Web Serials

The author of Pith sold trilogy rights for 7 figures to traditional publishing. He's also a troon now but I hope we get the third book and a conclusion soon because it's really good.

I really wanted to like this but he tries way too hard at making his "wizards" esoteric and their abilities Lovecraftian. It just makes it hard to read and understand what he's getting at.

1% Lifesteal book 3 finished up. That is a really great one. I read the finale like twice because it was so enjoyable.

Author does well with complex characters. Everyone is a piece of shit but he makes you interested in why they are such pieces of shit.

TJT said:

1% Lifesteal book 3 finished up. That is a really great one. I read the finale like twice because it was so enjoyable.

Author does well with complex characters. Everyone is a piece of shit but he makes you interested in why they are such pieces of shit.

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Since I'm bored at work, this brings me to my latest pet peeve about the books I seem to find myself reading lately. Namely, that the main characters are mostly just unlikable pricks. Usually I overlook it for a while because the setting or the support characters are interesting, or some other reason that keeps me coming back. But eventually I am forced to confront the fact that I fucking hate the main character and I wish they would die and let everyone else take over the series. This seems to be happening to me more and more too.

I just finished reading an urban fantasy series called The Chronicles of Cain, which is a huge fucking ripoff of a ton of series, mainly Dresden, mixed in with ripping off a ton of public domain Cthulhu mythology. I have a TON of bitches about the series after reading 9+ books, but that's not the main topic right now. The main guy (Cain) starts as an assassin, but immediately throws that all to the wayside to save his current target and ends up protecting her. But we constantly get reminded how he was this hardass assassin loner guy and he would be better off without her, so he does stupid shit like let's say he comes home and she asks how his day was and he'll say that he killed a baby and then go in his room and lock the door and sleep. Of course she's fuming the whole time and pissed at him until he finally comes out and tells her it was a demon disguised as a baby, which of course is a whole different story, and she asks why he didn't just say that, and he responds that he shouldn't have to, he's a badass don'tcha know.

That's a terrible example and it didn't happen, but many similar to that do happen, and pretty much solely to point out what a hardass he used to be and how she's softening him up. Except the softening isn't even good or interesting, he just bitches about it occasionally.

Or other series where the main character is fucking aspie or something and thinks people are gross or make him uncomfortable. Do even autists want to read about other autists?? I'd assume they would want to read about someone that isn't crippled with anxiety like they are, so they can temporarily escape from it. Just like I might read Conan and revel in how he's free to do whatever he wants instead of sitting at a desk all day. I'd never want to read about Conan being inundated with mundane tasks that he struggles to find a reason to go on living, because I live that shit every day at work!

But countless books lately seem to fall into some range of horrible main characters, and it is really starting to piss me off. At least in litrpg I expect them to mostly be all about the "must get stronger" trope, but they can still be decent human beings while they do it. But no matter the genre, lately it just seems that everyone is a giant piece of shit and I fucking hate them after a couple of books of putting up with their crap.

So tell me about this 1% Lifesteal. Is it like that? Or are they endearing pieces of shit? Because I'm not really sure I can handle another series that starts out good and then slowly makes me start to hate it.

Void said:

So tell me about this 1% Lifesteal. Is it like that? Or are they endearing pieces of shit? Because I'm not really sure I can handle another series that starts out good and then slowly makes me start to hate it.

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In short yes. I like the series specifically because you are interested in most of his piece of shit characters and you can see how they have to make decision after decision that just makes them ever worse pieces of shit. Something they are all well aware of but circumstances force them into certain situations. Some are just greedy cunts but most are not.

To set the scene. 1% Lifesteal is in a pseudo-cultivation type setting. Earth was thrust into this and it drastically warped the planet. New Earth is much larger than original Earth and various geographical features are fucked up or gone. Canada is a gigantic frozen wasteland (moreso than it already is!). Portals, dungeons, insane creatures and the usual are all over too. Earth is super dangerous.

