Noctoseismology

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Doctor Roxanne Updyke was isekai'd earlier today. She finds herself in a world of noble heroes and wicked villains, wielding great powers against each other in the never-ending war for justice. An ordinary person would be advised to run for cover.

Doctor Roxanne Updyke, however, is a mad scientist and an experienced bounty hunter, from a world of powers more subtle but no less dangerous. The greatest danger isn't the fights between heroes and villains, it's that she'll find something she's unwilling to leave behind when her job is done.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2022
Author: HorizonTheTransient

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.2/ 5.0
Followers: 909
Views: 334,704

Chapters(72 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(5)

AlsoJohnRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It's terribly clever. Very erudite. Humerus in that funny bone way. If one is intimately aware of the etymology of "break a leg" they will follow along raptly. For me it's like graduate courses in philosophy while hanging with the university theater department and picking up a check or two when the road companies of Broadway productions come through. Lacking that narrow experience set, I imagine the average reader will enjoy a rollicking expansion of superhero pulp into actual enjoyable literary fiction.
BrilliantDawnRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Review update: It has turned primarily into transbian polycule shenanigans with an occasional focus on superheroes. I am fine with this (this is my life). More please.
Style: So far the story seems to be a more humorous take on the superhero genre while not being overtly ridiculous, which is a nice break from the excessively bleak or whimsical atmosphere that most superhero fics tend to have.
Story: its got superheroes! I like that. Its got mad science! I like that too. Not much else needs to be said. Pacing seems to be super fast, but its so new that its hard to make any real judgement so far. Mc seems perhaps overpowerful from the start, but we'll see how that holds up once she fights some superheroes and/or vampires and werewolves.
Grammar: The grammar is technically competent and supremely readable, and commas are actually used where they should be, which is far more than can be said for most of the fics on this godforsaken website. The prose is good and the dialogue flows well.
Character: the mc is gay af, which i like muchly, and the rest of the characters seem about as well fleshed out as you can expect from a fic in its infancy. No complaints here.
Tldr: Very promising new entry into the superhero genre, looking forward to seeing where it goes from here. Review may be adjusted in the future.
DagobazRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This fic is basically right in my strike zone. Lots of distinctive queer characters all respecting each other's boundaries, a well thought out world of superheroes and powers, and a story that promises plenty of excitement. Add to that an authorial style that is full of humour and zips along at a rollicking pace; I couldn't ask for more.
The grammar and language is all above average for Royal Road. I didn't notice any homophone mistakes or obvious spellcheck artifacts.
The cast of characters is still pretty small at this point, but the ones we've spent any time with are all nicely developed, and the main character is especially fun. She's grouchy and kind and extremely ADHD. She comes across as a competent and refreshingly confident adult, without being stupidly arrogant or straying into Mary Sue territory.
The setting is also another standout. The culture and geography of Austin Texas is all used to ground an otherwise fantastical tale of mad science and parallel worlds. The world feels lived in and more than just set dressing for the main character's plot development.
I only took half a star off story because some of the urgency established at the end of book one is undercut by the slice of life-y house-move that opens book two. That said, I really like the new character introduced therein, so only a minor niggle.
Keep up the good work author, here's hoping for a long and successful publication.
AaradurRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Books that take on a lot of novel ideas tend to be a bit hit or miss for me, but this one is certainly a hit. I tried it after Webbonomicon/D.D. Webb shouted it out, and it has a lot of that really great character building mixed with banter and social commentary I love about his works also.
It is also a story that does the whole science into a fantasy whatever thing very well. I find the pseudoscientific hogwash in a lot of other books on the site very grating, so this one, where the 'mad science' is explicitly about breaking laws of physics selectively, has stark limits, is aknowledged to be bullshit, and noone actually knows how its possible, is a much better take in my opinion. Hats off for that.
KombartRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
This story initially has an interesting setting and the "power" of the mc is unique, intriguing and also pretty funny as well.
From my point of view as a non-native speaker, I would say that there are no severe grammatical mistakes or typos, that would make this hard to read.
Tho aside from that I don't really enjoy this story that much.
It feels a bit like satire, because all the characters in this story are way over the top in their behaviour and kind of one-dimensional. They don't necessarily fall into any famous tropes, but there is still no nuance or actual personality from them.
Basically, a new character gets introduced and you immediately know everything important about them. It feels like all actions/conversations get derived based on a few character traits from character creation.
Another big issue for me are the constant references to our real world. This would already be an issue, if this was just a normal superhero story, because it really messes with your suspension of disbelief. When you reference our popculture in a fantasy story, 99% of the time it is a giant spotlight that focuses on the rift between the fictional world and our real world...and that throws most people out of the story.
BUT the even bigger issue for me here is that the mc (that is from an alternate universe) can just freely talk about all of this popculture stuff and it seemingly is just exactly the same in all the universes?
Sure, some universes have werewolves, vampires and mad scientists, while others have superheroes and aliens...but seemingly all universes have a LockPickingLawyer and exactly the same DnD rulebooks?
My last issue is with the style of writing. It is a bit too jumpy to be a comfortable read. Some of it could be fixed by better formatting.
Some other stuff tho just reads like you are in the mind of a person with adhd. Quick tidbits of thoughts or information are seemingly randomly between the actual story or conversations.
Of course sometimes the narrator is liter