Anna's Dream

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

This web novel is about Anna the only child of the enigmatic being known as The Dreamer. Join her as she travels a world filled with magic and wonders. She's not the chosen one, she has no destiny and there's no telling what she's going to do next, other than look for some cupcakes that is.

I plan on releasing this Fridays at 10 am EST

Here’s a discord link if you want to chat about the novel.

https://discord.gg/ebE9gBJtpa

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2022
Author: srwoods

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 201
Views: 220,438

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

thegoodman99Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Anna's Dream is a fun and entertaining read. We follow Anna a newly created and innocent being designed by the Dreamer. The longer Anna is in the world the more sure learns about herself, people, and the world while losing her innocence. It is a pretty crude world (not meant as an insult) where the men and even some women freely objectify others. Being the attractive maiden she is, Anna is often the target of lust and men freely grab and pinch at her with no consequences.
It is interesting to watch Anna progress in the story and how she adapts to her new world.
9/9 cupcakes! Would recommend to any looking for an romptuous adventure
Style:
The story is told in a close third person perspective that follows Anna. As Anna is new to the world she is confused about much of the world and its norms. The author does a good job conveying this confusion to the readers while at the same time not overloading us with 'whys' and 'why nots'
Interactions feels a little bland until later on in the story. Maybe I got more use to the style, or maybe it was because Anna was becoming more accustomed to interaction. If that was intentional or not on the author's part, I'm impressed.
Grammar:
No major problems but could use a little more editing.
Story:
I'm liking the adventure aspect of the story. Anna is new to the world and we get to explore it all learning with her along the way. She makes friends, faces challenges, and learns about life. All while going commando. So far, the story is focussing on adventure. There is no overarching goal or world ending enemy that we know of. The adventure is the story and that is fine with me.
Character:
I like Anna. We get to watch her learn and grow. So far life has been pretty easy for her, other then not knowing very much. She has a very decked stack and it will be interesting to see how she plays her hand and how other hands are played against her. Her naievity could very well be the cause of some disaster later on in the story. If you like OP pro
Forsaken FryRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A story that effectively melds what begins as a slice of life tale about a strange young woman into an adventure that will keep me reading well beyond the requirements of this review swap.
Favorited and Followed!
I'm a pretty big fan of writing "Reader Reaction" comments when they happen to me, as I like the author to know what's landing and what isn't. There wasn't a single chapter in the ten I've read that didn't have me chuckle or straight up laugh-out-loud with the actions and thoughts of the main character. She is priceless.
Style: The pace is equivalent to the type of style the author is writing in. If it's a chapter that focuses more on slice-of-life the pace is what I'd expect, but if adventure is involved it picks up, letting the reader walk, jog, or sprint along with the story. The only reason I've knocked off a half point is because there's no visual distinction between thoughts and dialogue and it tripped me up occasionally, because the MC is the type of character that would say these types of thoughts out loud.
Grammar: Some minor grammar errors, but nothing that detracted from the story for me. In a few cases, I was surprised I missed them when I got to the chapter comments and others had found them.
Story: So, there are many more chapters still for me to go, but Chapter 10 seemed like a good point in the story for a review as a transition just happened from the more slice-of-life aspects to a more classical adventure and things are really heating to new levels. The reactions of the townsfolk in the first chapter also need a mention. I found them to be much more realistic with a town that exists in a world where magic and strange occurrences happen, if nothing else, on occasion. This was a big seller for me to keep reading, because it didn't devolve into a more earth-centric peasants with pitchforks trope situation.
Character: Anna is awesome. She reminds me of Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in that she gets to discover the world with a completely
Hasegawa KeinRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Anna's dream is a story written in the third person. Honestly when I started reading the story I thought it was going to be a stranger kind of story. But as the paragraphs went by, and the chapters went by, I was drawn into the story. Going from a fantasy slice of life to an adventure later on. I usually find it a bit difficult to read slice of life stories but I liked Anna's Dream and I read up to chapter 25 of the story.
Style: The story is in third person and it's easy to follow, I found no problems in the reading. But beyond that the story is fine, it is possible to see some growth of style through the chapters so it is always possible to improve it too.
Grammar: English is not my first language but I found no problems in following the story. I think the only point that should be improved a bit is the punctuation and use of commas. At the same time use a different method for Anna's thoughts, it's a bit confusing to read her thoughts with quotation marks, maybe using italics would help on that point.
Story: The story starts as a slice of life and then takes a more adventurous tone and some action. The pace of the story feels a bit slow in the beginning, but it's not bad. Throughout the chapters we see how Anna learns more about the world she is in and the characters she interacts with. The author took his time building the world and then jumped into a darker tone of adventure, but always keeping that slice of life tone. it's hard to ddescribe about but I think it gives that sense of comfort in Anna's group. Beyond the fact that they live dangerous adventures, you can feel the companionship between the characters, and I really like that. One of the strong points of the story I think is that Anna, not being human, is trying to find her place in the world. maybe with a first person point of view the story would be very different but I think choosing the third person was right in this case.
