As the Godking Wills

Information

Status

Completed

Year

2019

Author

Cocop (Cale Plamann)

• Author's Note
  Dec 10, 2019
• Chapter 21
  Dec 8, 2019
• Chapter 20.5 - Crescendo
  Dec 7, 2019
• Chapter 20
  Dec 6, 2019
• Chapter 19
  Dec 5, 2019
• Chapter 18
  Dec 4, 2019
• Chapter 17
  Dec 3, 2019
• Chapter 16
  Dec 2, 2019
• Chapter 15
  Dec 1, 2019
• Chapter 14.5 - Interlude II
  Dec 1, 2019
• Chapter 14
  Dec 1, 2019
• Chapter 13
  Nov 30, 2019
• Chapter 12
  Nov 30, 2019
• Chapter 11 - An Interlude
  Nov 30, 2019
• Chapter 10
  Nov 30, 2019
• Chapter 9
  Nov 29, 2019
• Chapter 8
  Nov 29, 2019
• Chapter 7
  Nov 29, 2019
• Chapter 6
  Nov 29, 2019
• Chapter 5
  Nov 29, 2019

Reviews

Community Reviews(10)

• serg0Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  We live in the world where our supreme rulers are assmbely of petty, self-aggrandising idiots, delinquents and psychopaths. What if it would be other way around? What if the leaders of the world would be supremely competent, dedicated and selfless? Well, in that case, by the law of cosmic balance the might of all of the universe would conspire against them and results would be not better then what we have in real world, or even worse. But if the take into account such plot device as "unreliable narrator" we coud see this story as representation of how our leaders see themself and their role in the world. Citizens are always ungrateful and capricious, too stupid to understand what's good for them.  Natural or economic disasters are always unexpected and lack of preparedness totally was not leader's fault. Best way to deal with opposition, separatists and dissidents is decisive application of force, military or administrative. There is always no time for long-term solution, it's either stop-gap measures or disaster. And because the leader is the best person to lead the country it's ok to change some facts, until their story looks like this story.
• B. A. Baker (Thedude3445)Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  There is no reason in this world that As the Godking Wills should be on Royal Road instead of on my bookshelf. I know that's a bit of a cliche to say in glowing reviews around here, that stories are "too good" for web fiction, but in the case of Godking, it's good to the point that the lack of attention this story has gotten is downright criminal. It isn't that the story is too good for web fiction--it's that web fiction has completely ignored one of its best recent stories. We don't deserve it.
  This book is a pitch-black comedy, a satire that makes you think worse of the whole world and laugh while doing it. It's about the leaders of a fantasy world government who have to deal with the ins and outs of their nation as it descends towards collapse... and to serve the whims of the God who has absolutely no interest in anything but itself. How do you make the world a better place with religion and governance if the deity you serve is acitvely opposed to everything you stand for? You try your best, that's what you do.
  Our trio of main characters, Balthus, Gareth, and Matthias, are extremely well-developed. Like, amazingly so. They are so distinct that you can recognize which character is the POV of a chapter after just a couple paragraphs. Each has their own little subplots, but they are together unified in the common thread of trying desperately to deal with the crises of the kingdom to the best of their abilities. And... let's just say they come into conflict sometimes.
  The best part of Godking is that everything just plain works. There's many POVs, but they always tie together. There's all these offhand jokes and lore references and they almost always come to relevance later. Every character matters and every chapter is of paramount importance. It's at that level of cohesion and polish where I start to genuinely care about the main characters, or actually start to hate them in one particular case. In my time reading web fiction, this happens so rarely that it's like
• Skylark (Dion Sky)Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  This story had been hyped up a fair bit for me before I read it, and I still somehow managed to miss the fact I would be reading a comedy, let alone one this funny. So when I was introduced to Balthus, High Priest to the hedonistic nincompoop who is unfortunately also the omnipotent deity Al'Shazan, I was unprepared for what I was in for. Much like Balthus, as it turns out.
  Yes, in As the Godking Wills, God is real, running an empire and, er, really shouldn't be. While not actively malicious, it's clear Al'Shazan is concerned solely with sating its own desires while the heads of its own empire run around frantically trying to keep it happy and soften its devastating edicts lest the capital go up in flames, as has happened multiple times in the past. It's a wry depiction of corruption in politics, the dangers of poor leadership, and what it's like having to 'manage up' to bosses having problems with competence, empathy or both. Too real, CoCop. Too real.
  It is very funny, though.
  Style-wise, I'd place Godking very close to the observational wit and social commentary of infamous comic fantasy writer Terry Pratchett. It has about the same level of absurdism in it as well, with the majority of characters played mostly straight, while others at first seem ludicrous until you realise you've at some point met someone just like them - or worse, multiple people - in real life. Again, too real. The writing quality is superb except for all the grammatical errors, which are prolific. It's particularly out of place here because Godking is such an intelligent story. But with a grammar edit, it would easily be professional quality.
  Godking's characters are just wonderful. For the head henchmen of a terrifying god, Balthus and Gareth are wonderfully ethical, pragmatic, competent and fallible, devoting their lives to making the world a better place for its consituent races despite Al'Shazan's constant ability to thwart their efforts. Matthias, head of the religious inquisition, is a
• Spirit of YggdrasilRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  This is amazing. I'm not going to bother exlaining why, read the top comments to find out. I am just writing this review so I can give it 5/5 in all categories.
  On a side note, when are we getting another book? I truely wish this was continued, as it is better than (his?) two other stories. I am just going to start writing words now to get over 200 words. I would attempt to actually write something meaningful, but it is 12:47 on a Thursday.
  All Hail the Godking.
  Prasied be His Name.
  For in the End,
  It is our Purpose to Act,
  As The Godking Wills.
  All Hail the Godking.
  Prasied be His Name.
  For in the End,
  It is our Purpose to Act,
