Outlands

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The Outlands stand as twisting spires of stone and cracked earth under an emerald sky, warped by feral magic and scorched by searing sun. Emaciated creatures scurry through its gullies and across its plains, feeding off what meager tufts of grass they can find. At night the darkness comes to life, shadows churning from an ages old curse.

Sin's Curse.

A lone hunter stalks these plains. In his bones are memories of ages past. In his blood burns searing vengeance. His people cry out for revenge, for he is the last of their number.

These arehislands, and he will claim his birthright.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2017
Author: LeDoomMuffin

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 55
Views: 29,817

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(7)

A Curious DevelopmentRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Like the title suggests, it starts off with a lot of questions and a lot of words to chew through. But it gets better as the world develops. Frequent updates don't hurt either
Style: It can be a bit flowery at times, but it gets easier to read past the first few chapters
Story: There's a lot of effort put into the world building, although it can be a bit confusing at times. It's clearly planned out and not off the cuff made up on the spot
Grammer: Like the other review says, there are some minor errors. Nothing to distract you too much from reading
Character: Some of the characters seem a bit one-dimensional at first, but there is some development. The mc feels somewhat stale, but the other characters have a lot more story and history
Overall, a great story. It's a fun one to binge at once, and the daily updates keep me interested.
BlackjakasRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Just whoa... it would be deficult to define with word what this story is like... It is a grrrreat change to royal road, an hiden gem this is a very interresting story! Normaly i wouldn't read stories like that but this one guys... this one.
Style:
Very cool! Decrypting the story is a little complicated with the descrition but man this is what make this story beautiful...
Story:
A story very how to say this... just... bah you'll see for yourself. With just the first chapter we can understand how perfect this can be.
Grammar:
Could see some errors here and here but they are minnor like 'Borne' instead of 'Born'. It doesn't destroy the story at all you just have to search them to see them.
Character:
The character of the Mc is very clear but I still find it hollow, you could add things that could make it even more perfect even if it's already at the top of the stories written on RRL.
Note: Generaly I don't like those stories but this one made me read it till the last chapter and I hope it'll make you so. I tried to not spoil you and just make you read the first chapter. For me this story is a giant change to the stories generaly written on RRL it pratically punched me. BREF hope you like it but beware it's counted from the MC mind so of course it would be difficult to understand some part.
I tried to make a review but it's not the thing in the top of my 'SKILLED AT' list so... hope you like my review.
robin70Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Haven't read enough yet to make a proper review, but just the style, the grammar, the intensity of the MC and the rythm of the updates, this story can only get more and more positive attention when comparing it with the standard for royalroad
thus the rating if it can help make even one more person give it a read.
Publius Decius MusRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
EDIT: Mysterious Outworlder became much more interesting in the last few chapters. Everything else still stands.
Original review at chapter 21:
The start of the novel reminded me of a good Stephen King novel, where the lengthy exposition that starts with a very normal, very everyday situation, and slowly builds up into something very not normal. Think of Pet Sematary, where the bits and pieces of the Unknown are gradually added to the mix to totally replace normality and sanity in the end.
Ouatlands runs a very similar route in the first few chapters, the uneventful and gray life or Ryou is slowly replaced with action, adventure and a bit of insanity
Style:
Impeccable, the author writes very fluently and competently. She has a great vocabulary and uses very polished sentences. I especially liked Ryou's introspections in the beginning during the exposition.
Story:
After a somewhat slow exposition we are thrown into the fray. It's not a generic isekai in the sense that the mode of travelling between the different planes of existence remains mysterious. Also, while higher powers presumably exist, we only get an occasional glimpse of the eldritch horrors. As of now, we only suspect they are out there to get us.
On the surface level the story till now was about the pursuing the goal of Ryou's Outlands-dweller friend, and the budding friendship and maybe love between the two. I am not a fan of gay romance, but till now it was done in a delicate and believable way, so, no badly written cringey sex scenes.
Grammar:
There are some minor mistakes, but the author tends to correct them if they are pointed out.
Characters:
I have the feeling that the author wants Mysterious Outworlder to be on par with Ryou, but for me at least, that isn't working. While the man gets a lot of screentime, and he has many secrets that were hinted at, he is nowhere near as interesting as Ryou.
Ryou is in some ways a general isekai protagonist. He is persistent, tough, has a presence of mind and eno
Ariana VivoniRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This work reminded me strongly of the Chronicles of Amber, which is indeed a very good thing since the world Zelazny builds is one of my favorite. What is more, I really enjoyed the budding romance in this story, even though I am not the most die-hard fan of LGBTQ romance. But there was a certain... fluff that made me chuckle and want to see more.
Now to dive into the strange and thrilling world of Outlands.
The story might be tagged as an isekai but it is in no way generic (no truck-kun here). And this is exactly what I liked. The character that gets transported to the traitorous Outlands does so on his own volition, which is a nice change compared to the rest of the genre. Furthermore, the concept of the Onion-verse is what gave me the Zelazny-feel and I believe that it adds so many possibilities for world-building. The only reason that I gave the story a .5 less than full 5 stars is due to some minor inconsistencies that the author is about to polish in the near future.
I have nothing much to say about grammar. It was nothing but good (I don't dare call it excellent since I'm not a native speaker, but it still gets full marks).
The one thing that made it a bit difficult for me as I was going through the story was the style. If one is a non-native speaker, it might be a little bit hard to follow the narration since at times the sentences tend to get rather long and complex. There are also some non-common words or expressions popping here and there but I personally liked that part since it helped me learn new things. I believe that the only place where the style is truly a hindrance is the fight scenes - at times, but not always, the long-winded sentences slow down the pace and suck away the tension. But this is something that can be fixed and I trust that the author has the intention to do so.
And finally - the characters. Until chapter 16 we are more or less stuck entirely with Ryou and his mysterious stranger. Despite that, it is never boring. I like the intera
RhastaeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Unlike Ryou, who had to concentrate on the onion concept, I could transfer myself to the Inlands with just a couple chapters of this novel. I should be more talented than Ryou.
Rather than going through each category of the score, I'm just going to ramble on the things I found fascinating, and whatever little subjects I could discuss. Partly because my own experience with fictional novels, especially of this type, is lacking. Partly because there's hardly much to constructively criticise on this novel until we get more content to follow up on.
So with that as my excuse, let me begin telling you my thoughts. Major spoilers below.
Outlands is a world that existed to experience you, not the other way round. What it offers are limited to how much you can infer from the hints and implications. The more effort you put in to read it, the more you will gain. Whilst other novels would use 10 words to describe a facial expression, Outlands do so with a single "impassive" and expect the reader to imagine what it would be like. It's hard to pull that off, but because it happens so often, the reader automatically create a version of the character in their heads.
The Protagonist is an Ice Prince, someone who disliked the cliche but actually proud of the identity. You are given that, and you can gain an insight into the protagonist by how he fixates onto the out-of-place chuckle, the glaring aritificial light, the formal tone to his family, his punctuality, and most importantly - habits. Consistent habits that occur throughout the novel, and actually actively plays a role into the story. All of this, within a few paragraphs of the first chapter.
Going beyond that - lines like "He had to make time to go see an ophthalmologist. A different one who would not tell him to sit less in front of a screen..." hinted at his brother's occupation. Though it isn't stated until later on, you'd get the gist that the President is actually a close family member of Ryou's. So on, so forth.
This sto
jwrightRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
Book 1 is great. Book 2 has human main characters. MC from first book doesn’t show up till chap 21 and even then no pov from him.
I came to read this for the nonhuman mc tag. Very disappointed in the 2nd book because I kept hoping for Joy POV only to be left dissatisfied.
Grammar is great and storyline is solid. Would recommend tragedy tag for this.