Solar Flare Versus [Sci-fi. Superheroes. Cosmic horror. ]

Information

Status

Hiatus

Year

2022

Author

Sketch Sanchez

• Solar Flare Versus Black Zero is out now!
  Jan 31, 2026
• Solar Flare Versus Black Zero Preview 2
  Jan 13, 2026
• Solar Flare Versus Black Zero, Issue One
  Dec 30, 2025
• Volume 1 Issue 1: Tar-Colored Rabbit
  Jul 20, 2022

Reviews

Community Reviews(10)

• Apollo149Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Solar Flare Versus is a sort-of coming-of-age superhero story with a dash of cosmic/body horror, a healthy amount of light-heartedness, and action that is over-the-top powerful. The story of Solar Flare Versus is very lore-heavy but features unique characters and locals that keep the story fresh while treading on some familiar ground that is sure to please comic book fans. Roxanne is just a girl trying to survive a capitalist dystopia. Her life changes forever when an ancient cosmic horror known as The Nameless erupts across her home planet and threatens to extinguish all life.
  Characters: 5/5 The characters are fantastic and I found them to be so endearing. The characters are well-developed and multi-dimensional. The Author has each character with their own unique backgrounds, motivations, and personalities. The character arcs are compelling and add depth to the story, making the characters feel real and relatable.
  Style: 5/5 Solar Flare Versus is a comic book-style action-packed superhero story, not something I usually read, and honestly a breath of fresh air. The author’s writing feels like it is taking inspiration from superhero comics. I think it is clear that there's a lot of love for the medium, aka comics and superheroes, just from the art peppered throughout the chapters! The prologue starts with a slow yet intriguing setup for the rest of the story, providing excerpts from the larger world of Solar Flare Versus.
  Grammar score 5/5: Pretty much flawless grammar and easy-to-follow style. The grammar is solid, making for an easy and enjoyable reading experience.
  Overall, I recommend this Solar Flare Versus for people who enjoy superhero stories but want something a little different from the normal marvel format.
• Paul James KeyesRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  When it comes to stories on this site, it can be a mixed bag. This, however is one of the good ones. Here was my honest experience: It took me until the second chapter to be hooked, because the first chapter is about aliens on an alien planet and there is a lot of information. We have a ring granting super powers that sparked image of the green lantern in my mind. (actually its cooler than that, but I didn't know how much I was going to like it yet). Second half of the first chapter, suddenly there's mass destruction, the story telling could use a tweak, or maybe I was getting tired, but it mostly confused me because it was describing action points and not sitting in the moment enough for my liking. I always like to give a story more than one chapter, so I read on.
  Chapter 2 is full of infomation, but this time its different for me because it is the entire history of humanity between now and when this story takes place far in the future, and it is really really cool. The information is given like you're scrolling news streams or a future wikipedia, key points in past tense for a history buff and it flows so seemlessly into the larger story that I knew immediatly I was hooked.
  It may not be completely polished yet, but the style, plot, and characters more than make up for it. And its not typos that I'm talking about when i say its not polished. It's grammar and spelling is fine--what I mean is it could use a professional editor to read the story and tighten the prose, but what piece here couldn't? You'll enjoy the story so much that you will wish it had that polish. i didn't want to dock any points for it lacking that, because that wouldn't be fair on a site like this. This isn't a rough gem even, it's just an inch shy of what I could see it becoming as the writer develops over time.
  Did I mention the characters are cool? The interactions all feel earnest and the story keeps marching on with a good pace. The action sequences got better as it progressed. Solid read. 5
• SolemnlySeymourRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  I follow the writer on twitter, had been following along with their updates, and decided to finally sit down and binged this and i'm glad I did! What a great ride with fun action and super cool art! Roxanne rules and Corina is such a babe. The world is nuts too, in like a good way--there's so much cool weird stuff! I really like the creative descriptions of what could be mundane power (one character has essentially heat vision)
  The second volume is fun too, almost smaller in scope but with some incredible imagry!
• Toir McDunnoughRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Solar Flare Versus is a wonderfully scary look at superheroes in a cosmic setting. This is a very fast-paced story, with things happening in every chapter. Early on, you get invested in the characters who are both full of pathos and life. It kind of reminded me of a very well-written four-color comic ala Green Lantern, but more fun.
  The writing is a joy to read, with good descriptions and action. Sketch Sanchez's writing shows you that not only is this place real to them, but it makes it real to you too. The cosmic horror elements are as vivid as is humanity's new future in "the Bubble."
