12 Miles Below

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Book 1 and onwards can be found on KU here! The world is in ruins. Extreme sub-zero temperatures suffocate the surface, making even simple survival an ordeal. Frozen derelicts of bygone eras span across massive ice wastes. And the survivors closely guard any technology rediscovered within. The only escape from the deadly climate is beneath the surface. But it’s another disaster underground. Monstrous machines lurk in the depths. The land itself shifts over time, more contraption than rock. The humans surviving under do so huddled around safe zones, with only demigods powerful enough to travel further underground. And an ominous prophecy states that the key to healing the world waits on four unknown heroes - but nobody knows who or where they are. When an expedition into the far uncharted north goes terribly wrong, Keith Winterscar and his father get trapped together in a desperate fight for survival. Stumbling upon an ancient war of titanic scale; the two will need to set their differences aside while they struggle against Gods, legends, and the grand secrets of the realm that lies below. UpdatingMondayandThursdays. Discord can be found here!WARNING: This series isridiculouslyfilled with spoilers, every book has multiple reveals. Discord was made for up-to-date readers since there's no way to really police spoilers.Don't join until you're current!!

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2021
Author: Mark Arrows

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 7,402
Views: 514,508

Chapters(74 total)

What readers say about 12 Miles Below

“This is tied with Mother Of Learning for my favorite novel on this site. I don't mean to imply that they are similar stories. 12 Miles Below stands on its own merits. It's just that the way Mark Arrows makes me care about his characters and setting while al…”
ChayimRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“It's incredible, I was hooked for the entire story, and binged all the way from Book 1 chapter 1 to Book 3 chapter 9 in 2 days. I'm not going to give any specifics or generally much of a review, just that I read a ton of webnovels. I've read atleast a few h…”
AzurockRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

ChayimRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is tied with Mother Of Learning for my favorite novel on this site.
I don't mean to imply that they are similar stories. 12 Miles Below stands on its own merits. It's just that the way Mark Arrows makes me care about his characters and setting while also weaving an emotionally resonant story without anything getting in the way is near unmatched.
The blurb up top accurately sums up the first book better than I could. I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say that it's worth your time to at least check out the first ten chapters. It's worth noting that the second and third books maintain that level of story quality while also not recycling plot lines and character moments. It's frankly insane and as someone with a bunch of half finished stories lying around I don't know how he does it.
Speaking of character moments, I think it's also worth noting that what started off as a literal faceless/nameless antagonist has been cultivated into my favorite character of the series. That isn't a slight against the other characters, they're all deeply varied and engaging. It's just a testament to the writing on display here.
The grammar and style are that perfect mixture of beautiful, engaging, and not noticeable at all. Descriptions of the frozen wasteland show you its terrible beauty without falling into purple prose. The brief heights of joy, the long tense moments of survival, and even the worst moments of despair are all conveyed without it feeling too sophomoric or up its own ass. Above all else it's just easy to read and fall into the story without even realizing it.
In conclusion the envy I feel towards Mark Arrows skill as a writer is completely drowned out by the happiness the story has given me.
Thank You!
...
10/10 Now give me that Tenisent side story you goddamn motherfucker.
AzurockRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It's incredible, I was hooked for the entire story, and binged all the way from Book 1 chapter 1 to Book 3 chapter 9 in 2 days.
I'm not going to give any specifics or generally much of a review, just that I read a ton of webnovels. I've read atleast a few hundred, I think this one deserves all the praise that it gets.
The only complaint that I have is that I think the arc after chapter 11 till however long it was(I can't be bothered to remember the extact end point) should of been a little shorter.
CreativeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall its a nice enjoyable book to read. It has a really interesting setting that I haven't seen before and the characters are interesting and unique. Its a nice refreshing novel if you're looking for something other than litrpg. It updates pretty consistently as well and it doens't feel like poorly written.
DragonAegisRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Let me start by saying this is a very good story and deserves to be much higher in the best rated category. That being said there are still a few things in this story that might cause some discontent so let me list some off and you can see if it might not be for you.
1. This story goes off the rails, by that I mean no matter where you think this story is going to go it will go somewhere else. This shift in direction is always done super well but it can be off putting if you really like where it was going originally. For example in the begining, you think its going to be mostly about two characters for the whole story... but it just keeps going and its great. But it takes time to get to the new direction.
2. The humor is great but can definitely wear out its welcome if you don't like that sort of thing
3. The story also suffers from occasional battle fatiuge but that is only a problem if you are caught up. If you binge the story this shouldnt be an issue
I hope I summarized my few problems with this story well, I suck at expressing myself. Please don't let my horrible review skills stop you from enjoying this story.
GorionRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The word smith of this novel hammers away leaving various love marks upon his work. It is not a perfect craft, such as those that would be created by the automatons from the deep, yet it has its own charm which draws the attention of those who's perception can pierce the veil that is known as a conformity of standard "web novels", and offers a world beyond that which has ever been known.
- A passage found in the journal off a corpse between layers
A well written novel, with excellent world building, character building, lore building and pace! Can't wait for book 4 to start!
JaxterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Reviewing from chapter 31 from book 2.
Overall: As an avid fantasy fan who does not usually enjoy sci-fi that much I must say that this book has truly impressed me. I give it 5 stars because de sum of its parts is higher than each individual part. The book is solid in almost every aspect and obviously very, very entertaining. One thing I do not like about sci-fi is that often the technology just seems unrealistic to me, however this book masterfully mixes fantasy and technology to make everything seem extremely plausible (within the books reality), maybe not from the very beginning but it will eventually. Also, it incorporates the "progression" and the "litrpg - ish" elements (it is not a litrpg, but some elements are certainly inspired from it in a really good way) in a very subtle, smooth and satisfactory way that completely sidesteps the predictability and other flaws that are usually associated with such genres. Overall a must read, give it a change and you won’t regret it.
Style: it accomplishes what it has set out to do. It is well written, mature, easy to follow and complex enough that it will never seem aimed at young adult audience.
Grammar: Very good, haven’t noticed any aggravating grammatical issues.
Story: very well thought out, engaging, good pacing for the most part, everything fits nicely together, it slowly but surely gives the reader the answers to the different mysteries that arise and those answers make all the sense in the world, he doesn’t use any plot armor as far as I have read, situations won’t feel like they have been resolved because the author wanted but because the characters made it happen that way in a logical manner. The characters don't always win, and when they do the wins feel deserved.
Characters: solid 8/10, a few of them may seem a bit flat specially at the beginning but it’s simply because they don’t interact that much with the story until a certain point. On the other hand, the depiction of the machines way of thinking and act
