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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   5412 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 22, 2023

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So, what are you reading? (Also, see another good book thread here in the Fun Thread)

I'm picking up Alan Watts' The Way of Zen. Watts has often been in the back of my mind, but I never read him deeply. Extremely vague links to Korzybski has stirred my interest.

The Zombie Knight, a fun web serial that picked up again recently after a 2 year hiatus. About a guy who gets revived by a grim reaper and given super powers, and is thrust into the world of fight/politics between all the super powered factions. It's pretty obvious at times the author changed his mind or didn't properly plan out certain world building aspects, which is natural in a serial running 10 years, but it's still really funny and exciting.

I remember reading the first chunk of that. I can definitely see the appeal, though in the end I didn't find the power theming to be right enough. My impression was its built-in zenkai boost mechanic was a way for the author to add new toys regularly, and coming off Worm, it wasn't what I was looking for.

What did you think of some other serials from that era? Like that one with the narrative powers in an evil empire. Can't remember the name.

My impression was its built-in zenkai boost mechanic was a way for the author to add new toys regularly

It's definitely a bit of a cheap narrative device, but personally the excitement it adds outweighs its cheapness for me. And it's still better imo than series that in practice do basically the same thing of characters inventing new powers on the fly but just asspulling an idea or using the "I need to win for me friends!" boost.

What did you think of some other serials from that era? Like that one with the narrative powers in an evil empire. Can't remember the name.

You're thinking of A Practical Guide to Evil. I've dropped it then gone back to it a few times, usually just not bothering to keep up with the updates when I drop it, but most recently I got a good chunk through to the Dead Kingdom arc when I gave up on it. To me it just had the MC whining too much about morality. Imo she should've either decided morals matter and just become a hero, because she was basically a hero in all but name, or if the author had the balls to really make a villain protagonist, decide to screw morals and work cold heartedly towards her goals. The in between state where she'd spend half of any given arc feeling guilty about tough but necessary decisions, and Heroes who wanted to kill her solely because she was nominally but not really aligned with evil, annoyed me.

I read a number of other serials from that era too but didn't finish any of them I think. The Gods are Bastards made some world building choices I found dissatisfying. Twisted Cogs I never picked up again after one of its hiatus' but I might get around to it, I remember liking it a lot.

What did you think of some other serials from that era? Like that one with the narrative powers in an evil empire. Can't remember the name.

That is probably The Practical Guide to Evil, which is fantastic, finished, and really stuck the landing. Unfortunately, the author signed a publishing deal with some asinine company called Yonder that has an absurd microtransaction business plan. I believe it is still available for free on the WordPress site, but that will be ending at some point.

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