  I love all the characters, Roxanne, Wes, Lady Steel, the Light, The Nameless, and Azonne. These are all great characters, even the bad guys. They're not cartoonishly evil. They all have motivations and reasons for being who they are.
  The fact that the writer also draws their own is the icing on top of the cake. It's good to see artwork and visualization of how the writer imagined the scenes playing out. It's great and energetic and reminds me how Light Novels intersperse artwork here and there to keep you invested.
  All in all, I love this work and will keep reading until the writer stops.
  I'm a fan now.
• ioliteRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  If you are into space adventures, superhuman action heros, alien worlds and people, good versus evil plot, and cool super advanced gadgets, this fiction is for you. Sketch Sanchez weaves a fun, fast paced romp, starring Roxanne, a teenager gifted and charged with the most powerful weapons in the galaxy.
  The book provides a lively and dynamic cast of characters, who are both relatable and interesting to read. It is well written. You can tell the author puts love effort and care into his work. One thing I really like about it is the balance it has, juggling action, humor, strife, and intrigue, hitting you in the face with feels one minute, making you laugh the next, and following up with a page turning fight sequence.
  The world building is rich. Characters and places have histories, and you can feel it in the way they act and talk. I particularly like the dynamic between Roxanne and Azonne. The antagonist is wonderfully tragic, and the underlying themes are thought provoking.
  It has a kind of X-Men meets Starwars vibe, with just a splash of Voltron mixed in. You have people and places in exotic alien territories, weapons that seem almost magical in how they work, and hero's who are more than human. All in all, a fun blend, and well worth reading.
• thegoodman99Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Solar FLare is a sci fi book mixed with super powers. The nameless entity is a creepy goo that destroys but I think it is just misunderstood. Our super power protags have to fight off the goo from destroying worlds and stuff.  There is plenty of action, adventure, worldbuilding, and characters to discover in the wonderful story.
  10/10 bunnies for sure! I recommend this to anyone looking for a good time.
  Style:
  The style is told from the third person narrative. Sometimes it seems like it is a distant narrative but for the most part it stick close to the character we are following. The story if full of meaty descriptions that paint a nice picture. Action is very well described as well as the setting, and characters.
  Grammar:
  Haven't really noticed any issues here.
  Story:
  I am still very much in the beginning of the story. Still there has already been plenty of tension and conflict that has kept me excited to read on. The book feels like it will be full of exciting adventures and epic fight and I am going to read all of it. It is fun and engaging. you should consider reading it too.
  Character:
  So far so good! We got Azonne, Corina, and Roxanne as our main POV so far. Each one of them has been great and are distinct characters. I have really like the Roxanne POV so far and am excited to see how she will fit into to the massive story. I also have my concerns for Azonne, not that she is a bad character, she just seems to be full of challenges.
  Good characters, story, and style. Overall this is a great story! If you are considering reading it, do yourself a favor and just dive in.
  Thanks for writing!
• vestriusRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  This is one of the more unique stories I've read on Royal Road. The author combines outside the box ways of delivering the a story with meaty, deep chapters that draw you in.
  I needed to be in the right headspace to be able to read this though, I wouldn't call it a casual read.
  Bringing a chapter to life with images and drawings is something I've always admired, and there's plenty to see here.
  Style: 4 -> I mentioned headspace before. While I love the art, and interesting ways of drawing me into the chapters, I didn't find it easy to read. I needed to be in a focused enough state of mind to follow the story, with some of the action sequences running faster than my brain could keep up. I docked a star for that, but it's a subjective opinion.
  Story: 4.5 -> I'm intrigued by the story and everything happening here. There's an amazing amount of world building that happens in each chapter, and every little scene keeps me wondering what's going to happen next.
  Grammar: 4.5 -> The sentence structure occasionally tripped me up. It wasn’t constant, but did knock me out of the flow a couple times. I don’t remember seeing any typos or other issues, intentional bad writing in DMs/chat aside.
  Character: -> This story is really all about character, and this is where it shines. Really good character work, with characters that are interesting and well designed. Every character introduced had personality and style, reading about the characters is my favorite part of the book! Some of the side characters had questionable motivations, but it wasn’t immersion breaking. This category also gets bonus points for using art to bring the characters further to life.
  Tl;dr I think if you can read this story and keep up with it, it's definitely worth checking out.
