28 KiB
[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread
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Author: u/AutoModerator *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/1gzkrd4/d_monday_request_and_recommendation_thread/
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Score: 31
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Created: 2024-11-25T15:00:13
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Welcome to the Monday request and recommendation thread. Are you looking something to scratch an itch? Post a comment stating your request! Did you just read something that really hit the spot, "rational" or otherwise? Post a comment recommending it! Note that you are welcome (and encouraged) to post recommendations directly to the subreddit, so long as you think they more or less fit the criteria on the sidebar or your understanding of this community, but this thread is much more loose about whether or not things "belong". Still, if you're looking for beginner recommendations, perhaps take a look at the wiki?
If you see someone making a top level post asking for recommendation, kindly direct them to the existence of these threads.
Previous automated recommendation threads
Other recommendation threads
Comments:
u/Watchful1 [+26] (42 seconds later)
a couple weeks ago I asked for timeloop stories and I've read a few of the recommendations.
- Chains of a Time Loop. This one is just okay, the writing is fine, but the characters sometimes make decisions that don't really make sense. It's like the author wanted the plot to go in a certain direction and made the characters, both MC and others, just ignore more realistic choices. The plot is also kinda in a weird spot right now and I'm curious how the author is going to explain things. On the other hand, the magic system is quite interesting and the learning and combat is quite unique compared to other fantasy time loop stories. It's worth reading since there's not all that much of it yet, you can probably knock it out in a few hours.
- Death After Death. This one is excellent. The start can be a bit rough, not because of writing but because the MC starts out a bit unlikable and complains a lot. It's worth it though, he grows a lot. I also really like this one because the loop goes until he dies, he's got multiple years long loops at this point, which I've found much more interesting than trying to accomplish everything within a month like other stories. There's also a lot of it out, took me ~12 hours to read 160 chapters and it updates regularly. Highly recommend.
- The Years of Apocalypse. My current favorite active story. The writing and characters are just a hair below Mother of Learning and IMO the worldbuilding is even better, with lots of hints of things that still need to be explored. I also feel that it does a much better job of exploring the motivations of the different countries/powerful people that have resulted in the worlds current crisis. This is the authors first big story, so the writing at the begining is a bit rough, but I believe it's worth it.
I'm going to read A Not So Simple Fetch Quest next.
Looking for more recommendations for "loop" stories that have the long loops like Death After Death. I've also read Purple Days (and Time Braid) that were like that.
u/Raileyx [+21] (12 minutes later)
Just here to second the recommendation for "The Years of Apocalypse".
Much like I had been hoping, it has only gotten better over time. We've gone from a naive, by-the-book, immature MC that was completely out of her depth and wasted her time on stuff that didn't really matter, to a competent time-looper who has gone through crisis and came out stronger on the other end. And not just in terms of skills and applied rationality, but also emotionally.
It's a very satisfying read, once you get past the somewhat rocky start. While I'm not sure I agree that the world building exceeds that of MoL, it's at the very least competently executed and contains a lot of cool shit.
Characters got better too. Go read it!
u/Brilliant-North-1693 [+14] (an hour later)
Death after Death suffers from a meandering plot due to the constructed world.
It's basically an extended dream sequence, and the character (just the one afaik) isn't strong enough to carry the story in the absence of stakes or overarching plot. Though I might be biased here against the "tower climbing" genre in general I suppose.
The Years of Apocalypse time loop story I could just never get into, despite trying several times. The intro is really weak, but beyond that it just comes across a bit Scooby Doo ish. Way too much time is spent investigating the mysteries of the school.
u/megazver [+6] (8 hours later)
Another rec for Years of Apocalypse. The first ten chapters/the first loop are very dry, just skim them and keep going, it'll get good.
u/cysghost [+5] Chaos Legion (14 hours later)
The Perfect Run, isn’t really a time loop, but a story where the MC has a save point, and previous runs had a length longer than one month, but IIRC, most of the restarts in New Rome take place in around a month timespan.
u/AurelianoTampa [+4] (3 days later)
Thanks for the Death After Death recommendation; started it when I saw this post and just finished it (well, caught up to the most recent chapter) today. Definitely wasn't my cup of tea at first because of the unlikeable protagonist at the beginning, but he does smooth out over a few dozen chapters. I am very interested to see where it's going now that we've been introduced to the person causing some of the conflicts in the levels for the MC to solve.