  As The Godking Wills.
  All Hail the Godking.
  Prasied be His Name.
  For in the End,
  It is our Purpose to Act,
  As The Godking Wills.
  All Hail the Godking.
  Prasied be His Name.
  For in the End,
  It is our Purpose to Act,
  As The Godking Wills.
  All Hail the Godking.
  Prasied be His Name.
  For in the End,
  It is our Purpose to Act,
  As The Godking Wills.
  All Hail the Godking.
  Prasied be His Name.
  For in the End,
  It is our Purpose to Act,
  As The Godking Wills.
  All Hail the Godking.
  Prasied be His Name.
  For in the End,
  It is our Purpose to Act,
  As The Godking Wills.
  All Hail the Godking.
  Prasied be His Name.
  For in the End,
  It is our Purpose to Act,
  As The Godking Wills.
• 1Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  TL;DR : As long as you aren't revolted by darker themes, you will enjoy this book. The main plot of this story revolves around
  a church that rules the world, and the deity that they worship is not only real, but actively malevolent towards the people, which results in the church having to step in after the fact, and justify the god's actions, usually by calling anyone who dies a heretic,
  so it's certainly not all rainbows and butterflies.
  Style : The style is crude at times, yet it nicely compliments the story, though tedious exposition certainly could be turned down a couple notches. 4/5
  Story : The story is where this story shines the most, the premise is well thought out, and is executed to grand results. There were a few plot twists that even surprized me, but there was also good reasoning for everything that happened. 5/5
  Grammer : There were some creative  freedoms taken in this category which might come across as stiff, but I found it to be intuitively decipherable. 5/5
  Character(s) : I really did enjoy the characters in this story, they were a great boon to the narrative, especially their unique motivations and the like. However, some characters edged a bit past the line, and come across as one-dimensional and lacking depth, singularly focused on whatever they arbitrarily care about. 4.5/5
  Overall : This a darkly comical, frantically surreal, tongue-in-cheek story, and it's well worth the read. One final thing; A good chunk of the narrative focuses on the complex interlocking mechanisms of politics in this world, and I think that especially stood out to me as a succesful excercise in self-analysis. Cheers! 5/5
• Luke ScheffeRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  So, read this story about a week ago, and really liked it. I initially thought that the description was an exaggeration, but I can now most definitely say that it is not. Al'shazan is not just uncaring, but actively malicious.
  Style - Stark. This world is very much a dark story, but the characters have that little bit of hope of turning things around that really catches your attention.
  Story - Dark, of course. Very high speed as well. Things happen fast, which is unsurprising when you consider that everything fits in 200 pages. Still, a very good story, although the world is definitely darker than I normally get into.
  Grammar - Dark- nope. The grammar is good, though I didn't go looking for mistakes, and have low standards caused by years of reading on Royal Road.
  Characters - One of the winning points of this story is the incredibly well-built characters. Al'shazan feels genuinely amoral, Mathias feels like a disturbing fanatic, and Balthus feels like a genuinely good person who has been stuck in a shitty situation for his entire life and has been slowly corrupted as a result. He tries to do good and has done his best to avoid people antagonizing Al'shazan, but people are ever stupid, and will forever ignore the "Don't poke sleeping gods" sign because they most certainly must know better than whatever person put up said sign. I would give this area better than five stars if I could.
• NorthernWardenRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Well worth reading for a fun time with great characters and excellent pacing. This story really captures the wondrous curiosity of a new world. All the characters feel very real and all the motivations and actions make sense. It really balances having fun exciting moments without needing anyone to hold the idiot ball.
• HappystarRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  I comit the grave sin of lacking experience in writing reviews.
  May Al'Shazan have a good laugh at my inability, and the inquisitors not think of finding me.
  Still, I quite enjoy this.
  I think I've run into one or two spelling errors, but thats it.
• DavePrimeRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  Al’Shazan, Godking of the worlds largest empire is truly one of the most vile creatures I have ever read about. The portrayal of helplessness by the Main Characters was just excellently done. I went into this thinking, "How evil could a completely hedonistic being be?" That was clearly the wrong question, as I was thinking of hedonism in the terms of meaningless sex, drugs, alcohol. Even at the farthest reaches of my mind I only barely considered Al’Shazan acting like a child does with an anthill, a bit of mass murder before getting bored of it. Creating an entire world full of sentient beings whose entire purpose in life is to entertain you, as you twist and manipulate, hurt and harm, genocide and - betray isn't the right word but I cannot even come up with a word to describe what Al’Shazan did to its High Priest - all so it entertains you somewhat more. Playing with sentient people, like with marionettes on strings, not with a greater meaning but just for entertainment. There truly being no line you will not cross just so you're a tiny bit less bored?
  Wow. Just wow. Al’Shazan has blown me away. I am speechless (besides all of the stuff above I just wrote ;) ).
• Cat-A-LogRoyal Road

  ★★★ 3.0

  The humor lands occasionally but not enough to make it worthwhile. This kind of story does better the more awful the protagonists are but the author gives up on that portrayl after the first few chapters other than a few offhand comments from characters excluding Matthias.
  And he dies early on.
  You can't get immersed in the world either since the structure of the story prohibits it. All the characters also spout distinctly modern morals and the language is just as modern. This would be fine if the author leaned into the incosistencies and tried to make a campy fantasy world but they don't so these mistakes just take you out of the world.
  The writing style is perfectly fine and the magic is interesting but it isn't the spotlight of this story. Another good point of the story is Alshazan, the god himself. He's pretty funny a couple times, plays well off Balthus and is interesting in concept.