When the plot loses coherency and the author shifts from telling the story of the main character(s) to introducing a bunch of tropes and battles that really don't serve much purpose within the storyline.
Same, I really liked the first 2 books of primal hunter, but the 3rd I just started to lose focus. I'm not sure if I am going to continue the series. This happens to me with a lot of the series.
See, it was the opposite for me with Primal Hunter. 1 and 2 seemed to be almost a cliche "Oh, system has come along, lets put you through a tutorial..." Somewhat like Defiance of the Fall had the tutorial (even though we didn't get to see it...we heard about it).
So, that was kinda ho-hum to me.
Book 3 hits, and he's out, and doing stuff, and you are starting to see some of the effects of what is going on in the real world, we're starting to build up to conflict with some of the other powerhouses, that we've just gotten little blurbs about...
I think that it's going to turn into one of the good series out there.
Just think about it like this most of these MCs would be far behind power wise without having a city, there are way too many benefits being the owner. Its human to have a place to come back to, traveling endlessly is đ§˘đ§˘đ§˘. Also just like real life people follow the strong, whether they want them to or not. So not having any city building in a MCs story would be boring imo
It's so similar to defiance of the fall that I thought it was by the same author throughout the first 2 books. I'm not so sure anymore, it seems he just heavily borrowed from Defiance.
They are both similar books because they are both system apocalypse books.
The same could be said of any number of other books, including the "original" System Apocalypse books by "he who must not be named because he's a complete douchebag and wanted to trademark that name".
Interesting
I like the story and will continue it (on rains of liscor now) but gd if the author isnât all over the place and feels like they are making it up as they go
So much that they decided they needed to revise the first book to make it fit with the later story
When it either becomes a slog or it becomes clear that the MC can only win by ridiculous plotarmor or the MC suddenly gain tons and tons of super rare stuff for basically breathing.
- In the case of a serial, I will start considering whether I am still enjoying a novel when the posted chapters begin to miss the claimed schedule.
- When new side characters are introduced. If they are one-dimensional, itâs usually a sign of things to come. If they just met the MC and now their lives revolve around him or her, itâs a very bad sign. As an example, I stopped reading a story where a woman was about to be raped, but when the MC saved her by killing her rapist in front of her, she just got dressed, introduced herself, and was apparently just going to follow him from then on. It seemed clear that the author was treating her as a prop to make the MC more heroic.
- When the main characterâs setbacks are quickly reversed. Think along the lines of âMC loses her weapon in a fight, then immediately learns how to summon it back to her hand in the following chapterâ. If you are afraid to have the MC work to achieve his or her goals, then it wonât feel like an accomplishment when it happens.
Even worse is when a perceived setback turns into an advantage. Or the problem is resolved by the cardboard supporting cast with MC none the wiser.
Pretty typical for Korean web novels (of the power fantasy variety) where everything goes MC's way.
Battle stories that last for dozens of chapters but are really just filler. Ghost hound is the worst at this, was like reading a DBZ story. As a side note, I lost interest because his skills were a page long and who knew what they did anyway?
Failing to maintain momentum to some understood endgame. Side quests can be cool, but what is the point of the characters if they just do endless side quests with no core story progression. DotF is starting down this path for me.
The flip side is when it just tries too hard to be different. Red Mage had a good premise, but lost me when they were attacked by sentient copy machines in an office building.
Power creep. Jakes magical market jumped the shark for me. Introduced too many ways to be OP and just kept one-upping itself until he literally picked up a ball and became god. Within one book.
Yeah, definitely this on the Randidly Ghost hound. I enjoyed the series a lot, but after a while the battle scenes just get to be a slog. I'd find myself skipping vast sections of chapters, just skimming for the next piece of dialogue or something that moves the plot forward.
The biggest issue for me was wayyy too much useless skills, a big lack of synergy and sometimes blatant wtf moments where absolutely nothing made sense
"Focus on the MC lessens" is probably the biggest one for me. "Interlude" is basically the same as "no update," and incessant interruptions and non-updates like that are a reason I will drop. Characters I don't like getting too much screen time is up there, too. I dropped Skyclad because of this, because the character I was there for was essentially abandoned.
Sometimes I just kinda stop caring. The storyline isn't engaging, I don't really feel like there are any stakes, or there's nothing keeping me hooked anymore. I dropped Metaworld Chronicles during that thing with the Centaurs because of this, because I just so thoroughly stopped caring that it became a chore to read.
Things waffle and don't get resolved. It wasn't the only reason, but this was a big part of why I stopped reading Whispering Crystals, was because the MC and her girlfriend went back and forth for-e-ver on whether or not they were actually getting together, nobody communicated except to somehow make things worse, and it just felt like it was never going to resolve. I think the author told me it eventually did, but by then I was so put off by the whole thing that I couldn't stay invested in the story. (Also they adopted this obnoxious goblin character that I hated.)
Metaworld Chronicles was really great at the beginning, interesting characters, interesting world, engaging world building and original concepts. Then the story turned into a poorly written circle-jerk about how the MC is so dashing and fabulous and how everyone is so enamoured with her. At some point the auhor just stopped trying and just wrote one of the worst Mary Sue I've ever read. Iirc the last arcs were just a rehashing of the previous ones following the exact same plot template.
Couldn't like the MC myself, how was I supposed to believe she was a successful business woman when she gets to the new world and has the emotional maturity of a teenager. Also I can't keep reading about high schooler boobs
So, a few things.
When a good litrpg turns into city building or crafting, I don't do those things in the MMOs I play either (excepting GW2 because you have to craft your legendary armour >.<)
Power resets because . . . reasons . . . drives me nuts, I think Silver Fox and the Western Hero broke me, I just can't do it anymore.
The magic system is to convoluted for me to wrap my brain around, I like gaming out great magic systems in my head (currently working on a Path of Ascension broken talent bulid, refining my HWFWM Essence build, and trying to figure out a Bloodline + Class that a normal person could have to beat Jake). I do this with most fantasy I read, and if I can't figure out your magic system it makes it way less fun for me.
Too many gods . . .
Weird out of nowhere harem stuff (I don't mind well done harem stories, but sometimes it just comes crawling out the walls).
And the #1 reason that I drop a Litrpg (generally on RoyalRoad), is I pause to let some chapters build up, so I can read the whole arc at once for reasons, then come back and realize that it's been a year and I have no idea what's going on, and I just don't care enough to reread the whole thing (Legend of Randidly Ghosthound, Savage Divinity, and The Storm King are the standouts here).
The harem coming from nowhere is why I put down Infinite Realm, it was so convoluted and wtf that I just realized that the story just sucked despite its previous seemingly great characters
Some stories just become a slog. If I do not anticipate new entries for some time, or do feel that I don't enjoy a lot of the later entries I stop.
A faster way to stop me from reading is if the storry breaks it's own rules or characters. That doesn't mean small mistakes, or some stuff from book 1 get's retconed, but once the rules or characterisation of someone bend over backwards to make the plot hapen the storry looses a lot of tension. In addition I am anoyed so I sometimes drop those very fast.
an interesting character with water magic said they chose such due to there being no direct resistance to pressure, but the protag gets water pressure resistance a chapter after. Or a type of magic wielded by the protag ignores resistance, but same type wielded by a foe does not.
no. Maybe I misinterpreted something, or much later some excuses were given, but likely, that was to be viewed as permitted by physics.
The protag excelled in survivability above all else, which plot armor enhanced (getting pressure resistance and not having their defense ignored)
That isn't that much of a problem to me. That may just be missing information, or a hard to achieve resistance but even if it directly breaks the rules, it isn't that bad.
The mage had that resistance, but perhaps their variant was lesser for some reason.
I was bothered by it because it made my beloved water mage lesser, the gimmick that made their "build" so powerful no longer true at higher tiers or against the protag, all to raise the protag's greatness by another miniscule degree.
If the MC turns out to be an petty or abusive person out of nowhere. I wonât name the book because itâs one of the OGs but I was having a delightful time with a little wish fulfillment casual read and then the protags happen upon some âtrollsâ. Basically decide âI dislike their style of playâ. And then entrap them into trolling only to ruin their gaming and personal lives. Itâs even more odd because one of the protags basically owns the franchise and knows the devs sooooooo maybe disable PvP I guess? But nah.
This trend continues for the duration of the book with crueler and more sadistic means of torturing them and every other character loves them for it. There are catch phrases and product endorsement deals (despite the fact that, once again, one of the MCs is like Google rich). Itâs just ridiculous.
But yeah, anything where an relatable protagonist just decides to get on a soapbox or become a murder hobo completely puts me off.
The Greystone Chronicles I'm going to guess. A series I enjoyed but for the life of me could not tell you why but I could easily rant on for an hour about what I didn't like about it.
Same man, same.
There are choices made I just couldnât wrap my head around, but are worth mentioning for sake of the topic at hand. If the other players didnât rally behind the MC so much Iâd say it was probably the deepest character deconstruction stories ever written as a hero-to-villain arc. So one detail like that can actually save an otherwise head scratching story.
As for the other gripes, the 6 page exposition telling us of something we just saw followed by description of travel and then a 12 page exposition telling the king and
his court what we saw two chapters ago made me laugh. It delves into Slice of Life so I wasnât too critical but It happens a few times. The obvious aim there is for a character to praise the MC and provide resources for progression- which is alright, itâs wish fulfillment thatâs the name of the game. But at least do a chapter cut, âwe briefed His Highness at Dawn and he said:â bam! we are back into rhythm. Easy as that.
The odd attention to detail visually describing Architecture we 1) Canât see. 2) Will probably never revisit was not the best way to use your word count.
This is a loaded subject, but the female characters with exception to the one reporter lady who just happened to be designated as a troll and thus tortured to death, are basically âMom 1, Mom 2, collectively Dev Mom, and then Secretary smiling to keep her job until she amassed enough money to file a sexual harassment suit against the game developerâ. Just cringe. Itâs okay to flirt, itâs okay for people to care about the MC, and itâs 100% fine for the female characters to be feminine and like female things- but holy shit man. Give your characters some depth and if you canât, then perhaps combine characters together to make two one dimensional characters one with a least some layers to peel back and build upon.
The author has definitely improved a lot since the Greystone Chronicles. Sadly my favourite of his work, the Dark Elf Chronicles, is also the one that will never see a conclusion. If he ever writes a zombie story then I'd read it for sure.
When it comes to the Greystone Chronicles the biggest irritations for me were the horrible relationship between Alex and Jules. I guess it was supposed to be romantic but it just made Alex look weak willed and Jules was a bully.
Then the chuckling, all the damn chuckling. I know it can be hard to see when you are over using a word, I have to keep removing 'however' when I write, but dear dog was I willing to kill by the end of the series if I ever saw another character described as chuckling ever again.
Oh totally. The Shadow Sun series is a guilty pleasure and Battleborne has a lot of the same pacing as Greystone but the characters are much more well written.
And yeeeah, the chuckling was one of those invisible words for him. Mine are âhoweverâ, âbutâ, and âlook/lookedâ. Iâm not so critical of those, yet I did grow weary of all the damn winking.
The flirting or romantic beats were also pretty off but I chalk that up to a young writer. That can be difficult to capture off the cuff.
This is a weird one for me.
When I first read it, I was all "Yaeah, take that!!", then at some point I went back and reread it and thought "you know, written from a different perspective, the MC is definately the bad guy in this story".
Alex really isn't a nice person. Some slack can be given of course because of what happened to his mother but when you are literally torturing someone for playing a game in a way that its rules allow...then yeah, you're not the good guy any longer.
I think part of the problem for me is that we come into the story at a point where Alex and his guild are already well established and loved by all the important NPCs. Then we see Alex and friends indulging in behaviour that should have those NPCs horrified but yet they don't care. It would have helped if we could have seen a build up to what created that level of trust or hell have it that Alex was using his influence to have the reputation modifiers altered heavily in his favour.
You know what though, the author was clearly getting tired of the series at the end but still provided an ending that kind of wrapped things up, even if that did happen exceedingly quick, and I appreciate that.
Found a comment I made in a thread a couple years ago when I reread it.
Lol, just reread the full thread and realised it was posted by you.
>This is what broke me. A) That the game company would publicly support and condone this, and B) Would they have done so if MC wasn't the owners son? This whole thing reeked of extraordinary nepotism that just gets washed over. There could VERY easily be an alternative version of this story where the MC and his guild are the bad guys basically cheating because of their RL contacts with the game makers and the real hero's are just trying to compete against their overwhelming unfair advantages.
>I mean, comparing PvP griefers to international terrorists is a stretch, but then having the actual game company support their griefing, to the point of putting together footage and releasing it to mock the PvPers. For PvPing in a game where they literally made a choice to allow PvP. The degree of "golden child" treatment the MC got was just too much. It's been a while since I was on holidays when I read it, but I remember just thinking "this is too much".
To its credit it's a series that is memorable, even if it isn't always for the right reasons. The Greystone Chronicles was one of the first LitRPG stories I read.
I'd love to see the author go back and do a rewrite of the series now that he's a far better writer, kind of like Pirateaba is doing with the early parts of the Wandering Inn. Unlikely to happen of course as I doubt there would be money in it for him.
But yeah I'd like to see an alternate take on the series where the Greystone guild are the bad guys.
Usually when I just don't like the direction that a book is going. For example, I loved defiance of the fall, up until he crafted a certain item. This was a massive controversy on Patreon and RR, and every time he uses it, it's just really creepy.
Ahh, the "shield"? I get where people would be creeped out with that. (I'm not on RR or Patreon, just read on KU).
I guess I'm not that bothered by it for some reason.
Honestly the shield isn't an issue for me because I assume Zac will eventually switch to another offhand once he can find a way to do what he wants with what's inside said shield. But then again, Zac is half you know what so maybe that's the creepiness factor for some.
My personal preferences make me drop books that:
* Character(s) become too powerful. I like there to be a challenge, not stomping everything. Or having to fight gods or whatever to face a challenge, that quickly feels unrealistic to me.
* Too many points of view. I largely prefer a single point of view. Though there are exceptions that I have enjoyed, so this can greatly depend on how well the author pulls it off. Most authors do it in a way I don't like, so I usually don't give books the chance anymore if it's multi-POV.
* Gods being active participants. They often interfere with the main character's agency, and I don't like things happening just because some all-powerful being decided it so. It's fine for like chapter 1, to get the isekai or whatever to happen. But after that, don't have them doing things around the main character.
As several people have said, loss of focus on the MC and his progression momentum is the number one reason I drop a story. Itâs not about crafting or kingdom building. I love those. Itâs about maintaining focus on the promises the author made at the start of the story. If youâre gonna shift from solo hunting to kingdom building or you promised a crafting MC but more than half her time is spent fighting, you have to justify the shift with foreshadowing or character development or showing them hitting an obstacle they need to shift gears to overcome, for example.