Character: sometimes Anna's personality seems a bit confusing but considering
M.D.SylRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
(While I originally used an opinionated rating, I've come to realize-after uploading my own work-that anything below 5 stars is unhelpful-something I did not know back when I wrote this. I do wish to help with this review, not harm. I did keep my opinions below though.)
3.5 Story:
This is mainly my own preference. But I need to have both high stakes, and something to strive toward in order to fully enjoy a story. This story doesn’t have these things.
The concept is quite original. An eldritch abomination takes the form of a young overly attractive girl in order to study the world.
The pacing is relaxed. There are no great mysteries or a goal to solve. The biggest Mystery is where Anna comes from, something that becomes pretty clear very early on. The rest is watching her bumbling around as she figures out humanity and common sense in general.
In a sense. This is a slice of life light adventure story about an invincible unkillable MC exploring the world the author has built.
But if you’re looking for a calm, fun, and relaxing slice of life, with a touch of action-adventure, this might be for you.
*I was told that the story picks up with higher stakes later on, but I haven’t reached that point yet.
5 Style:
There aren’t massive expositions. Every world building detail is delivered through a dialogue that’s often humorous. Amazing job for that!
Considering the fact that the MC is oblivious to common sense, this creates a lot of funny interactions and good jokes.
Considering the fact the MC is abnormally attractive, this creates a lot of sex jokes.
I’d go far and say that around 40% of the humor in this story is sexual in nature, it can be tad bit repetitive at time, but it’s hilarious and fun as f.
The other 60% of the jokes consists of common sense misunderstanding humor, teasing, and dwarves… lots of dwarf and elf jokes, the author has some fun dwarven and elven lore.
The humor here is the glue that keeps you reading. At least it’s what kept me reading. This type of
Blind_WatcherRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
*Paragraph and Sentence structuring has since been fixed.* 1/10/22
There should really be a tag for MC's learning as they go. If you have read Super Minion, you will know what I am talking about. If you like experiencing a world through an innocents eyes, then you will get a kick out of Anna's Dream. Just be aware that 'the story has the Sexual Content tag/flag. i can't go into specifics, because spoilers, but You will find out rather early on if it bothers you or not.
Style: The story is written in paragraphs and doesn't have line breaks between dialogue, targetted narration etc. It makes it difficult to tell who exatly is doing or saying what at any given moment. Unless you listen to it with TTS like I did which circumvented the issue entirely. I can't stress this enough, the problem can be very easily fixed. The Author has been informed, so I expect it won't be a problem for long. That's the worst of it.
Character: I'm not a huge fan of the MC, if I am being completely honest. It's more a mater of personal taste than anything actually wrong with the character. She's well written, behaves organically for who she is and her life experiences. It's just that I like the other people she hangs out with more xD I just find them far more interesting. It bleeds over into teh Story scoring as well.
Story: So there is a lot going on in the world background-wise, and I love it. I also appreciate the cultureal differences that slowly got seeded into the story over time. The plot is more amalgous and constituting a general goal than anything else, and that's fine. It's an adventure story, and the MC goes on adventurers, kind of xD Very gory, and can be a bit confronting, hence the trauma tag and sexual content tags and etc.
Grammar: Besides the paragraphs needing to be broken up for the story to read properly, i think there were only a couple of basic errors that were already fixed b the time I read it.
DrimRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Anna's Dream is a unique take on a fish-out-of water story. What is normally seen as the stuff of nightmares is now just trying to find their place in the world in the form of a cute girl.
Style: The story has pretty good foundations, but it could really shine with a bit of polish. A bit more expression around the dialogue could really help liven it up, and there's a few formatting changes that could improve the readability.
Story: The story is told at a relaxed pace, but every chapter has something to offer and fly by in no time. You're along for the ride as Anna explores the ride and get to see her really learn and grow.
While the story does not ever actually delve into sexual content, there is some objectification and sex is a very open and common topic in the world and among the characters.
Grammar: A few spelling and punctiation errors every so often. Nothing major that will take you out of the story and they'll most likely have been fixed already.
Character: The characters are all unique and well developed, each with their own personality and adds their own flavor to the story. Thokri in particular deserves a shotout as a great mentor and comic-relief.
Anna's Dream will have you dreaming about spendning time with Anna... no not in that way. She's not interested in you, sorry.
ProconRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Honestly? I would recommend this to someone who just wants to read a casual slice of life through the eyes of someone experiencing society essentially for the first time. I get the same vibe from this story as Elf, the movie, but much more explicit in tone peppered throughout the story. I went into this not expecting much, and I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying the consistency, tone, and characters.