• Second LawRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  Take the review with a grain of salt, since I started reading the book directly at volume 3.
  Solar Flare Versus is a comic book style action packed superhero story, not something I usually read, and honestly a breath of fresh air. The story follows Roxanne Belmonte, a young superhero wielding a very powerful weapon, one that she inherited from a long line of heroes. In volume 3, where I started reading, she's already been using that weapon for 4 years. However, till the point I've read so far, there hasn't been any action scene involving her powers. That's not to say there hasn't been any action, far from it!
  Style Score : This fiction isn't written in the normal RR manner, and has a lot of information tables, character and lore information fed to the reader. There also isn't as much buildup as you might notice in other books on RR, and action sequences happen swiftly. I personally found this style enjoyable and brisk in many ways, but also felt a bit detached due to not getting enough time for me to feel the stakes rise, or get deeply invested in what was happening. Overall, the style is good but with minor shortcoming, but with a little better execution, the author would be able to pull off the fast paced style perfectly.
  Story Score : The story takes place in Izanami, much of it in Saint Century City in particular. The overarching plot starts with the description of an infection, a plague that will be central to this volume, but the actual chapters focus on worldbuilding first. We get to see the social hierarchy and history of Izanami and Saint Century City, and the major players, heroes and villains there. We get to see Lady Steel take on Zero Year Soldiers, a bunch of villans in an action packed sequence. We see a little bit of what our MC has been upto, and then move on to POVs of other characters. The livestream heist in issue 3 in particular was just awesome. But overall, while I enjoyed all the action going on, I found a general direction of events missing,
• KinAkira1996Royal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  Solar Flare Versus has an interesting premise taking place on the distant planet Izanami in the far future. Taking inspiration from superhero comics, it's clear that there's a lot of love for the medium just from the art peppered throughout the chapters. The prologue starts with a slow yet intriguing set up for the rest of the story, providing excerpts from the larger world of Solar Flare Versus.
  There is a good deal of worldbuilding that I really appreciate, giving context to the history of Izanami, the ruling class, and the cast of vibrant characters that inhabit this world.
  The story of Solar Flare Versus is very lore heavy but features unique characters and locals that keep the story fresh while treading on some familiar ground that is sure to please comic book fans. There's also an element of cosmic horror that offers a unique twist on the superhero formula that fans of Lovecraftian horror will feel right at home with.
  While I enjoy the worldbuilding, the story, and the meaty content within each chapter there are certain issues with the style of writing that could be addressed. The descriptions of places, people, and events are vivid and packed with so much detail that I can clearly visualize what is happening without any ambiguity, however my immersion gets broken due to the inconsistent tense switching where most of the story is told in past tense, but some sentences will be presented in present tense. It tends to break the flow of the story.
  The grammer is good for the most part, with the occasional run on sentence. Otherwise I have no complaints here.
  The characters are fantastic and I found them to be so endearing. The characters have unique and extravagant personalities that make them instantly recognizable and memorable and even characters with smaller roles still manage to make a great impression. The dialogue feels natural for the most part and makes the characters feel that much more real and nuanced.
  I recommend this story for people who enjoy superh
• nerodotusRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  A superhero sci-fi story which entails the never ending fight between light and darkness, and Azonne Le, the main character, the momentarily chosen, is a girl warrior, the current fighter on the side of good.
  The chosens are a succession of fighters and she bears in mind the memories of all her predecessors. In addition to this she has a direct link to the first, an intelligent manifestation of the light, which exists like a kind of omniscient supercomputer and can only manifest itself through her.
  The enemy, the darkness is presented as being pain, hate and terror that spreads nothing but corruption. The darkness that existed before the universe creation, the world destroyer, that Azonne is fighting to preserve the balance, but soon she finds out that she, herself is infected.
  We are emerged in action from the first chapter when the darkness breaks the balance.
  The narration is good, there are some grammar hick-ups but nothing that breaks the narrative. The character build-up is slow. Style is consistent with a rich vocabulary. Most of the time it flows very well, but sometimes, it feels a bit stiff. I feel similarly about the grammar, while the story is certainly readable, some editing would improve the overall feeling.
  A must read for those who like the genre.