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self_made_human  amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi  5mo ago (ussri.substack.com)   3325 thread views

Pokémon for Unrepentant Sociopaths: A Review of Reverend Insanity

ussri.substack.com

Well, this is just about exactly what it says on the tin. I've finally mustered up the energy to write a full-length review of what's a plausible contender for my Favourite Novel Ever, Reverend Insanity. I'd reproduce it here too, but it's a better reading experience on Substack (let's ignore the shameless self-promotion, and the fact that I can't be arsed to re-do the markdown tags)

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I enjoyed your review, but it doesn't change my opinion. I think our tastes are pretty fundamentally different. I don't want a story that goes on and on forever. I want an arc, a climax, and a resolution. I also actually care about prose, and maybe it's because the translation is subpar, but I found reading Reverend Insanity to be painful. Like fanfic-level bad.

Your review, I admit, does certainly make it sound intriguing and if I hadn't already given it a shot I would definitely go try it out now. But the other problem is that while I don't need "sympathetic" or "relatable" protagonists, I probably wouldn't enjoy hundreds of pages of reading how an amoral asshole will fuck over the next person in his way.

I keep trying progression fantasies and Wuxia novels, and the bar just seems to be very low in general.

Have you enjoyed any progression fantasy or wuxia novels?

I really like the genre but I bounce off of some stories real hard. Reverend Insanity is one that I could see recommended a thousand times and on the thousand and first time I'd still say "Our tastes are just different and I won't like that novel." I'm not even willing to give it a shot and try reading it.

If I see we have any overlapping preferences I might be able to recommend stuff.

Mother of Learning is usually my first recommendation, if someone doesn't like it then I just tell them the genre is not for them.

Sympathetic protagonist my favorite might be Ar'Kendrithyst. Its an incredibly long story, but it is complete! The protagonist and his daughter get pulled into another world with a system that has stats and skills and leveling up. The protagonist is a bleeding heart liberal in the best sense of that term. He is a kind man that cares about others and for a long time has reservations about even killing monsters (the monsters in the setting are generally totally unsympathetic, they are either straight up evil, or amoral killing machines). He genuinely wants to make the world a better place for everyone, and the story is about how he accomplishes that getting over increasingly large obstacles. Main reason it might not be for you (or anyone really) is that the protagonist is bisexual. No graphic sex scenes, and its not very shoved in the face, but its present.

Any other aspects of MOL you liked? I've read like 200-300 stories in this genre, and about 20-30 of them are ones i might recommend for various reasons. That hit rate sounds terrible I guess, but lots of mid stories that just have better versions of them out there.

I've read like 200-300 stories in this genre,

How the fuck! So many of them are so damn long.

I read quickly and nearly constantly, so that helps. Also its been 8 years since I started reading this genre. 25-30 stories a year isn't a hard number to hit. I've also dropped many long stories, I don't feel compelled to finish anything I've started, and if I read 200 pages of a 1000 page story I still consider myself to have "read" it.

and if I read 200 pages of a 1000 page story I still consider myself to have "read" it.

That is fair, would do it, and at the same time is antithetical to me haha.

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