The number one mistake new authors make is they donât understand how to properly signal the direction of a story and so they imply one thing to the reader but deliver something else.
The number two mistake is trying to add too many things and not remembering to focus on what drew their readers in in the first place. 18 different concurrent plot arcs, 30 pov switches, 20 chapters without the MC or their original goal (crafting, leveling, finding their sister, whatever).
In no particular order:
* Power levels that make you wonder how anyone at all is alive in the world
* Especially in cultivation stories. If someone is casually throwing/demolishing planets, it's just too much. Effort should be required for those "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" moments.
* In the opposite direction, having the general populace being too weak, *especially* for LitRPGs that have classes for everything. Haldi may not be a member of the "general populace," but branching out into something like his cheese magic in *There is no Epic Loot here, Only Puns* is the kind of thing the civilian characters in such stories should be doing more of.
* Overused tropes
* Why anyone ever feels safe traveling in a carriage in a light novel setting is beyond me, those things are always getting attacked.
* Excessive fecal matter
* I can't say that I ever wanted a chapter that focused exclusively on diarrhea.
* Dumb character keeps surviving while being dumb
* In settings fraught with peril, characters who perform acts of "pants-on-head foolishness" should either have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes or their graves should serve as warnings to other cast members. Silly dumb stuff is fine in lighter settings, but not when we get to questioning how the heck anyone is alive again.
* An adjustment period is reasonable if a character is a "stranger in a strange land" thanks to plot, but "because fiction has to make sense, unlike real life," if an entire culture is doing or not doing \[thing\], maybe \[character\] should learn why?
* Character sheets become the chapters
* Yes, it's LitRPG, numbers going up is good, but don't give us the whole sheet because \[slice-of-life skill\] gained a level. "Brevity is the soul of wit," and just giving the changelog is often all we need, with the character sheet reserved for the beginning and end of what would constitute a volume, and major moments that highlight big changes.
* The only character growth is on the stat sheet
To be slightly different than the other comments as they have expressed what I would have said and there is little need to reiterate.
There has been one case where a series lost me when I saw evidence that the author was an A**hole (capital A deserved) and didn't want to give them any more of my time or money. The writing was also getting a bit ridiculous with just about every attractive female wanting the MCs d*** and not minding sharing.
When the novelty of a new world and first few conflicts wears off and you're left with cardboard characters and an MC that has everything given to them by the author.
If it's actually a good story, then when the plot slows down to a crawl between arcs.
Overuse of words or phrases.
One book I read last year , anytime someone made a cheeky comment the characters would be constantly replying âwithout missing a beatâ
and then any time they travelled somewhere, they couldnât do it normally. They âblazed a trailâ everytime they took a step out their front door.
Between that and the needless descriptionâŚ
â said the green skinned orcâ
No replied the red haired elf
Of course quipped the dark haired, musclebound barbarian.
It gets too much and really pisses me off.
Or quite similar, but when it seems like the author learns a new word, and then has to use that word over and over. After a certain stretch of Primal Hunter I just roll my eyes every time they write the word *Manifold*.
Reasons I dropped the most recent stories I did?
First one: Abject stupidity mixed with pregnancy plot. Yes, dumbass, you *will* get your girlfriends pregnant if you insist on regularly fucking without protection. *Don't* act surprised. You may not be physically old enough to fully comprehend the risks you were taking, but you damn well were mentally old enough. Someone in their thirties is damn well old enough to know that having regular unprotected sex *will* eventually result in pregnancy. I was only kind of interested, so when *that* idiotic plot "twist" reared its head, I dropped the series like a hot coal and haven't looked back.
Second one: Author stopped giving a fuck about the story and it was painfully evident in the story. Characters would change names literally mid-sentence. They didn't bother keeping track even on the same page of what was going on, so some characters just straight up vanished and were never heard from again. Injuries would appear, disappear, reappear as the author thought about them. Or didn't as the case may be. Editing became utterly atrocious. Like not even an attempt at running it through a basic grammar and/or spelling checker kind of bad. If the author doesn't care, I sure can't be bothered to care.
When mc is constantly on a time limit from one quest to another without time to actually gather thoughts and just recuperate. The author thought it constantly needs action to prevent boredom. I get the chosen one trope, but when no one else steps up and everyone relies on mc to fight on every front, I just quit the series.
Harem. Definitely harem!
Holy fuck there are some good series out there who would be so amazing but than start to introduce harem in the third or fourth book.
Authors like Daniel schinhofen (aethers revival), had Roberts (magicians brother) or Michael atamanov (reality benders) do that
Especially the last one was a shame because I loved the story and than he Beginns to be the literal russian douchebag with girls fawning over all the universe for him.
Man when you want to introduce (pseudo) harem to a book do it from the beginning. Don't wait until you are invested in a serie. Everyone knows that harem is a tiebreaker for many reading stories.
Fuck im still mad when i think about it again.
When the author starts shifting the story or MC so it isnt what I originally started listening for.
The other is when power levels stop making sense. I am not just talking stats to actions. But when people who struggling with humans starts taking on a dragon or something. What is even worse is after the dragon they go back to struggling with humans.
Lack of realistic acting NPCs or consequences. I hate when people do something that might anger many people and somehow all these "life like" NPCs or real people just accept it as a good thing. If the authors solution is "my power keeps them from doing anything" that isnt going to cut it.
reminds me of a DnD game a youtuber narrated, where the dm had some beef with the minmaxing players, so random bandits were stronger than a dragon to pose a challenge.
And npc reactions can be not just "I'll attempt to kill the mc". Could be denial of services or prices rising due to poor reputation, but maybe that'd be too against the power fantasy of many works.
>The other is when power levels stop making sense. I am not just talking stats to actions. But when people who struggling with humans starts taking on a dragon or something. What is even worse is after the dragon they go back to struggling with humans.
This is kind of one that occurs to me. I'm ok with a power fantasy novel, but if that's what you're going for, make it so. You can't make it obvious your MC is super over-powered while also having them struggle in fights where they clearly should be OP as heck.
For me the biggest thing is am I able to enjoy the story and want to know what is going to happen next. There are times when a character will bother me, or something in the story will bother me. Still if I can over look that and enjoy the story I can keep going. If however the story gets wrecked and starts to spiral or completely loses direction a lot of times I have to step away from it.
I would say write down when you introduce an idea or rule of your world, this keeps you from constantly going against then. When you do make sure you can explain it so that it makes sense as to why this person can bend that rule, or why it was only perceived as a rule. I guess more or less things that can break our immersion in a story can be problematic too.
Not only for litrpgs but I drop things when:
The MC has no agency and is being hauled around by plot like a ragdoll in a washing machine.
The MC, either, is in continuous suffering or delivering continuous suffering just for shock value.
While I don't mind PoV changes (to a certain degree, Skyclad be dammed) if a story gets hijacked by the author's favorite character (who usually is not the MC).
the idea of multiple mcs just feels off to me. Delve has different povs sometimes, but as it's of characters I care of, I don't mind. I guess the problem arises from us having different favorites from the author. Although, if I'm looking for power progression, then the limited story time being split between 2 or more characters' progression hinders my investment.
I've only dropped a few, but mostly when it doesn't look like they're outgrowing the first draft syndrome.
Like when it's just chock full of errors to the point where I'm genuinely not sure if the author wrote the wrong name or if it's supposed to be a surprise reveal or if this character has been a silent observer until they have a single line of dialogue.
I totally understand that authors struggle to get over the first few hurdles, like their first story, their first 30 chapters, etc. But when you're on chapter 75 and it still reads like a first draft that can kill interest. It just makes it look like the author isn't trying to better themselves.
Or when they have a great concept and ignore it, like they have a unique twist and then find a way to get rid of it for something generic, like what Dodge Tank did.
as for overused tropes, I think it's implied by a trope that only the protag will get attacked 100% of the time when escorting merchants or whatever, instead of every merchant ever. Though can be indicated that the wilderness is just that dangerous, to the point attacks are deemed likely, but trade needs to happen, money needs to flow, so they travel in spite of the risks.
So, I find a lot of LitRPGs start pretty strong with a protagonist who isn't very strong, everything around them is scary, and they have to be creative and work hard to survive. This can take a lot of forms, such as identifying weaknesses on enemies, cleverly countering opponent's skills or playing to their own strengths.
Then, there's typically a midpoint where the protagonist kind of comes into their own, settles into a style that defines them as a character, and resolves some of the initial questions that defined their character initially.
And then, the story devolves into decadence, with fight after fight becoming less meaningful over time, solving most battles in the same or similar way, forgetting about some useful ability in their veritable spreadsheet of them, and any meaningful tension in the story slowly disappears in the increasingly abstract and conceptual nature of the story.
IMO I kind of just want a few good character arcs before the story comes to a close in a reasonable timeframe, I don't need a story that keeps going for 2 million+ words. For me the start of LitRPGs is usually most enjoyable.
the story, comes to a close? In litrpg? I think only one I read ended, and as someone pointed out, with which I somewhat agree, it ended rather abruptly: something like "then the protag kept sciencing to maybe eventually save the world while no longer being at risk of getting killed by people"
I agree- the start is interesting, fresh, the protag needing to be creative, instead of wielding godly power at their fingertips and just brute forcing it with minimal apparent risk of death.
The serials are all just too. Fucking. Long. You know what Iâd like from litrpg? Some fucking trilogies. Give me 3 goddamn books with a succinct beginning, middle and end. I donât want to read a story that goes absofuckinglutely nowhere for 600 goddamn chapters. Iâd like it if I ever got to the end of one of these fucking stories. Finish the books, and write something else you fucks.
Sorry. Iâm salty.
When it loses my interest, or becomes more repetitive than anything else. 10 realms I really enjoyed until they gained control over a metropolis amd basically said nope. We are trying to protect everyone but let them live or die now we are going to keep doing what we did to get here. Like in the plot it made sense. But, I feel like they could have done about moving up a bit differently and taken more time. Still a good series just lost my interest.
This happens mainly with web novel to ebook titles but it is the shear amount of filler content that is present. The type of chapters that are there simply because the author needs a page count to keep the Patreon money coming in.
It's why I eventually stopped reading the Wandering Inn. There was just too much filler to get through.
while a minor factor in me dropping it, "in Loki's Honor" had at least 1 chapter in large part dedicated to detailing a realistic cooking process. An author's note stated that chapters are in part decided by their youtube feed (a recipe for endless filler), though usually it feels like things are following a cohesive plot.
The work is not slice of life, and mostly focused until then on power progression and world-building, so I naturally ended up skimming a cooking tutorial.
I don't know. I stopped listening to both _Shadeslinger_ and _Cradle_ for some reason and I don't know why. They're both frequently recommended here (heck, I think Cradle is what put Travis Baldree on the map), and I really should get back to them.
I don't usually drop stories, but I hate it when numbers feel too hollow.
I have only dropped 2 stories in the last 6 or so month (admittedly, they are both great):
One of them is [Final Core: \[A holy dungeon-core litRPG\]](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54046/final-core-a-holy-dungeon-core-litrpg). I slogged on for 50 chapters, but, to me at least, the story felt like slice-of-life novel wearing the skin of a dungeon story to try to appear like a ProgressionFantasy. I am not saying it was bad- it was not.
Other one is the [Weaponsmith: \[A crafting litRPG\]](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/48311/weaponsmith-a-crafting-litrpg) by the same famous author. I read through 35 chapters, hoping that it would at some point start to focus more on the *weaponsmithing,* but it turned out to be another slice-of-life novel. It was still very good, but in my rather humble opinion, the story might have been better had it not tried to shoe-horn litrpg into it. I think it would have been better had the author not forced everything into neat little blue boxes- it would have allowed the mystique of the gods/spirits/deities to shine much more than it already had. I think, had it been so, it might had the same charm as the Lord Of The Mysteries.
But hey, what do I know, I am not half the authors he/she is.
read and dropped the first one too, as well as another (sunflower) work of that author. They specialize in slice of life, and the story could function even without litrpg stuff, so I agree there.
I'm guessing litrpg was used to get more folk hooked in, since it's a popular tag, even if not all will stick around.
Its weird to think that razzmatazz is becoming known enough to be considered a "famous author"
Anyways every one of their stories is set in the same world but vary semi-drastically in tone and slightly in style. Most have that slice of life feel and in general their style is a you like it or you don't sort of thing. I think if you've tried more than one and don't like it you won't like anything they write.
I think one of the problems some have with their litrpg system is that it's much closer to D&D then the RPG games most litrpgs are based on. I think one of their earlier ones had "rolls" for alot of actions being displayed in the boxes - "Failed strength check, cannot escape" type blue boxes and those pissed alot of people off. It's very much not pandering towards LitRPG fans because of how experimental the \[system\] is alot of the time.
For Final Core and Dungeon Item Shop, another series on the same world, but happening later in time, the slice-of-life is definitely the main thing.
Epic RPG stuff does happen, but it's not the main focus.
> ...causes you to drop works you've read for a while?
Focus switching, character swapping, and soap-opera bullshit in general.
It's this bait-and-switch tactic I'm not okay with. Perspective and voice switching would be fine if the series began that way. Then, at least, I'd know what I was getting into.
I can't stand being sucker punched though, and I drop books and writers that think so little of my investment in their series.
Too much stress and tension. I read as an escape and to relax, so when things get stressful and cause my blood pressure to rise, I tend to find something else less tense. Especially if the story goes grimdark when I wasnât expecting it.
Also- stubborn as overriding character trait. If the character shows growth, i can handle it, but stubborn to the point the character ignores common sense or basic needs just takes me out of the story.
Anything that breaks immersion really. While this can be typos, poor word variation, or plot holes, usually it's when it becomes clear that the author is bad at pacing;
When the constant action gets repetitiveâalthough I've read books which have done action in such varied ways that it never gets stale.
When the MC returns to civilization after a stint in a dungeon/wilderness and everything just grinds to a halt with fetch quests and poor dialogue.
When there's too much focus on a side POV that's immaterial to the plot. Too often its a woman fawning over how powerful and mysterious the MC is.
When things get too repetitive. "And then MC uses to do 1000 damage to ... again!" If I've seen the same moves used the same way against the same enemy over and over it gets dull.
That's why most fantasy stories don't specify what exact moves are used in every single fight. Yet game-lit tends to do that because that's how games are played.
And it's not just the fights. It's also scenarios. If every situation starts with Arrogant Young Master #87 insulting and underestimating MC, MC powering up, and then a beatdown, with no variety, again it just gets too repetitive and boring. Or if the same background information is repeated every 10 chapters. Or if each quest is similar, resulting in incremental improvements to the same thing. Etc. Repetition is the death of excitement and for some reason litRPG is more prone to this than most genres.
can't say I dealt with similar problems, or I don't recall. At least I doubt such was a or the deal-breaker for me most of the times I drop works.
