Predecessor - Book 1: The Dreams of my Forefathers

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

Steven doesn't like to think.

He tries his darndest to avoid it. Even in school he did his best to stick to physical activities. He got so good at some he was exempt from more than a few classes–which was alright in his book.

His brothers didn't approve, but what could they say? They had their own ways of dealing with memories of the past; and just like Steven's coping mechanism, some of those ways weren't really healthy.

Regardless, none of them could say that they've completely moved on. Visions of parents who branded them failures, a sister whose talents solidified the potential lost in their births, and a system that treated them like cattle, all live rent free inside their heads.

If not for their oldest brother, they wouldn't even be able to live the somewhat normal lives they've enjoyed the last few years.

They would have preferred if things had stayed normal, but they didn't. First, their oldest brother gets called back to the warfront on the moon, then the aliens start blowing crap up on earth, Steven gets psychedelic dreams about their ancestors, and one of them gets their penis stolen. Join Steven as he fights off aliens, gambles against witches, comes to terms with his heritage, and finds out who he wants to be, in this three book series that I will definitely finish....

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Islandwriter

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 10
Views: 6,715

Chapters(14 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(7)

Tate KingRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall: This entertaining, action-packed story deserves more readers! It's hard to talk about this story at first, because it straddles a number of genres. Somehow it manages to feel both familiar and yet also completely unique.
On the surface it's a sci-fi (or perhaps space fantasy) LitRPG, but there are fantasy, supernatural, and cosmic horror elements that make it defy easy categorization. The way it blends these elements with a lot of interesting lore and worldbuilding is really well done. It's a bit of a slow burn at first (e.g. the LitRPG system doesn't really get introduced until chapter 3), but if you stick with it, you will be greatly rewarded. Every chapter I read, I wanted to read more, both because I was rooting for Steven, and because I wanted to learn more about the interesting world that the author has created.
Style: The prose is clear and well detailed, and I found myself quickly pulled into the story. The story has an in media res style where it doesn't explain much of what's going on at first, which can cause some initial confusion. But if you stick with it, everything will be explained in due time. I thought this was very effective, as the author gives us just enough information to tantalize us without any info-dumping exposition. It all felt very natural, as if we were along for the ride with the characters themselves.
Story: We begin with an action-packed prologue in space that nicely sets up the stakes and does some great worldbuilding. There's a bit of whiplash as we then find ourselves following the story of Steven back on Earth, as he is run through a series of tests designed to test his physical and mental attributes. There is some interesting foreshadowing here, as we learn that actually, Steven can't be tested in one particular way. What is the secret to his potential?
Unfortunately for Steven, Earth is at war with an alien race known as the Mangle, and as best we can tell, things are not going well. At the beginning of the
Mr Alex666Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
What would you do, if aliens were on the Moon? Right! Get military tech and a pseudo-System, so you could slice 'n' dice 'em up!
The plot of this story has quite a few good ideas, and it is clear, the author did some serious thinking before writing - I haven't found any obvious plot-holes so far, and the whole thing feels organic. Since the MC (and his family) aren't in the know, it is understandable, that they learn stuff and facts as they go - and so do we, the readers. While the pseudo-system felt strange at first, later we start to get glimpses, what it's really about. Military tech or benevolent intergalactic aliens? Only time will tell.
Also, the MC isn't your run-of-the-mill battle maniac-murderhobo, but an average construction worker. Who is quite dumb. No, he isn't dumb because of bad writing, but because he is truly dumb. He knows it, his family knows it, his ancestors know it, heck, even the invading aliens know it. A refreshing change.
Story: we follow the MC and his brother and... genderbended brother through an alien invasion slash apocalypse. They either do things, every sensible survivor would do (plundering and being cautious) or things, every dumb person would do (rushing into battle). So far, it is enjoyable, and judging by the little snippets of info bleeding through, the world will be deeper, than the MC had figured so far.
Style: absolutely enjoyable and easy to read. I thought it would take me a lot of time to read up to Chapter 5, but wow, did I breeze through the whole fic in only a few hours!
Grammar: While I'm not a native speaker, there weren't any obvious mistakes, typos, or weird sentences I noticed. I can not comment on interpunction (Grammarly does that for me), but it looks good. I can not find anything, I could complain about.
Characters: Of the four brothers, only two had any meaningful screentime, the MC (the brawn of the gang) and his older brother (the brain of the outfit). Neither of them is a rocket scientist - the MC is... no
TharsultRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is honestly a bit hard to parse. I would call it a litrpg space fantasy to get closest. The MC is a kinda/sorta dumb warrior, but one with insane power. He is one of five brothers that are all very different but amazing and are also all very tight.
Most of the galaxy appears to be at war with an outside, psuedo-chuthulian faction of beings that come and collect minds to become new things and evolve, all in different directions. The galaxy itself has a couple militarist factions taht seem to be half-fighting each other as well, although the major political factions are hard to parse.
But they have the system. The system that allows them to level and gain power, becoming stronger and stronger. Additionally, each person seems to have an internal power set, and the MC's defies explanation and resists quantification actively, even when he is in a lab and being tested.
Alot of bro feeling, testosterone, and ass-kicking here. Warriors first with powers and stats and charts and a system. A crazy world, absolutely huge, with a ton of ideas. It honestly took until about chapter 3 for it to start really making sense, so if you're checking this out i would recommend at least that far before you decide if you like it. I think the sheer volumn of ideas and stuff here is the main reason it takes so long to get into, which can be a huge positive as well if you like massive worlds and amazing ideas.
