Inheritors of Eschaton

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The tear in reality led to a new world, one that promised fortune, prestige and a deeper understanding of the universe.

Those that entered found only death.

Four survivors are stranded in a strange and hostile world, at the mercy of forces they cannot understand. Their only path forward is to travel among the ashes of a broken and dying land searching for a way to survive, to endure - and to make their way back home.

Cover art byHarry Rowland.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2019
Author: TMarkos

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 963
Views: 538,972

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

vanRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I am amazed by the details and planning and the scope of investment done by the author. I mean, just the baggage that comes along with the characters, and it is already immersive. They have distinct voices and personalities. They may not work as a well-oiled team, but they are adult enough to try to survive and do the best they can. It's just thick with the promise of something bigger and it is genuinely exciting. And the story progression is just neat! There is no right or wrong choices, just degrees of consequences you are willing to shoulder. And even when the deed was done, there was no clear resolution whether you made the correct one. You just have to move on, and hope for the better, because not doing anything also have its set of consequences. It's a very real and simple concept that's hard to find in webnovels. Few chapters in, and you know there are tons of world-building but it is filtered enough through the character's perspective that, as a reader, you won't be swamped and overwhelmed by the foreignness of it all. And how alien and foreign it was conveyed easily with references with Earth that it is still familiar. All snippets of world-building also have relevance. It gets revealed only when it makes sense, that the revelation has more impact and importance, story-wise. And I dearly love the footnotes. It is a universe worth delving in! Kudos author!
BookmuncherRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Warning! This is a really good story that is genuinely hard to put down! Set some hours aside in advance! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!
Ok, warnings over, now to get on with a quick review while I heat dinner. This is a very well written adventure story inspired by Stargate. A portal to another world opens in a Denver park, and naturally an expeditionary force is sent through. Things go horribly wrong, and our plucky group of surviving soldiers and civilian specialists head off on adventure in their 6 wheel chariot, finding magic (or is it advanced technology indistinguishable from magic? Or the other way round?) running from mummified zombie hordes, and getting aid from questionably trustworthy locals, but also trustworthy locals.
And finally
Our hero, our hero has a worriers heart.
Take care, take care, the Aaserim comes.
With a sword wielding power of the ancient script art.
Take heed, take heed, the Aaserim comes.
GuessedRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'll admit I'm biased due to Grand Design being so good, but I was immediately interested in this and so far it's everything I'd hoped for. We're only 5 chapters in as of this post (well, 6 counting Patreon) so it's still early days, but so far we've got tantalizing hints of clearly-well-thought-out worldbuilding, shown not just in classic isekai Fun With Languages™ and the perspective of strangers in a strange land, but beautifully put-together footnotes for each chapter - seriously, go pop over to the bottom of Chapter 1 right now and have a look.
Style: The story is written mostly in the present, with occasional flashbacks to the recent past - the shift is always obvious and (as of this writing) the flashbacks as a whole seem to be presented in chronological order, and are showing us the set-up without an info barf. Perspective flips between characters who generally speak English and characters who generally speak Other* without undue repetition, which is a nice touch.
*I'm not going to go back and look up the name of their language, sue me.
Story: The world that we've seen so far is intriguing, and from the looks of it, it won't lean too heavily into a one-sided curbstomp (e.g. GATE: JSDF) or SimCity But It's A Book (pick your own example) - but you don't have to take my word for it, go read it already.
Grammar: I might be considered a bit generous with grammar just because of how many stories are out there that are barely intelligble, particularly to begin with, but the grammar here is basically flawless - reads like an actual novel. Half a star off for saying "jealousy" when they meant "envy", but that's just my particular hill that I'm going to die on.
Characters: This section gets the lowest marks of my generally high score, just because we're so early on there's still a lot of character development left to happen before we get to know them. That said, it's immediately obvious that these characters have internally-consistent needs, fears, and other motivatio
cucioRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
In a setting somehow similar to Stargate, some sort of dimensional rift appears on Earth that leads to a sand desert on another world. A military base is established there so scientists can research it safely.
They make contact with the local population and start to learn their language. Their civilization appears to be akin to the Middle East's during the Middle Ages: desert, nomads, oasis settlements and a few scattered cities. The technology level seems low. However, some people have objects, covered with inscriptions, that appear to defy the laws of physics and have different uses: everyday appliances, transport, weapons, etc. Clues seem to point to a very advanced civilization which was wiped by a catastrophic event in a distant past.
At some point the base is attacked, the rift closed and only a group of four people is able to escape: two soldiers and two scientists. Stranded in a hostile planet, they start to search for a way to return home. In the process, they embark on a journey that will lead them to explore this new world, collect local allies, get involved in its internal conflicts and put together the story of its fallen civilization.