Already up to date on Years of the Apocalypse, and I'm not sure I'll start Chains after the lukewarm recommendation. Maybe if I can't find something else.
But yeah, thanks again, DaD was a great rec!
u/fish312 [+6] humanifest destiny (4 days later)
An Infinite Recursion of Time is a crack fic time loop that's a decent read. Unfortunately it has been removed from royalroad but you can find it on other sources or the internet archive https://web.archive.org/web/20240207230102/https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/43761/an-infinite-recursion-of-time/
u/Amonwilde [+1] (7 days later)
Do you know of anything else like this?
u/fish312 [+1] humanifest destiny (7 days later)
Besides those already listed above? Maybe mother of learning. Time braid is pretty good too.
If we're moving away from web novels, you can try the novel Replay
And also there's The Man Who Folded Himself which is not per-se a time loop, but the entire novel is time travel shenanigans.
u/Amonwilde [+1] (8 days later)
Haven't read the man who folded himself, I'll check it out.
u/Dragongeek [+4] Path to Victory (5 hours later)
I thought A Not So Simple Fetch Quest was a weird but fun read. That said, be warned: despite containing no actual explicit scenes, there is enough (non-vanilla) fetish fuel in there to surpass most actual erotica.
u/Grasmel [+3] (2 days later)
I've been playing In Stars And Time recently, a time loop video game. It's well-written and engaging, and does some interesting worldbuilding. Interesting worldbuilding with the place having a unique religion, culture and even a magic system based on rock paper scissors. To progress in the story both the player and the main character have to figure things out, so even on a replay you can't do everything perfectly the first time around - the emotional story of the player character and their relationships is both important to progress and engaging to interact with.
I haven't actually finished it yet, but unless there's an unexpected drop in quality at the end I don't see why I wouldn't recommend it. The only gripe is that sometimes the main character does some stupid stuff that makes you want to shout at them to get their act together and be sensible, but it's also very understandable with the kind of person they are and the things they go through. Not really rational as such, but rational adjacent.
u/xjustwaitx [+3] (2 days later)
derec from me - the game is very linear, and you have very little control over the decisions your character makes, which means it doesn't have the replayability necessary to make the time loop aspect enjoyable.
u/Grasmel [+4] (2 days later)
Yeah, it depends on your preferences. Since it's linear it's closer to reading a story about a time looper than playing a game as one. Agree about replayability.
u/Flashbunny [+3] (3 days later)
I finished it, loved it, but found that I hadn't seen a bunch of stuff - and foolish me, I was just overwriting the same save file every time, and there's some stuff you can't do after certain points apparently. I'll probably end up going through it again with a guide to see the bits I missed.
u/HomerKM [+2] (16 minutes later)
There are two translated works that come to mind for long loops: A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation and Longevity Simulations. The former is very solid and focused, with loops lasting whole lifetimes; the latter tends to sprawl a bit more but consequently feels more organically world-spanning. Links: https://wetriedtls.com/series/a-regressors-tale-of-cultivation and https://www.scribblehub.com/series/851465/my-longevity-simulation/
u/Jokey665 [+4] Worth the Candle (53 minutes later)
characters are just a hair below Mother of Learning
Thanks for the de-rec i guess lmao
u/Judah77 [+0] (17 days later)
"Death after Death" didn't feel at all rational to me.
Great story premise around rogue-like isekai, but the main character is filled with unfounded confidence and has a victimhood complex. He blames everything going wrong on an external locus of control and never seriously self-reflects. This leads to trauma.
The author does a great job of gruesomely slapping down the annoying MC, who continues playing his chosen afterlife game. I stopped at the cannibalism when he was zombified, since it read the author was going for 'shock' instead of good writing or characterization.
u/CatInAPot [+14] (47 minutes later)
Despite not really being into the quest format nor fan fiction, I've found Divided Loyalties, Rhunrikki Strollar, and Polyhistor Academy to be engaging reads that I'd recommend (I skip all the quest numbers personally). Any suggestions for other quests? Prefer OC, but I'm cool with fan fiction using settings, would prefer to avoid anything using well-established characters.
