Amber Foundation (ON HIATUS)

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Joseph Zheng never expected to embark on any grand adventures, but when a sarcophagus left behind by his late grandma strands him across the multiverse, he doesn’t have much choice in the matter.

He'll need whatever help he can get if he wants to return to Earth in one piece, even if that means accepting the deal offered by the bizarre and powerful magician Wakeling: Joseph will work for her guild, the Amber Foundation, and in exchange, they'll help him return home.

A simple transaction, until Joseph has to race pirates for plunder aboard an abandoned space station, or fight for his life against other guilds, or complete any number of impossible tasks he would never do back home. But if he wants to see Earth again, he'll have to survive long enough to find his place in the multiverse.

****

Updates Saturdays.

Cover is by @PenPeaches on Twitter.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: HorusMyDude

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.9/ 5.0
Followers: 111
Views: 169,081

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(5)

Edge ValmondRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style:
I do not grade style, but if it have to give something. Know it is in third person PoV, as well as easy to follow. The way things flow is smooth, and it paints a nice picture.
Grammar:
Only found one issue that was notable, which I believe it will be fixed. So, I won't knock off points here.
Story Score:
A man who is from California visits an area he should not have. Entering into a Sarcophagus, he ends up I guess...traveling through time or something? Needless to say. The way things flow along, makes it an engaging read. His goal being to return home, joining a guild. Training, and a bunch of other stuff.
Character Score:
This is the high point, as the characters are colorful and works great together. Had quite a bit of laughs, and they work well with the situation they are in. One being more sarcastically rude. Another is kind, the main character finding himself in one dilemma after the next. I suppose you get the idea.
Overall,
I wasn't going to give this a review. Though, I thought about it...and thought about it. In the end, I decided it would be wrong not to give it one. From end to end, this story performs, and does so great. The prose is okay, but the venture, and characters really stuck with me. Give it a go, I recommend this big time.
StarswornAdminRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Stumbling across Amber Foundation, I quickly found myself drawn in. If you're interested in a well-written gem of a story that promises ambitious stakes and wild adventures, this one is for you.
Style - The author does a great job writing engaging and dramatic scenes that keep you wanting more. In particular, I want to highlight the way they handle the combat. The energy feels frenetic, the stakes feel high, and it's really easy to visualize all the action going on. There's a lot of exposition, shown through dialogue and directed towards our poor protagonist, Joseph. The worldbuilding is deep, and keeps you on your toes.
Story - Out of the gate, this promises to be a story with significant depth. We are introduced early on to the idea of a multiverse, and Joseph's grandmother's legacy being far more than we can fully appreciate. The author blends fantasy with science fiction, with firearms and melee weaponry all having a place in the story. It promises excitement and drama all the way through, and I'm looking forward to reading further to watch the world unfold.
Grammar - Clean, with no notable issues.
Character - The characters in the story are fun! Joseph, the poor fella, finds himself waaaay out of his depth early on. He is forced to quickly adapt to his circumstances as he steps into his new world, and the author presents him in a realistic and relatable way. We meet a broad cast of new characters along the way, and while I'm withholding judgment on all of them for now, I can say that the cultures and backgrounds of each are intriguing.
For anybody looking for a long, well-written, and gripping epic, I highly recommend Amber Foundation. It's been a great read so far, and I'm excited to see the story develop!
NatarajaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
- Style & Grammar
This is well written, no grammar, syntax nor style issues. The layout is good which makes the text pleasant to read. Honestly the style is excellent, the descriptions very vivid, the changes between thoughts, descriptions and action well balanced... remarkable! It's a pity that the dialogues go in all directions, it reduces the quality of the fiction. English is not my native language, so I may have missed some things...
- Story
The incessant changes between the present and the past memories at the beginning are mentally exhausting. The trick of the all-powerful sarcophagus that forces the MC to use it is too Deux ex Machina for my taste, the author could have found a better explanation. Same for the Broken World, I don't like this kind of things without a coherent explanation.
What bothers me the most in this story is that the characters have no objective except their everyday life. It's a slice of life, but without the emotional feel good aspect that makes slice of life interesting. So it falls flat for me. The characters should have goals other than their contract of the moment and they should have an interesting plot.
- Character
The characters are well developed, especially in terms of their relationship, not so much in terms of their personality and emotions which is a shame.
BullerRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Like, I really do like some parts of this story. More specifically the style and how the author portrays it. In some ways, I don't have anything against the heavy use of conversation at some points. In another way, I really don't like a few ways and words that the people use to talk. Really just annoyed me.
The actual balance is alright yet the execution just wasn't for me. 4/5.
woseRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Overall:
A solid romp through adventures in the multiverse and an interesting world that the author plunges you in, while (mostly) avoiding infodumps. The dialogue is probably my favorite part, even if it also brings up most of the issues I am going to bring up later on. Overall, the story is gripping and moves at just the right pace and I am looking forward to see where the author takes it next.
The issues:
The actual issue with the story is with the dialogue: specifically, how the author seems to turn the tone of the dialogue on a dime. Characters will cuss or snap at each other, then flip right back to a serious conversation on the flip of a switch. It does cause a backlash which does against the natural style of conversation that the author is trying to go for. I'd recommend he instead slow the dialogue down and invest more time in it, as it is, in my opinion, the most promising part of the story.