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Notes -
I love the progression fantasy genre. Oddly I couldn't get into cradle. I'm usually concurrently reading a half dozen or a dozen online web serials in that genre.
I'd highly recommend "Mother of Learning" if you liked cradle. If you've already read that one, maybe try Threadbare for something out of left-field that might tickle your fantasy progression itch.
By the way, "Mother of Learning" author wrote 3 "alternate-universe" chapters for it and started a whole new series, the first chapters of which hooked me hard: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/71045/zenith-of-sorcery
@TheDag
I did see that they started a new series, I have been trying for as long as possible to hold off on reading it, so I can binge as much as possible when I finally break.
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Loved mother of learning. I might check out Threadbare next if it's finished, but I'm allergic to unfinished series. Burned too many times.
I'd say its finished. There was a feeling at the end of the story that protagonist's story had been told and things were mostly nicely wrapped up. But that there was still a bigger world out there within the story, and maybe the author could come back later and tell more tales within the same world.
Over the years I have grown a skill to find my own stopping points in web serials. Usually at a point where "too much is fucked" for the author to ever recover in a satisfying way, or "enough is wrapped up" that I can tolerate a few dangling storylines for the sake of a feeling of completeness. But this skill wasn't necessary for threadbare.
Want to give a few examples of web serials you chose to finish reading?
I generally just read until it's done or until I lose interest. Dangling plot threads don't keep me going long at all--bad story quality is sufficient to kill any lingering curiosity I might have had.
The only time I can think of where I failed at this was Mark of the Fool. I kept reading for hundreds of chapters after I should have stopped because the eventual destination of the plot seemed so interesting, and the manner in which its quality dropped so much harder to notice than is typical.
Mark of the fool is one. Defiance of the fall. Primal Hunter I might stop reading. Sylver Seeker I stopped. I've gotten close to putting down millennial mage and chaotic craftsman worships the cube.
It's hard to think of stories in this category cuz I'm optimizing for being able to forget the story and be done with it. So I typically don't remember them unless they are always at the top of the fictional list on royal road.
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This is actually why I don't like webnovels for the most part, compared to more traditional fantasy series. While they are fun and well written a lot of the time, it irks me to no end when a story just kind of fizzles out because the author didn't know where to go with it.
Fair enough, but I think I've come to realize that is the main thing I enjoy about web serials. If the author doesn't know where they are going, you don't know either! Or maybe even more fun, you can guess where the author could go, tell them, and have it go there!
Goes back to that post I wrote last month about indie vs popular:
https://www.themotte.org/post/587/culture-war-roundup-for-the-week/121337?context=8#context
Anyways, Threadbare is a more polished story, but it came out of that weirdness that exists in online serials of throwing crazy ass ideas against the wall and seeing what sticks.
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