That is so odd lol. I've heard from a friend that abused their systems to fuck with other trolls and never had an issue.

I'll make sure to get back to you when I get to S3, then. Gotta admit to being disappointed that Christina just disappeared, but the fact you remember her name suggests she'll be back. Woo! Before that, to the other points:

Leveling systems are generally terrible writing, agreed, but they can serve as excellent antagonists (something you'll see attempted often in RoyalRoad entries). I think they're a trend from Korea that stuck around because they appeal to gamers. I've never really looked into the topic, but the first I remember hearing of was called The Gamer and it released in... 2013. Hoo boy. Yeah, I'm almost 30 lol. It wasn't that long ago, but apparently long enough for nostalgia to set in. At the time it was super popular and spawned literally tens of thousands of spinoffs.

That's not as many as it sounds like, though. Eastern novels/writing seems to be iterative, with stories slightly mutated over and over in vast quantities until something is new enough and good enough to gain popularity and shift the genre again. There's less focus on brevity, novelty is central but narrow, and the novelty is often entirely described within the title. Western web fiction is similar in some ways, but much less homogeneous.

I do have an ebook reader. My main suggestion would be, if you've got one in mind, looking for problems with it online, like " stopped working" or "froze" or "won't turn on." A lot of them break in suspiciously predictable ways and are completely unrepairable. Second suggestion is to get one that isn't bound to a store, which you can freely upload epubs/pdfs to, preferably via USB cable. Everything else is pretty much subject to your use-case. Small size, backlighting, water/rain resistance and low weight are requirements for me personally.

My reader is a tablet style thing which I can use for work. However that leaves it too large to actually read much on while in bed or on the go, and I've ended up mostly using my (very small) phone to read epubs.

Sorry for the wall of text, but hopefully it's useful to you! As to web fiction: I do still suggest searching. There is no one website, it really is best to spread out. I often use TopWebFiction and RoyalRoad, but so many good stories are hidden in some weird forum or blog somewhere that I usually just look at story request threads for new stuff.

Alright I'm reading Skeleton Soldier. I like it. It is a little silly, a little shallow, but it's fun and varied and damn if it doesn't pull off some emotional whiplash. Like when the female knight in the tournament tripped while everybody was booing her? My stomach dropped through the floor.

I'm not much of a manga reader, but I never say no to recommendations.

I'm amazed you're getting into reading the way you are. Props to you.

Hello, thank you for the update!

Oh boy I didn’t even notice the pregnancy plot hole you pointed out. I read the second book once as a kid and never again.

I’m really sorry to have put you through that D=

The third and fourth books are indeed completely different, but I hesitate to suggest reading them because of your experience so far. My personal ranking is 4 > 1 > 3 > 2. I do think they go interesting places as they have more traditional fantasy scope and characters, so the world is fleshed out a lot. But it is still more of the same…

Anyway, thank you so much for the time taken to review them. I liked your analysis. Do you have a favorite book to recommend?

You ended on a high note.

Serious answer: orders of growth.

Ain’t no way you keep exponential growthinating in a finite dimensional universe.

I’ve heard the creative limitation argument a few times now. Maybe some of the incredulity people show at the thought of not eating meat is due to a lack of artistry, either in them or in their meals. Food is an art form we practice daily, and the people I’ve known to most violently protest trying a vegan dish (not veganism itself!) seem to overlap with the worst dinners I’ve seen.

If so that would give an easy avenue to lower meat consumption.

You’re trying unbearably hard to come across as smart. Try less.

No worries, I don't expect anyone to remember random internet stranger number seven thousand one hundred and eight. But, just in case =D

Oh yes I’m a sucker for sprawling, disjointed worldbuilding. It’s what ended up pulling me into fan fiction. Maybe I should try dark tower again. I’ll put it back in the “maybe” pile.

Please get back to me with your impressions, especially on the “befriending bad guys” side. I’d love to know (even if you end up disliking it)!