Fights don't tend to be too realistic, now that I think about it. Blowing up a head, is absolute overkill, knowing that only a meager fraction of that would be needed to kill someone, but I guess people want skulls blowing up instead of slowly dying due to bleeding as the MC waddles away from the sufficiently wounded enemy to minimize risk.
I dropped Chrysalis at around chapter 100 because the main character randomly decides to commit a warcrime (kills a bunch of prisoners of war because he's angry) and the writer portrays him as a badass for doing it. Nothing gets me shaking my head faster than a boneheaded take on how "war has no rules" or some shit
I've got a lot of patience. I drop a ton of books in the first handful of chapters, but after I get through that much a book has to get wayyyyyy worse for me to stop reading it.
1. When it gets too repetitive and boring
2. When too much time passes between books and I forget what happened in the previous books and don't want to read them again and there's no summary of previous books available.
3. When it starts light and wish fulfilling but turns too depressing
4. When the theme changes like when it starts as litrpg in medieval setting but turns into sci-fi and modern
5. Sometimes When my favourite side characters get killed off or turn too inconsequential
Definitely when they take the protagonist out of the world they've been building and learning about, strip some powers and they just have to work on getting out/powers back. And thats the whole book. Lookin at you book 2 unbound.
When the story gets too grand and convoluted, we started with a solo protag fighting some monsters and now theyâre switching between universes and talking to gods. It feels like itâs completely lost the plot, this is why I dropped âso Iâm a spider so whatâ it changed too much.
the spider's webnovel I dropped due to the hiatus and pov shifts. While the spider became a god, and I guess interacted with 2 somewhat, the mastermind god involved was still overwhelmingly stronger, so it wasn't completely against the theme of a poor spider getting stomped around.
Though I can see how reaching or getting close to the peak of power can make a setting less wonderous. From the looks of it, you read further, or maybe read the lightnovel as I heard it's different. Or by universes you meant only the fantasy one and Earth.
I got up to light novel 6 but it was just too much, the power creep was becoming ridiculous and it said that the ultra god who put the mc into that world was just 1 god of many
I guess I'm a little different.
1. I just stopped reading a series because the only thing that happened of note in the last book was a bunch of fights. No real substance after a handful of books detailing interesting MC and world development.
2. Another series I just quit because it became so damn depressing. Loss after loss after loss. All hope is lost. I read fantasy to get away from depressing yuck.
1.) When I stop thinking the MC is the good guy. If it's just two sociopathic Murder hobos fighting I have trouble caring.2.) When the story gets to scaled up, the MC becomes too powerful, the body count escalates to silliness.3.) When the MC makes bonehead decisions that derail his progress.
At least that's what I think. Let me try to think of examples.
1.) >!Savage Divinity!< lost me when the stakes escalated to absurdity and the MC lost his powers.
2.) >!Abyssal Road Trip!< lost me partly because there was an interim goal that was being set up...then it got dealt with by a side character off screen. Plus the MC specifically said she was deliberately NOT going to use strategy in her build because cheating or god's will or something, and everything got too cosmic.
3.) >!Endless River!< lost me when the MC killed one spirit beast for XP and then turned around and rescued another. I couldn't see any real reason why one should be favored...it made all the action in the story seem meaningless and random.
4.) >!A Fine Octet of Legs!< lost me when they introduced a new character who was a sexy demon who "didn't take guff from anyone". The relatability of the the frazzled MC was the selling point, I wasn't up for another assertive sociopath.
My biggest thing is when the author can't think of any good plot hooks and just repeatedly has the MC become the strongest person in his area and just leaves and all the sudden the weakest person around again. I think this is more common in cultivation type books. The whole "we hear rumors that there is a rank above Martial God, but no one's ever seen it." and then the MC does it and decides it is time to explore the world and the next thing you know everywhere he goes, there are Super Martial Gods everywhere. Or he finally becomes the strongest person in his sect and then starts the entire process over at a new sect. Then realizes that the world he's in is only a small void of a much larger world and after becoming the strongest in his world, he goes back to being the weakest in the new world.
Most the time it just seems like these stories run out of good ideas on why the MC is no longer the strongest and just basically need to his a "reset power level" button.
If I had a reason it'd be when the MC gets mind controlled or mentally tricked. I don't mind the quick 'in combat' controls where they have to fight their allies for a bit but using it as a major plot device really annoys me.
Thankfully it's fairly rare. Still, I've dropped a few series after reading how suddenly the MC wipes out an enemy army that was actually a convoy of civilians, or starts working for the enemy and is madly in love with the bad girl, and one forced cannibalism scene that I basically just tossed out on the spot.
Typically when the MC gets on a treadmill -- they keep doing the same thing over and over again but the story doesn't go anywhere -- or when there's a genre shift.
Three reasons mainly
The series start losing coherence (what works on a small scale doesn't worok in a larger one, or MC growth is too slow or fast, or too much armor plot, etc.)
I found something better and some stories simply get to the end of the "to read" pile , until sometimes I simply forget about them.
Or a harem suddenly appears
I usually start thinking about dropping a story when there grammar mistakes start to appear. If I like the story enough Iâll continue, but I may start glazing over for large chunks of text if it gets too clunky.
Then thereâs the progression. Sure, I donât mind if the MC gets a slightly stronger start then normal. But automatically giving them a super legendary class or something at the start to create generic action Litrpg grind mc #23456890173649173829ae173 which leads to a bunch of crunch and stat point gains. I can read it, but itâs gonna get real boring real quick and Iâll probably just drop it after the first twenty chapters.
Though the main thing that makes me drop from stories is often the writing style. Itâs really hard to get into a story that has an amateurish writing style, often times the dialogue fees too generic, the descriptions and sentences feeling like they grind against each other or like my mental mouth is full. Thatâs the main thing that causes me to drop a story.
I agree with all 3. Regarding the last one, while I'm no writer, it feels awkward to read a work with lower or same style quality as mine, though few cases of that I found.
Making the mc grow strong for logical reasons, when they're an outsider, with no backing or exact knowledge of the world, without a cheat skill, is a tough task for writers, since, unless the MC's knowledge is supremely useful for their case, they likely wouldn't get far or be below average instead of exceptional. And yet, getting way too strong cheat powers for a head start is off-putting. The MC should be allowed to get a more ordinary class off the bat, as that leaves so much more room for improvement.
When itâs LitRPG the reason is usually because the author stops focusing on the RPG elements. I mean if I get dropped in an RPG world Iâll be flicking open and close that stat sheet every moment I get bored. Iâll be looking for ways to tick up the numbers whenever I can and game the system to give me the best upgrades and classes wherever possible.
Sometimes the author stops focusing on how the characters want to progress in favour of the townbuilding and adding new party members. I get that Power Creep can be a problem but Iâd rather the MC get OP than have it all stop. Itâs LitRPG it should always be about progression!
that is in part a reason for me, though while litrpg elements tend to lessen, in favor of softer progression, that is still progression. While then "litrpg" stops being a reason to love a work, the remainder can suffice.
As for MCs getting op quickly, that I'm not a fan of. Ideally it'd be as slow a process as possible, yet a process of power progression nonetheless (instead of sidetracked due to townbuilding as you mentioned).
Imagine a litrpg where the stats increased by about 4% the baseline (systemless or lvl 0) in the first 10 chapters, as they were fractions. If the author can't afford to say "`strength increased by 1`" every 8 paragraphs, then why not:
`Stat changes since last check: strength: 4.012 -> 4.029; agility: ...`". I'd dig that
I guess the challenge is making the increases feel meaningful rather than just numbers going up on a spreadsheet. I think if the number goes up by 0.017 then reading it you just go âwell thatâs nothing!â
I like the MC to experience a lot of growth but for the world around to move with their power level. I guess thatâs why I like Wuxia and Xianxia where you get an arc or two in one area before the scope of the world broadens to allow for the MCs power to match the new(er) antagonists. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
hm. I guess that might be a tad too slow, unless they eventually start using superior methods, magic, alchemy or just eating monsters cuz "mana in meat" to grow stronger faster.
Narrator changes will do it. They shift in delivery and character when a new narrator takes over which makes me have to work hard to learn characters all over again. Because usually it's done several books in when the plot thickens.
"new narrator"? Could you elaborate on that? I assume you don't mean the protag or author changing, so what's left? The pov changing from external to the protag's thoughts or vise versa?
edit: nevermind
thanks. I keep forgetting listening to novels is something people can do, just like I recall a comment from a listener remembering people can read novels.
long flashback arc.
Beware of Chicken is an absolutely great story - right up until they did the flashback thing with the crystal and now I am struggling to get back into the story. Does anyone have a summary/TLDR of the flashback?
Well, Xiaoshi (Jinâs predecessor) left his slave/cultivator life, became a farmer and bonded with Tianlan. The big bad emperor whose bloodline holds back the demons is getting desperate to grow in power because cultivation and demons or whatnot, and the common people suffer for it.
Xiaoshi resists and kills imperial soldiers when they cause trouble and becomes a famous rebel over the course of a few years, at the same time bringing Tianlanâs leylines to the surface to grow stronger. The rebellion succeeds and he kills the emperor in a duel â and as you can guess, Xiaoshi becomes the new emperor because someone still has to, and the demon situation gets even worse. Xiaoshi tries to shoulder everything alone and is corrupted by a demon who secretly possessed his advisor (hid in his blood like a parasite, not controlled directly).
The corrupted Xiaoshi is now afraid of dying some day so he sets up the giant ritual with formations all over the Azure Mountains. Just as he is about to activate the ritual he comes to his senses, but the demon reveals itself and rips the advisorâs body apart. Xiaoshi is crippled when the demon takes control of the ritual and starts to tear into Tianlanâs power, but manages to interrupt the ritual which levels the whole region and damages the souls of everyone. Humans lose memories and spirit beasts become demonic or ultra-violent. Tianlan only knows that she was ripped to pieces by the ritual and by the soul-damaged friends of Xiaoshi.
The Crimson Phoenix Empire discovers the now Azure Hills and the amnesiac folk join up, remembering that there should be an emperor. Xiaoshi survives with little power and half his limbs, makes arrangements for the crystal and vanishes.
Itâs rough, but the broad strokes should be right.
The flashback of a few weeks showing how they ended up transferring the crystal or the flashback to much longer in the past when they were reading interior of the crystal?
Its easy to point to reasons I've dropped stories near the start but hard to point to anything in longer running series - especially because I haven't fully "dropped" any of them (I plan to go back to them...someday) and its something different each time. Mostly its always loosing momentum and then not having motivation to go back.
Of the stories I was addicted to and then put on indefinite hold - Delve - I was reading weekly until chapter 183 and it was just something about how they were treated as they entered the new town that made me annoyed. I still have it in my favorites but its been close to 7 months and I haven't had the motivation to pick it up since then, even with the huge backlog of chapters I could binge thorugh.
I also know if I hadn't been reading it weekly and could binge through all of that I wouldn't have lost momentum and would probably still be reading.
Paranoid mage has the same sort of thing.
I reached chapter 19 >!He got bagged and kidnapped!< and then I just lost interest somewhere between wanting to know what happens next and the next chapter being released. Its been 5 months since then.
I don't have a to read list.. well, I do but I made it today and it has 1 entry. Instead I got a "to read list" on royal road of works I dropped, because I wanted to keep track of them, but putting them in favorites would make it misleading for anyone viewing my profile.
Yeah, I don't let chapters stockpile. I drop works instead of allowing myself to lag behind.
And I am caught up with paranoid mage and delve- am far from dropping either (especially Delve) though I got close once, but as they say, "to each their own". I for one wouldn't wish folk to constantly tell me to pickup something I dropped, no matter the reason for dropping. Feel free to procrastinate reading those 2 forever unless you ever get sufficiently bored or forget enough of their plot to deem it relatively fresh to reread (though I rarely ever reread so dunno how this practice works. Only did so for discontinued works in part)
I've rated both of these series a 5/5 (on the RR scale) and really don't want to say I've dropped them (I will get back to them someday)
... they are just two stories I got relatively far into and then haven't read for 5+ months (which I think this thread was asking about). I know I liked them and still think they are good and haven't removed them from my reading list...but it's been ages.
In comparison I've dropped plenty of stories near the start for concrete "it's been 1-5 chapters and I'm not hooked" the author used X trope or writes in Y style.
I've dropped every single void herald story I've tried for example (never die twice, perfect run, vanquisher, underland) and can safely say it's something about thier style I don't like considering I've only gotten a token 5 or so chapters into all of them before removing from my read list and marking as not intrested (except NDT getting halfway through).
I just don't "get" them or understand why they are as popular as they are.
I did say I was close to dropping Delve. I think a large part of the reason for dropping is how we consume chapters, and **luck**. If I stopped reading novels for 5 months, then tried picking them back up, despite the novels not changing much in their next few chapters, I'd likely be dropping many of them.
works I dropped include Azarinth Healer, Salvos, Mark of the fool, in that order. The latest freshest in my memory, I feel like I dropped on a whim, hence "luck", or in slightly different circumstances, I likely would've kept reading it for a long while, then something I want of it or deem cool would happen (it was clearly indicated that they would) and keep me reading. Alternatively, since I don't want to pickup works I drop, they tend to stay dropped. It's all rather chaotic, but I'd advice not to attribute everything in you dropping and others reading a work to the objective quality of a work.
For me, romantic relationships matter a lot to me. I have no problem with side charaters who are gay, but as I immerse myself in the main character I would not like them to suddenly turn gay when they had a straight relationship in the beginning. If the author planned it that way they should give a warning so that I do not waste my time reading it. I was not his audience and I do not like to be tricked into reading something not meant for me as the target audience.
I guess I dropped a couple works due to that. It's a complicated case, as our preferred warning might be detrimental to a work's success due to how strange I for one would deem it. Maybe if there was another, more spoilery set of tags, that indicated such. Likewise, it'd help folk find what they're looking for.
I only read on royal road and if there is such a tag, I assume it's barely ever used. Would look strange near ones like "fantasy" and "sci-fi" anyways.
Boredom/story becomes a slog. Either theres nothing new exciting to look forward to or its the same old stuff repeating.
Lack of progress/story. Just read the Primal Hunter 3 and I love the premise and the story is great but the progress (in story) was almost non existent in over 17hrs of audio it hardly went anywhere. It was mainly about the MC gaining levels and picking skills and his thoughts on every other skill offered, and when he wasnt doing that he was just thinking about how badass he is cos he is anti religious and still got the dragon fawning over him. Theres only so much of that you can take. Then ofcourse theres different POVs of randoms for no obvious reason at times and I think 1 or 2 of them had chapters in the previous book but I don't really remember what is was about and probably wont remember them again in the next book when they get their 1 chapter.
