[First Draft, Moved] Of Astral and Umbral

Information

Status

Hiatus

Year

2017

Author

Luciferia

• [Announcement] The updated listing has caught up!
  Sep 27, 2017

Reviews

Community Reviews(10)

• tengehRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Thanks so much for writing this! Depth of the characters and in the world they interact in is a very enjoyable read.
• DurrendalRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  This is my review of ‘Of Astral and Umbral’ and I won’t, not be subjective. Since it is how I  feel about this story, I will, of course, be subjective.
  Story: An overarching plot that boggles your mind. Threads left throughout the story that tie up beautifully or lead to even more stories. A well-rounded plot that is truly unique in its treatment among the mass of half-cooked stories in RRL. The details are extensive and beautifully done. The characters feel alive and well thought out. However, what makes it also mars it. Sometimes, the details come in the way of the story-telling. Also, sometimes the story feels like a shoujo romance. Not sure how to feel about that, since it’s not bad but I don’t really like shoujo.
  Style: It is like a beautifully drawn ukiyoe painting. Details, details and details have the story dance and come alive right in front of your eyes. The emotions and mental states are well sketched out. However, again, sometimes the scenes which don’t need a verbose treatment or would hit hard with rawness gets padded with details. Story flow suffers sometimes from the extreme details. Also, the author uses both show and tell. It does help but sometimes, gets a bit iffy. In closing, the chapters are fine for a novel. If, however, I look at it in a Web Novel context, especially on RRL, it might be too long for the attention span of most readers. Not a bad thing, but something the author might want to look at. People tend to forget stuff when too much information goes in at once. And here, this is text so, it will happen more. However, 2k word chapters are also not something I’d advice.
  Grammar: Near perfect. Extreme precision and laudable vocabulary. But sometimes, there are missing words which are very rare and just a small oversight. Won’t worry too much about that. Sometimes the vocab choices are a bit oddball, though.
  Characters: Detailed and something that I don’t often find here, layered. You can tell that the author has refined, reworked and crea
• Mr SirRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  I LOVE THIS STORY
  Style: It keeps me guessing and wanting more within the first few chapters you get introduced to all kinds of different creatures. The way things are described allows you to paint your own picture yet guides you through it. Emotions are also clearly shown in body language. Its also clear that research has been done. (something i always look for.)
  Story: Interesting I was not bored for a second. In a previous review it was stated that there are sudden info dumps which make you confused. To me the writer is setting up the framework of her story before she starts to fill it in for us. I believe after a prologue and during the rest of the book readers should be asking questions. I certainly am.
  Grammar: English is not my best language so maybe thats why, but I could not find anything wrong with it. She also has two editors which is a major plus, since it only improves the story. Well done to the writer and editors. Good Job.
  Characters: Are interesting and well filled out. Like I mentioned before you keep wanting to know more which I think is good sign that you are enjoying the story.
  Great book Luci, keep up the good work.
• PotableRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Well! I'm reading this at 3:42 AM, so I'm probably not getting the best experience; some things just don't even register, but the parts that I have managed to hold on to mentally I enjoyed. I will most likely come back later and re-read, but so far, I think you've done a very good job.
• littleshippyRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  It is a novel that progresses at a good speed. not instantly, and not years later they realize their love for each other. They grow closer and closer to the point that you start wondering why they haven't taken the next step. And they wonder why they haven't as well.
• markhtarRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  If I may start with this, this story is underrated (4/5) when I make this review whilst if you do not like a story which keeps you in delicious fog of mistery teasing the readers up by giving up bits of  the truth every then and now then you might have a problem to read this. If anything, the only real 'fault' I can find in Of Astral and Umbral is its written to be a book or so I feel.
  If you feel like giving a shot to OAU(which I invite you to do for more than 2 chapters!) you should be ready for quite a bit of teasing!
  Style:
  Some may be willing reproach you to overuse dialogue, but I feel it's fine (Damn it's great!). The flow of the story is incredibly smooth, I enjoyed every second of my read oscilating between frustration and pleasure! The way you choosed to unravel the plot in mist of the story made me always thirsting for more while inviting me to try and imagine things to fill my hunger for more.
  Story:
  Great? I don't really know how to judge it at this point, I've got this hunch you are only getting started and the best as yet to come!
  Up to chapter 23: The pace is good, clearly indicating it would be the 'travel and meet allies' part of the story. I love it up to now, maybe to much since I can't really put it into word so I'll stop here. Sorry for not being able to point anything... but I can't think anything to point out.