Story: Despite the story being a slice of life, and starting with rather slow pacing, there is an underlying tone of action and adventure that was surprisingly well-written and didn't feel rushed or forced. The main character's interactions with the townspeople, and the progression that comes from their conversations, were smooth, startling in some cases, and overall just fun to read. Not to mention that there's plenty of world-building sprinkled throughout the story that expands our understanding of where Anna is, which was nice because it was difficult to find what tone the author was going for when describing the scenery and town. I was getting plain medieval town vibes, which then fluctuated between a standard DND township and something out of Dragon Age.
Character: I was definitely frustrated with Anna at some points, but, given her introduction and origin, I can honestly say that her ignorance, curiosity, and naivety may come across as annoying, but completely expectable and not something that detracts from the story.
Style: The pacing and word choice were odd in some places, making me have to re-read some sections, but honestly, it's a unique style and works well considering we're seeing the world through the lens of someone/ ('something'?) that has to learn about everything as she explores the world. I would also have preferred more physical descriptions and attention to detail with the environment and facial expressions.
Grammar: I'll say that I noticed a few spelling and punctuation errors along the way, but nothing that broke my immersion or de
TonyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I didn't know what to think at first, then I thought it would be a town centered slice of life with a naive pretty girl, then it got into more my comfort zone with typical fantasy races such as dwarves and magic and adventure while still retaining the slice of life quality. The main character joins an adventuring party and even an adventurer’s guild
The story is engaging. It is written to be very dialogue heavy, and the action scenes are more to highlight the main character's power and abilities than long, drawn out, highly descriptive affairs. And the protagonist is very, very over powered (OP).
I like the Lovecraftian elements and am interested to see where it goes. I don’t know why more authors don’t lean this way.
The sexual content warning, so far, has been more naivety and innuendo than actual graphic scenes (besides a chapter with trolls weren’t too happy).
I think a comment in chapter two nailed any grammar issues, and I agree adding italics for thoughts instead of quotes would be great.
The pacing is good, steady, with interesting things happening frequently.
Interesting setup, interesting characters, interesting story and adventure. What else could you want?
Strif3Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I read the first introductory arc, up until they leave the town, so my review will be based on the impressions I got from these initial chapters.
Style: The prose is good, evocative when it needs to be and not overly tryhard. My main issue is the messy dialogue. For example, in this passage from chapter 6,
Now, the reason we aren’t up to our necks in Fae children is because they don’t come over very often, and they always take the babe with them,” Barika said. “How could I be a Fae child if they keep them?” “Because the children that aren’t Fae enough are brought back and left at a village of the race of their non-Fae parent. They also lose all of the memories from the Fae realm,” she added. “This is perfect. I can just tell people I’m a Fae child, and all the strange stuff will get blamed on that,” she thought.
It's too hard to tell who's speaking here, especially since both speakers are referred to as "she". Maybe have each dialogue tag on a different line or something, but as it is it's messy. This is a consistent problem, but not a glaring issue since you can eventually figure it out with context.
Story: I didn't read past the first introductory arc just yet, but I'm already seeing a few issues. Mainly, the humour. I'm not at all opposed to humour in stories, in fact some of my favourite RR fics are comedies, but please find new things to joke about. Having every source of humour be "Oh the MC is soo pretty everyone falls over themselves around her" and "haha MC knows nothing about sex" gets old after 7 chapters. I don't hate those type of jokes but you gotta either diversify or make them less frequent, you can't have them twice in every chapter. On the other hand, I do like the little plot hooks thrown in, like the reference to the black-robed man who'll probably become a bigger factor in the story. It makes me want to read more to find out.
Grammar: No glaring issues here, perfect as far as I can tell
Character: This is the story's strongest facet in my opinio
D.T. BrennanRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
I've read the first five chapters for this review, so things may change as it goes on and I'll update accordingly once I catch up with the story!
If you want a TL;DR of my thoughts, I think this is an interesting read with a cool starting premise. If you like fish out of water stories that involve a Lovecraftian, dark undertone, I think you'll like this story! It has some bumps here and there, but the writer was improving with each chapter I read and have no doubt they'll have covered most of the issues by the time I catch up with the story so far!
Style:
While reading, I never had trouble following along, but there were times I felt certain things got bunched together in a confusing manner. I don't think it detracts from the overall style of the story.
I would say, it's not super engaging, however. I didn't find most of the descriptions past the MC altogether interesting, and there are a couple of recurring characters that seem to have no physical description I could see. This may just be due to the fact that these characters are not important to the overall narrative, but it's enough to be worth mentioning.
Story:
The initial premise of this story is quite interesting. There's undertones of a darker story at play with a veneer of slice of life the first few chapters. If you're not for slice of life, though, it does look like the story is moving to further embrace it's darker elements. If you read the first chapter and want to see how far down the rabbit hole it goes, I suggest you keep reading as I think it will be worth it!
Grammar:
The story is readable, I don't think there was ever a point I didn't understand what the writer was getting at. I do think their word choice can be a bit limited at times. A lot of the sentences feel same-y or kind of bland since they use similar words throughout.
Character:
So far the MC falls into the blank slate category. She is not soulless, but much of the early chapters are about her getting acquainted with the world a