Callie's Heroes

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

For Callie Archer, the day had started out awful and went downhill from there. From the terrible job interview to the strange woman in the oversized hat that pushed her in front of a train, things were just not going her way. Awakening to find herself in the body of a Gnome and in a strange, fantastic world of Ogres, Elves, Fae, and magic, Callie must not only survive this madness, but try to find a way back home. Cover Artist:Nerva1Bow Art Based on Work By:Ilia Popkov-(CC-BY)

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2022
Author: R.A.Hayden

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 850
Views: 1,009,734

Chapters(362 total)

What readers say about Callie's Heroes

“I've only read a few chapters so far, but this is a lot of fun with a ton of possibilities. The characters have individual voices and personalities rather than being generic stereotypes. I'm instantly on board with Callie, and there's an implied magic syste…”
AbbyBabbleRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“This is incredibly well written. I loved it from the first words. Callie and the others feel like real people, regardless of the world they’re in. I’ve truly enjoyed following along as they change and grow through their training and battles, as well as the…”
Chele42Royal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

AbbyBabbleRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've only read a few chapters so far, but this is a lot of fun with a ton of possibilities. The characters have individual voices and personalities rather than being generic stereotypes. I'm instantly on board with Callie, and there's an implied magic system and solid world-building. This is a storyteller!
Chele42Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is incredibly well written. I loved it from the first words. Callie and the others feel like real people, regardless of the world they’re in. I’ve truly enjoyed following along as they change and grow through their training and battles, as well as the regular living we get to see in the words written.
Jack0fheartRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Callie's day goes from bad to worse when she wakes up in a strange world as a Gnome, surrounded by Ogres, Elves, Fae, and magic. She soon learns that she has been conscripted into the army to fight against hordes of demons, and must not only survive in this new world but also find a way back home before it's too late.
Overall score 5/5: The world-building is expertly crafted, and the characters are well-developed and engaging. The story is fast-paced and exciting, with plenty of action and adventure to keep readers entertained.
Style score 5/5: The writing style is engaging and immersive, with vivid descriptions that bring the world to life. The dialogue is natural and flows smoothly, and the pacing is well-balanced.
Story score 5/5: This is an epic adventure that takes readers on a journey to a world filled with magic and danger. The story is well-crafted, with a strong plot that builds tension and keeps readers engaged. The characters are well-developed and relatable, with their personal struggles and relationships adding depth to the story. The world-building is expertly crafted, with detailed descriptions of the different races, cultures, and magic systems.
Grammar score 5/5: The grammar is excellent, with clear and concise writing that flows smoothly without any obvious errors.
Character score 5/5: The characters are well-developed and multi-dimensional, with their own unique personalities and backstories. Callie is a compelling protagonist, and her journey of self-discovery and growth is both compelling and satisfying. The supporting cast is equally engaging, with each character bringing something unique to the story.
In summary, Callie's Heroes is an excellent story that blends multiple genres to create a thrilling and immersive fantasy adventure. It has engaging characters, a well-crafted plot, and expertly crafted world-building. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves action, adventure, and magic! ♥
M.G DriverRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Writing a story is always a balance between various points. Should there be more focus on action? Battles? Politics? Everything you focus on means something else would be less focused on.
As for this? A masterclass on how to develop believable characters that live and breathe in your head. Granted, the amount of effort placed into this means less focus on other stuff, but I am all for it.
Style:
Perfect writing style, clean clear cut dialogue, expressions, scene descriptions, action sequences. I never felt lost or lacking in verbosity or direction - the author conveyed his story perfectly.
Story:
Here's where it gets a bit dicey - it is slow, very very slow. If you're looking for a fast paced fanatsy romp with pedal to the metal, this is not it.
What this story focuses on is the details. If your a sucker for details, and the kind of person who checks the manufacturing information on the side of soft drink cans, this is it.
It tickles every itch i have when it comes to fleshing out the world. Every detail the author writes down might not be utilised immediately, but it adds to the overall belief bit by bit, until it comes to a point where its REAL to you. Thats the biggest victory an author can have - crafting a believable world.
Grammar:
Perfect.
Character: The main star of the show, characters are where this novel truly shines. A stunning cast of colourful characters, each with a unique tone, background and motivations that help to guide their unique actions.
Dialogue is clear, actions taken by the characters are very clearly explained, and supposed 'plot holes' are shown to have reason later down the road that in hindsight seems blindingly obvious. Goes to show you shouldn't assume the rest of the story till you read it.
There are tension stakes at hand, and the way each character respond to various scenarios make their voices in my head that much more unique.
Overall, the novel is a great read for intricate fantasy worldbuilders who want to dive into a realistic
MeowseRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm pausing my binge here just long enough to say how much I'm enjoying this book. The author has done us a kindness in writing it and sharing it with us, and you will be doing yourself a kindness if you take the time to read it.