Stat charts are farily simple, with differing stats for different people, which I thought was an interesting and novel apporach. Curious as to how that'll go.
Anyways, check it out :)
Eric VanderlipRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Predecessor is the story of Steven and his brothers, construction builders on earth, who get drawn up in a war against an increadible alien threat.
Style: The perspective is consistent and smooth. Dialogue feels natural. The text is a tad verbose at parts, with unnecessary details spelled out, but this doesn't distract too much.
Story: Conversation and events flow naturally together. Motivations and actions make sense. There's some creative world building here, as the Mangle and the moon war make for a very intriguing backdrop, and the prologue nicely sets up some underlying intrigue, driving the narrative forward.
One small issue worth noting is the first chapter. After a stellar action-packed prologue on the moon, we are transported to earth and to follow a buntch of construction workers. It's a little confusing, leaving the reader wondering why we are learning so much about these brothers. (I believe this chapter is being re-worked, so hopefully this review is out of date.)
Grammar: Excellent. My need to edit (for grammar reason) went mostly unfulfilled.
Character: Steven makes likeable protagonist, down-to-earth protagonist. The rest of the cast is fleshed out and well developed, even the truck (I've been promised this truck will be very important in later chapters). No problems here.
Conclusion: I recommend the Predecessor because of the strength of its intriguing world building. You'll find yourself clicking "next chapter" to find out how the brothers deal with all the insane developments. It's a fun read.
Semo HunterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
While this book starts out as meerly mediocre, it slowly progresses to the point of being pretty good. The author spends the first few chapters slipping into their style, causing a bit of rough reading, but after that the quality of the writing noticably improves.
Style: There are spots of pure brilliance, especially in the later chapters, but the effect of these spots are diminished by the lower quality of the earlier chapters. 4.5/5
Grammar: While there are no glaring issues, there are consistent syntax and sentence structure mistakes, especially early on, that make the reading feel choppy and disorganized. 4/5
Story: The story itself is pretty good, focusing on the MC's hourney through a world suddenly turned to chaos, and how he strugles to find his place in it. The plot also takes several twists and turns, causing the reader to never quite know what's going to happen next.
Character: EXCELLENT. The character is extremely relatable, and as the story progresses there are several moments that each of us can cringe in sympathy with. However, the overtones of a tramatic past and the characters realationship issues, combined with his simple mindset, combine to bring him down to earth. Overall, the effect is that of an extremely realistic MC struggling to overcome both the chalanges of the story, and the challanges of his own past. At the time of this review, we haven't fully seen what's going on with all the ancestors yet, or how the system works, but already this story has lived up to its summary. 6/5
Recomendation: If the author can get the earlier chapters up to the quality level of the later ones, he'd have a pretty good book on his hands.
In general, If your interested in stories that will get you thinking, as well as an extremely relatable MC with a keen sense of humor, this book is for you.
kanundraRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Opening.
I started to read this a few weeks ago, but saw a comment about editing it, so I asked if I could come back. I’m glad I did. 
The authors really worked hard on this, and it shows. Not only in taking suggestions from people but in strengthening the story. Really well done there.
Story.
I can’t help myself but love alien interaction stories. So this gets a big thumbs up from me from the start. It’s very well thought out, has lots of depth to it, and seriously we’re only just getting going. The thing with starts like this is not to totally get bogged in. The author was taking part in the writathon and I commed them for that and in putting it out there. I like that we’re discovering things as the MC does, and those around him. That’s what makes a story better imho. I want to learn as they do, especially about the system as well and how
Style/Grammer
Really easy to read though and its clear the authors worked hard at the start to bring it up in line with the latter chapters and is very quick to fix things pointed out which then helps.
Characters.
Brothers, they’re all fun, right  Steven and Kyle take the stage at first, but we do get a glimpse of Lahi – (I would perhaps think about changing Lia’s name only for its going to get hella complicated with Lahi in the scenes) I like that overall, the MC here is just a regular person, he’s not overly smart, he’s just a person and I love that! I do want something maybe of Joshua, even if it’s in passing cause he’s missing, and yes, Lahi! Great work there to bring in something a little unusual in stories. I can’t wait to see and go through things with the three of them, and of course to find Joshua. To learn more about them as brothers, what they’ve been through in their past and what they do want from their future even if they’re just specutlating themselves right now. They’ve been thrown into chaos, they should really band together and stick it out 
Lia I am unsure about as yet and to where it might take us all!
Clos
Scholar_GirogiRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
It has a fine start but gets good as you read along. Some problems keep it from being quality work; I'll discuss them.
Style: Some paragraphs are rather long and wordy. I think the author can benefit by condensing some lines. Nevertheless, it was still a pleasant read.
Story: Here's the strong point of this book, I'm a sucker for alien invasion and non-overtly complex systems. But there's room to develop and explore the intricacies and how it affects the world. Again, we're still in shallow waters, and I can see a deeper world if the author manages to deliver it.
Grammar: Not my area of expertise, but there are bits like punctuation errors and other small inconsistencies that can be fixed with Grammarly or some other program. Also, it may be a stylistic choice, but things like 'But noOooOooo' could be written more seriously and still contain the necessary flavour to denote a sarcastic tone.
Character/s: Not your cookie-cutter MC, but also not overly unique. That can be a good or bad thing, but so far, the MC is at least pleasant to follow. Of course, we as the readers are more aware, but the characters aren't we can understand when they're having trouble. The dialogue and interactions are alright. It could be made a bit more believable, but maybe that's just me. Again, they're fine to read, and hopefully, more chapters can expound and solidify them.
Overall, pretty good. 4.25 Stars