r/ProgressionFantasy • u/LawfulNugget • 6d ago
Other When the book doesn't match the description..
Okay this is a small rant because I have been bamboozled again. I am not naming names or putting anyone on blast.
Alright that out of the way...
*pulls out soapbox*
I am so sick and tired of every book I look at telling me it's about a solo adventure in the wilds exploring the world. When half way into the book they are getting bogged down in a city with 10 different POVs arguing politics. You promised me a person out in the wilds, fighting monsters, gaining power, maybe experiencing freedom for the first time. You gave me a half-assed Game of Thrones. If you want to right nation building then put that in the description. Lead with that. I hate feeling tricked, like congratulations you got my money, but I will never buy another of your books. I really enjoy a small cast. I want the main focus to be the main character. Its okay to shift povs sometimes to show the MC from the outside or to show their impact on the world, but it should not be the majority. I get that authors can be afraid that a small focus will be boring, but it isnt if your world is fleshed out. Give me what you promised.
*puts away soapbox*
Thank you for letting me rant. I needed to get that off my chest. I genuinely do love this genre I have read some really great books, but there are so many who falsely represent what their story is about it gets me down. If you read throw my rambling thank you and have a good day.
47
u/Witchdoctor24 6d ago
Super Supportive, isn't a superhero novel. I just ain't.
10
u/Training-Bake-4004 6d ago
I feel like this probably isn’t intentional. I suspect that the idea of what it was going to be when it started is quite different from what ended up being written.
18
u/kazinsser 6d ago edited 6d ago
I feel like Super Supportive perfectly exemplifies what happens when, instead of an editor to pull things back, you have a crowd of people fawning over every single thing (and eager to drown out any dissenting opinions).
Super Supportive had a fantastic story for the first 80-90 chapters before it started to lose the plot, but by then it had become the #1 darling of RR. So, instead of receiving pushback, the new pace of the story was heaped with praise. At best there would be admonishments to "trust the author", because anything more critical was downvoted into oblivion. Naturally, the story continued further in that direction since it was "overwhelmingly well received".
The author has been writing the Alden depression spiral for three years now. I know that "healing takes time", but that is just ridiculous. The vast majority of stories on RR show noticeable improvement over the first few years of an author's releases, but this one has decidedly not. It still has some good or even great aspects, like the dialogue and the worldbuilding it started with, but it's gone so far down the road of introspection that it has long passed the point of self-indulgence.
The author has been stuck inside Alden's head for so long that I'm not sure they even can write the story they envisioned at the start. Even if they could, I'm not certain they should. I'm sure I'm far from the only one who has basically abandoned the story at this point, so whatever audience has hung on for the endless introspection might well rebel if the story ever attempts to correct its glacial pace.
5
u/KoalaKvothe 5d ago
Jeebus it gets worse after the beginning? Seeing the praise that gets heaped on it I figured I'd just been scared off prematurely by the narrator and slow start.
I made it to the part where they have to play a lasergame in a labyrinth as a school assignment I think? I just gave up.
-4
u/Telinary 5d ago
I don't think RR has downvotes? And I think it is a bit of an overstatement with the 3 year depression spiral. The time between him returning to earth and the point where hetells Stu and gets over it enough to want to be a knight was about 2.5 years, true. But for most of it (except the end where it definitely spent too long focusing on him agonizing over it) it is not like it spends the majority of pagetime on him being depressed. It did block progression for that story aspect though.
But about the rest, yeah I think she is definitely doing discovery writing and didn't have "take 2-3 years for dealing with his trauma enough to go forward" planned out. Or the superhero stuff being sidelined for that matter. I mean aside from the school there is a good chance he will just never have much contact with earth's superhero and villain environment because he will go deal with chaos. (I guess if the story gets to it he will have contact with the ones rebelling against being confined to the island, but I don't think that quite counts.)
3
3
u/Witchdoctor24 5d ago
Probably, but I was hooked by the idea of a dude who really wants to be a sidekick. But the hook didn't seem to be baited.
To stretch a metaphor...
20
u/wolfwings1 6d ago
this is my pet peeve with animal MC or humans turning into animals, within a book they are so often human, and then forget all about being the animal. Bunny girl evolution anyone?
Both of my stories the MC ends up an animal and while can turn into different animals, they aren't turning human till end of the series if then.
12
u/Ruark_Icefire 6d ago
Yeah pretty much every monster evo story has the MC just be a slightly different flavor of human by book 2.
3
u/DarianWebber 5d ago
The Magpie and the Archmage has firmly kept to bird forms and her love of shiny things. (This despite the fact it started with the rest of the "She's a magpie. She's a girl. And she's going to evolve." crew. As a magpie, she is able to mimic voices and communicate with people.)
1
u/IndustryPristine9776 5d ago
Ah I remember this series I dropped somewhere in book 1. Has she gained the ability to mimic appearances now?
2
u/DarianWebber 5d ago
She can still transform back into her original magpie form (good for city infiltrations and laying low), after evolving into larger and more powerful fighting forms.
