Budding Heirs

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

All heroes have to start from somewhere, don’t they?

A collection of short stories telling the tales of heroes before their paths crossed. It is of siblings trying to hide the cracks in their family; of a young prodigy fighting for her place in society; of a girl who may have lost her memory but has not lost hope; of a mercenary dragged into more than he bargained for; of a disowned noble finding his new place in the world; of a group of friends proving themselves… of people whose connections to one another will be clear enough in due time.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Author: MoonlightGardens

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.2/ 5.0
Followers: 5
Views: 7,915

What readers say about Budding Heirs

“I can see the world when I read this, and it gives the impression of a number of come-to-power stories congealing into one, almost like it is the start of something that could be really big. Style: The style is quick, easy to read, and dialogue heavy - some…”
gliglithRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“With a unique writing style focusing primarily on dialogue, the author does a good job with their character-centric story. You get glimpses into a focal character for five chapters and their connection to the plot. The story appears to revolve around/lead…”
AericcOnlineRoyal Road4.5 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(5)

gliglithRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I can see the world when I read this, and it gives the impression of a number of come-to-power stories congealing into one, almost like it is the start of something that could be really big.
Style: The style is quick, easy to read, and dialogue heavy - something I really do enjoy and finding myself often preferring when I read, however, there were times especially in the beginning couple chapters where I found myself wishing for a bit more prose and descriptive detail. Overall, though, this is written in a way that underscores and hints at significance between lots of interconnected events, and I am certain that as it develops this will only continue.
Story: Going off my analysis of the style, the story here has a lot of thought behind it, and it seems that each short story is building off of the next in a way to slowly reveal more aspects of the overall theme and concept. What I find myself wondering is, what will happen after all of the individual stories, and how far along will it go? Seems this is set up well for a rife opportunity for continual growth and development.
Grammar: I noticed no issues here, well written and seems it has been revised as well.
Character: It is uniquely difficult to evaluate characters in this format when we consider the episodic structure of the story, whereas by design we get limited snapshots of each individual. I did find myself wishing that I could get more of a glimpse of some side characters, however, each focal character has a clear personality and voice, and that is impressive considering the multiple points of view and storylines we're looking at here.
Overall, this is not your 'traditional' web serial, but it doesn't set out to be, either. Give this a shot for something unique and interesting in its own way - you might just find some suspense in there, too.
AericcOnlineRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
With a unique writing style focusing primarily on dialogue, the author does a good job with their character-centric story. You get glimpses into a focal character for five chapters and their connection to the plot.
The story appears to revolve around/lead up to a point when all of the characters will meet up for the grand reveal- as yet to happen.
The main characters seem to be fleshed out very well, with motivations and emotions that they wear on their sleeves. The supporting characters have personality as well, with enough of a cast to give the main character a boon or a bane to contend with.
The style is very character focused while the world setting struggles a bit. A few things remain a mystery to the reader; The Temptations, for one, left me wondering. I don't think this detracts from the story thus far though. It made me push on through the chapters to find out more.
Grammatically, the sentence structure and spelling read well. Once or twice I had to reread a line to understand what happened but otherwise, nothing of note.
While I can hope to see some reference material in the future for my own curiosity, I am thoroughly enjoying the shorter chapters and to-the-point storytelling.
Kanzaki_NamiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
In the first paragraph of this story, it sets up the character, the situation, and the conflict. The first chapter was masterfully set up and ended, and the revelation of the family being royalty was well-executed. And throughout, the story slowly explores the characters, their dynamics, and tidbits of this world. (Like what is temptations?) A colorful and promising world and characters, although mired with some pacing and style issues.
Story