People are empowered with cultivation type stuff but not exactly how usual cultivation books go. This creates a setting kind of like grimdark X-Men. Might make right and take what they want. The weak suffer it. Some people want this to not be the case but the reality of the situation limits them. The most powerful Archhuman (as they are called), The Empress, founded an Empire on her so far peerless strength just to bring some degree of order to the New Earth. By all modern accounts the Empire is a brutal place but the Empress does enforce certain things to limit archhumans killing mortals and taking their shit constantly. Which is more than nothing. The Empire works to preserve mortals and human society but also uplifts the most powerful archhumans as they are needed to defend the realm from the insane monsters and such. This system is not perfect and isn't a like protect the weak as a principle but to just minimize how bad archhumans terrorize them.


Enter a few of our heroes:

• Freddy - The MC. Freddy is a mortal in the Empire and worked at 7/11 or something. Becoming an archhuman is protected and hoarded by the powerful so regular people have almost no hopes of ever becoming one. Even for shitty worthless powers with no potential. As becoming an arch at all makes you live longer, be stronger, better, etc than regular people. The objects that make you archhumans appear randomly/not randomly on earth for various reasons. Freddy happens upon one and is almost immediately robbed by an arch for it. The Empire prevents this but forces him to sell it to a broker of sorts who just fleeces him anyway. As he had a super rare one worth untold billions of dollars. Broker fleeces him and trades him the seemingly worthless 1% lifesteal ability. He eventually recognizes this and is thrust into situation after situation where nobody tries to act even remotely decently to anyone they perceive as being below themselves. Forcing him to become an unhinged asshole again and again.
• Mark - Arch who is trying to provide for his mortal fam. He is abused by more powerful archs and forced to betray a bunch of people just so he can benefit his mortal family. Which he does because he cares about them more than other people but still hated doing it. This compels him into service for even worse people and the spiral continues.
• N - Scion of an arch clan who schemed for power as the trope goes only for it to be thrust upon him. To keep the clan going he had to do even worse things than the previous clan head did and he knows it.

Lots of characters like that. I find it all compelling and interesting. The MC is only strong because the original broker did not realize that his 1% lifesteal worked differently than other lifesteal abilities that were considered trash and avoided. Giving him a strong base with great potential. Freddy definitely becomes an unhinged psychopath but the entire time he is just trying to make things something resembling fair for regular people and most archs are assholes who abuse their power.

TJT said:

In short yes. I like the series specifically because you are interested in most of his piece of shit characters and you can see how they have to make decision after decision that just makes them ever worse pieces of shit. Something they are all well aware of but circumstances force them into certain situations. Some are just greedy cunts but most are not.

To set the scene. 1% Lifesteal is in a pseudo-cultivation type setting. Earth was thrust into this and it drastically warped the planet. New Earth is much larger than original Earth and various geographical features are fucked up or gone. Canada is a gigantic frozen wasteland (moreso than it already is!). Portals, dungeons, insane creatures and the usual are all over too. Earth is super dangerous.

People are empowered with cultivation type stuff but not exactly how usual cultivation books go. This creates a setting kind of like grimdark X-Men. Might make right and take what they want. The weak suffer it. Some people want this to not be the case but the reality of the situation limits them. The most powerful Archhuman (as they are called), The Empress, founded an Empire on her so far peerless strength just to bring some degree of order to the New Earth. By all modern accounts the Empire is a brutal place but the Empress does enforce certain things to limit archhumans killing mortals and taking their shit constantly. Which is more than nothing. The Empire works to preserve mortals and human society but also uplifts the most powerful archhumans as they are needed to defend the realm from the insane monsters and such. This system is not perfect and isn't a like protect the weak as a principle but to just minimize how bad archhumans terrorize them.


