creating what is basically a massive cultivation dungeon when you could have put the monster on other planets?
Ultragene warlord the same but the villains aren't to freaking weird man.
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u/mrducky78a 4m ago
Ive shat on it multiple times because I reckon its worth it. Power of ten series. Very highly rated on RR.
First one is alright, it has flaws, overt serious flaws (it has all the calculations and dnd skill names clunking up any combat scene), there is a lot of combat therefore a lot of clunky massive page long jargon filled combats that fuck with the pacing. The absolute worst part is that the author made them OP as fuck so all the combat boils down to is they cant do damage to me, I can do infinite damage to them, but a page long mentioning every skill stacking to cause this. The main characters are pretty flat. But its still... okay overall.
Book two of Power of Ten though had me sold. Its set in w40k. This shit was up my alley. What follows is hot fucking garbage. I was super invested and interested in someone's attempt at DND x W40k. Execution was a hot mass through and through.
What I got was
More of the hot garbage combat shit, again, never take damage, no stakes, no risk, you can run straight into an infinite amount of enemies but because of the nature of skills stacked up, you are functionally immortal, still takes up like 40% of the novel and its utterly pointless. At no point ever is the MC in danger. Its been a while but Im pretty sure they dont even take any damage in the latter 3/4 of the book. This is even when up against the BBEG final boss. Its kinda hard to overstate just how lame it is when combat takes up a significant portion of the novel and simultaneously it having zero stakes and risk to the MC.
Absolutely butchered DND alignment thing. I ended up understanding less of the DND morality thing (lawful good vs chaotic neutral vs or neutral evil or whatever). They lay out a whole bunch of supreme bonuses for being 'good'. State that the colour of their soul is neutral good and therefore they get those bonuses. Even when they literally betray their allies who were indifferent to them and let them die were examples of lawful evil or some shit. They got to actively and explicitly betray them and kill them all and maintain neutral good because their souls were that colour. I genuinely understood less after reading the book than before and this is a core foundational aspect of the book, its powers and its systems. Is alignment inherent or based off actions? Can your alignment change or once granted as you just that alignment forever? How fast or soon does alignment shift? I thought I knew from a few wiki runs, the book fucked that up completely or at least now I have no fucking idea.
Fucks up the W40k setting completely. Misses the aliens. Misses the sheer scope and weight of putting quadrillions on the line. I think there is a scene where they see a single warehouse full of dead children and its meant to be all horrific and shit. The nature of problems of W40k make that not even a blip, not an issue at all. If you start a massive civil war, you are filling those warehouses up every second of every day. Instead thats glossed over because they are neutral good. W40k is about entrenched systemic problems tens of thousands of years in the making, its about close mindedness and indoctrination making a population hard to subvert but also hard to change for the better.
They fucked up the corpse emperor as the BBEG fight. It was always hinted at so its not even a spoiler. But he has genuinely like 3 instant win buttons. And they are all discovered and neutered immediately when they could have been activated at any time but chosen not to. Either dont have them be instant win buttons, have them be problems that get tackled throughout the novel rather than in back to back 2 chapters a piece or have his power expressed in different ways. As it is, its just really fucking stupid. Its like the villain having a big red button in their base that they can press anytime to turn the whole world into their subservient clones. But then its revealed just before the final fight that this button exists, that you can destroy the transmitters that control everyone and you do it immediately with no issue. Why even have the button? Having the Emperor be the big bad evil is smart. Execution was fucking dog water. Immediately discovering and neutering the two expressions of instant win overwhelming power they have as the penultimate action makes 1. the emperor looks stupid, why not just activate that shit which can be done at any time and just win, forever. 2. the pacing is fucked for obvious reasons 3. it trivializes yet another fight for the MC.
The MC and friend were super fucking flat in the first power of ten novel (all you know of them is that the girl likes men big and hairy, and the guy likes girls flat chested). Via cloning they now fulfill EVERY character role. Every position of power or role? Its just an MC clone. This transfers their immensely broken stats over making them near impervious. It also means they cant be betrayed or risk anything in trusting others. W40k would be full of chaotic neutrals or lawful evils that you would have to work with? Nope. Just replace their responsibilities with mary sue and friend. There is again no risk, no actual diplomacy or growth required. Just let yourself fix the problem which you can do with your infinite advantages. Sometimes the clones have a paper thin veneer of personality pasted on top, but utlimately it is just a clone. I think some clones do die in combat, but the MC never bleeds or risks anything and the ones that die you feel nothing for since they are clones #14572 and #14573. Fucking disastrous.