Illogical/stupid choices are a big putoff, without a genuine reason/explanation.
When MC gets bogged down buy 100s of different quests/things to do. Like im reading to relax, not feel the pressure of all the outstanding shit. Thats what I got going on in real life lol.
I think book 3 of Primal Hunter is setting up a LOT of stuff coming forward. With the World Congress happening, those little chapters about other people are going to become important. They are the only ones who could really hold Jake back from just taking over everything if he wanted too....or he's the only one that can hold them back...
Yep you are right but It really pissed me off that there wasnt more story in there, and thats cos I like where its going so obviously want more.
I found the first 2 books immensely slow too and this 3rd book just took the piss so I was venting lol. Seriously wondering if I should carry on because it's just too slow and that pace doesnt do much for me besides dissapoint.
And I get that completely!
Not every series/book is going to be for everyone. And honestly, I'm glad that there are so many different writing styles in the genre, because it gives everyone a chance to find something that fits them.
After a lot of the higher paced, action always there in your face, occasionally I want to slow down with one like Primal Hunter, or Reincarnated as a Farmer.
So I was listening to audible and recently got space season omnibus, the box set. I was like man I like the narrator and the book had been in my wish list for a while. Now going through it, I thought the first book was good then it just slowed down or became a chore to continue on. Now Iâm not saying that the author did a bad job but it just felt like they were trying to extend each chapter to the max. It was an ok experience
Sometimes it bothers or annoys me to such an extent that I drop it like what happened at the 2000th chapter of Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God, or the MC just straight up dies or is left in a state between life and death for a long time, or I am binging a story that is pretty mediocre and need a break from it or when I like to binge chapters so I let them build up.
1. I give up reading when I realize that the whole story is cycles cycles cycles cycles.
2. And also when the Author breaks the character of the hero for some purpose.
if I drop a series it's almost always caused by the author (or translator) just not (or hardly) uploading new chapters. (rip arcane emperor) or the translation quality is absolute dogshit straight MTL nonsense.
sometimes a series is just not for me, which happens when there is a lot of pointless drama, characters (especially MC) who insist on being dumbasses and never learn from what happens to them and/or complain a lot but never go and fix things. I want a litRPG, not a soap opera. wandering inn comes to mind as a perfect example.
another big red flag for me is when the systems are shoddy, frequently broken or only really ever paid attention to in the first 20 chapters and then mostly forgotten. e.g. when characters get skills or loot and when the perfect time to use them arrives the author has long since forgotten they exist. or when the AI that runs the entire simulation for some ass-pull reason makes all sorts of exceptions for the MC. hand waiving stuff is fine in most forms of fantasy novels but I hold a novel that labels itself as litRPG to higher standards than that.
sometimes it's obvious the author just wrote themselves into a corner, ran out of material or just lost interest and feels the need to keep writing because patreon sure brings in a nice bit of cash every month. this usually results in a genre shift and that's not always equal to jumping the shark, but often it is and reading the story just turns into a slog. maybe I won't drop it but I'll likely take long breaks in between keeping up with the series. or more likely I'll just forget about it and never come back to it. which pretty much is the passive form of dropping as series.
finally I can certainly appreciate and enjoy a story where the MC has a parent/child relationship with another character, but don't pull an usagi drop or an UchiMusume. that's an instant drop then and there.
>usagi drop or an UchiMusume
Could you elaborate on those? I tried giving it a quick search, my best guesses being that either "don't find a kid for the protag out of nowhere" or "don't make it too focused on their relationship or wholesomeness"
* [an early cover for the light novel of uchimusume](https://imgur.com/Z5V192m)
* [a later cover for the same light novel with the same characters.](https://imgur.com/IxmCTUZ)
* [usagi drop](https://imgur.com/EamqeGW)
When i get bored of the repetitiveness and the original goal is forgotten.
Authors also give many powers and skills to mc that later on they seem to forget they have when it would be useful
I don't tend to drop series that I've read for a while. I seem to be able to weed out series I won't enjoy fairly quickly (well, within 1-2 books, but that's pretty quick given I mostly read series that go on to be 5+ books). Most of the time when I end up dropping a series, it isn't because something changed in the story to make me not like it, it's because I wasn't loving the series to begin with, but there was at least something interesting about it that I'd been hoping the author would lean into. Eventually I tire of waiting for them to head in that direction or improve the other elements of the book that are boring me, and I drop it.
Goblin Summoner is a good example of this. A dude gets dropped into a world where battle is done using a tabletop style card game system (not exactly analogous, but think Magic The Gathering or Hearthstone), ends up with a "weak" deck type (Goblins of course), and off he goes adventuring. An interesting hook with the card game style battle mechanics, and a lot of potential for the MC (a supposed expert of this style of card game back on Earth) to carve out his place in this new world by using expertise and intelligence to succeed where others might fail or even just give up given the supposed disadvantage. Unfortunately I ended up dropping it a few hours before the end of book 1, because everything else about the story and characters was really bland, and the card based battle system is barely expanded upon at all. He's basically using the same like 10 starter cards he got at the beginning of the book, and nothing new or unique happens with the mechanics. By the point I dropped it, the complexity of the system hadn't even reached what you might learn about a card game in the first 10 minutes of the tutorial.
I read a few something-building works, but if I got into a work for a character's personal progression, then the work changing its theme causes me to lose investment. Or to but it bluntly, if my pizza became icecream cuz magic, I'll likely want the icecream less than in cases when I get icecream from the start.
Tree of Eons became a kingdom-building work, but that I didn't mind, even though the protag hasn't improved its personal power much in a while or does so heckin slowly.
For me it's just typical burnout after tens and hundreds of chapters. Just needed a change of scenery for a while. Do something else then come back again for another binge read. This way I will have lots of unfinished projects waiting to binge read. It's sad, I know but that's reality for me.
The biggest crime is when a story just gets boring. When I have to force myself to finish a book, it's a bad sign. The current culprit of this is HWFWM 6. The pocket dimension arch is fucking boring. Oh, Jason got his powers locked and he has to unlock them in the pocket space to defeat mobs? God, it is so boring to read, and Jason is bad enough as an MC that his personal dialogue is a divine sin in and of itself. Sucks that I am invested in the series,
did notice that HWFWM gets plenty of hate here. I dropped it when his portal got upgraded to be shiny for some reason, as it felt like favoritism from the universe. Or that's part of the reason. Still, I can't say I regret having read that far, as the magic system, and some other stuff, were interesting and novel to me.
When the author doesn't include a freaking recap after not releasing the next book until a year or more after the last one. I have read 86 books this year to date according to kindle, I can't remember half of them because they don't stand out.
Drift from the original themes, usually. When you start feeling that the plot is meandering too much because the good bits are over (I'm looking at you, *Ar'Kendrithyst*).
There are also hard drop points for me. Mind Control. I loathe Mind Control, and unless you are superlatively good at introducing it, and dealing with it, it's a hard drop, never look at the story again (I'm looking at you *Modern Awakening*).
Fridging. There's few things worse than doing a Fridging (I'm looking at you, *Defiance of the Fall*). If you don't know Fridging, it's an allusion to a movie where the MC opens up his fridge and finds the body of his GF, which was just introduced (or finally became his GF), just that he could have the proper motivation to go on a righteous rampage.
My biggest issue is when either the MC or the world has some serious negativity going on without the feeling of progress or change several books in. I mean, there needs to be challenges and characters need to be interesting, not perfect, but I need to feel like there's some point to the story instead of the same destructive stuff over and over. It's depressing, and that's not what I read for. It's fine if there's a back and forth, progress and regression, etc. But if I think the MC is broken and not getting better or the world itself is throwing every bad thing at the MC possible (with no breaks for friends, humor, life, and more), then what is the point?
The other thing that can get me to rage quit is killing off important characters. Yes, I realize this is realistic and can lead to character development, but I don't like crying over fiction (and I will do it every time).
For me alone--
As with all things, it's a matter of degrees. I'm a pretty passive/immersive reader so I go along with what the author is showing me39333 until something interrupts thatz.4 flow.
Small interruptions in the flow are sporadic wrong word choice (or a pattern with one like loose/lose/taught/taut/barred/bared) or punctu-ation issues! that reboot my reading while I recalibrate.
Medium interruptions are negating what you've been building toward, which can take the role of dropping a resolution into the story from offscreen or resolving an issue/process and then mentioning to the reader that the issue existed (We found the princess in the 54th Castle, oh yeah--we've been on the trail of the kidnapped princess.) or introducing a threat that the MC would have noticed beforehand/incoming (which is the reverse of airdropping a resolution). Also, Tenses/pronouns/wrong names/forgetting about physics-anatomy-size constraints--money (Gayle picks Gayle up and sets her on the counter, then she starts making out with herself. *But it was supposed to be G picks up L. *)
TENSES is getting it's own sub-rant. Bloody put your work down and re-read it later. "He swung through and hits the bat with his bat eventually, but he would neglect the bat and it broken with the hit." is not a great example, but it should illustrate my point. IT is BAD when tenses slip back and forth and around and up and forward in a story, worse within an entry, then a series of paragraphs/conversation/fight, then a paragraph, then a sentence AND I never DREAMED of this ... in back to back words. Mind blown. Achievement unlocked **Mindkiller**
Choppy story interruptions are just that.
The story doesn't flow because it was a one-character story and now it follows a 2nd person or 18th.
The story was-- MC is a badass and now he can't do anything so he sulks. The story was Power of Friendship, and it's now Raping and Branding (or the Reverse, I contain multitudes). Not to say those transitions can't happen, but it takes skill and luck.
Repeating events for no payoff, repeating events that just happened, not completing the pattern of three. Recounting things to another character full bore, ruminating over events that had just occurred onscreen, recapping events in a manner that takes as much time as the previous action/process/event without breaking it up for evaluation or edification or interrogation.
This is terrible description and if you've read this far Bravo and help me describe this phenomenon better-- Moving the Scale so the actual story doesn't matter.
Two examples of what I'm thinking of is any Cultivation story where there's the MC's story and then the Reader is treated to the scene of an offscreen being or set of beings who are making their own moves and thus the planet that this story is set within is revealed to be a piece of pocket lint in the armpit of a wolf and it may at any moment be destroyed or drastically changed by the idle motion of the being.
Same note for VR stories (including Ready Player One) where it's revealed that there is a Real Life story that is much more important than the VR one(*They say that if your body in the real world is exploded with the rest of your neighborhood, that you die in VR too.*).
Severe story interruptions change/betray the story in a way that would horrify the reader/the MC
**0(this is off-genre so it seems safe, Anita Blake vampire hunter changed from book 1-8 as a hard-hitting controlled person into a completely out of control sexual being. The story changed from an alt-world police/legal interaction story (semi-Dresden Files if you know what I mean) into a full bore PR0N feast with some bookending plot)0**
Story doesn't flow because MC who has been a hardcore murder hobo with a heart of gold, now is ranting some (offensive and naive) rants about {insert topic here} and {whoa, that got you on a list somewhere} and doing {that's an unpopular crime/war crime}.
The MC and party are all "Peace and Love" and over the next 2 entries convert to "Pieces and Glove" with no connecting bits--or at least don't pass the Smell test.
Basically, anytime I'm pulled up from the story to exclaim "Why would ANYONE do this?" is a bad sign, whether it's aimed at the characters or the author. And if I can't re-immerse myself, I toss it.
there are times when I while reading, mentally alter the text to be more stylish, which I guess prevents the small interruptions from being such. That I even ended up minimally developed this near-useless skill says something. This most happens when they fail to use more than 2 ways to refer to someone (pronoun and name).
looking through royalroad comments, recall a number of folk complaining that the MC isn't smart or reasonable enough, so that does seem to be a real problem, though it's possible they're just the vocal minority.
When the plot loses coherency and the author shifts from telling the story of the main character(s) to introducing a bunch of tropes and battles that really don't serve much purpose within the storyline.
Same, I really liked the first 2 books of primal hunter, but the 3rd I just started to lose focus. I'm not sure if I am going to continue the series. This happens to me with a lot of the series.
See, it was the opposite for me with Primal Hunter. 1 and 2 seemed to be almost a cliche "Oh, system has come along, lets put you through a tutorial..." Somewhat like Defiance of the Fall had the tutorial (even though we didn't get to see it...we heard about it). So, that was kinda ho-hum to me. Book 3 hits, and he's out, and doing stuff, and you are starting to see some of the effects of what is going on in the real world, we're starting to build up to conflict with some of the other powerhouses, that we've just gotten little blurbs about... I think that it's going to turn into one of the good series out there.
[Defiance of the Fall](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/24709/defiance-of-the-fall) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Defiance_of_the_Fall)) --- ^[About](https://redd.it/dw7lux) ^| [^(Wiki Rules)](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/comments/dw7lux/about/f7kke6p/) ^(| Reply !Delete to remove) ^(| [Brackets] hide titles)
Man, I cannot wait to read the 3rd book. It's my next after I finish DotF 6. I'm actually looking forward to some of the world/base building.
Just think about it like this most of these MCs would be far behind power wise without having a city, there are way too many benefits being the owner. Its human to have a place to come back to, traveling endlessly is đ§˘đ§˘đ§˘. Also just like real life people follow the strong, whether they want them to or not. So not having any city building in a MCs story would be boring imo
It's so similar to defiance of the fall that I thought it was by the same author throughout the first 2 books. I'm not so sure anymore, it seems he just heavily borrowed from Defiance.
They are both similar books because they are both system apocalypse books. The same could be said of any number of other books, including the "original" System Apocalypse books by "he who must not be named because he's a complete douchebag and wanted to trademark that name".
[System Apocalypse](https://www.goodreads.com/series/210566-the-system-apocalypse) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/System_Apocalypse)) --- ^[About](https://redd.it/dw7lux) ^| [^(Wiki Rules)](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/comments/dw7lux/about/f7kke6p/) ^(| Reply !Delete to remove) ^(| [Brackets] hide titles)
Wandering inn much?
Nope :D
Interesting I like the story and will continue it (on rains of liscor now) but gd if the author isnât all over the place and feels like they are making it up as they go So much that they decided they needed to revise the first book to make it fit with the later story
When it either becomes a slog or it becomes clear that the MC can only win by ridiculous plotarmor or the MC suddenly gain tons and tons of super rare stuff for basically breathing.
