Cries of the Disillusioned

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Cries of the Disillusioned is a nihilistic space opera that explores how humanity’s arrival on the galactic scene reshapes the galaxy, mostly for the worse, over a period of 100+ years. Each book takes place several decades apart from the previous one, featuring a mostly new set of characters. This means each installment may be treated as a standalone, though it's still recommended to read them in linear order.

Book 1: Dark Horizon

The peaceful albeit aristocratic alliance of alien races known as the Galactic Union has proven successful in its thousand-year effort of building a prosperous galactic community.

But all that changes dramatically for the worse when Union science gives birth to a revolutionary new warp drive, suddenly granting access to the aptly named 'Unstable Regions'.

A trio of brave aliens working for the infamous Exploration Division is bullied by the Union’s highest authorities into testing the experimental drive: Agozi, an adventurous if not snarky female belonging to the cat-like Mevik race of aliens, her Captain and lover, Kaz, and the intelligent but fragile Xeno-psychologist Zelana Song belonging to the batlike Langa species.

While their haphazard quest appears to be successful initially, things quickly go wrong when their journey places them into direct contact with an unimaginably dangerous and barbaric new race.

That race is Humankind.

Book 2:TBA

Release schedule:Chapters are usually uploaded every 3-4 weeks.

ETA for Book 2: Act 1:Q4 -- 2026.

The series features original artwork.

Author's Disclaimer:After receiving feedback from several readers regarding the story's pacing, I feel it necessary to add the following disclaimer. This is a slower paced series than some of you might be accustomed to, focusing on character growth and a gradual narrative build-up. If you’re looking for a fast-paced action adventure in space, it might not be your cup of tea.

Cautionary Note about the Setting:Since reviewers keep making a big deal out of this, I'll just say it upfront: the setting is bleak as hell and full of horrible people. One reviewer called it "Idiocracy without the parody," and he isn't entirely wrong. If that doesn't sound like your thing, that's fine, but know what you're getting into before you start reading. Yes, the characters are usually terrible people. Yes, many of them (especially the humans) are irredeemably stupid. This is not by mistake; it's simply how this dystopian world works. It is what it is. Take it or leave it.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: MasterOfDisillusionment

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.5/ 5.0
Followers: 1,042
Views: 222,710