I'm particularly enjoying the quality of the worldbuilding. I'm currently in a military training arc, and it's so refreshing to read one that focuses on the characters and histories of the people involved, including the trainers -- and that doesn't have some sort of absurd "break down their wills and erase their personalities to turn them into people who can actually kill" like most such arcs (and like the real world, sadly). These people are professionals and highly skilled and self-motivated learners, and they are being treated with the respect and decency that they (like everyone) deserve. No "12-hour marches" and "waking up at dawn" brainwashing BS. Just realistic people learning realistic things to benefit them in realistic combat situations.
It's not just the worldbuilding, though. The characters are well-realized, and I find myself caring about what happens to them. The writing is crisp and clear, and almost entirely free from typos.
This one is well worth reading.
Scribble SageRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've only just started reading this story and I'm relatively new to Royal Road, but already I'm excited to read more. Callie is a wonderfully relatable character. She's got worries and stresses (who hasn't been undervalued at a job interview, especially in the current work climate?) and when she stands up for herself, I wanted to cheer. I definitely didn't see the incident at the train station coming.
The writing style is fun and fresh. The descriptions are just right to paint a picture of Callie's world view.
I'll probably binge read the next few chapters until I've caught up and then impatiently wait for each update. The promise of a character driven story is appealing when sometimes all I want to do is get inside the head of someone else and just go along for the ride.
Fingerscrossed the story continues to dazzle.
SilentSapphicRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
What happens when a useless lesbian normie gets isekai'd? No way to be genre savvy if all you know of fantasy is half-remembered quotes from LotR! (seriously, the first two elves she sees and the first words out of her mouth are "Arwen!" and "Legolas!")
Callie is a little bundle of chaos set to turn this fantasy world on its head. This doesn't come from anything super special about Callie herself; she's no chosen one, the only things different about her is the whole fish-out-of-water dunked headfirst into an unfamiliar culture thing.
Callie's only unique for not having been born and raised in this world, and approaches things with a new perspective. Everyone gets assigned a class at birth or coming-of-age or whatever? Ha! she wasn't f**ckin' born here! Gnomes can't be rangers? Nobody's gonna tell Callie she can't do something just 'cause she's too short for a longbow! There's no secret otherwordly knowledge, no introduction of fantastical new technologies, and no cheat powers (aside from weird interactions between being a Gnome and choosing a class that Gnomes "can't" have).
Pretty slow for the first two in-universe days. Not boring, just a lot more detail put into those two days before the plot really picks up.
Lena is best mom.
The OxRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Callie's War is shaping up to be a fun fantasy adventure. I'm reviewing this fairly early in the fiction, it has just gone over 20K words, so I will need to update once we know more abou Callie's future path.
The elements created already in thei story, however, are great. The author has demonstrated their writing chops directly from the prologue where we are forced to watch Callie slog through a painfully awkward job interview for an accounting job with a classic black company. This opening, while totally lacking in swords, spells or spooky stuff; instantly cements Callie in the reader's mind as a principled, intelligent, and sympathetic character. You LIKE Callie right away, and you identify with her. This pulls you into the story, wanting to read more about what will happen to her, and something does happen to her. On her way home from the crap interview, she is forcefully portalled into a fantasy realm! Into a box car full of handsy dwarves. Yuck!
Callie awakens in her new realm to find herself tranformed from a human to a tiny gnome female with pink hair. She finds this pretty alarming, and the blatant sexual harrassment from the dwarves around her is extremely unpleasant as well.
She is promptly rescued by a group of kind fantasy persons, an ogre and some elves. These characters all have their own unique voices and I am interested to learn more abou them. As for the rest of the story, at the time of the review the world is still being revealed to Callie, and she is about to find out her class and abilities. We don't know too much about the world, other than it is at war with Demons, and everyone Callie has met so far are Conscripts being sent to a training camp to prepare to fight. So we do know that there is a war and an enemy and there will be combat.
As far as the four categories go, for style I find the story extremely well crafted, no shifts in tenses or odd misplaced chronologies or anything.
Grammar is perfect as far as I can tell, absolute
furball tigerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
OK, I've been really enjoying it. The latest chapters as of now (30-40 or so) are really great with some lovely moments. There are a couple sorta-NSFW-lite chapters that I thought were amazing writing (and that's a hard thing to do).
It's def more SoL than anything else, but I like that! If you're looking for nonstop action vs the BBEG-of-the-day...this probably isn't your cup of tea.
I'm liking it more and more as it goes on. It is on the lighter side although there is drama and a big threat in the background. There's a lot of finding your place, some (pretty pg mostly) romance, but it's well done, friendships made, and, ofc, "numbers go up."
Since I like SoL stuff and largely read for chars/relationships/dialog this suits me just fine! It may or may not be your cup of tea, but if this sounds promising give it a try!
HiddenslothRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
It's easy to see that you've thought this over for a long time. There are a lot of little situational jokes and instances where it seems a little forced and there are times when the exposition is heavy.
However, I'm really looking forward to seeing where this series goes. You have a nice Forest based team to combat the demons with interesting dynamics between them.