Nature Writ Red

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Eight years ago, for the first time in human memory, a god was felled. Yet though its flesh rots, its mad essence beats still, smuggled in the veins of children and monsters.

Since time immemorial, gods have represented both calamity and opportunity. Their blood allows humanity to grasp beyond mortality and achieve greatness. Yet for every drop of blood gained, thousands die, slain by the gods' supernatural prowess. Human civilisation shelters in the spaces between these inhuman disasters. But, spurred by the death of the most lethal of all gods, everything is beginning to change.

Part-time chef and full-time nuisance Orvi wants nothing to do with gods. Living in a derelict city, his only concerns are ensuring his adopted family's restaurant is prosperous and how to best beat the neighbourhood boys in a fight. If he's lucky, he might even snag a date with the farmer's daughter at the market.

When the desperate grasping of humans and inscrutable machinations of gods threaten to tear the city from its inhabitants, Orvi's attempts to keep his friends and family whole beckon catastrophe to their door. They're left to leverage everything they have to keep the people they love safe.

But though Orvi cares nothing for the gods or their blood, the world won't leave him alone forever.

Because in order to reach godhood, one must first leave their humanity behind.

Nature Writ Redis a dark fantasy bildungsroman that follows a boy alongside an assorted cast of characters as they try and fail and try again to make the best of what they have, even as powers beyond their ken drag them deeper, into increasingly perilous orbits.

Book one,Blood & Noodles, the tonally bleaker (and much longer) second book,Memory & Madness, and the final book,Preservation & Progress, are all complete and can be read in-full.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2022
Author: invidious