I mentioned this last week so apologies, but Wander West, in Shadow is really good, and I think it deserves more than 5k views, so I'm gonna recommend it again.
u/lo4952 [+12] (9 hours later)
Now You Feel Like Number None is a Bleach fanfic quest featuring an OC Hollow in Hueco Mundo. Very good, very long, and complete.
Arsonist's Lullaby is an Avatar: The Last Airbender timeloop quest with Azula as the protagonist. The story begins with her an indeterminate number of loops in, stuck reliving the same week or two between Boiling Rock and her father's fall. Like a truly great timeloop story, it's about Azula growing as a person, not growing more powerful.
u/NTaya [+10] Tzeentch (a day later)
The Erogamer on Questionable Questing (can't fetch a link atm, sorry) is easily the best quest I've ever read. There's a running joke whenever The Erogamer is mentioned that goes like, "I was told that this porn quest is surprisingly complex and deep, adjusted my expectations, and still was surprised at how complex and deep it is."
Obviously NSFW—but even though I strongly dislike smut in my plot, I found this one just excellently done and perfectly woven into the story.
u/JaxThePyro [+6] (7 hours later)
Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest is a very good mecha story.
u/CatInAPot [+1] (7 hours later)
Read that one actually! Enjoyed it, but looks to be on indefinite hiatus.
u/H265 [+3] (4 days later)
There's Golden Empire, a long (~1.1m words) Magical Girl quest set in a Byzantine-style fantasy empire. Its magic system is largely copied from Madoka Magica, but the setting and characters are all otherwise original, and it shouldn't require any knowledge of Madoka Magica to understand (though it's worth watching anyways).
It's been a very long time since I've read it, but from what I remember it's relatively rational (at least as far as quests and magical girls go), particularly in regards to its world building. It's definitely one of the better non-smut quests on fiction.live, there are some NSFW scenes later on but the vast majority of it is SFW. The story is split into several chapters (each covering a major story arc), the rest can be accessed from the author's profile.
u/gfe98 [+2] (4 hours later)
A Destiny of Strife is a similar long OC focused fanfic quest to the ones you liked. You don't need to be familiar with the setting, I read it without knowing anything in advance.
u/Darkpiplumon [+3] (17 hours later)
Have you read Esquestria: The House of the Sun? My Little Pony/Cultist Simulator quest. OC MC. Many trigger warnings apply, the tone is far more Cultist Simulator that MLP. Great story, great scenes and great imagery.
u/Dragongeek [+14] Path to Victory (an hour later)
This week I listened to Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It is a dark comedy/satire essentially about the end of the world, as told from a surviving domestic service robot's perspective.
I found it very good, albeit in an occasionally bleak way. The humor lands well, and it's an encapsulated novel-length work. The audiobook is read by the author, which he does very well.
It is remarkably similar to Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling, only instead of a robot going on an archtypal hero's journey through a near-future late-stage-captitalist hellscape in search of meaning and self-actualization due to the machinations of 'God', in Qualityland, it's an unemployed human doing the same. The audiobook versions are even both read by the authors, and even use some of the same jokes (eg. robots losing their jobs and becoming unemployed, due to proliferation of automation)!
Personally, I liked Qualityland more, the only issue is that Qualityland is in German, and while translations exist (?), I can't speak to their quality, especially since it is a comedy and that doesn't always translate well. The primary difference is that unlike Tchaikovsky (who has mostly written rather serious sci-fi) I feel that Kling is more comedically skilled.
u/netstack_ [+3] (3 hours later)
I briefly confused your username with DRAGON_GOD and thought, wow, their tastes have really changed.
u/AccretingViaGravitas [+2] (a day later)
Personally, I liked Qualityland more, the only issue is that Qualityland is in German, and while translations exist (?), I can't speak to their quality, especially since it is a comedy and that doesn't always translate well.
Any suggestions for other good novels in the original German?
u/BavarianBarbarian_ [+3] (2 days later)
Andreas Eschbach's stuff is rarely translated, which is a pity for all the non-German speakers. I highly recommend:
Der Letzte seiner Art: After the US discontinued its highly classified cyborg program, one of the participants was left to drift aimlessly through life, until he hears that his old colleagues have been turning up dead.
