Collective Thinking

Information

Status

Completed

Year

2022

Author

TowerCurator

• Dyna Graves
  May 5, 2023
• Onyx
  May 2, 2023
• Administrator Alpha
  Apr 28, 2023
• Frankenstein's Monster
  Apr 25, 2023
• Composition 4
  Apr 21, 2023
• Continuity Collapse
  Apr 18, 2023
• Doctor Frankenstein
  Apr 14, 2023
• Escape
  Apr 11, 2023
• Monologue Room
  Apr 7, 2023
• Arrival
  Apr 4, 2023
• A Flight to Catch
  Mar 31, 2023
• Amputation
  Mar 28, 2023
• B.E.A.T.R.I.C.E.
  Mar 24, 2023
• Interdiction Order
  Mar 21, 2023
• Superuser White
  Mar 17, 2023
• P-Beam
  Mar 14, 2023
• Tartarus Hardware Laboratories and Demonstration Stage
  Mar 10, 2023
• Communications Established
  Mar 7, 2023
• Tartarus Ejection Port 012
  Mar 3, 2023
• Bastet
  Feb 28, 2023

Reviews

Community Reviews(10)

• perfectgeneralRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  The writing style is easy and natural. I had no problem reading chapter after chapter, focused on the story, not some purple prose or awkward turn of phrase. Collective Thinking is written by a highly educated native English speaker. Typos are rare as hen's teeth. A good read as they say. Helped in no small measure by a brilliant plot. This is a great story. Not only do I want to read more, I want sequels, spin-offs and fan-fiction. Some of that is attributable to the world built as a setting. Largely a secret life of organisations that sprang up after the psionic awakening of a lucky(?) few among humanity. The rivalry and peril of those in these shadowy agencies and foundations drives the drama into adventure. The characters are introduced smoothly and are interesting enough to intrigue. The weight of significance is appropriate to their parts in the plot without providing spoilers. My challenge to you is to read a few chapters without feeling the same way about this marvelous story. This one will open the door to a major publishing house, should the author put in the required leg work. How lucky we are to get a free preview?
• bradyman50Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  I'm terrible at writing reviews, but here goes.
  I really enjoyed it so far. It's a little confusing at first, but most good books are. Personally I'm tired of reading books where the entire plot is spoonfed to you in the first 5 chapters like at the beggining of some generic isekai and all that's left is to find out how many girls the MC will end up dating. By chapter 10 you get a pretty good idea of what's going on, but there is still plenty of mystery for the MC and the reader.
  I really like the style, Ponas Niekas already mentioned that the setting has a similar feel to the author's prevfious works while remaining distinct and I completely agree.
  I didn't notice any grammatical errors, but after years of reading on this sight I skim over all but the most egregious. There were no immersion--breaking errors or any other issues that distracted me from the story.
  It's a little early to say too much about the story, and we haven't seen too much of the characters, but ( without getting too spoilery) we've got an interesting main character that loves horror movies, just starting to come into her powers while struggling with the amazing abilities that everyone around her possesses  and abuses, and an interesting cast of side characters. I'd go into more detail, but we haven't learned too much about them yet and I'll probably forget to update this and don't want to say anything wrong or misleading.
• Skylark (Dion Sky)Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  The synopsis doesn't do it justice.
  Collective Thinking is an absolute star of a fiction that reads like a cross between The Lost Room, The Matrix, and the Bourne movies. I'm impressed, and I'm not easily impressed. So impressed, in fact, I'm hesitant to label it an urban fantasy action-thriller, even though that's technically what it is. This isn't your typical specimen, and that's what makes it amazing. But lest you worry it will be dry and inaccessible, its fast pace, fascinating originality and creative action means this couldn't be further from the truth.
  What I get from Collective Thinking first and foremost is its engaging mysteries. Main character Dyna is enrolled in the Carroll Institute psychic study and research programme after being scouted, but doesn't have any obvious psychic ability. So at this point, we all know how this will go: she'll have some amazing unforeseen ability, etc etc. What I love is that Collective Thinking 100% understands this, and doesn't dumb it down. Characters know Dyna's special, she knows she's special, but it isn't obvious how. Not only that, but the hints we do get are absolutely fascinating and point towards a looming explanation in the background I'm sure readers will be snapping their fingers and cursing over later, grinning with satisfaction.
  So of course I'm immediately intrigued. I have pet theories. I like having pet theories. Fun and engagement: check.