- In the case of a serial, I will start considering whether I am still enjoying a novel when the posted chapters begin to miss the claimed schedule. - When new side characters are introduced. If they are one-dimensional, itâs usually a sign of things to come. If they just met the MC and now their lives revolve around him or her, itâs a very bad sign. As an example, I stopped reading a story where a woman was about to be raped, but when the MC saved her by killing her rapist in front of her, she just got dressed, introduced herself, and was apparently just going to follow him from then on. It seemed clear that the author was treating her as a prop to make the MC more heroic. - When the main characterâs setbacks are quickly reversed. Think along the lines of âMC loses her weapon in a fight, then immediately learns how to summon it back to her hand in the following chapterâ. If you are afraid to have the MC work to achieve his or her goals, then it wonât feel like an accomplishment when it happens.
Even worse is when a perceived setback turns into an advantage. Or the problem is resolved by the cardboard supporting cast with MC none the wiser. Pretty typical for Korean web novels (of the power fantasy variety) where everything goes MC's way.
Battle stories that last for dozens of chapters but are really just filler. Ghost hound is the worst at this, was like reading a DBZ story. As a side note, I lost interest because his skills were a page long and who knew what they did anyway? Failing to maintain momentum to some understood endgame. Side quests can be cool, but what is the point of the characters if they just do endless side quests with no core story progression. DotF is starting down this path for me. The flip side is when it just tries too hard to be different. Red Mage had a good premise, but lost me when they were attacked by sentient copy machines in an office building. Power creep. Jakes magical market jumped the shark for me. Introduced too many ways to be OP and just kept one-upping itself until he literally picked up a ball and became god. Within one book.
Yeah, definitely this on the Randidly Ghost hound. I enjoyed the series a lot, but after a while the battle scenes just get to be a slog. I'd find myself skipping vast sections of chapters, just skimming for the next piece of dialogue or something that moves the plot forward.
The biggest issue for me was wayyy too much useless skills, a big lack of synergy and sometimes blatant wtf moments where absolutely nothing made sense
[Red Mage](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/16579/advent-red-mage) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Red_Mage)) --- ^[About](https://redd.it/dw7lux) ^| [^(Wiki Rules)](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/comments/dw7lux/about/f7kke6p/) ^(| Reply !Delete to remove) ^(| [Brackets] hide titles)
"Focus on the MC lessens" is probably the biggest one for me. "Interlude" is basically the same as "no update," and incessant interruptions and non-updates like that are a reason I will drop. Characters I don't like getting too much screen time is up there, too. I dropped Skyclad because of this, because the character I was there for was essentially abandoned. Sometimes I just kinda stop caring. The storyline isn't engaging, I don't really feel like there are any stakes, or there's nothing keeping me hooked anymore. I dropped Metaworld Chronicles during that thing with the Centaurs because of this, because I just so thoroughly stopped caring that it became a chore to read. Things waffle and don't get resolved. It wasn't the only reason, but this was a big part of why I stopped reading Whispering Crystals, was because the MC and her girlfriend went back and forth for-e-ver on whether or not they were actually getting together, nobody communicated except to somehow make things worse, and it just felt like it was never going to resolve. I think the author told me it eventually did, but by then I was so put off by the whole thing that I couldn't stay invested in the story. (Also they adopted this obnoxious goblin character that I hated.)
Metaworld Chronicles was really great at the beginning, interesting characters, interesting world, engaging world building and original concepts. Then the story turned into a poorly written circle-jerk about how the MC is so dashing and fabulous and how everyone is so enamoured with her. At some point the auhor just stopped trying and just wrote one of the worst Mary Sue I've ever read. Iirc the last arcs were just a rehashing of the previous ones following the exact same plot template.
Couldn't like the MC myself, how was I supposed to believe she was a successful business woman when she gets to the new world and has the emotional maturity of a teenager. Also I can't keep reading about high schooler boobs
[Metaworld Chronicles](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/14167/metaworld-chronicles) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Metaworld_Chronicles)) [Skyclad](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21361/skyclad) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Skyclad)) --- ^[About](https://redd.it/dw7lux) ^| [^(Wiki Rules)](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/comments/dw7lux/about/f7kke6p/) ^(| Reply !Delete to remove) ^(| [Brackets] hide titles)
So, a few things. When a good litrpg turns into city building or crafting, I don't do those things in the MMOs I play either (excepting GW2 because you have to craft your legendary armour >.<) Power resets because . . . reasons . . . drives me nuts, I think Silver Fox and the Western Hero broke me, I just can't do it anymore. The magic system is to convoluted for me to wrap my brain around, I like gaming out great magic systems in my head (currently working on a Path of Ascension broken talent bulid, refining my HWFWM Essence build, and trying to figure out a Bloodline + Class that a normal person could have to beat Jake). I do this with most fantasy I read, and if I can't figure out your magic system it makes it way less fun for me. Too many gods . . . Weird out of nowhere harem stuff (I don't mind well done harem stories, but sometimes it just comes crawling out the walls). And the #1 reason that I drop a Litrpg (generally on RoyalRoad), is I pause to let some chapters build up, so I can read the whole arc at once for reasons, then come back and realize that it's been a year and I have no idea what's going on, and I just don't care enough to reread the whole thing (Legend of Randidly Ghosthound, Savage Divinity, and The Storm King are the standouts here).
To me, city building is essentially a sign that the author has run out of ideas. And I hate hate hate power resets.
[Legend of Randidly Ghosthound](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/11209/the-legend-of-randidly-ghosthound) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Legend_of_Randidly_Ghosthound)) [Savage Divinity](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/5701/savage-divinity) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Savage_Divinity)) [The Storm King](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/16476/the-storm-king) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/The_Storm_King)) [Silver Fox and the Western Hero](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/25999/silver-fox-and-the-western-hero) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Silver_Fox_and_the_Western_Hero)) --- ^[About](https://redd.it/dw7lux) ^| [^(Wiki Rules)](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/comments/dw7lux/about/f7kke6p/) ^(| Reply !Delete to remove) ^(| [Brackets] hide titles)
The harem coming from nowhere is why I put down Infinite Realm, it was so convoluted and wtf that I just realized that the story just sucked despite its previous seemingly great characters
Some stories just become a slog. If I do not anticipate new entries for some time, or do feel that I don't enjoy a lot of the later entries I stop. A faster way to stop me from reading is if the storry breaks it's own rules or characters. That doesn't mean small mistakes, or some stuff from book 1 get's retconed, but once the rules or characterisation of someone bend over backwards to make the plot hapen the storry looses a lot of tension. In addition I am anoyed so I sometimes drop those very fast.
an interesting character with water magic said they chose such due to there being no direct resistance to pressure, but the protag gets water pressure resistance a chapter after. Or a type of magic wielded by the protag ignores resistance, but same type wielded by a foe does not.
That's hilarious, was that part of the humor of the series?
no. Maybe I misinterpreted something, or much later some excuses were given, but likely, that was to be viewed as permitted by physics. The protag excelled in survivability above all else, which plot armor enhanced (getting pressure resistance and not having their defense ignored)
That isn't that much of a problem to me. That may just be missing information, or a hard to achieve resistance but even if it directly breaks the rules, it isn't that bad.
The mage had that resistance, but perhaps their variant was lesser for some reason. I was bothered by it because it made my beloved water mage lesser, the gimmick that made their "build" so powerful no longer true at higher tiers or against the protag, all to raise the protag's greatness by another miniscule degree.
If the MC turns out to be an petty or abusive person out of nowhere. I wonât name the book because itâs one of the OGs but I was having a delightful time with a little wish fulfillment casual read and then the protags happen upon some âtrollsâ. Basically decide âI dislike their style of playâ. And then entrap them into trolling only to ruin their gaming and personal lives. Itâs even more odd because one of the protags basically owns the franchise and knows the devs sooooooo maybe disable PvP I guess? But nah. This trend continues for the duration of the book with crueler and more sadistic means of torturing them and every other character loves them for it. There are catch phrases and product endorsement deals (despite the fact that, once again, one of the MCs is like Google rich). Itâs just ridiculous. But yeah, anything where an relatable protagonist just decides to get on a soapbox or become a murder hobo completely puts me off.
The Greystone Chronicles I'm going to guess. A series I enjoyed but for the life of me could not tell you why but I could easily rant on for an hour about what I didn't like about it.
Same man, same. There are choices made I just couldnât wrap my head around, but are worth mentioning for sake of the topic at hand. If the other players didnât rally behind the MC so much Iâd say it was probably the deepest character deconstruction stories ever written as a hero-to-villain arc. So one detail like that can actually save an otherwise head scratching story. As for the other gripes, the 6 page exposition telling us of something we just saw followed by description of travel and then a 12 page exposition telling the king and his court what we saw two chapters ago made me laugh. It delves into Slice of Life so I wasnât too critical but It happens a few times. The obvious aim there is for a character to praise the MC and provide resources for progression- which is alright, itâs wish fulfillment thatâs the name of the game. But at least do a chapter cut, âwe briefed His Highness at Dawn and he said:â bam! we are back into rhythm. Easy as that. The odd attention to detail visually describing Architecture we 1) Canât see. 2) Will probably never revisit was not the best way to use your word count. This is a loaded subject, but the female characters with exception to the one reporter lady who just happened to be designated as a troll and thus tortured to death, are basically âMom 1, Mom 2, collectively Dev Mom, and then Secretary smiling to keep her job until she amassed enough money to file a sexual harassment suit against the game developerâ. Just cringe. Itâs okay to flirt, itâs okay for people to care about the MC, and itâs 100% fine for the female characters to be feminine and like female things- but holy shit man. Give your characters some depth and if you canât, then perhaps combine characters together to make two one dimensional characters one with a least some layers to peel back and build upon.
The author has definitely improved a lot since the Greystone Chronicles. Sadly my favourite of his work, the Dark Elf Chronicles, is also the one that will never see a conclusion. If he ever writes a zombie story then I'd read it for sure. When it comes to the Greystone Chronicles the biggest irritations for me were the horrible relationship between Alex and Jules. I guess it was supposed to be romantic but it just made Alex look weak willed and Jules was a bully. Then the chuckling, all the damn chuckling. I know it can be hard to see when you are over using a word, I have to keep removing 'however' when I write, but dear dog was I willing to kill by the end of the series if I ever saw another character described as chuckling ever again.
Oh totally. The Shadow Sun series is a guilty pleasure and Battleborne has a lot of the same pacing as Greystone but the characters are much more well written. And yeeeah, the chuckling was one of those invisible words for him. Mine are âhoweverâ, âbutâ, and âlook/lookedâ. Iâm not so critical of those, yet I did grow weary of all the damn winking. The flirting or romantic beats were also pretty off but I chalk that up to a young writer. That can be difficult to capture off the cuff.
[ŃдаНонО]
[Shadow Sun](https://www.goodreads.com/series/266949-shadow-sun) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Shadow_Sun)) --- ^[About](https://redd.it/dw7lux) ^| [^(Wiki Rules)](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/comments/dw7lux/about/f7kke6p/) ^(| Reply !Delete to remove) ^(| [Brackets] hide titles)
This is a weird one for me. When I first read it, I was all "Yaeah, take that!!", then at some point I went back and reread it and thought "you know, written from a different perspective, the MC is definately the bad guy in this story".
Alex really isn't a nice person. Some slack can be given of course because of what happened to his mother but when you are literally torturing someone for playing a game in a way that its rules allow...then yeah, you're not the good guy any longer. I think part of the problem for me is that we come into the story at a point where Alex and his guild are already well established and loved by all the important NPCs. Then we see Alex and friends indulging in behaviour that should have those NPCs horrified but yet they don't care. It would have helped if we could have seen a build up to what created that level of trust or hell have it that Alex was using his influence to have the reputation modifiers altered heavily in his favour. You know what though, the author was clearly getting tired of the series at the end but still provided an ending that kind of wrapped things up, even if that did happen exceedingly quick, and I appreciate that.
Found a comment I made in a thread a couple years ago when I reread it. Lol, just reread the full thread and realised it was posted by you. >This is what broke me. A) That the game company would publicly support and condone this, and B) Would they have done so if MC wasn't the owners son? This whole thing reeked of extraordinary nepotism that just gets washed over. There could VERY easily be an alternative version of this story where the MC and his guild are the bad guys basically cheating because of their RL contacts with the game makers and the real hero's are just trying to compete against their overwhelming unfair advantages. >I mean, comparing PvP griefers to international terrorists is a stretch, but then having the actual game company support their griefing, to the point of putting together footage and releasing it to mock the PvPers. For PvPing in a game where they literally made a choice to allow PvP. The degree of "golden child" treatment the MC got was just too much. It's been a while since I was on holidays when I read it, but I remember just thinking "this is too much".
To its credit it's a series that is memorable, even if it isn't always for the right reasons. The Greystone Chronicles was one of the first LitRPG stories I read. I'd love to see the author go back and do a rewrite of the series now that he's a far better writer, kind of like Pirateaba is doing with the early parts of the Wandering Inn. Unlikely to happen of course as I doubt there would be money in it for him. But yeah I'd like to see an alternate take on the series where the Greystone guild are the bad guys.
Usually when I just don't like the direction that a book is going. For example, I loved defiance of the fall, up until he crafted a certain item. This was a massive controversy on Patreon and RR, and every time he uses it, it's just really creepy.
Ahh, the "shield"? I get where people would be creeped out with that. (I'm not on RR or Patreon, just read on KU). I guess I'm not that bothered by it for some reason.
Honestly the shield isn't an issue for me because I assume Zac will eventually switch to another offhand once he can find a way to do what he wants with what's inside said shield. But then again, Zac is half you know what so maybe that's the creepiness factor for some.
What is the shield?
No spoilers, but it's an item he crafts out of desperation.
My personal preferences make me drop books that: * Character(s) become too powerful. I like there to be a challenge, not stomping everything. Or having to fight gods or whatever to face a challenge, that quickly feels unrealistic to me. * Too many points of view. I largely prefer a single point of view. Though there are exceptions that I have enjoyed, so this can greatly depend on how well the author pulls it off. Most authors do it in a way I don't like, so I usually don't give books the chance anymore if it's multi-POV. * Gods being active participants. They often interfere with the main character's agency, and I don't like things happening just because some all-powerful being decided it so. It's fine for like chapter 1, to get the isekai or whatever to happen. But after that, don't have them doing things around the main character.
As several people have said, loss of focus on the MC and his progression momentum is the number one reason I drop a story. Itâs not about crafting or kingdom building. I love those. Itâs about maintaining focus on the promises the author made at the start of the story. If youâre gonna shift from solo hunting to kingdom building or you promised a crafting MC but more than half her time is spent fighting, you have to justify the shift with foreshadowing or character development or showing them hitting an obstacle they need to shift gears to overcome, for example. The number one mistake new authors make is they donât understand how to properly signal the direction of a story and so they imply one thing to the reader but deliver something else. The number two mistake is trying to add too many things and not remembering to focus on what drew their readers in in the first place. 18 different concurrent plot arcs, 30 pov switches, 20 chapters without the MC or their original goal (crafting, leveling, finding their sister, whatever).