Herr aller Dinge: A story about a boy who decides to build self-replicating machines, and grows up to be a man who actually does so. Has some "fantasy" elements to it, too. Spoilers: >!The ending of the story was a huge mindfuck. A scientific expedition wakes an ancient deposit of self-replicating nanomachines, which begins assimilating everything around it. The boy manages to communicate with them and discovers that they were a weapon employed by proto-humans in an interstellar conflict, which is why there are no alien species in communications range: our nanoweapons killed them all, before they managed to completely eradicate humanity.!<
Eine Billion Dollar: Normal dude is told that he's the heir of a secret portion of the Fugger family's fortune, which has grown to ridiculous amounts due to interest over the last four hundred years. Tries to figure out a way to use this money to improve the world, but has to contend with power-hungry people.
Freiheitsgeld: In the 2050ies, after mass unemployment caused by automation, Universal Basic Income has been implemented. The story critically explores the many societal changes this would bring, while also having a plot about a world-wide conspiracy.
u/AccretingViaGravitas [+2] (3 days later)
Really interesting descriptions, much appreciated! I'll definitely start with Herr alle Dinge.
u/CellWithoutCulture [+2] (12 days later)
ChatGPT seems like they will make translation cheap and easy once someone can ensure consistency
u/DAL59 [+13] (7 hours later)
The Fury of a Shattered Mirror is a maximum effort Slay the Princess/Disco Elysium crossover, note that full knowledge of both games is needed to read it. It takes place after the ending of DE and continues Harry's character development, and also hilarious because of all the interactions between the old and new voices in his head.
u/NTaya [+6] Tzeentch (a day later)
Huh, Baader-Meinhof strikes again. I started reading this a few days ago and not because of any r/rational-adjacent recs. It's excellent. "Maximum effort" is exactly the right description.
I agree that it requires some knowledge of both fandoms—and since both games are extremely spoiler-sensitive, I'd recommend playing both (they are super worth it! DE is my GOTY 2019!) before reading. If that's impossible, you could quickly look up basics on wiki and read the fic from there, but damn, you would miss on great games.
u/Darkpiplumon [+3] (17 hours later)
I wouldn't say full knowledge of both is needed. But yes, knowing of at least one of the crossovers is strongly recommended. Great story.
u/EricHerboso [+12] (4 hours later)
I recently read the physically published version of This Used to be About Dungeons, Volume One. I'd like to continue reading the story, but Volume Two has not yet been released as a physical book. I'm wondering whether I should wait for u/alexanderwales to publish it or if I should read the online version on Royal Road instead.
Does anyone know if Volume Two will be published relatively soon? Or is there a possibility that it won't get a physical version?
(Even if I read it on RR, I intend to purchase the physical version once it comes out. I prefer having physical versions of the books I read.)
u/alexanderwales [+20] Time flies like an arrow (5 hours later)
Volume 2 is edited and the cover is complete, the last I heard it was being proofed, but it probably won't come out until early next year depending on what the schedule is looking like. I do wish that the books were just getting windmill slammed down in short order, but all this stuff apparently takes time.
u/dalkef [+3] (8 hours later)
Didn't realize it had a paperback version, I will be buying it. Sorry if it's been asked before, but is there plans for a Worth the candle paperback release?
u/alexanderwales [+6] Time flies like an arrow (10 hours later)
I think there's a good chance of doing it print-on-demand like the one for TUTBAD, since the initial costs are low. There aren't concrete plans at the moment though.
u/staged_interpreter [+7] (3 hours later)
I know, divisive topic - but anyone knows of a decent fic from a slavers point of view that is not trying to abolish it either in the short term or long term?
u/k5josh [+19] (8 hours later)
Basically any Waifu Catalog fic fits the description, except
decent
That's the hard part.
u/ansible [+13] The Culture (5 hours later)
Very NSFW:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/51307/what-we-do-to-survive
u/brocht [+1] (6 days later)
Is it good?
u/ansible [+1] The Culture (6 days later)
I'd say this review is a fair summary of "Murder Hogwarts":
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/51307/what-we-do-to-survive?review=1280827#review-1280827
u/gfe98 [+9] (4 hours later)
Reverend Insanity I suppose, though it is not a major focus of the story.
u/GlueBoy [+3] anti-skub (3 days later)
There's the Draka series about Boer Nazis who are so Nazi that they eventually kill the Nazis for not being Nazi enough.
u/hwc [+7] (4 hours later)
Any good Tolkien fanfic from the last year or so (since I last asked)?
u/SvalbardCaretaker [+1] Mouse Army (a day later)
Have you been recommended the rather large corpus of Silmarillion glowfic back then?
u/hwc [+2] (a day later)
yes! But I don't think there is anything new, right?