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 775
Views: 362,154

Chapters(114 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

AgoramonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It'd be this by a landslide.
From the artful proses to emotional engagement and whiplash, all following a bountiful world lore-- it's a tragic wonder how such a good novel remains so barely known of and talked about.
I can't recommend this enough with the strongest words. Though it may be, "Silly Huge" at first glance... and upon the fifth time. Nearly all of it adds to the story.
dandyruRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
TLDR: I heavily recommend this book. Good action apocalyptic type story with some hints of a sad story. Great book.
This story is like a breath of fresh air, it's got a precious, shiny new concept (much like Godclads) and is written even better. Reads like an actual, published book, and you can really tell the author puts some effort into this story. I'm glad the author didn't drop this, becuase that would have been a tragedy.
The story itself is really good, with little to no plot holes, aside from the conflict, which I'll get to later. Characters are complex and well written, no one is one dimensional, even the side characters. All characters have individuality and stand out a lot, and none really bleed into each other. There are timeskips in the story which make it a bit of a disappointment that we don't get those chapters, but a completely understandable and reasonable choice, as that would be a undertaking of titanic proportions, and could mess up the story. Now, the main issue with the story, which isn't really that bad or noticeable, but is definitely a bit of a conflicting part. The main antagonist/conflict isn't really explained well, and it feels like the author twisted the characters a little to really make the conflict that much more extreme, and the antagonists more evil or whatever. Aside from that little thing, story is really good, and the author is good enough to the point where timeskips don't mess up the story.
The grammar is all you could ask for from a good story, well written, feels polished, and really has no rough edges. Bulletproof grammar with amazing wording and formatting. Makes it easy to read and not hard on the eyes.
author really puts some flourish on the story with the characters and great discriptions, really fleshes out the monsters and makes the filth feel real. Monsters feel as horrifying as they should and a bit more. The sadness is real in this story, and I actually shed a few tears at the big scene.
eloSRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is great. (English is not my mother language so have tolerance)
One of the best on the site, especially if you are into dark fantasy, this novel is not as famous as it should be, it should be top 15 on the site, for its quality at least, but I know this genre is not as mainstream or popular as others. I put five stars on everything because the votes on the site are a bit too high for a lot of books, but still, every component of the novel is of high quality regardless of inflation. (more honest votes are 4.5/5 OS; 4.2/5 STYS; 4.5/5 GS, 4.3/5 STOS; 4.4/5 CS. of course per royal road standard).
I adore the style, clean and brutal, straightforward and down to heart, but still capable of communicating dread horror and awe. In the last chapters ( C. 50 in particular) there is a bit of abuse of shifting points of view and emotional chaos in the narration of events, the mix of the two things makes the chapter more chaotic than disorienting, as chaotic, not to perceive, aside from this the style is great.
The Grammar is really good, with few mistakes, little repetitions of words or phrasal verbs, and ample vocabulary.
The characters are great, especially in the first book when there are few of them and there is a more slow pace to explore and understand them. I like the interaction, I like the depth, and I like the mystery around the characters, I admit I'd prefer a bit more focus on them, and not with a constant change of POVs but interactions and words, but it's taste.
The Story, now this is the best part and the core of the opera, the world building is amazing: fresh, well presented, deeply developed, the world works, the subtle cultural shifts you can perceive without dedicated explanation but just context, it's an original take on an archetype of fantasy, and it's beautiful, the truly wonderous aspect of this novel. (trust me on the world-building, I am a fat duck at 9.41 [If you know you know.]
I hope the author continues this fantastic work, CHEERS.
Adde
newyevon2Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Blood and Noodles is a story that is wrote of a young man with a secret in a world where Gods are very real and the monstrous beings that they would be if they walked among us. I would highly recommend that if you are reading this review, you go and read the story as soon as you possibly can.
Overall:
The story is easily a 5 out of 5 and stands up there with the best that RoyalRoad has to offer.
Style:
Invidious has a very uniuqe style to his writing that makes it really pleasant to read. There wasn't one point where I had to reread something because it was too flowery and pompous.
Grammer:
The grammer in the story was top notch and there aren't any places that will pull you out of the immersion you have in the story.
Story:
A fantasy story that anybody should consume. It's the type of story that you want the author to never stop writing, one that you don't want to put down until it is all gone and you're forced to stop reading.
Character:
All the characters are fleshed out to a great degree and you can feel as if you are the character in question when reading thier parts.
stupidcatRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I mean that quite literally, I don't think anything I can say can do this story justice.
I have never written a review, and I don't think I'm very good at it either, but if any story deserves that I try it's this one.
The style and quality of the writing are absolutely amazing. It really sucks you in and has a way of conveying atmosphere that few can manage. If I said it was on the level of a published book, I feel I'd still be underselling it.
The story starts off very character-centered but naturally expands over time, especially in the 2nd book. It stays very much focused on the characters, but it feels like more of the world is involved, due to additional POVs, more grown-up characters, and further exploration of the world. The worldbuilding is also one of the great points about this story. It is quite unique and feels natural in the way that it's introduced.
The characters have depth and are human in all the best and worst ways. They have their flaws and definitely do not make "optimal" decisions at all points. It is easy to empathize with them and interactions between all of them are interesting and natural.
The grammar is excellent. There are very few mistakes that I noticed (and I do tend to notice mistakes), but they mysteriously vanish once pointed out. Definitely nothing that disrupts reading.
Overall I think the story is almost criminally underrated and everyone should be reading it.
BidenBidenBidenBidenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story is very well written, author is constantly asking for feedback, and listening to it. There aren’t grammatical errors as far as I can tell, the story is very gripping and interesting. Full of twists and turns, definitely worth reading. The author clearly puts a lot of effort into the novel, and it shows
Butters1Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is without a doubt one of the best written books on the site. This book is like the fancy food that takes more of an acquired taste to like but is undoubtedly far superior to the mcdonalds that is many of the books on this site, if you are like me and have been looking for a good book, give this one a solid try and you will most likely fall in love, goated.
Chaos JesterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
An interesting blend of slice of life and dark fantasy, Blood & Noodles successfully executes what it is attempting to accomplish.
The style itself is a little more slow burn than I expected it to be based on the concept, but fits the slice of life angle quite well and allows you to fully get a feel for the world and the characters. It reads simple and clean, without any sort of massive lore dump or vague lack of description.
If there were any grammatical errors, typos, syntax issues, or weird structual problems, they were either fixed before I saw them or didn't exist in a way that pulled me out of the story.
It's hard to seperate story and character since Orvi is so central to the story as a whole, so I'm going to mix it up. We see the world through his eyes, so our bias swings in his favor. He has an interesting take on the world around him, and he exists in a state of stress and wit that pairs well for humorous, relateable dialogue. On top of that, we are able to see glimpses of the world as a whole through his eyes that, albeit biased, explain to the audience why the world is how it is. On top of that, we are also given amazing insight to Orvi's family and friend dynamic, which is funny and wonderfully done, giving us even more top tier characters to get to love.
Overall, Blood & Noodles is a fun yet dark character driven story that pulls the reader in and almost refuses to let go.
GnosticideRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I was originally reluctant to read this story, and I am so glad I gave it a chance. Up front, the subtitle (which is more accurately described now as the subtitle for the first major arc of the story) kind of put me off it. That said, it was somewhere on chapter 2 that I got hooked. The characterization is absolutely terrific, with characters from all walks of life that are believable and achingly human despite their supernatural abilities. When writing dark fantasy like this, there's a fine line to be walked -- it can't be all grim and dark, and the author, invidious, knows how and when to inject levity into a story. In fact, it's most often done through natural dialogue, killing two birds with one stone by bringing a smile and endearing us to the cast even more.
The world is fascinating and fresh, with extensive lore and thoughtful world building that's never exposition-dumped on the reader. Instead, you are exposed to information in natural ways, learning with the protagonist, and assembling the inferences and insinuations into concrete understanding yourself. Your understanding grows naturally as the story progresses, and the author even includes some recap and glossary interludes (apparently as refreshers during breaks away from the story, but they helped me cross-check my understanding of the world as well).
Listen, I could go on and on gushing about this story, but ultimately not everyone's going to enjoy it. That said, if you've been on the fence like I was, give it a shot! Read two or three chapters, and if it's not for you, no harm done, right? But if anything I've mentioned seems like it might be up your alley, I think there's at least a chance you'll love it as much as I have!
God is a manRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is one of the most unique I've seen, the world, characters etc are all written in a great way. The first few chapters are its weakest but if you get through them it's an actual gem of a story. I really hope it manages to get published and everything goes well.
Kudos to the author!