Azalea suggested that we suggest reading material

100 New Books to Discuss
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I’ve slowed down in my online book buying, but … I’ve got a dozen stories I follow on RR or more. I’ve also bought real books to read.

Here’s the stuff I’ve been liking the best:

Archmage Coefficient: The Archmage Coefficient (OP Archmage/ Mage Academy/ LITRPG/ Hidden Genius) | Royal Road

This girl is a genius. She’s OP. She’s also somewhere deep on the “I can’t relate to people in social situations at all” side of things. Magic school; interesting world; trying to keep herself hidden. It’s fun.

…

Automatic Noodle: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz | Goodreads

I bought a hardcover book, in a bookstore. New. It’s that good. In it, sentient robots hide their illegal food-making business. They are free to work but not free to own things. Part of the consequences of machines that can think and feel.

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Sky Pride: Sky Pride | Royal Road

Look, the last time I checked, this was No. 1 on Royal Road. Warby is a fantastic author. I consider Slum Rat one of the best stories in Wuxia genre, which was a genre-defying western religion and philosophy Wuxia progression.

In Sky Pride, Warby decided to write a “real” Wuxia cultivation story based on eastern religious philosophy, and it’s fantastic. Warby approaches Wuxia like a fairly “hard” magic system, so I think a lot of people here might appreciate it.

…

Bog Standard Isekai: Bog Standard Isekai | Royal Road

And

Elydes: Elydes | Royal Road

Both of these stories have finally started their characters at magic school (after several books). They are both Game Lit, and progression(ish). Don’t hold it against them. Good characters, and in fact, the stories have actual antagonists, which is nice. Not murder hobos, which is even more nice.

You’d have to buy the books to get started (or KU, I think).

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The Knight and His Squire: The Knight and His Squire | Royal Road

Good world-building, a talented kid, a decent mentor, and good writing. It’s a training arc story, with some good magic conflict; the author just intended this as a one-off, so don’t expect this to be your next epic fantasy, but it’s alright (and according to the author, almost done). This isn’t a super well known writer or novel or anything; its just a random write-a-thon entry, but I like it.

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Bookbound Bunny: B3 - Chapter 35 - Elective Swing - Bookbound Bunny | Royal Road

This is a cozy sort of orphan bunny girl learns magic story. Fun demon-book mentor. Nothing is high stakes, so far. It’s got “cute” vibes.

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I picked Sky Pride to start with earlier today - I’ve just finished volume one.

Excellent recommendation, I’m enjoying it enormously.

Edit: I’m completely caught up and I still enjoy it enormously. Good recommendation. I’ll try Archmage Coefficient next.

Edit 2: Archmage Coefficient too short. I despair. I need more. Another excellent recommendation, nonetheless.

Edit 3: I enjoyed Mother of Learning on Royal Road (but also available on Amazon). Completed series. Guy attending magic school gets stuck in someone else’s time loop.

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I’ll second Mother of Learning. One of the few Royal Road stories I enjoyed. I often feel authors on royal road have no direction to their stories. Just write fun premise with no real plan to the plots. If they get popular they drag the story out with no direction.

I really respect the author basically saying the story is going to end and I have a planned ending point.

Ill add.

" Worm by John C. McCrae"

Long but I think it was good. One of the first web novels I read. Don’t remember it in detail but remember liking it.

Premise it’s a world of superheroes where the main character wants to be hero. However she is type cast as a villain because her power is to control bugs. Everyone knows controlling bugs is definitely a supervillain power not a super hero power.

Also Ive been enjoying most of Brandon Sandersons series.

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There’s exceptions; mostly the ones in that give a nice completion point are on Amazon now. The ones I found didn’t become an aimless mess: Mark of the Fool. Industrial Strength Magic. Saving the Litch Queen (btw, that one is really good); SlumRat Rising (same author as Sky Pride)

I think there’s a couple that aren’t going to become an endless progression mush, but aren’t done yet - like The Legend of William Oh and Guild Mage: Apprentice

But, I have to admit, Path of Ascension tired me out, (and even though complete, beneath the Dragon Eye Moons was the same). I started to notice that those tendencies were driving me crazy in other stories too. I like Stray Cat Strut, Ghost in the City, Phantom Star, Syl, Gunwitch, and a couple of others like those … but It’s getting tedious how slow they are getting to the point or finding a plot.

Unlike even the sort of “old school” serials (like Sherlock Holmes) where there are a series of discreet pleasurable stories, I’m feeling like the typical RR author strings me from cliffhanger to cliff hanger … but without a conclusion or arc of plot you might see in a regular novel.

Not me, of course. I write complete stories with planned endings. :wink:

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When I think of amazing Web fiction, despite all its flaws, I still think of this.

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I was reading the latest Murderbot book when I came across this gem:

The chances that I would encounter Barish-Estranza employees who had seen me on Hell Plague Planet were low, but the minor precautions upped the success percentage enough to make it worth it.

Ah, my darling paranoid bot. I love it so. It reminded me of Siobhan with that sentence :joy:

Definitely recommended!

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If you don’t mind translated works, one I would recommend for a bit of light reading is Honzuki no Gekokujou / Ascendance of a Bookworm by Miya Kazuki. It’s fairly long at 33 volumes and complete as of a couple of years ago.

It’s a slow burn about a young magically gifted girl hiding her past and rising from poverty to the top of what is essentially a magocracy. While tonally very different it shares a surprising number of the same tropes and archetypes as PGTS (Seriously. There are direct analogues of both Oliver and Thaddeus).

I found Miya Kazuki’s style to be a joy to read. She’s a master of character writing and use of the unreliable narrator.