  Grammar:
  English not being my native language I do not want to judge or seem rude but I don't remember finding mistakes big enough to catch my attention during my read, it doesn't mean there is known; but if mistakes you made I'm not one to find them soz!
  Characters: I love Ari and Nali, with that said I'll obviously be a bad judge here!
  The characters are well defined with their twirk and all, which helps the story a lot! But there is one thing that costed 0.5in this rubric: at the begining of the story, first few chapters,  it appears you forgot some inconsistencies about Arianna memories  (I think it was her) and what she appears to
• Eyeball1844Royal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  Although this is a 4 star review, I do plan to point out a few things I didn't particularly enjoy or thought could've been done better. Anyways, let's get on with it. As most RRL reviews, I won't hesitate to be subjective (Yes, that was a slight bash against some RRL reviews).
  Something that’s quite good, something that I have trouble with, was how the author always adds in a little something to the dialogue. Instead of talking heads,
  Oh, and another thing about the conversations, they always felt like they had life in them. The cheeky characters, have cheeky dialogue. The annoying characters, say annoying things. Most of the text is talking so it’s a good thing it’s done well.
  But, here come a few gripes from me again. I personally felt like many of the chapters were a tad too long. It was difficult to maintain focus on the chapter as I wondered about how long I had been scrolling. The chapters are basically all over 5k words from at least chapter 1 to 16, which is as far as I read. I will admit that I skimmed just a paragraph or two every once in awhile which could be the reason why I might not have gotten the details of the cities and stuff… A plus side to this, is of course that not a single chapter felt like it was deprived of content. Though, that doesn’t mean that things couldn’t have been cut out. Condensing earlier chapters could have helped the momentum of the story. My eyes and brain didn’t fail to notice how masculine the main male character was as I was reminded again and again throughout the female MC’s various thoughts about him… It’s not a big problem as it goes away later so nothing that bad. It was just a little repetitive, though I assume the problem wouldn’t have been so big if I read the fiction weekly rather than binging it.
  The main conflict isn’t entirely clear, as of chapter 16 ofc, but it often results in the two main characters constantly testing the waters. It’s a bit frustrating with the slow pace as they refuse to communicate but isn’t
• ClearMadnessRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  Astral and Umbral is well written and obviously has a lot of depth. The author has done a ton of world building and succeeds in bringing her story to life. The characters are also very interesting. The plot has a lot of romantic undertone but is also more than a little creepy. A lot of very NSFW stuff is hinted at, so all in all it’s an intriguing mix.
  That said, it is very confusing to read. There’s so much depth here and it’s dumped on you right away with next to no explanation. You have multi-levels of gods, angels, mages, empires, history, magic shapeshifting talking dragon-things, creepy Mist, politics, and characters with lost memories.
  You’re left wondering how much everyone remembers, or ever knew, a lot of the time. It’s also confusing since some characters seem to remember stuff in one scene but then act as if they’re completely ignorant in others. The thought processes of the characters are also really hard to follow. They make choices that don’t appear to make much sense given what we know. This is probably because there’s a lot about the world we don’t know yet, but it’s still super annoying.  I frequently wanted to start yelling at them, “Stop being so stupidly secretive and just talk to each other!”
  This was really my main problem with the story. It felt like the entire central conflict could be resolved with a single conversation in the first chapter. That fact that things keep dragging on starts to come across as  very contrived.
  Grammar is top notch, although in some of the early chapters sentences can be a little complex and hard to follow.
  I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys complex fantasy works with both romantic and very dark undertones.
• KaminarionRoyal Road

  ★★★ 3.0

  Here I find another writing where the author starts as if it is a continued story of another. No introduction whatsoever to the characters, the world around them, their circumstances. Didnt like it. Sorry? And throwing us in with such things as tortured female protagonist, slave, not so great because we cant even relate to care. Not sure what races they are or those around them. Besides the oh mighty female foxes. Yay you got an Ahri.
• ShiroyukiRoyal Road

  ★★ 2.0

  Like the title said, too much unnecessary details and also confusing. Prologue and the chapters after that seems disjointed. The characters interactions made it even more boring. Perhaps its just me being a non-native speaker, but sadly your work seems not up to par with others in the phantasmal group. I've read some of their swork, such as Iron Teeth,etc. Never before I got utterly confused. Reason for the 2 stars is grammar seems on point, and the updating time is pretty fast, sadly this month it went down thr gutter.