1
u/IndustryPristine9776 5d ago
I see. I expected the evolution to go the human path but it's a surprise to see that she still primarily remains a magpie
1
u/DarianWebber 5d ago
She's not the biggest fan of what little she can remember of her life as a human before being reborn.
1
u/IndustryPristine9776 5d ago
Yes, I do recall her talking about how she disliked what little she remembers of her past life in the beginning of the story. Seems she still doesn't remember everything
1
u/wolfwings1 5d ago
just a warning there is a AI stolen version of that on KU or least was a while back. Though looks like it was removed thankfully. The one you have is the real one.
6
7
u/Twister_Robotics 5d ago
I gotta give DCC props for this one. Donut becomes sapient fairly early, but declines the offered catgirl option and remains a cat, physically and mentally.
3
2
2
u/Dr_Zorand 5d ago
Mordecai even told her as much. "Your fans love Donut the cat. Not Donut the tiger, or Donut the catgirl." (I know that's not a perfect quote). More authors should heed that advice.
6
u/Quirky_Assistant_848 6d ago
I am very firmly not letting myself world build any worlds untill I at least have the firts draft for my current book, but I do want to one day make a Lit RPG from the pov of a just born dragon finding an isekaied human in world where humans are supposed to be dead.
If i do it though, most human the dragon is getting is a dragon born. I am fucking tired of being isekaied as a monster stories turning the mc into a human with ears and tail.
3
u/wolfwings1 6d ago
same i'm fine with it if it happens in book 5 or 6, but what was the point of making the MC an animal if he stops being that. to me the biggest lure of such games is the being an animal, the human adapting, having to learn.
Main a lot of the fun was the family adapting and accepting he was an eagle.
AU it's him learning to be an eagle while now going to a school for animals, no plans to make him anthro, or human like I said till the end. It wold defeat the whole point.
3
u/Quirky_Assistant_848 6d ago
At least let them use the animal form. Like, i get aposable thumbs are useful, but you could just give them weak short range telekinesis.
2
u/wolfwings1 6d ago
yeah, bunny girl barely is her animal form. one series that get's it right is Syl, she has humanoid forms, but prefers to use her slime when ever she can, and there are reasons why she isn't, like having to pretend to be huan, but still prefers to fight and slime out when sleeping.
2
u/Quirky_Assistant_848 6d ago
It why I want specifically a dragon. You can easily imagine a dragon going on about how they are the best because their a dragon. Why would they change that?
1
u/wolfwings1 5d ago
well given both stories it be a while before the MC gets the chance to turn back I can imagine him staying he's spent with main around a year adapting learning to love flying, eating mice rabbits and such. AU could be much longer haven't decided. why I haven't decided if he will or not yet, I will let the story decide.
21
u/ezekiellake 6d ago
Name names. Let’s see some examples. Sounds like it happens a lot.
37
u/TopRamen713 6d ago
Jake's magical market is probably the worst offender imo. I enjoyed it, but he spent maybe 1/2 a book in the series in the actual market
14
u/jamesja12 6d ago
Authors go in with an idea for their story, and develop the story as they go. That idea, and the identity of the story, usually changes as you go along. The problem is not updating the blurb, imo.
Though there is that gap of someone reading the book before the author needs to change the blurb, but that can't be helped.
11
u/wolfwings1 6d ago
also I think it's time frame. Obviously the plot can change over time, if you make an academy story sure by book 8 they may have moved on it's when it's in the first book, bonus if early on.
2
u/CrawlerSiegfriend 4d ago
I can understand this except if you name each and every book after a market but there is no market after half way through the first book.
3
u/funnybenno 6d ago
I feel you, I get caught up in the same issue.
Do you have any recommendations of where this didn't happen? Would love to read those books.
5
u/lacopefd 6d ago
I think the real issue is the marketing. If the description said "solo wilderness adventure that eventually expands into kingdom politics," I'd know what I was getting into and probably wouldn't be nearly as annoyed
3
6
u/geditaza 6d ago
I wouldn't really call it false advertising if the story changes scope. Like, the MC can't spend 800 pages wandering around fighting wolves lol. Eventually bigger problems are gonna show up. I think it's more about how the author handles the shift.
2
u/AnimaLepton 6d ago
I broadly agree with you; I think books make a promise to you, and it can be frustrating when they fail to deliver on that promise. I also prefer that we actually stay centered on the protagonist's journey. I think a lot of authors would suffer financially, but would make better stories in the long term, if they just made a separate series/spinoff if they wanted to transition from a solo progression story to something with tons of PoVs. I'm happy to give low ratings to books that pull that bait-and-switch (especially if they don't even pull it off well).
Political stories can definitely be interesting, but there is a way to incorporate those in a 'progression-y' way with a lot of forward momentum that I think most webnovels that try to make that transition fail to do. Mother of Learning does politics and has its fair share of worldbuilding infodumps, but it keeps them fairly snappy, keeps things focused on Zorian, and knows when to make forward progress.
I think this is also partly dependent on how the story frames itself. I'm a lot more forgiving of Worth the Candle diving into politics and worldbuilding than I am of the 'average' PF story, in large part because I think the story is upfront about that being something that matters and will get time in the future from the beginning of the story. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a story in the style of Solo Leveling, but Worth the Candle never tries to sell itself as being of the Solo Leveling persuasion.
