Deus Ex Machinarium

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Brandt Zerster, an aberrant, worked long and hard to distance himself from his past of a vagabond and an adventurer. Fate was to find a way to pull him back, when it gave him a stack of ancient prints amd insisted that he ought to find someone who can translate them. In spite of the looming threat of the inquisition of the Church.

It took over fifteen centuries for the world to recover from the cataclysm caused by the extinction of an ancient race known only as the Precursors. Since then kings and emperors have risen and fallen, but the Church of Vhirs remained a stalwart guardian of the legacy of the ancients. In this uniquely crafted realm the hoomin spread wide and far, skillful tehei construct machinery of steam and gear, and elusive tanai tirelessly push the boundaries of knowledge. It is where, when musketeers and pirates clash, arcane powers get invoked amidst the gunfire.

Aramoth is a uniquely crafted reality where supernatural elements of fantasy meet the constraints of physics and is best described as hard science fantasy.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Author: TwoApes

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 26
Views: 20,155

Chapters(66 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(1)

Sergeant SorenRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
TL;DR: A promising, but weak and disjointed start
Style: 4/5 stars.
Some paragraphs are rather large, although not text-wall large. The author tries to show the german accent of some characters, although it's too much and might distract readers from full immersion.
Grammar: 4.5/5 stars
All good, except for two mistakes (hardly crazy ones) that were missed by spellcheck since they formed actual words (ie 'of' instead of 'or')
Story: 4/5
The prologue provides much background, although it is rather haphazardly placed. The lore is interesting although still lacking the depth of an all-star prologue.
The story hardly exists yet as the prologue centers around a conversation and a lot of lore about the city in question, that I don't think is required or even useful, and could've been spread amongst several chapters as needed.
Characters: 4.5/5
The characters have actual character instead of being cardboard cutouts, although they still lack the proper depth of actual three-dimensional characters, even relative to the early stage in the story.
The main character's motivations, feelings and character are hardly touched in the dialogue. The only other character in the scene is developed rather well, although there's hardly any interesting characteristics.
Conclusion
The blurb is interesting and the hints of lore promising. However, unless we see a serious plot, character development and some meaningful lore outside of paragraphs about the geopolitics of an average trading city, the story is bound to have a rocky start, finish and end.