I did recently reread Silmaril/Elentári. It almost hit the spot.
u/SvalbardCaretaker [+1] Mouse Army (a day later)
No new glowfic I think, yes.
u/jobseekingstress [+6] (8 hours later)
Looking for something similar to Super Supportive (I'm all caught up and the wait is killing me). It might be my favorite series of all time.
What I love about SS: lovable characters, slice-of-life, world-building, general positivity (I don't want something dark), writing quality, and general pace/development in each chapter - despite my short attention span, I found myself binge reading it over a single weekend. It's a plus if the MC is intelligent - I love the way Sleyca takes a single superpower and continuously expands its possible uses through creative applications/interpretations. And I love Alden's strategizing.
Other series I liked: Mother of Learning
Couldn't get into: Worm, The Perfect Run.
I've also read a lot of Brandon Sanderson but don't have the attention span/energy for his worldbuilding at the moment- requires a lot of energy input before the payoff. I love Harry Potter, though that's not rational fiction.
Thanks!
u/Seraphaestus [+11] (21 hours later)
Have you tried This Used To Be About Dungeons? By the same author as Worth the Candle, but it's more slice-of-lifey and cozy/light
u/jobseekingstress [+3] (a day later)
This looks awesome! Thank you!
u/Seraphaestus [+2] (a day later)
Hell yeah
Also bonus rec for a HP fanfic: Harry Potter and the Natural 20. One of my favourite fics, not exactly matching your ask but it's a lot of fun
u/jobseekingstress [+1] (a day later)
Ooooh I'm always down for an HP fanfic :) I've heard of HPMOR and read a bit but haven't heard of Natural 20! How does it compare?
u/Seraphaestus [+3] (a day later)
I haven't read HPMOR in years and have mixed feelings on my recollection of it, but Natural 20 is a very different fic. It's comedic and chaotic, the protag Milo is a munchkining DnD character isekai'd into the HP world around the start of canon and befriends the trio, who he immediately pins as the plucky Protagonist of the story and his companions, to their bafflement. Milo is from a world where most people are literally NPCs and half of his common sense from his world is busted in this one, so a lot of his character arc is him adjusted to that. His DnD magic is incompatible with HP magic, which means he has to get creative with using it to blend in. It helps if you have a little knowledge about DnD but is perfectly readable even if you don't. I find it quite wholesome seeing Milo grow as a person, and the shenanigans are a lot of fun.
A link, btw: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/8096183/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Natural-20
u/jobseekingstress [+1] (a day later)
Sounds amazing!!! FF site seems to be down :( Hopefully it'll be back up soon
u/Seraphaestus [+1] (a day later)
That's odd, it's working for me (I started rereading it haha), I wonder if it's a mobile/desktop thing? I'm on the mobile site
u/jobseekingstress [+2] (a day later)
Oh it's back up now!! Yay!
u/Seraphaestus [+2] (a day later)
Nice! If you end up reading and enjoying it and want to chat about it feel free to message me on old.reddit PMs
u/jobseekingstress [+1] (a day later)
For sure! Thank you!!
u/CaramilkThief [+4] (9 hours later)
You might like Adamant Blood. It's by the same author as Ar'Kendrithyst but it's a superhero story about a young boy with powers and a troubled childhood. Unlike Alden, Mark's power is a lot more flashy and frontline though, and while the two stories share some surface level similarities the world and power systems are different.
u/jobseekingstress [+2] (13 hours later)
Thank you!!
u/brocht [+1] (6 days later)
Is this good? I liked Arkendrithyst on the whole, but I've been on the fence about starting something new.
u/CaramilkThief [+1] (6 days later)
It's very good, according to most of the reviews on RR and patreon discord opinion. I haven't read it yet because currently not in the mood for another superhero story, but I think you can expect similar things writing-quality wise as Ar'k: great spelling/grammar, good writing chops, long chapters, quite a bit of slice of life. Story-wise I have no idea, but I see a lot of people talk about kaiju battles, which seems interesting.
u/Hellrage [+1] (6 days later)
Thank you so much for the rec, binged it over a few days and I really enjoy it. I'm sure any fans of Ar'Kendrithyst would love this one too