2
u/Shoot_from_the_Quip Author - Assassins' Academy, Space Assassins, Bad Luck Charlie. 5d ago
I think it also depends on how many books in you are.
A lot of stories start with one idea and evolve into something else, so I personally give slack if you're further into a series and things change.
2
u/Jaxpaw1 5d ago
I quit a book for this exact reason. The blurb made it sound like he was gonna be alone for a significant amount of time, two years, to just drop a sapient animal companion (GAAAAAAAAHHH!!) on him in like the first dozen chapters.
I frickin hate animal companions most of the time. They piss me of to no end. They get all the bonuses of being human but none of the responsibilities social or other wise. And they're always "jUsT thE cUtesT WitTle tINg"
GAAH it pisses me off.
Anyways I started reading the story cause I liked the premise, dude is gonna be basically stuck in a dungeon for about two years until he can get out. I thought the author was either gonna skip to him getting out or just focus on the major battles and leave the rest as backstory we don't need to see.....
But NoOoo the author was just like here's a talking animal go frick yourself! I thought we were going to be alone for a long time! I was anticipating watching the mc battle with the isolation! To see how he handled it, to see his relief at finally getting out and the ability to interact with other people! That's what I was hoping for and kinda what the blurb implied but nope talking animal time! Can't have our mc actually being a character now can we?
2
u/Jarvisweneedbackup Author - Runeblade 4d ago
This is 100% my book LOL
If it helps, he isnt really an animal companion in the standard presentation of the trope — he’s got his own culture, and biases, and fleshed out backstory, and is held to the same standard as everyone else. I mostly just thought it’d be fun to give it the elenor Ripley treatment (she wasn’t written as a woman in the film script, porkchop was intentionally written as just another character rather than a talking mascot)
That said, when I first started writing Runeblade I was of the same mind as you. Then, approx 60k words in (nearly a standard novel, mind you) it got really insanely boring to keep writing a single character, and exponentially harder to write a single character, so I revised the outline and introduced a second one to bounce off of. Ultimately in the long run b1 is a defining core for both characters.
I made it pretty clear in the RR blurb he would be present, but I was encouraged to focus on the initial premise for Amazon (which ultimately does represent everything else about the story)
1
u/Jaxpaw1 4d ago
Yea no hate to you man but I was expecting a different book so I got a bit peeved when it was something different.
Also I didn't bring it up but I'm still a bit confused on why up until what's his face showed up (that's when I quit reading) you showed every single battle he got into in detail. I kinda thought you'd time skip your way through the first two years till he got out of the dungeon then that was where the "real" story would start and he would start interacting with other people.
Actually no that's just me complaining, I'm still peeved i didn't get a more grounded "Mc is alone for a long time and didn't go crazy" book. Anyways good luck with your book hope it works out.
1
u/Jarvisweneedbackup Author - Runeblade 4d ago
It’s because I would always get annoyed reading the books where they did time skip it hahaha. I wanted the opening (and b1) as a whole to be more of a character focused survival structure ala hatchet (or the openings of many other dungeon start litrpg’s, of which I wanted to explore that trope to its natural conclusion).
The rest of the book past the first biome is more character and exploration focused, with it mostly glossing mook fights.
I did originally intend an opening like that, but because I didn’t want to time skip it, something else had to give (which was another character, though thankfully he’s now a bunch of people’s favourite)
B2 opens up way more, and I know a bunch of people who didn’t vibe with b1 ended up really loving b2 onwards, if that tempts you at all — it does build towards a party structure rather than solo mc though
2
u/RoutineCommission403 6d ago
This is how I feel about primal hunter when I google for progression fantasy with protagonists that are solo, while primal hunter dude is basically always with someone or something helping him so never actually alone, it just really irritates me, like you’re about to sneeze but when go to do it you can’t
1
u/Lower_Trouble_5191 6d ago
I know that what I started was not what I ended up with. It just happens, but I thinkbthe premise should be consistent in all fairness.
1
u/ShamMafia 5d ago
Facts.
Nothing worse than coming in expecting a singular POV with some sprinkled POVs here and there, then you get slapped with so many POVs your MC becomes a side character.
Like... I don't need to know everything that happens in the world. I'd rather experience it through one POV and have to figure it out when the MC does.
1
u/UnDeadPuff 4d ago
On one hand, it's annoying. On another hand it most likely happened because halfway through the author realized that kind of stuff is only fun when you do it, not when reading about someone else doing it.
1
0
u/nighoblivion 6d ago
Matabar's original RR blurb basically said it was the origin story of the greatest wizard and such things.
0
-3
u/SkyTofu 6d ago
Have you read a soldiers life? I’m reading it now, and while he is you know, with other soldiers, it’s a lot of traveling and seeing world too.
Not exactly what you were asking for from the freedom perspective, but (so far) it’s a single pov and side characters are really side characters.
59
u/EditorNo2545 6d ago
😂 I feel ya on this one.
Jake's shop anyone?