The author puts a huge amount of effort in world building, to the point that its civilization is the real protagonist of the story. For readers who enjoy these details, things like its language or numbering system are lightly explored, without getting fastidious. Every chapter starts with a quote of some fictional work or folklore piece, a la Dune, and ends with a page of one of the four protagonists' diaries, which include maps, drawings of objects, transcriptions of the local writing...
Grammar is flawless, allowing for the occasional typo, prose and dialogue are competent. I found the pacing generally good, certainly a big improvent compared to TMarkos' previous webnovel, Grand Design.
Characterization is not the strong point of the novel, but it doesn't have to be, since the plot is more about the world than about the
falling_waterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Some American soldiers go through a portal to another world with magic. Seeing that premise, do you think you know how this story goes? If you do, you're probably wrong.
The characters have actual character. The plot has actual plot. The world is an actual world. Things are planned out and eventually make sense.
If you like fantasy novels, this is probably worth reading. I'll probably be following what the author of this does in the future.
AkasoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Inheritors of Eschaton echoes memories of Stargate, held up with worldbuilding more rock-solid than the magic space rocks Stargates are made of.
The way modern technology is described and treated, in addition to the distinct lack of hamhanded or inappropriate exposition makes for a very natural reading experience.
I really can't push myself to write a review beyond just "Go read it, it's good." because I'd rather not spoil you on the story itself.
argusthecatRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm a million percent on board with this. We're looking at something that echos with hints of Stargate, or Gate, but is wholly unique in its own way. One chapter in and the characters are already comfortable and familiar, while still feeling like there's more to explore. It's fantastic.
I could read this author's work until the end of time and not get bored, and as a follow up to Grand Design, I am enthralled to see where this goes.
Really_Cool_GuyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Really great read with a nice flow, interesting and well paced content, and a concept that I've encountered but not repetitively, and rarely portrayed this well.
Plot armour for characters is not openly or overtly used and they have pretty lifelike and responsive personas. A well described world you can get lost inside of, the only issue I would take with it is that the size of the concept and story is not adequately represented (Which is to say I think there should be more of it) but those are my feelings whenever I get to the end of a particularly enjoyable story.
If you like a modern military perspective on a low fantasy world (only slightly different from a pre-industrial middle east), I would highly recommend this story. Nicely implemented sci-fi and dystopian streaks too.
(p.s. the unexplored depth has no bearing on the story, and it doesn't feel lacking for it. I just personally feel like an opportunity is wasted to explore creatures, interactions of vastly different civilisations, and the depths of the industrial force of this culture.)
fulgurTheQuietRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Excellent work, as expected from the author that brought you Grand Design. Initially I thought this story was going to be a grittier and less nationalist take on the Japanese anime GATE, what with the whole premise of "soldiers come through portal to another world and use superior technology to cow the locals". However as they can't actually get back to earth and the locals have advanced technology of their own, the story quickly shifts to a more survival and exploration bent. The style is inspired, with both the history fragments at the beginning and journal entries at the end providing depth to the cast and world, more depth than I would have thought possible considering a serial of this length. The plot is fairly different, though as with Grand Design I felt quality fell off some towards the end. Word choice is very good, though I did see a few other readers complaining about how loaded with fantasy terms the story became around the second arc onward. Characters are different, though I would have preferred them fleshed out a bit more, I'm not sure that would have been possible without killing off half the cast halfway through the story. If you enjoy isekai that take a more explorative approach and without the litrpg elements that plague the genre, you'll probably enjoy Inheritors.
ToldiRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I had the chance to read Peculiar Soul (the book the author wrote after Inheritors of Eschaton) before reading this book. I can safely say that both were captivating stories, albeit for different reasons. They each brought their own flavor of intrigue. But something that was excellent in both were the tid-bits, journal entries, maps and artwork at the end of each chapter. I am not sure I fully appreciate how much time, energy and work went into them, but they definitely made both stories a lot more engaging. They made both worlds feel alive. There were times when the supplements at the end of the chapter were more interesting the the chapter itself that preceeded it.
Style:
I like the style of the author as he builds the worlds. At some points, it feels like the pacing of the story is a bit off (too slow in the beginning, too fast towards the end, and just right during the the second-third). The question of pacing also showed up in Peculiar Soul, but that is less comparable due to how long that story ended up being.
Grammar:
Many of the previews readers caught any of the reamining typos/grammatical errors (if there were any). From my point of view, there wasn't anything jarring or glaring that took away from my enjoyment of reading this story.
Story:
Definitely the highlight and what kept me engaged. I know that the genre of 'inheritors of collapsed empires' is full of good stories, but Inheritors of Eschaton manages to stake a good claim to be an upstanding member of that genre. Some of the story moments were foreshadowed just right:
The cause behind the calamity.
While others kind of snuck up on you as you were reading. I especially enjoyed how the journal entries also provided nuggets of information to deepen our understanding of the story, the lore and its inhabitants.
Character:
The part that stuck out as somehow off compared to the rest of the story. I really enjoyed an appreciated how the author put time and care into fleshing out the pecularities of each cha