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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   2230 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 1, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I forgot how god damn fun the series Cradle by Will Wight is. Something about the cultivation/progression fantasy genre just really speaks to me, inspires me in a way other fiction doesn't do often enough.

On the non-fiction side it's rarer to find a fun book, but I remember really liking Moonwalking with Einstein, where a journalist learns to become a memory champ.

What are some of the most fun things you've read, fiction or non fiction?

A Practical Guide to Evil is a great deconstruction of fantasy. 12 Miles Below is an action-packed sci-fi progression fantasy. Super Supportive is supposedly a book about superheroes but really takes a turn--I'd call it more of a modern fantasy story. The Game at Carousel is a horror movie litRPG.

All highly recommended, those are the first things that come to mind when you mention fun.

+1 on the 12 Miles Below rec. It was one of the best progression fantasy books I've read in awhile. The pacing was superb and the writing was as good as progression fantasy gets (low bar, but still).

Have any other recommendations for someone with the following tastes?

  1. Decent writing
  • I'd say something like at least highschool level and with at least some attempt made at proofreading
  • Sadly, it seems less than 25% of the books pass this bar.
  • If I have to read another book that includes the dreaded "As you know..."
  1. Novelty
  • I've read probably 100 progression fantasy books. I don't need to read yet another inferior Cradle clone.
  1. Respectful of reader/subject matter
  • None of the writers in this genre are skilled enough to pull off breaking the 4th wall
  • Similarly, their attempts at "humor" usually are so bad they break any immersion.

As an aside, having a genre with many non-native speakers and authors I imagine are under the age of 15 does lead to some unintentionally funny situations. Earlier this week my girlfriend and I had a good laugh at a MC applying a tourniquet to his neck because his head was bleeding :)

Earlier this week my girlfriend and I had a good laugh at a MC applying a tourniquet to his neck because his head was bleeding :)

LOL, my wife just had a first aid training and they emphasized like 10 times in the training that you're not supposed to do exactly that. We laughed like "who thinks that's a good idea?" but apparently enough people think that way for it to be in the training.

Here are some books I've somewhat recently enjoyed:

litRPG

Great litRPG Isekai. Really slows down about halfway through but I'd say is still a good read.

  • Dungeon Crawler Carl

Possibly the best litRPG. Good humor but still very high stakes.

  • Double Blind

System apocalypse litRPG, well-written so far with a ton of good subterfuge.

  • Dawn of the Void

Another system apocalypse. I liked this one because it focused more than most tend to on the logistics of the apocalypse. Lots of work trying to save civilians from monsters, organize systems, create strongholds, etc. The ending was a tiny bit rushed but still very satisfying.

  • Primal Hunter

Pretty much just fight popcorn. There are never any real stakes or character growth, but the fights are fairly good and the setting is pretty cool. Good story to waste time on.

Progression Fantasy
  • Mother of Learning

Classic time-loop fantasy story, a must-read in the genre imo

  • The Hedge Wizard

Good progression fantasy, no surprises here but it's reasonably high-quality. Overall entertaining enough.

  • Nameless Sovereign

Currently reading this one, it's pretty good. I'm not a big fan of cultivation but this story does a good job of focusing on the characters and the actual plot, rather than just thousands of pages of endless fighting to obtain the Supreme Heavenly Qi Mastery Shadow Demon Technique Ultimate Blood Pill #318132.

Other

This story is absolutely fantastic, one of my favorites of all time, and my wife's #1 favorite book. Blurb:

An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it.

Antimemes are real. Think of any piece of information which you wouldn't share with anybody, like passwords, taboos and dirty secrets. Or any piece of information which would be difficult to share even if you tried: complex equations, very boring passages of text, large blocks of random numbers, and dreams...

But anomalous antimemes are another matter entirely. How do you contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight a war against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you're at war?

Welcome to the Antimemetics Division.

No, this is not your first day.

  • Anything by Wildbow

This guy writes some really great web serials. Worm is a classic superhero deconstruction story, probably the best one out there. Pact does the same to urban fantasy. It's a bit rougher but IMO the setting is just fantastic. That's continued with Pale, which has its own issues but is probably better written. Twig is a standalone biopunk story that's also quite good.

Wow, this list is fantastic! Way more than I could've hoped for. I've read like half them already which means that there is more than enough here for me to waste an embarrassing amount of time on.

Let me know if you'd ever like some recs and I'll return the favor.

Glad you like it! I'd love to hear what you think about them. I'd appreciate some recs too; if it's a long list though then maybe the Friday thread would be a good place to put it so that others can benefit from it too.

+1 on the 12 Miles Below rec.

I enjoyed 12MB, but mostly because of the unique setting. The protagonist lucks into all the things that give him power progression, as opposed to planning, training, or using his own unique cleverness to problem solve. IIRC, despite being characterized as a brainy engineer, his major contribution to his own success is using a few Bash commands.

While I would disagree that he is that helpless, I actually think this one of the better aspects of this story.

Most MCs in progresssion fantasy fall into one of two tropes:

  1. Hardest worker/never back down (this often makes little sense given how growth & power is exponential. If progress was that linear many more people would be grinding, but I digress)
  2. Boy genius. Sometimes this works, but often it is the redditor meme: “In this moment, I am euphoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my intelligence.”

so it is nice to see something a bit different.

12MB is definitely a much slower burn. Rather than a chapter of being worthless (or just a paragraph in many Isekais), the character is weak for almost all of the book. Weak in terms of power and weak in terms of decision making. He is very much an imperfect character who makes stupid decisions that have heavy costs. I personally like this aspect because it makes the progression feel more meaningful. I don't want to praise the pacing too much since it is still just the first book and there are still plenty of ways the author could ruin it.

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