Stone-Cold God [Portal Progression LitRPG]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Callan Whitlocke needed a miracle. Instead, he got Xeph.

Transported to a new world and bound to a long-forgotten god of stone, together these two must learn to navigate a hostile land filled with petty deities and dangerous politics, where trees grow taller than mountains and even the phases of the moon can spell utter destruction to the unwary. If Callan can rebuild Xeph's following, he might just find a way home, but first he’ll have to survive long enough to do so...

STONE COLD GOD is a portal LitRPG built around a faith-based progression system. It is highly character-focused, but also features plenty of battles, political intrigue, worldbuilding, clever power usage, and number crunching.

Chapters release on Wed/Sat @ 5PM. Cover art by Harlis Suardana.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: FJB

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 774
Views: 191,383

Chapters(97 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(5)

BlareRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I came for copper, and I found gold, the first time I read the first chapter, I know the book is going to be a good one, and the author delivered. It's not really about the system of it, but rather, about how smooth the story was delivered and how the character progresses as the world is slowly introduced to us over the training arc, and you know, the author somehow turns a training session into something really... special.
Style: The author uses third-person view with closed perspectives, and there's often bolden up quotes made by the other character, which I deduced as the trainer. It adds character to the story. So far, it's good.
Story: Run-of-the-mill LITRPG, but does it really matter? The author delivers the first chapter in a somehow relateable, and yet, deep enough way that putting ourselves into the character's shoes isn't hard. Plus, I have to admit that the duo that was Callan and Xeph is not too much of a master-slave relationship but rather a paternalistic one.
Grammar: Perfect
Character: Callan is a good representation of a character. The author caught the empathy of the reader early so that the story can flow so much easier later one, and Xeph isn't too much of an exploiter considering this is an LitRPG book at the end of the day.
Highly recommended, read the first chapter.
Bookman9Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Character: Stone-Cold God introduces readers to Callan, a kind-hearted protagonist navigating a world filled with cultural differences and divine intrigue. His dynamic with Xeph adds depth to the narrative, as their banter is both interesting and fun, fueled by their contrasting personalities and backgrounds which are galaxies apart.
Story: The world-building in Stone-Cold God holds a lot of potential, offering glimpses into a realm filled with deities and complex systems. What I like is the absence of info dumps. Instead, we have Xeph serve as a teacher, seamlessly integrating explanations into the story. Makes me wonder, what path are they going to take to get those followers. Could it be through religion? We shall see!
Style: The action sequences are clear and vivid, and it's easy to immerse in detailed scenery that enhances the overall experience. One of the standout features of Stone-Cold God is its in-depth system, which is both unique and well-explained.
Grammar: There is nothing wrong here that would have detracted me from enjoying the read. Perfection!
Overall, Stone-Cold God is a captivating read that promises adventure, intrigue, and a richly developed world. With its compelling characters and engaging dialogue, I can't wait to see them being introduced to other deities and Gods.
D.J. RintoulRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
One of the most entertaining and fun reading experiences I have had on this site.
A character is summoned from his world to another to become Avatar: The Last Earthbender. It's splendid fun. A briskly paced story that sweeps you along from one chapter to the next at a sprint. I dashed through the entire thing in 48 hours or less, and I demand more. Seconds and thirds.
We are introduced to a new world with complex rules, what's implied to be an intricately thought out history and religious structures, and completely original made up races that are only semi-humanoid. I'm honestly not sure what else you could ask for from world-building, but I should also add that all of this is trickled in smoothly, on an as needed basis, rather than dropped like a bomb as an exposition dump. The device of giving the deity that summoned the main character memory issues so that it does not explain everything at once (and frequently only remembers relevant information when they run into visual cues for it) is simple but ingenious. Other writers, take note, and frankly just steal this. There are a lot of potential storytelling problems that the author solves with this kind of ingenuity.
Information is drip fed to us about the caste system the local population believes in, for instance. It's just the information that's relevant, so we can understand the interrelations among the characters on the page at that moment. This kind of world-building consistently leaves me wanting more and asking questions, where another story might leave me reading a dense wall of boring and seemingly irrelevant backstory that won't pay off for thirty or forty or fifty chapters (assuming you remember it!). Here, we're in the hands of a defter storyteller than that.
The characters feel real and vivid, with the author giving us most of the information about any given character based on what they say and do, rather than someone informing us of their attributes. Their dialogue is crisp and often quietly hilarious.
SovranoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style: The story revolves around Callan's adventure and his banter with Xeph. It was funny and entertaining a couple of times in the beginning. But a couple of more chapters after that, I found it hard to follow every bit of it, especially regarding the frame of reference that I don't quite understand. The exposure of information was tight and kept balanced within the necessary spectrum, which was very good. I gave the style 4.5 only because I find the banter sometimes too constant and unnecessary; otherwise, the author delivered a cool and casual dynamic between the two, and again, it was good.
Grammar: The grammar was great. There was nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, I would argue the first chapter was so well-written it was almost inspiring.
Story: The story was the highlight. We started off by getting to know the MC. His struggles, characters, goals, and drive. When we can empathize enough and see things from his eyes a little, we finally get pulled into this fantasy world where the main plot would take place. I really like how the first chapters are basically the tutorial phase, like in some classic RPG games. It was nicely put and very neat. All the more when he graduated from that and got exposed to the real thing. How he fought, and finally, how he did his missions to convict people to his or Xeph's cause. So far, the story has been nothing but great! Hats off to the Author for how solid the pacing was.
Character: First of all, I like the MC. He's witty, morally upright, and never fails to finish the job when push comes to shove. The tiny bit of issue I have so far is actually with Xeph. The more I read, the more I had this lingering feeling that he was just like another different version of MC's copy with more of a fancy tongue. It may just be me, but regardless, that is my honest opinion :)
NOTE: Personally, I would highly recommend this if you're looking for some good ol' master-pupil story. The power has so much potential, and the fight was smart an
Traversing the DarkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A litRPG where belief = power.
It's a fascinating premise that's worth checking out on the basis of daring to do something unique with the litRPG formula, never mind the excellent character work on display here. With that summary done, let's get into specifics:
Story:
A portal fantasy that follows protagonist Callan into a bleak new world of danger. Bound to an ancient God who's fallen out of popularity, he must navigate the perilous challenges Outerworld throws at him while helping his new patron deity, Xeph, grow his following. Perhaps by doing so he might just make it back home.
This is a fun premise, and works to engage you straight off the bat. It's a story that takes it's time as Callan learns about his situation and questions his new bound God to understand the world around him and its mechanics. Normally in LitRPG, this ends up devolving into internal monologue where already-knowledgable characters wax philosophical about their stats and min-maxing. This story is a welcome change of pace - here we've got someone who's just genuinely whisked into a new world and forced to get to grips with it. It does mean it takes a while to get into any pulse-pounding inciting incidents (though they do come) but that's a small critique against a narrative that shows genuine creativity in its execution.
Characters: Callan is someone we root for - dying of cancer, saved by a down-on-its-luck God, we want to see him succeed. He's a goofball in the right moments, but with the right amount of focus thrown in that gives him an inquisitiveness that's endearing. On the other hand, Xeph is a smug God who's forced into the role of unwilling (sometimes belligerent) mentor. It's a good dynamic, and one that helps to sustain interest in the early chapters especially.
Style:
The system is worth talking about. Callan has his basic run of the mill dnd stats which are also supplemented by 'Bounties' and 'Dogma' which increase in power as he gains more followers. 'Apotheosis' functions as ma