The story follows short snippets of various characters, setting up for some sort of a crossover event as hinted in the synopsis. Emeron, the first POV character is a young Prince with an overbearing mother and surrounded by interesting sibling dynamics and conflict. And we have Virse, the prodigy knight trying to figure some stuff out. Still early into the story, so I have not seen much yet. However, I wish the conflict and motivations of these characters are fleshed out a bit more so it does not feel like an extended prologue.
Characters
The characters are colorful, each with their distinct personality and characterization. However, as I read I find it hard to navigate interactions as these characters seemed to blend in with each other in the prose. (See more in style). A lot of characters were also introduced at the same time too which does overshadow the POV characters a little. I wish more space is given to let these colorful characters breath.
Style
My main take on the style is that in a scene with a lot of characters, I struggled to navigate their dialogue and dynamics. This is clearer in Old Guards section of the story where we do not have a familiar 'family' dynamic to lean onto. Other than that, I do enjoy the actual dialogue work and prose.
Grammar
Reads pretty well, I had no major issues with the grammar and sentence structure.
All in all, it was an enjoyable read. Glad to see a writer taking a lot of thought in characters and not info dumping me lore.
FremdaRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Budding Heirs is the kind of work I find the most frustrating to respond to because I lack a theory with which to articulate the source by which my reading is produced in such a turbulent way. Isolated concerns and quirks of design should not be enough to make me not like a work, and they don't here, but I do find them irksome.
Budding Heirs easily stands within the 1% of Royal Road fiction. Its grammar is very consistent. The characters have voices and dynamics that I find easy to distinguish and describe. The work's setting doesn't appear a way I would find overwrought. I like Virse's story and the other stories are unremarkable (in the sense that they are still developing). The greatest point of my attention is the shape of the writing and sometimes how it is employed, although compared to other stories of its type I don't find Budding Heirs' writing to be less eloquent than them. It has individual habits that I dislike
> She hated it, honestly—forcing everyone
> played with her when she wasn’t busy—even though
> to where some of the richer nobles—or at least, the ones with guards—had been seated.
Where it segments thoughts with these dashes, semicolons and ellipses, and repeatedly appends colloquial qualifiers like "honestly." I'm not saying its bad writing, but that as a reader I dislike it for reasons I don't understand and cannot justify.
> Arrika slammed her hands against the table. “I know that voice! You just want to get rid of it!”
> “A damn thing like that is only going to cause problems. If you know what’s good for you, you’d give it to me without any issues.”
> “And what is it that you don’t want us to know, anyway? What the hell are you hiding?”
> Rayluin sighed. “You’re letting emotions get ahead of you. All of this will make sense later. In fact, I’m even sure you’d thank me once—“
> “Are you hearing yourself?” Erryll asked, unimpressed. “You don’t realize why she’s upset at all, do you? Is it really just being ‘overemotional’ to you?”
> “Interrupt
McCluffRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
*Be aware that I am of the strong opinion that I do not fit into the author's intended audience.*
I've often wondered what it would be like to isekai'd into a new world. Would I have to figure everthing out by myself? Would there be someone to guide me along? Or even a brief, if even hateful, tutorial waiting to let me know where the heck I was and why I was there? Would it be a warm welcome that ramped up any challenges as I grew a bit more comfortable with the world, or would it be a cold plunge into the unknown and unfamiliar?
With Budding Heirs it's the latter, definitely the latter. I wonder and question, "Is there something I'm not privy to? Did I hop into an already developed world that I should know about before I started this collection of stories?" The blurb on the main page hints that these stories are about heroes before their paths crossed. If this is a world that the reader should know already through other works, then the author needs to mention that.
Style: Stylistically speaking, this writing is has a solid foundation. If the author was to include more imagery, exposition, and other descriptions of characters and places, then I would have felt more grounded in the world.
There's a lot, and I mean a lot, of dialogue, which is a stylistic choice.
Story: I had very little understanding of what was going on beyond that there was a family that's famous that is going through some power struggles and there's things to learn from the family's past? I am giving it two stars because it's obvious the author knows what it is going on and has a grasp of the world, but as a reader I was lost for 75% of what I was reading. Which is why I have to wonder if there's something I should have read before I started this fiction. It honestly feels like I was thrown into the middle of a book where all of the plot and world has been established before I started reading. The use of uncommon names for characters, what I think were months, and places made the story even more d