  It also helps that the grammar is immaculate. I didn't notice any typos or awkward wording at all. I'm actually kind of shocked. We're already in top story territory based on that factor alone. Stylistic flow - also perfect. It's all great even by professional standards. If you want to learn how to write well, use this story as reference. Enough said.
  As for the plot and characters, both are superb. The plot takes crowning glory so far with its plethora of unusual mysteries and intriguing questions, zero dross in between. But its characters aren't far behind, with the s
• ApneaRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  I have been absolutely loving this story so far. I generally don't review, but here goes:
  Firstly, I don't really believe in summaries, and I feel they never do any story much justice. Even so, this one generally does what is asked of it.
  The real enjoyment doesn't come from reading the summary, of course. As soon as I clicked the first chapter, I basically couldn't stop reading. The various foreshadowed plot points, the exceptionally well-done psychic abilities, and a collection of fun and/or lovable characters with personalities that feel realistic, if a little exaggerated.
  Only time will tell if this story culminates into an amazing read, but it's got a ton of potential, and I truly admire the way it's written. Very few errors grammatically that I could tell, though I'm not someone who knows a great amount about advanced sentence structure, or whether something would be technically correct. I've never not understood what was trying to be conveyed, and though I don't have a very active imagination, TowerCurator's descriptions are accurate enough that I can actually imagine what's going on.
  I am extremely excited to read more, and will look forward to every update.
  If you're still reading this, you're not reading the story, so go do that.
• ArararaRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  One of the best stories I've found on Royalroad recently. I absolutely love it, it fits my tastes really well. Note that this is a webfiction more in line with, for example, Wildbow's "Worm", it's a completely different style from what you would expect out of the average RR story. Nothing connected to games, levels, isekai, magic, or fantasy races. It's more similiar to YA fiction.
  It's about esters and psychics, the rare people with mind-powers, artifacts which have their own mysterious effects, and a psychic academy (and NO, this is not a "magical-school" kind of story. It's only a very small part of it). The setting is the modern world, and our main character is special in the way of her powers being unbelievably useless. (This starts changing.) The focus is on heavily on the mystery of her powers, but there's also fast-packed action scenes, running around town, agents with sniper rifles, scary stuff, etc. I like it a lot so far, give it a try!
  Style score: 5.0
  Third person past tense, standard narrator constricted to our POV character's thoughts and feelings. Every now and then, we get a chapter from a different POV, kind of like an interlude. The actual style is great, there's lots of personality in there, and it's a joy to read.
  Story score: 4.5
  Here I will duck half a point because:
  If we (the readers) are right about the nature of Dyna's powers, then it would mean the foreshadowing was way too obvious, and too many hints were given, making us annoyed how the MC doesn't realize it. On the other hand, if it was all a big ploy and we get a huge plot twist, I would also feel disappointed, like we were (a bit) played with, idk.
  It's a small "issue" in my opinion.
  About the actual story, the worldbuilding has been great so far, everything feels real, the plot is moving along nicely, and I'm not bored. Maybe it feels like there is more talking that I would like, so I'm hoping we get a lot more of her getting chances to actually use the powers (outside of research l
• InverseIotaRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Whew, what a start.
  Protagonist Dyna Graves is a student at the Carroll Institute, a center for psionic training and research. Unlike many of the other psychics/psionics she is unable to manifest her abilities through the normal course work, lectures, and training. Once she takes a certain test however, things kick into high gear as Dyna discovers more and more about herself and the world she has been thrown into.
  I love the inspiration this story takes to create a really unique setting. There are healthy doses from the SCP Foundation and Control when it comes to the research/discovery focused chapters. And some nods to the Matrix help establish the relationship between Dyna and some of her peers and mentors.
  Immediately I see several things I like in novel beginnings. There is no info dump world building to overwhelm the reader, we learn about the setting through the Dyna’s thoughts and interactions. There are plenty of questions to keep the reader hungry for more (both about Dyna, her powers, and the larger world), but they are all manageable in scope and it doesn’t feel like they won’t be answered. And the supporting characters all have distinct personalities, some of which we can tell by the first couple sentences of interaction.
  Very excited to see where this goes.
• Anir2910Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  A thrilling spy novel with psychic powers involved. The tale follows Dyna Graves, the MC, as they enrol in America's most prestigious institute for psychics - only to discover she has no powers. Story progresses to how from having no powers, she discovers she has a special power, and then to the final conclusion of how she's overpowered.
  STYLE
  A terse, fluid style that actually resembles the spy novel style. Conveys everything without being too wordy, keeping the readers hooked to the pace author sets. I really enjoyed how the world was set-up, and how the characters and their interactions were described. Author really manages to make the reader feel as if they are a part of the story.
  STORY
  Excellent plot and central theme - keeps the reader hooked from the first page. The only reason it's not a five is because of how I personally felt the world-building could have gone a little deeper. Author only hints at several important events and their conclusions, but could have been nice if they could have been fleshed out a little more. The ending also seems quite sudden, I mean, it is expected, but still comes a bit too sudden. Author clearly does not want to extend things too much, and that is respectable, but for this particular tale, a little bit more winding down would've been nice. But then, the sudden ending gives a nice launch-pad where the story can start if it is to be continued, and honestly, I wish the author would do so. Readers, please don't miss on this wonderful novels. just because of this small fact.
  GRAMMAR
  No major grammar mistakes, or typos. Great work on keeping the readers hooked.
  CHARACTER
  A well described and rounded character with whom we can all relate. Sometimes, the author struggles to fit her abilities to the plot, but that just shows how difficult this tale is as a premise that needs to appeal to the reader's logic without things becoming all hand-wavy. I really liked Dyna and truly salute her decision at the end, even though many would choos
• BerjRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  The story is well written and interesting, not a really original concept, but the take on it is nice.
  The story, at least for me, suffers from the same problem as the other stories from the same author.
  On Void Domain, there was no character development. At least not from the characters perspective. When seeing other povs, you could see the character getting stronger, but from the mc own pov, things never changed the whole novel, and that is just talking about character's abilities. Character's growth wise, basically none.
  On Vacant throne, MC was powerful from the beginning, but kept limiting herself and doing things that made no sense. Don't really remember that much aside from a feeling of frustration when thinking of that novel.
  In this novel , it is the same concept as "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". MC can warp reality, there are countless hints about it, but the MC is incapable of connecting the dots. Might very well be that she doesn't want to connect the dots, but that also makes things annoying to read.
  Overall, it is very well written and interesting aside from personal bias towards the MC situation, I think I’ll keep it saved and just binge later when lots of chapters have been released.
• Emerson FortierRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  Characterization here is excellent, and the plot has enough mystery to keep me interested. Mystery is probably the key. There are dozens of them for the reader, from "how does all this psychic stuff really work" (and is it a multiverse thing) to "Who are that characters parents, and what happened to them in the past". It's really well executed. Reminded me a lot of Stranger Things actually, only without the nostalgia and all of the "secret pseudo sciency" stuff.
  If I had one critique it would be the character's doubt. I get that it's a plot point, but it's tedious to read. Most of the side characters make for more interesting points of view as a result.
• OddwatcherRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  Super fun underrated story, but very much not the numbers go up power fantasy stuff that fills this website. Just ignore the progression tag even though it isn't exactly untrue. Weird sci-fi action mystery only marred by a bit of a fumbled ending--and the ending was good it just could have used a longer denouement to feel satisfying. I would love to read more in this setting with this cast, including lots of minor characters as well as the main players. There seems to have been a few small typing errors before I read it, judging by the comments, but I never spotted any that slipped through until now. Definitely worth the read.