Chapters(53 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

Lord RagnorRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story is extremely enjoyable so far. The author has a detailed depiction of all the characters. They have an excellent vision of where the story should go, and after reading only two chapters, I was immediately hooked on the storyline.
Each character has their faults and their strengths. Their realistic depictions of characters with their motivations and views on the world. The most accurate depiction of that would be the interactions between Agozi and Kaz. They both have their differences and similarities. Different social standings and backgrounds. The same is true of two other important characters. Snickers and Zelania Song. Snickers is a little flat right now as we don't know all too much on how he truly thinks.
Kaz is low class in comparison to Agozi and has reached his current position through pure hard work and focus. Disciplined but with his faults. That is his alcoholism which he leans on to escape the difficulties of his duty and relationship with Agozi.
While Agozi is very different from Kaz, she too has her duty when it comes to the Exploration Division, and making her family more reputable. But she is very flawed. Focusing on herself and valuing her thoughts and feelings above that of anyone else. She believes herself to be right in her actions and that bullheadedness has her clashing with Kaz who believes in the safety of his crew, and other reasons not depicted yet.
The most interesting point in this story is how each race depicts one another. Zelania and Snickers races both believe themselves to be superior to all the other races. And while Kaz/Agozi's race also have their own biases the contempt and scorn from Zelania and Snickers is palpable from their first interactions with others. In total, there are four different important races you will see interaction with other than Humanity.
The author has written an amazing story here and it still has not unfolded as of yet. So just read it!
Toilet_FaceRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is one of my favorite sci-fi books on the site because of it being mainly from the view of the aliens and not the humans.
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Melrose DowdyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This author cares about his work, and it shows in how he crafts the personalities of his characters and their interactions. He keeps his characters' actions and words in accord with their personalities. He sweats the details about how they word things. He peppers the right amount of descriptions of body language and thoughts into the writing.
This story has grown and developed into a real beast! The story becomes deeply intriguing with the discovery of a strange corpse and only grows darker and more interesting from there. Brace yourself, this story plunges into the depths of human darkness and will not disappoint those looking for some grim twists and turns.
KillYouRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Reminds me of stories like Galatic Economy, First Contact, and Human Altered. With a competent handle on writing, I think this story has the potential to reach the heights those other stories have reached. The concept of first contact as explored through the lenses of aliens finding us is a genre of science fiction that’s pretty sparse compared to the other way around.
This story also seems to be going in the direction of stories following the genres of HFY & Humans Are Space Orcs. So if those stories fit your tastes to a T then you might want to check this story out.
Also, get well soon author.
AstrowoudRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Cries of the Disillusioned is a hard-scifi fiction, something difficult to write, something noticeable every now and then. The author did a good job with it it though.
yes, sometimes a lot of it feels skippable, which it is, but all that fluff is well-written character interaction. It fits the characters. This isn’t a slow-burn, nor is it particularly fast, it’s a fiction that sets out to create a ‘realistic’ first-contact, with character interaction aboard the ship. And succeeds relatively well.
If you want explosive action don’t read this, if you just want to casually read a sci-fi without cliffhangers, this might be your cup of tea.
IDC-Royal Road
★★★ 3.0
Is the story complete?: NO
Did I drop the story?: YES
Is it hard to read?: NO
Did it do something to stand out?: YES
Would I recommend it?: YES
Thoughts:
Lost interest before really getting far into the story, there’s a ton of cool world building going on but the first chapter feels a bit bogged down by info dumps and some of the banter doesn’t quite land, which makes it hard to get fully hooked right away.
Federated SunsRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
The story is a very slow burn, that in some places takes time to really get going. Two characters are just painful for me to read, Kaz is so robotic and zero personality that he's just too dull for the story. Another is Snickers is also a pain to read because they talk for so long without saying anything. The rest of the cast is more well rounded and better to read.
Personally I wish the author would go back and either change Kaz and Snickers or just outright replace them with better characters.
Sometimes it takes a long time for anything to happen, characters either go on long awkward conversations just for the reader's benefit. Like when the Captain was talking to his Xenobiologist the whole scene felt wooden and very forced. (again it doesn't help that that captain comes off as an emotionless automaton)
I also don't get the 'romance' going on between the captain and the first officer as he's so emotionally distance and a drunk that there is no actual chemistry between the characters. This subplot could have been scrapped with no loss to the story)
It is a nice first contact story, although I do with the human that contacted them wasn't a criminal. I don't know why this was the choice but I would have preferred an actual normal human instead and just cut out the criminal character outright.
When the story finally gets going in the places it does, it's a good story, it just drags itself a lot to get there with some poor character choices. Maybe it picks up later in act two but it's a rough start to me.
ThePlagueRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
To begin with, a major complaint is found in the character of Ross, he is a complete idiot. The author claims that this is due to him representing this version of humanity’s future, and that the unlikeliness of people ever becoming this stupid is acceptable due to this being a grimdark dystopia. However, people in grimdark settings are not stupid, in the case of a semi corporatocracy where people are only worth their labour, as we see ourselves in this story, him being uneducated would be reasonable, and he would likely be tired, depressed, and quite reasonably mentally unstable.
He is trapped in a box where his work is considered a reward, he has never even seen genuine nature untainted by human destruction, and he is set to live a terrible life with the promise that after decades of labour he will be rewarded with a few short decades a mediocre life, and even if he has kids, he will likely have no inheritance to give them, leaving them just as badly off as he was, if not worse now that their labour is worth less.
Essentially, him not being a college graduate is perfectly fine, and him being an asshole is understandable, however he is not simply uneducated, he is an idiot. He acts like a complete fool in front of a bunch of aliens, why? Because he’s dumb. He
massacres another group in a simulation while he knows he’s being watched?
it’s just ‘cause he’s an idiot. If he is considered the representation of this society, or even just the lower classes of it, then this story only seems to have frustration and annoyance in it’s future.
If he did the spoiler above due to being unrestricted for the first time and having a mental snap, it would make far more sense. And would speak to how the majority of people in this world are being overstressed and are at a breaking point, this would also reinforce the rebellions happening in the background. But it doesn’t.
Ross is stupid because society, and society is stupid because grimdark. But just because things are grim and dark d
dustreaperRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
Really fun at times with with the long drawn out conversations that add nothing i lose interest. They just go on and on and what did you get at the end of it nothing really..
Probably not a bad story but really not to my taste. I liked the parts i read and skipped the fluff.
SilverlesRoyal Road
★ 0.5
The story follows the story beats of most of its contemporaries and does not innovate enough to be respectable on its own regard, the characters are all archetypes that serve their purpose but are as flat as cardboard. The story is intriguing however developed too one-sidedly where the antagonists only breed bigger badder antagonists due to this the story most likely will continue to be like this until the final book/chapter where everything goes right for the good guys either that or it will be another tragedy for tragedy sake