Artifex

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

In a world where art has power and power is everything, Thando Nkhosi is an MMA fighter trying to stand out and be somebody. At least, as much as one can among 23 billion other people. Life is generally good under the [High King]. That is, until he and his friends are catapulted into the upper echelons of the Inner Planet Federation by being granted a power that may be a bit too much for them to handle, and given a task that seems impossible.

Trying my hand at a hopefully unique LitRPG system. No stats or number crunching though. Kinda scifi, kinda fantasy but scifi elements only really become plot relevant after the first arc. Won't be doom and gloom but will get really dark at times.

Updates twice a week at minimum (2-3k words), sometimes more when school decides to let me out of the pillory lol.

Inspired by a writing prompt on reddit and WarHammer 40k orks.

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2021
Author
Strif3

Tags

LITRPGACTIONFANTASYADVENTUREMAGICSCI-FISTRONG LEADMALE LEADLOW FANTASYKINGDOM BUILDINGGRIMDARKSOFT SCI-FIURBAN FANTASYPROGRESSIONSUPER HEROESATTRACTIVE LEAD

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.4/ 5.0
Followers
6
Views
2,909

Chapters(9 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(4)

  • AkasoRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Fiction is banned.
    Ego is fuel.
    The Zeitgeist is full.
    >Style
    I always find describing writing styles difficult unless they're really out there. This one, like many others, works just fine - it serves the story, paints a picture, all that. It's third person limited including the blue/yellow boxed endemic to litrpg, which as far as I can tell are formatted just fine. The prose comes across as neither under nor overwritten.
    The only complaint I have is that the dialogue can sometimes be confusing due to the usage of exchanges wherein the speaker is not clarified.
    >Story
    The collective psychic energy of mankind has caused certain authors to be capable of manifesting plotlines into locked-off bubbles of reality, and those who play along with the archetype they are assigned get to survive the (PLOT EVENT) with the superpowers endemic to their archetype.
    A black MMA fighter named Tando gets caught in a (PLOT EVENT) just before a fight. Simple as.
    I somewhat latched onto the worldbuilding concepts in my reading, as they brought up mental images of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s own Noosphere, 40k's Warp, and the internal world of concepts given personality from Disco Elysium. Point being, this story walks a well-trod path in a new pair of shoes, which is about as close to originality as you can get.
    >Grammar
    If there were any typos or grammatical errors, they were infrequent enough to go unnoticed.
    >Characters
    Believable, servicable, human, I don't know what to say. They're good. I'm taking good character writing for granted here. They have their own pretty obvious problems, Tando (the Protagonist, that is) for example being plauged by self-control issues.
    >Overall
    I honestly find it difficult to believe the plausibility of just banning fiction, as such a feat would demand a turbo-dystopia far beyond the scope of anything displayed in-story. That's my biggest criticism, and it's mostly subjective.
    If you like LitRPGs and works that dip into metanarrative stuff, you'll probably like this
  • BullerRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    I really do like what was done for this story. Narrative hits right, the characters clearly have a lot of thought put into them, and the grammar is superb. The only real criticism I would have was the style choices surrounding the tables.
    While there might not be any more updates to the story, I do still recommend it to anybody who finds the summary interesting. 4.5/5
  • Invictus21Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    I liked the story so far. It is still in its initial stage. But definitely would look forward to more.
    Liked use of the blue boxes.
    I think the pacing could be bit better. There were times I was loosing track of it or had to read again.
    But overall good story with lot of potential :)
  • AzurathRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    Alright, let's go through this quickly score by score.
    Style: The way the story was written, is well... very good. I think the pacing is good, and you use a large vocabulary of words. I also feel like reading everything you write is pleasant. 5/5 in my humble opinion.
    Grammar: Literally nothing wrong from what I see. Everything seems to be good, maybe there were mistakes, but I didn't notice them nor was I interrupted by sentences that were worded badly so... 5/5
    Story: Alright, this is more personal opinion. I think the premise itself is good, and the story is coming along nicely, but I found myself get confused on multiple things and I feel like I was missing something at one point or another. I will re-read this tomorrow with a new and clear mind to see if I notice can improve this score, I'm sorry for this... 3/5
    Characters: I think all characters were well-developed, they talked like real humans and their interactions weren't boring, maybe confused about a few things but good regardless... 4.5/5
    Conclusion: A good book! I enjoyed reading this, and I think it's well worth your time. It has a, in my opinion, unique idea, and it's still being put together. I'm sure it will get even better as time goes by since it seems that we are gradually fed information and it's fun like that.