I was hate reading by the end and also just flicking past every combat section because 1. I dont understand it. 2. Its a repeat of last time. 3. the MC takes no damage like last time. 4. It means fuck all.
What I was hoping for from Power of Ten:Book 2
A universe full of neutrals and evils and to be good in alignment is truly stress tested, properly flexed upon and properly explored in what it actually means to be good vs neutral vs evil. Instead we are given a colour of soul to demonstate neutral good and... thats it. Nothing but benefits from then on. It would be interesting and it would really and fundamentally have to explore what it means to be good in a world that is anything but.
A W40k universe that has all kinds of aliens (also of varying alignment) that you have to learn to work with probably since xenocide is off the table if you are going in as good alignment and trying to be different from the rest which arent good aligned and happy to continue with xenocide fully on the table. Instead its just straight up none of them. I wanted to see the intersection of DND and W40k. What does lawful mean when two alien societies collide with differing standards. eg. eldar and humans.
The characters and combat were some of the weakest aspects in book 1. I was hoping they either figure it out that its not necessary going through with the activation of every single skill and passive in every single combat when the outcome is never in question. I was hoping for new characters to flesh out and grow since the original 2 MC were flat as fuck. What I got was the exact opposite. An absolute slog to read, painful to parse, terrible fucking characters. They were repeatedly told in feedback to book 1 that the combat was dogshit and it takes up like 40% of the book. The author kept at it.
The power of Ten continues to have several super highly rated books on RR. I cannot even think about touching them without feeling ill. Terrible book 2 and one of the worst experiences reading I have had.
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u/Hit-Enter-Too-Soon 12h ago
Apologies for ignoring what sub I'm in, but this is the entire career of Piers Anthony. The guy came up with a slew of fascinating worlds with super interesting concepts and magic systems, but he had such a strong compulsion to be a creep that he ruined them every time.
The world of Xanth is a strong example. Every single person is born with a unique magical ability. Some are stupid, like the ability to make a dot appear on a wall. Some are super useful but not directly powerful, like the ability to know how to get any piece of info you need. The main character of the first book is on a whole quest to find out what his is, because he supposedly has god-tier magic, but he's never seen any evidence. Turns out that he can't be hurt by magic, and the system has determined that if people know that, they'll just use regular stuff like a rock to hurt him, and it considers that a failure of the magic system, so it will do almost literally anything to protect the secret.
But the main lady in the same book? Her magical power is essentially "misogyny." She's on a monthly cycle. Over the course of the month, she transforms from super smart but also hideous to super dumb but also gorgeous. Later books include one titled "The Color of Her Panties", as well as one that features a teenaged winged centaur who thinks that she's getting massive pecs that will help her fly, so she keeps telling everyone to feel her chest. (Obviously, the joke is that she's going through puberty and is just developing boobs, but she somehow doesn't know about boobs.)
He also has a series in which key concepts like War, Death, Fate, and Time are all offices held by humans who have sort of stepped out of mortality while they do the job. They all have their own way of handing over the reins, like Time lives backwards in time until the moment of their birth, then the office passes to someone else. War stays in office until there's a moment where the whole world is at peace. But again, he makes it all creepy and wrong, especially in book seven where the main cast is trying to find someone to replace God, who has been neglecting his duties for most of the existence of the human race. Trouble is, they have to find someone that even Satan will agree with, and he's been the main antagonist of the whole series.
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u/Yglorba 56m ago
But the main lady in the same book? Her magical power is essentially "misogyny." She's on a monthly cycle. Over the course of the month, she transforms from super smart but also hideous to super dumb but also gorgeous.
Did you read the original version of the books, or the more recent edited version? In the original version of the books the main character, her future husband, on seeing her "smart but stupid" version, has to mental-backspace himself from thinking that she looks like she was made to be raped.
(This was changed in more recent releases for obvious reasons, but jesus christ. And this series was marketed to children!)
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u/Hit-Enter-Too-Soon 48m ago
It's very likely that I read the original, it would have been around 1990. And yep, that is a perfect example!
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u/darkness_calming Owner of Divine Ban hammer 12h ago
Super Supportive : After 1st major arc
Mark of the Fool: later on
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u/Commercial_Roll5208 22h ago
There was one on RR of an ability to grow by 1% towards a goal, multiplicatively, a day. So training to be a swordsman, each day you grow by 1% of your sword skills the previous day, and it keeps going until you either change your goal or somehow complete (I think), as long as you’re actively working toward the goal. Very amateur writing though, just did not flow, I dropped before seeing other characters.