Johan WickerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I read this story on spacebattles and I had to come here to leave a review. I love this webseries, I think Mark Arrows did a great job with building a believable sci fi world but also populate it with interesting and distinct characters each with their own motivations and flaws. It's very evident to me that the author spent a lot of time making notes and outlines for each character and on the world building it really shows. I may be a bit biased because Sci Fi is my favorite genre, and I'm also a huge fan of BLAME and the game Destiny which helps me visualize the world, but this is one of the first post apocalyptic dungeon-lite stories I've read that hasn't been over the top or cliched.
In Style I gave it a five because I found the Author had a good balance between humour and serious moments. Many times throughout the book I snorted through my nose because of the character's jokes, and on the same chapters dread for the characters life. I find that it's very hard to write tension in stories because most of the time we KNOW the main character will be fine and overcome everything. In this story I truly felt scared after every chapter thinking it might be the last time we see a certain character because no one is invincible and everyone makes mistakes. THANK YOU GOD I'm tired of self insert heroes that win everything and beat everyone.
For Grammar I put a five too. I didn't see any issues with spelling or punctuation, etc. Reading the comments on some of the chapters it seems that the original chapters were littered with mistakes but given that it has all been edited out and I never saw them theres no reason for a lower score
For Story I give it a five. I love the direction the author took this story. The first few chapters were slow which makes sense, he has to build the world for us and set the tone. I felt a bit bored because although the world was cool and intricate and left a lot to speculate on, it seemed nothing was happening. But BOY was I wrong, once the main
KamikazePotatoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Some pros about this story:
1. Planning. Unlike many other stories that are written chapter-to-chapter, this one contains plenty of foreshadowing and has ideas that are planned far in advance. This gives everything in the story a purpose and makes you want to pay attention to details. If I’m wrong and the story somehow ISN’T planned...well, kudos to the author for tricking me, cause when I read it, that’s the impression I get.
2. Snappy prose that doesn’t get caught up in itself or drift into Purple Prose territory. This may be a Your Mileage May Vary thing, as some people do enjoy stories with somewhat wordier descriptions and dialogue than 12 Miles Below, but for the kind of narrative it’s trying to tell, this style works well.
3. Setting. The post-apocalyptic tundra environment on its own makes the story stand out from others. In a sea of medieval fantasy environments on Royal Road – which don’t get me wrong, I love – 12 Miles Below’s setting is a nice change of pace. Worldbuilding is strong as well, with care given to background details to engross you in the setting. The worship around old technology is an especially fun detail.
Cons:
1. Some grammar could be cleaned up. I’ve seen MUCH worse in other stories, but every now and then a mistake does stand out. This is hardly a dealbreaker, though, and is an issue that an extra editor could easily solve. Fixing grammar is significantly easier than fixing plot. And considering the consistently quick upload schedule, it’s tough to fault the author for not self-editing perfectly.
2. ...That’s it? No story is perfect, but I can’t think of any glaring flaws worth pointing out. Good show from the author, keep up the good work.
LaujivRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
dear whoever reads this review. you are propably seeing this from new reviews and cheking if this story is still good. I have no delutions about my reviews quality and its chanses of appearing on top. I am happy to inform that unlike many stories with over an 1000 page ammount, that at book 3 this story has maintained its quality and has even improved
alrighty then now for the individual reviews
style: solid and clean. you can tell very whell what is happening. at book 2 this story gets an deuteragonist aka second main character but her chapters are as good if not better than the main characters so no problems there
grammar: not much needs saying. solid, clean and if mistakes happen the author fixes them fast.
story: interesting and addicting, as of writing this there is a month long break and i'm suffering withdrawal as I cannot wait to read what happens next.
Character: i'll be blunt at the start of this story the main character is kind of a cunt. but that't the point of character development, a thing rarely seen done right on royal road. even though he might be annoying to read about in the start its more then made up for when you see him un-cunting. Additionally no character fels like a cardboard cutout, as all of them have depth
on continuation of character, I feel the need to talk about the deuteragonist introdused in book 2. I know the prevalent opinion on this site about alternative pov's and as I'd like to not spoil too much, i'll just say that if anything happened to her, I would kill everyone in this site and then myself.
so in conclusion just try this story out and don't sue me for advertising you hard drugs.
NobilityRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
12 Miles Below is by far the best world building I've encountered on Royal Royal road. From the get go we are interested in a dozen little mysteries, all connected to how the world become the wasteland it is. The world feels like it has thousands of years of history, it never feels like the generic fantasy worlds we get in most stories here.
This amazing world would be interesting in it's own right. Luckily for us however, Mark has crafted some great characters to live in it as well. This first book is mainly centered around our protaganist and his father. We explore each of them and their relationship as they navigate the dangerous setting of the world. The growth and change we witness through their struggles promises for interesting and nuanced characters and character development throughout the story.
Also, the action scenes are wonderful!
The story is finishing up the first book, so the first large plot is reaching its end. I encourage you to give it a go!