So I’ve been reading The Wandering Inn, which is amazing btw, but it’s started getting a little intense and I want to take a break for a bit. I wanted to read something similar, and I like how serious the author takes the topic. Does anyone have any recommendations? I’ve already blasted through Hedge Wizard and Arcane Ascension for additional references.
Edit: here’s a compiled list of the recommendations so far, and where I’m putting them.
Currently Reading: Cradle
To-Read:
Practical Guide to Evil Bastion Mother of Learning
To Check Out: Beware of Chicken Only Villains Do Way of Choices
This feels like a pretty solid list, but I’ll update as I go.
Adding on to the ones already named, A Practical Guide to Evil and Only Villains Do That are both very enjoyable. (There are a lot of shorter stories which I am very excited whenever they update, or longer stories which are not quite as good as the ones already named)
I’ve heard of A Practical Guide to Evil! I thought it was part of the Evil Genius series, but I’ll take a look now.
A Practical Guide to Evil is amazing and one of the few webfics out there on par with The Wandering Inn, but I would’t really call it a progression fantasy - viewed in LitRPG terms, it’s a very rules-light system. If you’re Named, you hew to either Above (good) or Below (bad), you have three words representing things you can do exceptionally well, and you become both bound and empowered by stories. This idea gets used to its absolute fullest, and the viewpoint character becomes a master of the craft - on the surface something might look like a truce negotiation between armies, while actually being a pitched battle between the Named on each side for control of the narrative. It’s also got great representation. There’s a roughly equal gender balance, most characters are non-white, and queer characters are disproportionately well-represented including a very prominent (and wonderful) ace character.
In terms of background and history, the evil empire of Praes has traditionally been run according to the good old principles of demon-summoning and flying fortresses and sentient tiger armies, since when you’re empowered by stories these ideas can work… at least in the short term, since in the stories Evil always loses in the end. The Black Knight and his band of Calamities took that personally - “half the world turned into a prop for the glory of the other half”. He and Empress Maleficient took over and started running things more rationally, doing things like looking at orcs as people with the capacity to be terrifying shock troops rather than as random cannon fodder to be thrown away in their hordes, and specifically avoiding all the stories that lead to eventual defeat. They were able to take over the stereotypical Good Fantasy Kingdom of Callow, Praes’ traditional arch-nemesis. The protagonist grew up in Callow after the takeover, in one of the many orphanages set up by the Black Knight - orphaned children being a classic source of heroes - and her ambition is to join the Legions of Terror and effect change from within. In the first chapter of the story, apparently by happenstance she comes under the Black Knight’s tutelage, and things go from there.
Also, it would be remiss of me not to mention that it’s now finished(!) and the author is working on another story, Pale Lights. It’s early days yet, but so far it’s shaping up even better.
PGTE is finished? Time to hit it up again!
Unsouled is a good one! I think there series is a bit too long, but definitely progression fantasy and a pretty neat bit of world building. Each book is relatively short so it isn’t too big of a commitment in one go
If you’ve tried reading Wandering Inn you’ll get a sense of how long I’m willing to let a story burn if I think it’s good. I’ve read a lot of manwha with cultivators and reincarnators, is this similar?
It’s the first book in the cradle series which it looks like you said you’ve read already?
Huh, maybe I haven’t? I could have sworn I had Cradle on my previously-read list, but now I can’t find any of the books from the series. Well, I guess I may have a series to dive into!
Oh, then definitely do it. The first 3 books are great. Books 4-7 are good but not great in my opinion. They probably should have been consolidated into 2 or 3 books instead of 4. I haven’t started book 8 yet, so I can’t speak to how it ends
I’m assuming you’ve read Cradle? Bastion was pretty good, and Mother of Learning. If you’re open to litrpgs Dungeon Crawler Carl
I’ve tried Dungeon Crawler Carl, it was almost too gamified for me. I have read Cradle, but haven’t touched the other two. I’ll give 'em a whirl!
Edit: looking at my read-list again, I actually don’t see Cradle on there. I think I’ll start with that since I could have sworn I’d read it already.
Oh yeh, that’s because dungeon crawler carl is a litrpg so it’s supposed to be all into the numbers and be gamified. The other ones are just progression RPGs so should be more alone your lines
I don’t know if you’ve ever considered reading some chinese fantasy, but if you’re interested you should try reading a webnovel called Way of Choices. The translation is not great, but it’s at least comprehensible, and it’s a story i often go back too because it really surprised me with its character work for the mc and the whole supporting cast, and because it tackles some themes which are rarely seen in these types of stories. I think you can find the first 100 chapters on webnovel, and if you want to keep going without having to pay the site’s absurd prices you should find it with relative ease on more sketchy sites.
As much as I hate to say it, adequate prose is really important to me. I find it hard to read around lines, and thus have missed out on a lot of great stories. If they have an official translation though, I’d love to check it out!
I actually may have been too harsh on the translation, i reread the first few chapters after writing my comment and it’s a lot better than I remembered. It still doesn’t have the best prose in the world, on account of the fact that the author writes in a very poetic and hard to translate in english way, but if you ever feel like it you could try reading the prologue to get a sense of whether you’ll like it or not. Unfortunately I doubt we’ll see a translation more official than this one, the distribution rights are owned by Webnovel.
Besides Practical Guide to Evil (already mentioned), Beware Of Chicken has very similar comfy slice-of-life progression vibes to the more chill parts of Wandering Inn but with none of the RPG trappings. It’s your stereotypical xianxia setting with a hilariously overpowered isekai protagonist, but it works because the overpowered protagonist rejects cultivation and runs off to the middle of nowhere to farm rice away from all the crazy people, and then the story actually sticks to that premise rather than using it to quickly establish a setting before immediately dragging him into the wider world. The focus is very much on the bonds between him and his found family, and when there’s danger it’s typically either a larger problem or because he’s not around to solve it.
By the way,
Mild pacing spoilers for The Wandering Inn
the Wandering Inn has some very intense periods but it never stays intense forever - no comment on whether everyone always survives the very intense periods, but the overall story will always have a healthy portion of comfy slice-of-life stuff.
I like the name and premise! I just got through Volume 7 of Wandering Inn, so if you’ve gotten that far you can see why I might want to take a break for a bit 😔 Currently reading Cradle, which is definitely as good as people are saying
Yep, that’d do it! 😄 Thanks for the Cradle rec, I don’t like giving Amazon money but it does sound good - you might have just tempted me into it…