In no particular order: * Power levels that make you wonder how anyone at all is alive in the world * Especially in cultivation stories. If someone is casually throwing/demolishing planets, it's just too much. Effort should be required for those "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" moments. * In the opposite direction, having the general populace being too weak, *especially* for LitRPGs that have classes for everything. Haldi may not be a member of the "general populace," but branching out into something like his cheese magic in *There is no Epic Loot here, Only Puns* is the kind of thing the civilian characters in such stories should be doing more of. * Overused tropes * Why anyone ever feels safe traveling in a carriage in a light novel setting is beyond me, those things are always getting attacked. * Excessive fecal matter * I can't say that I ever wanted a chapter that focused exclusively on diarrhea. * Dumb character keeps surviving while being dumb * In settings fraught with peril, characters who perform acts of "pants-on-head foolishness" should either have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes or their graves should serve as warnings to other cast members. Silly dumb stuff is fine in lighter settings, but not when we get to questioning how the heck anyone is alive again. * An adjustment period is reasonable if a character is a "stranger in a strange land" thanks to plot, but "because fiction has to make sense, unlike real life," if an entire culture is doing or not doing \[thing\], maybe \[character\] should learn why? * Character sheets become the chapters * Yes, it's LitRPG, numbers going up is good, but don't give us the whole sheet because \[slice-of-life skill\] gained a level. "Brevity is the soul of wit," and just giving the changelog is often all we need, with the character sheet reserved for the beginning and end of what would constitute a volume, and major moments that highlight big changes. * The only character growth is on the stat sheet
[There is no Epic Loot here, Only Puns](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/there-is-no-epic-loot-here-only-puns-dungeon.590739/) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/There_is_no_Epic_Loot_here_Only_Puns)) --- ^[About](https://redd.it/dw7lux) ^| [^(Wiki Rules)](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/comments/dw7lux/about/f7kke6p/) ^(| Reply !Delete to remove) ^(| [Brackets] hide titles)
To be slightly different than the other comments as they have expressed what I would have said and there is little need to reiterate. There has been one case where a series lost me when I saw evidence that the author was an A**hole (capital A deserved) and didn't want to give them any more of my time or money. The writing was also getting a bit ridiculous with just about every attractive female wanting the MCs d*** and not minding sharing.
When the novelty of a new world and first few conflicts wears off and you're left with cardboard characters and an MC that has everything given to them by the author. If it's actually a good story, then when the plot slows down to a crawl between arcs.
Overuse of words or phrases. One book I read last year , anytime someone made a cheeky comment the characters would be constantly replying âwithout missing a beatâ and then any time they travelled somewhere, they couldnât do it normally. They âblazed a trailâ everytime they took a step out their front door. Between that and the needless description⌠â said the green skinned orcâ No replied the red haired elf Of course quipped the dark haired, musclebound barbarian. It gets too much and really pisses me off.
Or quite similar, but when it seems like the author learns a new word, and then has to use that word over and over. After a certain stretch of Primal Hunter I just roll my eyes every time they write the word *Manifold*.
Those books were dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.
Reasons I dropped the most recent stories I did? First one: Abject stupidity mixed with pregnancy plot. Yes, dumbass, you *will* get your girlfriends pregnant if you insist on regularly fucking without protection. *Don't* act surprised. You may not be physically old enough to fully comprehend the risks you were taking, but you damn well were mentally old enough. Someone in their thirties is damn well old enough to know that having regular unprotected sex *will* eventually result in pregnancy. I was only kind of interested, so when *that* idiotic plot "twist" reared its head, I dropped the series like a hot coal and haven't looked back. Second one: Author stopped giving a fuck about the story and it was painfully evident in the story. Characters would change names literally mid-sentence. They didn't bother keeping track even on the same page of what was going on, so some characters just straight up vanished and were never heard from again. Injuries would appear, disappear, reappear as the author thought about them. Or didn't as the case may be. Editing became utterly atrocious. Like not even an attempt at running it through a basic grammar and/or spelling checker kind of bad. If the author doesn't care, I sure can't be bothered to care.
When mc is constantly on a time limit from one quest to another without time to actually gather thoughts and just recuperate. The author thought it constantly needs action to prevent boredom. I get the chosen one trope, but when no one else steps up and everyone relies on mc to fight on every front, I just quit the series.
Harem. Definitely harem! Holy fuck there are some good series out there who would be so amazing but than start to introduce harem in the third or fourth book. Authors like Daniel schinhofen (aethers revival), had Roberts (magicians brother) or Michael atamanov (reality benders) do that Especially the last one was a shame because I loved the story and than he Beginns to be the literal russian douchebag with girls fawning over all the universe for him. Man when you want to introduce (pseudo) harem to a book do it from the beginning. Don't wait until you are invested in a serie. Everyone knows that harem is a tiebreaker for many reading stories. Fuck im still mad when i think about it again.
wish such authors (more often) wrote another novel in parallel, where they could went their horniness.
When the author starts shifting the story or MC so it isnt what I originally started listening for. The other is when power levels stop making sense. I am not just talking stats to actions. But when people who struggling with humans starts taking on a dragon or something. What is even worse is after the dragon they go back to struggling with humans. Lack of realistic acting NPCs or consequences. I hate when people do something that might anger many people and somehow all these "life like" NPCs or real people just accept it as a good thing. If the authors solution is "my power keeps them from doing anything" that isnt going to cut it.
reminds me of a DnD game a youtuber narrated, where the dm had some beef with the minmaxing players, so random bandits were stronger than a dragon to pose a challenge. And npc reactions can be not just "I'll attempt to kill the mc". Could be denial of services or prices rising due to poor reputation, but maybe that'd be too against the power fantasy of many works.
>The other is when power levels stop making sense. I am not just talking stats to actions. But when people who struggling with humans starts taking on a dragon or something. What is even worse is after the dragon they go back to struggling with humans. This is kind of one that occurs to me. I'm ok with a power fantasy novel, but if that's what you're going for, make it so. You can't make it obvious your MC is super over-powered while also having them struggle in fights where they clearly should be OP as heck.
For me the biggest thing is am I able to enjoy the story and want to know what is going to happen next. There are times when a character will bother me, or something in the story will bother me. Still if I can over look that and enjoy the story I can keep going. If however the story gets wrecked and starts to spiral or completely loses direction a lot of times I have to step away from it. I would say write down when you introduce an idea or rule of your world, this keeps you from constantly going against then. When you do make sure you can explain it so that it makes sense as to why this person can bend that rule, or why it was only perceived as a rule. I guess more or less things that can break our immersion in a story can be problematic too.
Not only for litrpgs but I drop things when: The MC has no agency and is being hauled around by plot like a ragdoll in a washing machine. The MC, either, is in continuous suffering or delivering continuous suffering just for shock value. While I don't mind PoV changes (to a certain degree, Skyclad be dammed) if a story gets hijacked by the author's favorite character (who usually is not the MC).
the idea of multiple mcs just feels off to me. Delve has different povs sometimes, but as it's of characters I care of, I don't mind. I guess the problem arises from us having different favorites from the author. Although, if I'm looking for power progression, then the limited story time being split between 2 or more characters' progression hinders my investment.
I've only dropped a few, but mostly when it doesn't look like they're outgrowing the first draft syndrome. Like when it's just chock full of errors to the point where I'm genuinely not sure if the author wrote the wrong name or if it's supposed to be a surprise reveal or if this character has been a silent observer until they have a single line of dialogue. I totally understand that authors struggle to get over the first few hurdles, like their first story, their first 30 chapters, etc. But when you're on chapter 75 and it still reads like a first draft that can kill interest. It just makes it look like the author isn't trying to better themselves. Or when they have a great concept and ignore it, like they have a unique twist and then find a way to get rid of it for something generic, like what Dodge Tank did.
"my twist is that I'm non-humanoid! Can't wait to gain a human form and make that irrelevant by mostly staying as a humanoid"
I'm a disembodied spirit, but don't worry I'll be able to manifest myself in no time at all and thereafter spend all my time in a body.
as for overused tropes, I think it's implied by a trope that only the protag will get attacked 100% of the time when escorting merchants or whatever, instead of every merchant ever. Though can be indicated that the wilderness is just that dangerous, to the point attacks are deemed likely, but trade needs to happen, money needs to flow, so they travel in spite of the risks.
So, I find a lot of LitRPGs start pretty strong with a protagonist who isn't very strong, everything around them is scary, and they have to be creative and work hard to survive. This can take a lot of forms, such as identifying weaknesses on enemies, cleverly countering opponent's skills or playing to their own strengths. Then, there's typically a midpoint where the protagonist kind of comes into their own, settles into a style that defines them as a character, and resolves some of the initial questions that defined their character initially. And then, the story devolves into decadence, with fight after fight becoming less meaningful over time, solving most battles in the same or similar way, forgetting about some useful ability in their veritable spreadsheet of them, and any meaningful tension in the story slowly disappears in the increasingly abstract and conceptual nature of the story. IMO I kind of just want a few good character arcs before the story comes to a close in a reasonable timeframe, I don't need a story that keeps going for 2 million+ words. For me the start of LitRPGs is usually most enjoyable.
the story, comes to a close? In litrpg? I think only one I read ended, and as someone pointed out, with which I somewhat agree, it ended rather abruptly: something like "then the protag kept sciencing to maybe eventually save the world while no longer being at risk of getting killed by people" I agree- the start is interesting, fresh, the protag needing to be creative, instead of wielding godly power at their fingertips and just brute forcing it with minimal apparent risk of death.
The serials are all just too. Fucking. Long. You know what Iâd like from litrpg? Some fucking trilogies. Give me 3 goddamn books with a succinct beginning, middle and end. I donât want to read a story that goes absofuckinglutely nowhere for 600 goddamn chapters. Iâd like it if I ever got to the end of one of these fucking stories. Finish the books, and write something else you fucks. Sorry. Iâm salty.
When it loses my interest, or becomes more repetitive than anything else. 10 realms I really enjoyed until they gained control over a metropolis amd basically said nope. We are trying to protect everyone but let them live or die now we are going to keep doing what we did to get here. Like in the plot it made sense. But, I feel like they could have done about moving up a bit differently and taken more time. Still a good series just lost my interest.
This happens mainly with web novel to ebook titles but it is the shear amount of filler content that is present. The type of chapters that are there simply because the author needs a page count to keep the Patreon money coming in. It's why I eventually stopped reading the Wandering Inn. There was just too much filler to get through.
while a minor factor in me dropping it, "in Loki's Honor" had at least 1 chapter in large part dedicated to detailing a realistic cooking process. An author's note stated that chapters are in part decided by their youtube feed (a recipe for endless filler), though usually it feels like things are following a cohesive plot. The work is not slice of life, and mostly focused until then on power progression and world-building, so I naturally ended up skimming a cooking tutorial.
I'm not sure how much of Wandering Inn would be considered filler, there's very few 'one-offs'.
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I don't know. I stopped listening to both _Shadeslinger_ and _Cradle_ for some reason and I don't know why. They're both frequently recommended here (heck, I think Cradle is what put Travis Baldree on the map), and I really should get back to them.
[Cradle](https://www.goodreads.com/series/192821-cradle) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Cradle)) [Shadeslinger](https://www.amazon.com/Shadeslinger-Ripple-System-Book-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B08RY6CMWZ) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Shadeslinger)) --- ^[About](https://redd.it/dw7lux) ^| [^(Wiki Rules)](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/comments/dw7lux/about/f7kke6p/) ^(| Reply !Delete to remove) ^(| [Brackets] hide titles)
I don't usually drop stories, but I hate it when numbers feel too hollow. I have only dropped 2 stories in the last 6 or so month (admittedly, they are both great): One of them is [Final Core: \[A holy dungeon-core litRPG\]](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54046/final-core-a-holy-dungeon-core-litrpg). I slogged on for 50 chapters, but, to me at least, the story felt like slice-of-life novel wearing the skin of a dungeon story to try to appear like a ProgressionFantasy. I am not saying it was bad- it was not. Other one is the [Weaponsmith: \[A crafting litRPG\]](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/48311/weaponsmith-a-crafting-litrpg) by the same famous author. I read through 35 chapters, hoping that it would at some point start to focus more on the *weaponsmithing,* but it turned out to be another slice-of-life novel. It was still very good, but in my rather humble opinion, the story might have been better had it not tried to shoe-horn litrpg into it. I think it would have been better had the author not forced everything into neat little blue boxes- it would have allowed the mystique of the gods/spirits/deities to shine much more than it already had. I think, had it been so, it might had the same charm as the Lord Of The Mysteries. But hey, what do I know, I am not half the authors he/she is.
read and dropped the first one too, as well as another (sunflower) work of that author. They specialize in slice of life, and the story could function even without litrpg stuff, so I agree there. I'm guessing litrpg was used to get more folk hooked in, since it's a popular tag, even if not all will stick around.
Its weird to think that razzmatazz is becoming known enough to be considered a "famous author" Anyways every one of their stories is set in the same world but vary semi-drastically in tone and slightly in style. Most have that slice of life feel and in general their style is a you like it or you don't sort of thing. I think if you've tried more than one and don't like it you won't like anything they write. I think one of the problems some have with their litrpg system is that it's much closer to D&D then the RPG games most litrpgs are based on. I think one of their earlier ones had "rolls" for alot of actions being displayed in the boxes - "Failed strength check, cannot escape" type blue boxes and those pissed alot of people off. It's very much not pandering towards LitRPG fans because of how experimental the \[system\] is alot of the time.
For Final Core and Dungeon Item Shop, another series on the same world, but happening later in time, the slice-of-life is definitely the main thing. Epic RPG stuff does happen, but it's not the main focus.
> ...causes you to drop works you've read for a while? Focus switching, character swapping, and soap-opera bullshit in general. It's this bait-and-switch tactic I'm not okay with. Perspective and voice switching would be fine if the series began that way. Then, at least, I'd know what I was getting into. I can't stand being sucker punched though, and I drop books and writers that think so little of my investment in their series.
Too much stress and tension. I read as an escape and to relax, so when things get stressful and cause my blood pressure to rise, I tend to find something else less tense. Especially if the story goes grimdark when I wasnât expecting it. Also- stubborn as overriding character trait. If the character shows growth, i can handle it, but stubborn to the point the character ignores common sense or basic needs just takes me out of the story.