Enter a few of our heroes:

• Freddy - The MC. Freddy is a mortal in the Empire and worked at 7/11 or something. Becoming an archhuman is protected and hoarded by the powerful so regular people have almost no hopes of ever becoming one. Even for shitty worthless powers with no potential. As becoming an arch at all makes you live longer, be stronger, better, etc than regular people. The objects that make you archhumans appear randomly/not randomly on earth for various reasons. Freddy happens upon one and is almost immediately robbed by an arch for it. The Empire prevents this but forces him to sell it to a broker of sorts who just fleeces him anyway. As he had a super rare one worth untold billions of dollars. Broker fleeces him and trades him the seemingly worthless 1% lifesteal ability. He eventually recognizes this and is thrust into situation after situation where nobody tries to act even remotely decently to anyone they perceive as being below themselves. Forcing him to become an unhinged asshole again and again.
• Mark - Arch who is trying to provide for his mortal fam. He is abused by more powerful archs and forced to betray a bunch of people just so he can benefit his mortal family. Which he does because he cares about them more than other people but still hated doing it. This compounds him into service for even worse people and the spiral continues.
• N - Scion of an arch clan who schemed for power as the trope goes only for it to be thrust upon him. To keep the clan going he had to do even worse things than the previous clan head did and he knows it.

Lots of characters like that. I find it all compelling and interesting. The MC is only strong because the original broker did not realize that his 1% lifesteal worked differently than other lifesteal abilities that were considered trash and avoided. Giving him a strong base with great potential. Freddy definitely becomes an unhinged psychopath but the entire time he is just trying to make things something resembling fair for regular people and most archs are assholes who abuse their power.

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Man, you really went above and beyond with this, and I really appreciate it. Enjoy your freedom boner!

Seriously, thank you. These are exactly the kinds of shitty characters I can get behind, because they aren't just being shitty because the author wants them to be grimdark or edgy. Not sure if any of you watched Smallville, but Michael Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor was exactly the kind of bad guy I love, and still the best LL ever on screen. He tried so hard to do the right thing all the time, but he'd cut corners to do it, or do morally gray things, and when his actions became known people would shit all over him despite him just trying to help, and it perhaps being literally the ONLY way someone wouldn't die. It eventually pushed him to just deciding fuck it, might as well be evil, but it was a very slow process, and it was perfectly done.

So again, thank you for taking the time to get into details on this. It sounds exactly like something I'd enjoy. Now I realize I'm in the web serials thread, and if this isn't on Kindle Unlimited I'm gonna be upset!

I looked it up, and the first book releases on KU the 18th, so perfect timing!

Retarded in a "way too dumb to quit" sort of way. He's also incapable of reading the room in any capacity and too trusting in general.

Hey, I'll take that over a bunch of the faggots I've read lately. Reading the latest Rise of Mankind book right now, and that one pisses me off because he habitually pushes aside reading his notifications because they are "too much of a bother" despite them almost always containing something that would help the current situation. The author clearly does that to push the narrative, as mentioned above, and it drives me fucking insane. Oh look, our main character is so smart now! It goes a long way towards making me hope the character just dies from being such a fucking prick. If he were smart he would check his fucking notifications sooner than days later.

If, however, he's just as you guys described, that's fine.

Boy wonder in Industrial strength magic isn't really sociopathic. It's easy to sympathize with Freddy because if it wasn't for being a freak of nature he would have been dead long ago by the completely fucked up shit people try to do to him on the regular.

velk said:

Rise of Mankind MC is kind of the perfect example of what you were complaining about IMO. Less than one day into the apocalypse he murders like 2 dozen teenage delinquents to 'get his grandfather's watch back' - when he does the watch is, as far as I can tell, never mentioned again.

Sociopath main characters are pretty common in power fantasies, although either they, or the author, often seem to have delusions of heroism.

Some stories with sociopath main characters are great fun though - see Industrial Strength Magic or Prince of Thorns for example. I think it's just a matter of how good the character writing is.

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Yeah, it is definitely in how they are written/portrayed. Murderhobo was great at first. Petered off a bit towards the end, but the great thing about that series is that it didn't linger around for ten books of pointless bullshit. But despite him being a murdering freak, he was an entertaining character and I didn't dislike him like I hate the vast majority of litrpg MCs these days.

Speaking of asshole main characters, started the latest We Hunt Monsters book while waiting for 1% Lifesteal to release. God damn I hate the guy in this series so much, but now I'm invested and want to see how it ends. Hopefully with him getting screwed over, honestly.

Why are so many of them complete fucking dickbags? How hard is it to make a character that you actually *want* to succeed???

Starting on this: