Duty, Empty Dreams and Trying Not to Become a Monster

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

By order of the Dynast, Wyrm Lord and the 3rd Army are to conquer the Ravaged Lands before Iterna can establish another foothold in the region. They are opposed by the Resistance—a coalition of various gangs and tribes united under the leadership of a mysterious individual known only as King.

Among the soldiers of the 3rd Army is Aranea, a Wolfkin and former member of the Ice Fang Order. She hopes to rise through the ranks and gain enough power to avenge her father's death and her mother's descent into madness. But as the war rages on, will she be able to stop herself from becoming the very thing that destroyed her life? Or will she become another monster?

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2021
Author: Rookie12

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 161
Views: 172,475

Chapters(198 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

prodigyabRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm so glad I stumbled upon this gem of a novel. When I see the notification that a new chapter has been published, I drop everything and read it right away.
First of all, the style and grammar are great. Easy to read, but it also paints a really vivid and interesting picture. I forget I'm even reading, it's like watching a video it's so fluid and seamless.
But of course, the most important parts of every story are the characters and story. Which is where this novel really shines.
The worldbuilding, characters and story honestly shocked me with how detailed they were. It's like the author spent years designing this in their head, making sure to add as much detail and depth to the world and its inhabitants. Remind me a bit of "A song of Ice and Fire" by GRR Martin in that way, specifically when it comes to just how alive and deep the characters are. It really makes you care about them, and you become really invested in the story.
In conclusion, this is really, really worth your time. With every additional chapter I read, I liked it more and more, it really grows on you to the point you can't wait for the next chapter. This is one novel that won't disappoint, every second spent on it is a second of your life that you spent well.
Eric VanderlipRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
[Duty, empty dreams and trying not to become a monster] is about wolfkin Aranea's journey for revenge after her life goes horribly wrong as a cub.
Style: Perspective is consistent, and the pace is solid and exciting. The overall writing is smooth if a tad verbose, with too much tangential detail is spelled out and repeated at times.
Story: Great care has been placed in crafting this post apocalyptic world, with fleshed out lore, history and even culture. The idea of hybrid characters adds an interesting twist. The plot uses the right mix of mystery and tragedy to keep a reader engaged.
My sole minor gripe was a certain coincidental development. Aranea's kidnapping in the prologue plays out like pure happenstance, yet at the same time Tilden treats it as if it were crucial part of his masterplan. This is a bit of a disconnect which can easily be smoothed over. For example, with some dialogue to show that Tilden knew about Aranea's frequent trips into the city and was actively searching for her ("hands off Academician, that's the one we have been searching for" or something).
[Still giving a 5 for the strenght of everything else.]
Grammar: Decent except for the habit of jumping to present tense on rare occasions.
Character: As with the setting, great effort has gone into crafting believable cast. The protagonist is sympathetic. The villains are wonderfully evil (which more important than many give credit for). Dialogue is excellent, with characters speaking in unique voices. In fact, the cast is so well developed that the rare, out-of-characters moments really stand out (wolfkin Keyl's anger explodes abruptly without sufficient buildup). Overall excellent though. [still rounding up to 5 here too]
Conclusion: I recommend [Duty, empty dreams and trying not to become a monster] because the gripping story and well-written characters. The world building is deep and satisfying to pludge into. It's a fun read.
J NelkinsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Okay, let the bad come before the awesomeness.
Let's rip the band-aid first.
The name of this webnovel is... tough to read. It sounds more like an afterthought than the name of a book. Also, this story has a prologue of over 14k words. Yep, over 14k. And to make it worse, in the very first prologue chapter, it info-dumps you 700w worth of story with names that mean nothing to you. Only then the story begins, and believe me when I say that then it is A-WE-SO-ME.
After (in my most respectful but honest opinion) flunking the name of the webnovel and double doing the unforgiving madness of adding a huuuuge prologue and then presenting paragraphs of info dump, the story flows like crazy, organically, beautifully.
The Story begins with a family of humanoid wolves that live in the city. The father, a noble individual driven by principles. The mother, a strong, mysterious legendary champion that fought and drew with one of the strongest wolves in history, can no longer fight for some unknown reason, and the kid, a she-wolf cub called Aranea, is mischievous, unruly and likes to challenge other cubs to duels.
By some mystery, these duels provide cubs with a certain blood heritage with additional strength every time they defeat an enemy, and so the kid by pure luck has been raking win after win and is a force to be reckoned with.
And then, instead of turning the story into a slow-burner, we're drawn into action, kidnap, shady businesses, torture, amazingly well explained fights, high ranking officers, swordsaints,...
Truly magnificent. Had I stopped after chapter 1, I would've missed a story that has hooked me up massively.
I wholeheartedly recommend you to read it because if you are able to get past the first 800w, it'll hook you in and you won't be able to leave!
Just because of rules, I'll briefly score below, but believe me when I say this story is a hidden gem I'm now following.
5/5 Style - I'm not going to take half a star out because he did the unthinkable of adding a l
Krzychu0304Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm not good at writing reviews, and I rarely do, but I saw a really good story here, a lot less popular than it deserves.
The presented world is interesting, extensive and coherent.
The author's style is good; fast enough for the plot to happen while giving the characters enough time to develop.
And the characters themselves are well written, have their own characters, motivations and arouse sympathy.
The story itself is well thought out and consistent.
Surprisingly, there are very few things I can nag about; basically it's limited to the author having a clearer, less bloody vision than I would have liked.
It basically comes down to the MC trying to take enemies prisoner instead of ripping them apart and eating them.
All in all, it's a really good piece of history, no different in quality from what you can find on the front page.
MackieRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Okay, so first of all, I'm not good at making reviews and this is my first time doing it since I haven't read in a while. I would also like to mention that this review was made after reading the first two chapters that almost felt like I've read an entire 20 chapters.
So the style was really good, it all started with that "Post apocalypse" vibe. But there are two issues I encountered while reading the first two chapters:
First, the chapter length. Just like I mentioned earlier, it was overwhelmingly long that it felt like reading a whole bunch of different chapters.
Secondly, too much information on the first chapter, it feels like I'm stuffing my mouth with different kind of food and then trying to swallow it all at once. But I find it even more interesting since it really reflected how much the author worked hard for the story, which is a wonderful thing.
The story was good entirely, we have a female lead with a wonderful and overprotective mother. A war setting with some monstrous beings involved. Honestly, I couldn't ask for more. This story deserves more attention.
As for the grammar, I honestly don't mind it when I'm reading as long as I could understand it. I'm not the type of reader who often notices mistakes in someone's work since I'm always too busy imagining the scenes.
For the character, the MC being a beast was really interesting enough. But her is really the masterpiece during the early chapter. An overprotective individual that will do what it takes to protect her daughter. I think it's really one of the things that makea this story wonderful to read.
Overall, the story was good and I'm not even halfway through.
OsiriumWritesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Alright! Lets get the conclusion out of the way first: I’d recommend it to anyone!
Still doubtful? There is a character that straight up replaces a limb with a flamecaster weapon. And yes, it is as cool as it sounds.
When I picked it up and noticed the cover, I was fearful I was about to fall into a ‘furry fandom’ that might take a chunk out of my soul. I’m glad I was wrong.
What lies before you are a book that is filled with rich lore, history, characters and plenty of actions.
Overall: 4,5/5.
The book is decent and a quite refreshing read. The characters are great and the Author is clearly improving the deeper I sink within the chapters.
Style: 4,5/5
It’s good, but it suffers from thickness (That sounds weird). There is a lot of information, a lot that the author wants to tell the audience, but it is a bit too much at once. I think a soft rewrite of some scenes might help here. Spreading out the delicious information over several chapters and easing the reader into it.
Story: 5/5
Plenty of action. Brutal scenes. Limbs being replaced. Revenge, hatred, affection, brotherhood/sisterhood. The story has it all. We start off with a little girl and end up with this badass warrior that I’d rather not meet in a dark alley. Seriously, I’d rather fight a dozen starving lions equipped while wrapped in bacon.
I won’t spoil the story to much, but as a reader you are thrown in this old world with a lot of history, as the story takes you from place to place, meeting new souls and encountering old ones.
Grammar: 4/5
Mostly commas, periods, passive verbs, and the occasional dialogue error. Nothing that stopped the flow of reading or break my immersion. The errors might seem like a big flaw, but it’s easily fixed through a decent editor or when the author steps away from his work for a few weeks before rereading his earlier work with a fresh set of eyes.
Character: 5/5
I love the MC and hate her. She made me feel excitement and irritation. Both were necessary for the plot and drew m
Real TensaiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
To start off, I did not think I would like a wolfkin story this much, yet it completely hooked me. Normally, I don’t read that much non-human lead character stories, though this one was without a doubt a good one.
The story is about our main character Aranea, who is in the military. The author does a good job of describing her motivations and her feelings throughout the story. She is a well written good character, perfect for the setting of the story. Her backstory is described in the prologue, though I think you could skip it if you want. However, I really liked it.
The best aspect of this story in my opinion is the world-building, and the well-written characters. The world has a lot of depth and it feels like the author planned it in much detail. Every now and then, we get new information that adds perfectly to the story. All characters are unique and have their own motivations which make them feel real. The way the author described the wolfkins and the different tribes was also well done.
I liked the style, and the grammar was good too.
If you want to read a unique well-written story, with interesting characters and excellent world-building, you should absolutely check this story out!
prissiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Catching stories with, blurred lines between good and evil, playing with expectations, all well done.
The only thing to improve from me would be the style, with its short sentences and lack of adjectives. It feels a little cold and dry. A random citation ”... unleashed her claws and pushed them deep into the wound on her shoulder, frowning from pain as blood poured from her wound. Claws almost scratched the face of the man, when his hands moved ..." More adjectives and adverbs would make this much more intense. (The key is more, it is already quite intense.)
Maybe this is intended for Aranea, but it does not suit the other characters so well.
Again the alien culture is superb, the inner and outer conflicts are plausible and drive the story, the side characters number is small enough to keep track build relations with them: All the ingredients of a great story.
And gain, I litke the setting: Someone wrote werewolves in powersuit, but this is much more. The location could be also a distant planet. The humans are not described much, and the culture is so alien that human is mainly for the reader's sake to not have to describe the peasant's culture.
The story kept me even from my own writing for a few days: well done.
A. StargazerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Per the author's request, I skipped the prologue and began my reading at chapter 1. I found that doing so did not detract from the reading experience, and in fact I was quite sucked in. I haven't read the prologue, so I'm uncertain what value that adds to the story, but chapters 1 and on really seem to stand on their own. This review is based upon my reading without any exposure to the prologue at all.
The setting is well thought out and detailed, without overloading the reader with info dump and geography. It is clear that this information is coming, but by not front-loading the reader the story does is not as overwelming, while at the same time it allows the reader to get to the action faster, which is obviously the draw of this story.
Because wolfkin with guns in power armor? **** yeah! Gimme some more of that! We can work out the details of the setting and characters and background later.
If you're going to write an action story, then frontload the reader with the action, and add in the details of the story later. It is very clear from my reading that those things exist and have been carefully planned by the author, and as a reader I would look forward to reading them in a way that doesn't overload me with infodumps.
The grammar and style are excellent. The characters are mostly non-human, but thusfar the wolfkin hierarchy seems to be easily understood.
On the whole, I was impressed with my reading. Had I not so many commitments for review swaps and work, I would have pushed further before reviewing, rather than the minimum amount that I had agreed upon with the author in advance.
Lack of PoochlineRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Okay, this story starts off being a chore due to the exposition dumps the author so liberally subjects us to, but it soon rectifies and becomes an enjoyable thing.
Style: it's plain, pretty descriptive, but okay for the story it is trying to tell. the low score is due to the paragraphs upon paragrapohs of early infodums. These could kill the story before it reaches the juicy parts. They are a slog to get through.
Grammar: nearly flawless, some mistakes here and there, some tense mistakes, nothing too offensive, let's say. Harmless errors and typos.
Story: treachery, orphaned child swearing revenge, we have seen this a million time. Because it works. And because there are about a million batman reboots. Except this time batman has an inner pit bull that tells it to maul people to acquire power. Also there are wolf furries in power armor and gore.
Character: the characters are fine. So far, they work in the prologue and are pretty archetypical. Aranea, as i said, itsbatman. She satarts as a pretty noprmal, mischievous child that wants to be a warrior, and soon enough she gets kickstarted in the way of revenge seeker by a political plot and the kidnapping of some other cubs. The mom is a loving mom with a dark past, dad a loving dad with a sense of duty that gets him inciting incidented.
As a alst note, the story is entertaining, so fi you like the futuristic setting and the magical regenerating wolf girls, this may be for you. Just get past the first chapters/ the prologue infodumps.