Glorious

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Epic of Gilgamesh meets Transformers!

Nua is a malnourished street rat from the Overlord's Mercy. Scavenging the junkyard for the scraps of wartime magitech goliaths, she stumbles upon an ancient amulet and finds a sentient entity dwelling within.

Then, her life turns on its head.

The king of an Empire long dead wants to bring back its forgotten greatness. And no one else is around to carry out his ambitions other than Nua herself.

With the guidance of the vengeful ghost from the past, will she lead her people to glory? What price is she willing to pay for the power?

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Tentative schedule is Mondays.

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Due to policy updates, I've changed warning tags since they seem to be much stricter.

While this novel contains fight scenes that end up in bloodshed, death or injury and a hefty dose of gritty realism (including an opressed ethnic minority), it does not contain on-screen gore, torture or sexual abuse. As fantasy goes, it is grittier than Tolkien but milder than GRRM.

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2022
Author
a_cornerstone

Tags

FANTASYADVENTUREMAGICFEMALE LEADSTRONG LEADHIGH FANTASYMYTHOSSOFT SCI-FIPROGRESSION

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.8/ 5.0
Followers
383
Views
199,434

Chapters(101 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(4)

  • DestroyatronMk8Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Glorious is the story of a starving, (literally) brain damaged orphan who is kidnapped and stumbles onto a source of extreme power. The Blurb makes it sound a little silly, but don't be fooled. This story is good as hell.
    STYLE: The first few chapters are slow and mostly expository, with more telling than showing. Once it gets rolling, though, Glorious lives up to it's name. The characters sizzle, the backstory is epic, and the tone is a compelling mix of light tones and banter backdropped against much darker themes and extreme danger. The dialogue is excellent, the stakes feel real, and the world building is on point.
    STORY: This is a character driven story, and it's good at it. Different people with very different morals and world views crash together, and it's their choices and actions that drive the plot. The world is harsh, and dangerous, but our MC navigates it as best she can.
    CHARACTERS: This is where the series really shines. The MC is delightful, the explorer prince is terrifying, and Anki is both ominous and hilarious. The character interactions are believable and highly engaging, and even the side characters feel real.
    GRAMMAR: I didn't notice any mistakes.
    Right now this series is getting slept on. If you're reading this review, I highly recommend you give it a go. Tell your friends it too. And if this Glorious Series gets the attention it deserves, remember that Destroyatron recommended it first.
  • LuminstateRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This is a very enjoyable read. Highly recommended!
    CHARACTERS:
    I felt sympathy for the main character, and I liked the interplay between the main character and the passenger she picked up. None of the secondary characters introduced so far seem one-dimensional or stereotypes.
    STORY:
    The world is well imagined with interesting names, and it seems like there is a fair amount of depth in the lore. I always wanted to see what happened next, and can't wait to read the next instalment. The tension between the differing goals of the two characters is well done.
    STYLE:
    The writing is very good. It's well written and easy to read. It's much better than a lot of stuff I've already seen officially published.
    GRAMMAR:
    The grammar is mostly correct, although it could do with better proofreading and editing. The main issue is that tenses are occasionally used incorrectly. The author needs to make better use of Past Perfect, Future Perfect and Future Perfect Continuous tense. However, as the author says, English is not their first language, so what they've done so far is really impressive.
    (Apparently advanced reviews need to be at least 200 words long even though I've said everything I need to say...there!)
  • Youngish OldsterRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    If you like character-focused progression stories, Glorious won't disappoint.
    Glorious follows the tale of Nua, a slum rat orphan who barely subsists by scavenging from dumps and ruins at the edge of her city.  Through harrowing but ultimately lucky circumstances, she finds a magical artifact that holds the mind of Anki, an ancient ruler of the lost civilization of the ruins.  The two of them form an uneasy partnership that grants Nua knowledge and magical powers while freeing Anki from the ruins and possibly allowing him to plan vengeance for the fall of his civilization.
    Style.  The writing is very clean yet evocative.  Nua and Anki's thoughts, conversations, and motivations are clearly shown, and are used effectively to narrate the plot and gradually explain the cultures, civilizations, and history of the world.  A strong middle-eastern flavor (Sumerian to colonial Roman Empire) to the cultures & history underlies the longer-term direction of the story.  The mysteries, dangers & adventures that Nua finds herself in are very well written and immersive.
    Story.  The story is heavily character and plot driven, and uses every day, slice-of-life events to immerse the reader in Nua's life, circumstances, and world.  It doesn't pull any punches in showing the squalor and desperate circumstances that Nua finds herself in as a social outcast.  It does a great job of showing even small growth steps as her partnership with Anki begins to change her life.  She gradually becomes skilled enough to join a caravan team.  This lets her and Anki begin to explore the world, forge new friendships, recover ancient knowledge and artifacts, and perhaps set Anki's plans in motion.
    Grammar.  Very solid.
    Characters.  Nua and Anki are a great pairing.  They start with Anki dominating the relationship with the malnourished and traumatized Nua.  As time goes on and Nua grows under Anki's mentoring, their partnership starts to equalize more and more.  Their perspectives are distinct and change
  • Dragon GodRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    Story is very well written, but the protagonist is utterly pathetic and completely uncompelling.
    The concept is interesting, but she's starting from a bit too low a place in the world, and it took way too long for her to meet the King.
    And she's just too small minded. Fine she's the absolute trash of the world, but she doesn't even have any desires or drives of note. Nothing to root for.
    Her character is also sorta weird. On one hand, she's completely devoid of any noticeable ambition, but on the other hand she's fiercely proud when being spoken down to or otherwise condescended.
    And the idea of someone as pathetic as her just being handed power is just not compelling.
    I've read slaves to royalty stories before and enjoyed it, but those stories featured protagonists who were remarkable in their own ways. They were fiercely determined, resolute, had concrete ambitions or aspirations. There was something to root for.
    Glorious' protagonist isn't just (again) completely pathetic, I don't even feel like she deserves to stumble upon her fortune. She's done nothing to merit it or earn it. Being handed it on a diamond platter just feels completely undeserved.
    I was rooting for the asshole prince that was using her more than the protagonist herself.
    I don't know if I'll quit, but if I do, that'll be why.
    I came to this story hoping to read about a badass girl being mentored by a former powerful ruler to grow into being ever more badass, sadly Nua's badass level is nonexistent.
    All of the above said, Glorious is nonetheless a very well written story that is solidly executing on its premise.
    The premise is just a quite unpalatable one.