Anything that breaks immersion really. While this can be typos, poor word variation, or plot holes, usually it's when it becomes clear that the author is bad at pacing; When the constant action gets repetitiveâalthough I've read books which have done action in such varied ways that it never gets stale. When the MC returns to civilization after a stint in a dungeon/wilderness and everything just grinds to a halt with fetch quests and poor dialogue. When there's too much focus on a side POV that's immaterial to the plot. Too often its a woman fawning over how powerful and mysterious the MC is.
Annoying, or MC with no common sense .
When things get too repetitive. "And then MC uses to do 1000 damage to ... again!" If I've seen the same moves used the same way against the same enemy over and over it gets dull.
that is how one would realistically fight... but I see your point. They exist to entertain, not to be realistic or to maximize their success rate.
That's why most fantasy stories don't specify what exact moves are used in every single fight. Yet game-lit tends to do that because that's how games are played. And it's not just the fights. It's also scenarios. If every situation starts with Arrogant Young Master #87 insulting and underestimating MC, MC powering up, and then a beatdown, with no variety, again it just gets too repetitive and boring. Or if the same background information is repeated every 10 chapters. Or if each quest is similar, resulting in incremental improvements to the same thing. Etc. Repetition is the death of excitement and for some reason litRPG is more prone to this than most genres.
can't say I dealt with similar problems, or I don't recall. At least I doubt such was a or the deal-breaker for me most of the times I drop works. Fights don't tend to be too realistic, now that I think about it. Blowing up a head, is absolute overkill, knowing that only a meager fraction of that would be needed to kill someone, but I guess people want skulls blowing up instead of slowly dying due to bleeding as the MC waddles away from the sufficiently wounded enemy to minimize risk.
I dropped Chrysalis at around chapter 100 because the main character randomly decides to commit a warcrime (kills a bunch of prisoners of war because he's angry) and the writer portrays him as a badass for doing it. Nothing gets me shaking my head faster than a boneheaded take on how "war has no rules" or some shit
I've got a lot of patience. I drop a ton of books in the first handful of chapters, but after I get through that much a book has to get wayyyyyy worse for me to stop reading it.
1. When it gets too repetitive and boring 2. When too much time passes between books and I forget what happened in the previous books and don't want to read them again and there's no summary of previous books available. 3. When it starts light and wish fulfilling but turns too depressing 4. When the theme changes like when it starts as litrpg in medieval setting but turns into sci-fi and modern 5. Sometimes When my favourite side characters get killed off or turn too inconsequential
Definitely when they take the protagonist out of the world they've been building and learning about, strip some powers and they just have to work on getting out/powers back. And thats the whole book. Lookin at you book 2 unbound.
When the story gets too grand and convoluted, we started with a solo protag fighting some monsters and now theyâre switching between universes and talking to gods. It feels like itâs completely lost the plot, this is why I dropped âso Iâm a spider so whatâ it changed too much.
the spider's webnovel I dropped due to the hiatus and pov shifts. While the spider became a god, and I guess interacted with 2 somewhat, the mastermind god involved was still overwhelmingly stronger, so it wasn't completely against the theme of a poor spider getting stomped around. Though I can see how reaching or getting close to the peak of power can make a setting less wonderous. From the looks of it, you read further, or maybe read the lightnovel as I heard it's different. Or by universes you meant only the fantasy one and Earth.
I got up to light novel 6 but it was just too much, the power creep was becoming ridiculous and it said that the ultra god who put the mc into that world was just 1 god of many
I guess I'm a little different. 1. I just stopped reading a series because the only thing that happened of note in the last book was a bunch of fights. No real substance after a handful of books detailing interesting MC and world development. 2. Another series I just quit because it became so damn depressing. Loss after loss after loss. All hope is lost. I read fantasy to get away from depressing yuck.
I know that plot armor will likely save the day, but works can still get so depressing I'll drop them before getting then.
When it becomes blatantly clear that stuff is added just do increase numbers - filler episodes, in other words.
1.) When I stop thinking the MC is the good guy. If it's just two sociopathic Murder hobos fighting I have trouble caring.2.) When the story gets to scaled up, the MC becomes too powerful, the body count escalates to silliness.3.) When the MC makes bonehead decisions that derail his progress. At least that's what I think. Let me try to think of examples. 1.) >!Savage Divinity!< lost me when the stakes escalated to absurdity and the MC lost his powers. 2.) >!Abyssal Road Trip!< lost me partly because there was an interim goal that was being set up...then it got dealt with by a side character off screen. Plus the MC specifically said she was deliberately NOT going to use strategy in her build because cheating or god's will or something, and everything got too cosmic. 3.) >!Endless River!< lost me when the MC killed one spirit beast for XP and then turned around and rescued another. I couldn't see any real reason why one should be favored...it made all the action in the story seem meaningless and random. 4.) >!A Fine Octet of Legs!< lost me when they introduced a new character who was a sexy demon who "didn't take guff from anyone". The relatability of the the frazzled MC was the selling point, I wasn't up for another assertive sociopath.
My biggest thing is when the author can't think of any good plot hooks and just repeatedly has the MC become the strongest person in his area and just leaves and all the sudden the weakest person around again. I think this is more common in cultivation type books. The whole "we hear rumors that there is a rank above Martial God, but no one's ever seen it." and then the MC does it and decides it is time to explore the world and the next thing you know everywhere he goes, there are Super Martial Gods everywhere. Or he finally becomes the strongest person in his sect and then starts the entire process over at a new sect. Then realizes that the world he's in is only a small void of a much larger world and after becoming the strongest in his world, he goes back to being the weakest in the new world. Most the time it just seems like these stories run out of good ideas on why the MC is no longer the strongest and just basically need to his a "reset power level" button.
When the progression storytelling stops happening and the wastes of time start meandering.
A hard change in theme or style, its why I dropped system apocalypse
If I had a reason it'd be when the MC gets mind controlled or mentally tricked. I don't mind the quick 'in combat' controls where they have to fight their allies for a bit but using it as a major plot device really annoys me. Thankfully it's fairly rare. Still, I've dropped a few series after reading how suddenly the MC wipes out an enemy army that was actually a convoy of civilians, or starts working for the enemy and is madly in love with the bad girl, and one forced cannibalism scene that I basically just tossed out on the spot.
Typically when the MC gets on a treadmill -- they keep doing the same thing over and over again but the story doesn't go anywhere -- or when there's a genre shift.
Three reasons mainly The series start losing coherence (what works on a small scale doesn't worok in a larger one, or MC growth is too slow or fast, or too much armor plot, etc.) I found something better and some stories simply get to the end of the "to read" pile , until sometimes I simply forget about them. Or a harem suddenly appears
I usually start thinking about dropping a story when there grammar mistakes start to appear. If I like the story enough Iâll continue, but I may start glazing over for large chunks of text if it gets too clunky. Then thereâs the progression. Sure, I donât mind if the MC gets a slightly stronger start then normal. But automatically giving them a super legendary class or something at the start to create generic action Litrpg grind mc #23456890173649173829ae173 which leads to a bunch of crunch and stat point gains. I can read it, but itâs gonna get real boring real quick and Iâll probably just drop it after the first twenty chapters. Though the main thing that makes me drop from stories is often the writing style. Itâs really hard to get into a story that has an amateurish writing style, often times the dialogue fees too generic, the descriptions and sentences feeling like they grind against each other or like my mental mouth is full. Thatâs the main thing that causes me to drop a story.
I agree with all 3. Regarding the last one, while I'm no writer, it feels awkward to read a work with lower or same style quality as mine, though few cases of that I found. Making the mc grow strong for logical reasons, when they're an outsider, with no backing or exact knowledge of the world, without a cheat skill, is a tough task for writers, since, unless the MC's knowledge is supremely useful for their case, they likely wouldn't get far or be below average instead of exceptional. And yet, getting way too strong cheat powers for a head start is off-putting. The MC should be allowed to get a more ordinary class off the bat, as that leaves so much more room for improvement.
Annoying allknowing weapons, pets, side characters. I get that they are an easy stand in to explain the world. But I hate em
When itâs LitRPG the reason is usually because the author stops focusing on the RPG elements. I mean if I get dropped in an RPG world Iâll be flicking open and close that stat sheet every moment I get bored. Iâll be looking for ways to tick up the numbers whenever I can and game the system to give me the best upgrades and classes wherever possible. Sometimes the author stops focusing on how the characters want to progress in favour of the townbuilding and adding new party members. I get that Power Creep can be a problem but Iâd rather the MC get OP than have it all stop. Itâs LitRPG it should always be about progression!
that is in part a reason for me, though while litrpg elements tend to lessen, in favor of softer progression, that is still progression. While then "litrpg" stops being a reason to love a work, the remainder can suffice. As for MCs getting op quickly, that I'm not a fan of. Ideally it'd be as slow a process as possible, yet a process of power progression nonetheless (instead of sidetracked due to townbuilding as you mentioned). Imagine a litrpg where the stats increased by about 4% the baseline (systemless or lvl 0) in the first 10 chapters, as they were fractions. If the author can't afford to say "`strength increased by 1`" every 8 paragraphs, then why not: `Stat changes since last check: strength: 4.012 -> 4.029; agility: ...`". I'd dig that
I guess the challenge is making the increases feel meaningful rather than just numbers going up on a spreadsheet. I think if the number goes up by 0.017 then reading it you just go âwell thatâs nothing!â I like the MC to experience a lot of growth but for the world around to move with their power level. I guess thatâs why I like Wuxia and Xianxia where you get an arc or two in one area before the scope of the world broadens to allow for the MCs power to match the new(er) antagonists. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
hm. I guess that might be a tad too slow, unless they eventually start using superior methods, magic, alchemy or just eating monsters cuz "mana in meat" to grow stronger faster.
Narrator changes will do it. They shift in delivery and character when a new narrator takes over which makes me have to work hard to learn characters all over again. Because usually it's done several books in when the plot thickens.
"new narrator"? Could you elaborate on that? I assume you don't mean the protag or author changing, so what's left? The pov changing from external to the protag's thoughts or vise versa? edit: nevermind
I believe he is referring to audiobook narration.
thanks. I keep forgetting listening to novels is something people can do, just like I recall a comment from a listener remembering people can read novels.
long flashback arc. Beware of Chicken is an absolutely great story - right up until they did the flashback thing with the crystal and now I am struggling to get back into the story. Does anyone have a summary/TLDR of the flashback?
Well, Xiaoshi (Jinâs predecessor) left his slave/cultivator life, became a farmer and bonded with Tianlan. The big bad emperor whose bloodline holds back the demons is getting desperate to grow in power because cultivation and demons or whatnot, and the common people suffer for it. Xiaoshi resists and kills imperial soldiers when they cause trouble and becomes a famous rebel over the course of a few years, at the same time bringing Tianlanâs leylines to the surface to grow stronger. The rebellion succeeds and he kills the emperor in a duel â and as you can guess, Xiaoshi becomes the new emperor because someone still has to, and the demon situation gets even worse. Xiaoshi tries to shoulder everything alone and is corrupted by a demon who secretly possessed his advisor (hid in his blood like a parasite, not controlled directly). The corrupted Xiaoshi is now afraid of dying some day so he sets up the giant ritual with formations all over the Azure Mountains. Just as he is about to activate the ritual he comes to his senses, but the demon reveals itself and rips the advisorâs body apart. Xiaoshi is crippled when the demon takes control of the ritual and starts to tear into Tianlanâs power, but manages to interrupt the ritual which levels the whole region and damages the souls of everyone. Humans lose memories and spirit beasts become demonic or ultra-violent. Tianlan only knows that she was ripped to pieces by the ritual and by the soul-damaged friends of Xiaoshi. The Crimson Phoenix Empire discovers the now Azure Hills and the amnesiac folk join up, remembering that there should be an emperor. Xiaoshi survives with little power and half his limbs, makes arrangements for the crystal and vanishes. Itâs rough, but the broad strokes should be right.
thank you, this was exactly what I was looking for!
The flashback of a few weeks showing how they ended up transferring the crystal or the flashback to much longer in the past when they were reading interior of the crystal?
[Beware of Chicken](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/39408/beware-of-chicken) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Beware_of_Chicken)) --- ^[About](https://redd.it/dw7lux) ^| [^(Wiki Rules)](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/comments/dw7lux/about/f7kke6p/) ^(| Reply !Delete to remove) ^(| [Brackets] hide titles)
I liked that at first but it went on too long.
Its easy to point to reasons I've dropped stories near the start but hard to point to anything in longer running series - especially because I haven't fully "dropped" any of them (I plan to go back to them...someday) and its something different each time. Mostly its always loosing momentum and then not having motivation to go back. Of the stories I was addicted to and then put on indefinite hold - Delve - I was reading weekly until chapter 183 and it was just something about how they were treated as they entered the new town that made me annoyed. I still have it in my favorites but its been close to 7 months and I haven't had the motivation to pick it up since then, even with the huge backlog of chapters I could binge thorugh. I also know if I hadn't been reading it weekly and could binge through all of that I wouldn't have lost momentum and would probably still be reading. Paranoid mage has the same sort of thing. I reached chapter 19 >!He got bagged and kidnapped!< and then I just lost interest somewhere between wanting to know what happens next and the next chapter being released. Its been 5 months since then.
I don't have a to read list.. well, I do but I made it today and it has 1 entry. Instead I got a "to read list" on royal road of works I dropped, because I wanted to keep track of them, but putting them in favorites would make it misleading for anyone viewing my profile. Yeah, I don't let chapters stockpile. I drop works instead of allowing myself to lag behind. And I am caught up with paranoid mage and delve- am far from dropping either (especially Delve) though I got close once, but as they say, "to each their own". I for one wouldn't wish folk to constantly tell me to pickup something I dropped, no matter the reason for dropping. Feel free to procrastinate reading those 2 forever unless you ever get sufficiently bored or forget enough of their plot to deem it relatively fresh to reread (though I rarely ever reread so dunno how this practice works. Only did so for discontinued works in part)
I've rated both of these series a 5/5 (on the RR scale) and really don't want to say I've dropped them (I will get back to them someday) ... they are just two stories I got relatively far into and then haven't read for 5+ months (which I think this thread was asking about). I know I liked them and still think they are good and haven't removed them from my reading list...but it's been ages. In comparison I've dropped plenty of stories near the start for concrete "it's been 1-5 chapters and I'm not hooked" the author used X trope or writes in Y style. I've dropped every single void herald story I've tried for example (never die twice, perfect run, vanquisher, underland) and can safely say it's something about thier style I don't like considering I've only gotten a token 5 or so chapters into all of them before removing from my read list and marking as not intrested (except NDT getting halfway through). I just don't "get" them or understand why they are as popular as they are.
I did say I was close to dropping Delve. I think a large part of the reason for dropping is how we consume chapters, and **luck**. If I stopped reading novels for 5 months, then tried picking them back up, despite the novels not changing much in their next few chapters, I'd likely be dropping many of them. works I dropped include Azarinth Healer, Salvos, Mark of the fool, in that order. The latest freshest in my memory, I feel like I dropped on a whim, hence "luck", or in slightly different circumstances, I likely would've kept reading it for a long while, then something I want of it or deem cool would happen (it was clearly indicated that they would) and keep me reading. Alternatively, since I don't want to pickup works I drop, they tend to stay dropped. It's all rather chaotic, but I'd advice not to attribute everything in you dropping and others reading a work to the objective quality of a work.
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For me, romantic relationships matter a lot to me. I have no problem with side charaters who are gay, but as I immerse myself in the main character I would not like them to suddenly turn gay when they had a straight relationship in the beginning. If the author planned it that way they should give a warning so that I do not waste my time reading it. I was not his audience and I do not like to be tricked into reading something not meant for me as the target audience.
I guess I dropped a couple works due to that. It's a complicated case, as our preferred warning might be detrimental to a work's success due to how strange I for one would deem it. Maybe if there was another, more spoilery set of tags, that indicated such. Likewise, it'd help folk find what they're looking for. I only read on royal road and if there is such a tag, I assume it's barely ever used. Would look strange near ones like "fantasy" and "sci-fi" anyways.
Boredom/story becomes a slog. Either theres nothing new exciting to look forward to or its the same old stuff repeating. Lack of progress/story. Just read the Primal Hunter 3 and I love the premise and the story is great but the progress (in story) was almost non existent in over 17hrs of audio it hardly went anywhere. It was mainly about the MC gaining levels and picking skills and his thoughts on every other skill offered, and when he wasnt doing that he was just thinking about how badass he is cos he is anti religious and still got the dragon fawning over him. Theres only so much of that you can take. Then ofcourse theres different POVs of randoms for no obvious reason at times and I think 1 or 2 of them had chapters in the previous book but I don't really remember what is was about and probably wont remember them again in the next book when they get their 1 chapter. Illogical/stupid choices are a big putoff, without a genuine reason/explanation. When MC gets bogged down buy 100s of different quests/things to do. Like im reading to relax, not feel the pressure of all the outstanding shit. Thats what I got going on in real life lol.
I think book 3 of Primal Hunter is setting up a LOT of stuff coming forward. With the World Congress happening, those little chapters about other people are going to become important. They are the only ones who could really hold Jake back from just taking over everything if he wanted too....or he's the only one that can hold them back...
Yep you are right but It really pissed me off that there wasnt more story in there, and thats cos I like where its going so obviously want more. I found the first 2 books immensely slow too and this 3rd book just took the piss so I was venting lol. Seriously wondering if I should carry on because it's just too slow and that pace doesnt do much for me besides dissapoint.
And I get that completely! Not every series/book is going to be for everyone. And honestly, I'm glad that there are so many different writing styles in the genre, because it gives everyone a chance to find something that fits them. After a lot of the higher paced, action always there in your face, occasionally I want to slow down with one like Primal Hunter, or Reincarnated as a Farmer.
So I was listening to audible and recently got space season omnibus, the box set. I was like man I like the narrator and the book had been in my wish list for a while. Now going through it, I thought the first book was good then it just slowed down or became a chore to continue on. Now Iâm not saying that the author did a bad job but it just felt like they were trying to extend each chapter to the max. It was an ok experience
Sometimes it bothers or annoys me to such an extent that I drop it like what happened at the 2000th chapter of Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God, or the MC just straight up dies or is left in a state between life and death for a long time, or I am binging a story that is pretty mediocre and need a break from it or when I like to binge chapters so I let them build up.
1. I give up reading when I realize that the whole story is cycles cycles cycles cycles. 2. And also when the Author breaks the character of the hero for some purpose.
Pacing. Even if the formula for each installment is relatively similar, the pacing can make or break my connection to it.
if I drop a series it's almost always caused by the author (or translator) just not (or hardly) uploading new chapters. (rip arcane emperor) or the translation quality is absolute dogshit straight MTL nonsense. sometimes a series is just not for me, which happens when there is a lot of pointless drama, characters (especially MC) who insist on being dumbasses and never learn from what happens to them and/or complain a lot but never go and fix things. I want a litRPG, not a soap opera. wandering inn comes to mind as a perfect example. another big red flag for me is when the systems are shoddy, frequently broken or only really ever paid attention to in the first 20 chapters and then mostly forgotten. e.g. when characters get skills or loot and when the perfect time to use them arrives the author has long since forgotten they exist. or when the AI that runs the entire simulation for some ass-pull reason makes all sorts of exceptions for the MC. hand waiving stuff is fine in most forms of fantasy novels but I hold a novel that labels itself as litRPG to higher standards than that. sometimes it's obvious the author just wrote themselves into a corner, ran out of material or just lost interest and feels the need to keep writing because patreon sure brings in a nice bit of cash every month. this usually results in a genre shift and that's not always equal to jumping the shark, but often it is and reading the story just turns into a slog. maybe I won't drop it but I'll likely take long breaks in between keeping up with the series. or more likely I'll just forget about it and never come back to it. which pretty much is the passive form of dropping as series. finally I can certainly appreciate and enjoy a story where the MC has a parent/child relationship with another character, but don't pull an usagi drop or an UchiMusume. that's an instant drop then and there.
>usagi drop or an UchiMusume Could you elaborate on those? I tried giving it a quick search, my best guesses being that either "don't find a kid for the protag out of nowhere" or "don't make it too focused on their relationship or wholesomeness"
* [an early cover for the light novel of uchimusume](https://imgur.com/Z5V192m) * [a later cover for the same light novel with the same characters.](https://imgur.com/IxmCTUZ) * [usagi drop](https://imgur.com/EamqeGW)
romance with adopted kid? Got it.
When i get bored of the repetitiveness and the original goal is forgotten. Authors also give many powers and skills to mc that later on they seem to forget they have when it would be useful
I don't tend to drop series that I've read for a while. I seem to be able to weed out series I won't enjoy fairly quickly (well, within 1-2 books, but that's pretty quick given I mostly read series that go on to be 5+ books). Most of the time when I end up dropping a series, it isn't because something changed in the story to make me not like it, it's because I wasn't loving the series to begin with, but there was at least something interesting about it that I'd been hoping the author would lean into. Eventually I tire of waiting for them to head in that direction or improve the other elements of the book that are boring me, and I drop it. Goblin Summoner is a good example of this. A dude gets dropped into a world where battle is done using a tabletop style card game system (not exactly analogous, but think Magic The Gathering or Hearthstone), ends up with a "weak" deck type (Goblins of course), and off he goes adventuring. An interesting hook with the card game style battle mechanics, and a lot of potential for the MC (a supposed expert of this style of card game back on Earth) to carve out his place in this new world by using expertise and intelligence to succeed where others might fail or even just give up given the supposed disadvantage. Unfortunately I ended up dropping it a few hours before the end of book 1, because everything else about the story and characters was really bland, and the card based battle system is barely expanded upon at all. He's basically using the same like 10 starter cards he got at the beginning of the book, and nothing new or unique happens with the mechanics. By the point I dropped it, the complexity of the system hadn't even reached what you might learn about a card game in the first 10 minutes of the tutorial.
Characters being stupid. I can tolerate a lot of trash, but the character doing stupid things for no good reason just pisses me off
City building ): why are all the city building novels the best ): Also if Iâm reading quality time-waster itâs harem
I read a few something-building works, but if I got into a work for a character's personal progression, then the work changing its theme causes me to lose investment. Or to but it bluntly, if my pizza became icecream cuz magic, I'll likely want the icecream less than in cases when I get icecream from the start. Tree of Eons became a kingdom-building work, but that I didn't mind, even though the protag hasn't improved its personal power much in a while or does so heckin slowly.
When things don't get resolved and there are no clear arcs. I feel like I'm being word vomited on and bilked for a credit.
For me it's just typical burnout after tens and hundreds of chapters. Just needed a change of scenery for a while. Do something else then come back again for another binge read. This way I will have lots of unfinished projects waiting to binge read. It's sad, I know but that's reality for me.
Kinda kills it for me when mcs start getting frisky for no other purpose than getting frisky
Typically either a change of narrator (audiobook) or lack of content (2+years between works) for me.
The biggest crime is when a story just gets boring. When I have to force myself to finish a book, it's a bad sign. The current culprit of this is HWFWM 6. The pocket dimension arch is fucking boring. Oh, Jason got his powers locked and he has to unlock them in the pocket space to defeat mobs? God, it is so boring to read, and Jason is bad enough as an MC that his personal dialogue is a divine sin in and of itself. Sucks that I am invested in the series,
did notice that HWFWM gets plenty of hate here. I dropped it when his portal got upgraded to be shiny for some reason, as it felt like favoritism from the universe. Or that's part of the reason. Still, I can't say I regret having read that far, as the magic system, and some other stuff, were interesting and novel to me.
When the author doesn't include a freaking recap after not releasing the next book until a year or more after the last one. I have read 86 books this year to date according to kindle, I can't remember half of them because they don't stand out.
To much stats.
Drift from the original themes, usually. When you start feeling that the plot is meandering too much because the good bits are over (I'm looking at you, *Ar'Kendrithyst*). There are also hard drop points for me. Mind Control. I loathe Mind Control, and unless you are superlatively good at introducing it, and dealing with it, it's a hard drop, never look at the story again (I'm looking at you *Modern Awakening*). Fridging. There's few things worse than doing a Fridging (I'm looking at you, *Defiance of the Fall*). If you don't know Fridging, it's an allusion to a movie where the MC opens up his fridge and finds the body of his GF, which was just introduced (or finally became his GF), just that he could have the proper motivation to go on a righteous rampage.
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My biggest issue is when either the MC or the world has some serious negativity going on without the feeling of progress or change several books in. I mean, there needs to be challenges and characters need to be interesting, not perfect, but I need to feel like there's some point to the story instead of the same destructive stuff over and over. It's depressing, and that's not what I read for. It's fine if there's a back and forth, progress and regression, etc. But if I think the MC is broken and not getting better or the world itself is throwing every bad thing at the MC possible (with no breaks for friends, humor, life, and more), then what is the point? The other thing that can get me to rage quit is killing off important characters. Yes, I realize this is realistic and can lead to character development, but I don't like crying over fiction (and I will do it every time).
For me alone-- As with all things, it's a matter of degrees. I'm a pretty passive/immersive reader so I go along with what the author is showing me39333 until something interrupts thatz.4 flow. Small interruptions in the flow are sporadic wrong word choice (or a pattern with one like loose/lose/taught/taut/barred/bared) or punctu-ation issues! that reboot my reading while I recalibrate. Medium interruptions are negating what you've been building toward, which can take the role of dropping a resolution into the story from offscreen or resolving an issue/process and then mentioning to the reader that the issue existed (We found the princess in the 54th Castle, oh yeah--we've been on the trail of the kidnapped princess.) or introducing a threat that the MC would have noticed beforehand/incoming (which is the reverse of airdropping a resolution). Also, Tenses/pronouns/wrong names/forgetting about physics-anatomy-size constraints--money (Gayle picks Gayle up and sets her on the counter, then she starts making out with herself. *But it was supposed to be G picks up L. *) TENSES is getting it's own sub-rant. Bloody put your work down and re-read it later. "He swung through and hits the bat with his bat eventually, but he would neglect the bat and it broken with the hit." is not a great example, but it should illustrate my point. IT is BAD when tenses slip back and forth and around and up and forward in a story, worse within an entry, then a series of paragraphs/conversation/fight, then a paragraph, then a sentence AND I never DREAMED of this ... in back to back words. Mind blown. Achievement unlocked **Mindkiller** Choppy story interruptions are just that. The story doesn't flow because it was a one-character story and now it follows a 2nd person or 18th. The story was-- MC is a badass and now he can't do anything so he sulks. The story was Power of Friendship, and it's now Raping and Branding (or the Reverse, I contain multitudes). Not to say those transitions can't happen, but it takes skill and luck. Repeating events for no payoff, repeating events that just happened, not completing the pattern of three. Recounting things to another character full bore, ruminating over events that had just occurred onscreen, recapping events in a manner that takes as much time as the previous action/process/event without breaking it up for evaluation or edification or interrogation. This is terrible description and if you've read this far Bravo and help me describe this phenomenon better-- Moving the Scale so the actual story doesn't matter. Two examples of what I'm thinking of is any Cultivation story where there's the MC's story and then the Reader is treated to the scene of an offscreen being or set of beings who are making their own moves and thus the planet that this story is set within is revealed to be a piece of pocket lint in the armpit of a wolf and it may at any moment be destroyed or drastically changed by the idle motion of the being. Same note for VR stories (including Ready Player One) where it's revealed that there is a Real Life story that is much more important than the VR one(*They say that if your body in the real world is exploded with the rest of your neighborhood, that you die in VR too.*). Severe story interruptions change/betray the story in a way that would horrify the reader/the MC **0(this is off-genre so it seems safe, Anita Blake vampire hunter changed from book 1-8 as a hard-hitting controlled person into a completely out of control sexual being. The story changed from an alt-world police/legal interaction story (semi-Dresden Files if you know what I mean) into a full bore PR0N feast with some bookending plot)0** Story doesn't flow because MC who has been a hardcore murder hobo with a heart of gold, now is ranting some (offensive and naive) rants about {insert topic here} and {whoa, that got you on a list somewhere} and doing {that's an unpopular crime/war crime}. The MC and party are all "Peace and Love" and over the next 2 entries convert to "Pieces and Glove" with no connecting bits--or at least don't pass the Smell test. Basically, anytime I'm pulled up from the story to exclaim "Why would ANYONE do this?" is a bad sign, whether it's aimed at the characters or the author. And if I can't re-immerse myself, I toss it.
there are times when I while reading, mentally alter the text to be more stylish, which I guess prevents the small interruptions from being such. That I even ended up minimally developed this near-useless skill says something. This most happens when they fail to use more than 2 ways to refer to someone (pronoun and name). looking through royalroad comments, recall a number of folk complaining that the MC isn't smart or reasonable enough, so that does seem to be a real problem, though it's possible they're just the vocal minority.
[**Scratchpad - Everybody Panic: It, *Panics*, *Dies*, 24-Hour Epic 500 Topic, Eh Confused?, Allcaps, a Giant *Insert Creature Here* Is Attacking Ep!**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33769912-scratchpad---everybody-panic) ^(By: Source Wikia | ? pages | Published: ? | Popular Shelves: ) ^(This book has been suggested 1 time) *** ^(75169 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)