Stranger Than Fiction (Mythological LitRPG)

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Lukas Aguilar does not believe in gods.

Goddess Inanna does not believe in him.

The earthquake struck first. The darkness quickly followed. Then, all he could see was an endless, rocky cavern, filled to the brim with nightmarish monsters baying for his blood.

[You are in the Crypt of Fiendish Worms.]

In the place he’s woken up to, the world is not the same one he remembers. Magic is real, as are monsters. As are gods. Stuck between the whispers of an utterly unapologetic deity and the remnant of his destroyed world, Lukas finds himself in a perpetual struggle to survive, when all he wants is to go home.

Is this world real, or a dream? And even if it is, can Lukas find his way home? What is this impossible quest that the deity insists on foisting on his aching shoulders? And most importantly…

Is his humanity worth his suffering?

Updates every five days.

Stranger than Fiction: GODSFALL is now available on Amazon, as Kindle, Paperback and Audiobook versions. We provide links below.

Clickherefor Kindle and Paperback editions.

Clickherefor the Audiobook edition.

If you like our work, kindly leave a review on Royal Road and on Amazon. We also provide a single read-ahead chapter for our Discord members.Audible provides a free trial in which you can get our audiobook for free. Doing so would help us immensely as would a review.

Discord Link: https://discord.gg/VYfSU9FPTq

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2022
Author: T. B. Mare

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 1,170
Views: 690,604

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

1Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm extremely excited about this re-write, and reccomend reading it.
Dark and gritty, the style effectively conveys the setting without explicitly stating everything that is happening, a good usage of 'show, don't tell'.
Dialogue is crisp, characters are individual and complex, and the premise is strong and compelling.
Sentence structure is well formulated, and there are few technical errors.
BabaNovacRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I wholeheartedly recommend you read this story. It is well written, keeps you at the edge of your sit at all times, and always makes you want to learn more of whats coming next, so stop dilly dallying and start reading this gem of a story you won't regret it!
JagarthaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Lukas, like the metal in the hands of an expert blacksmith, is subject to violent forces and entities way stronger than him, imposing him only one way to escape his new hell: to kill or be killed. As the steel designed to become an ax, he can't choose the function of his future self, but Lukas like a living metal can struggle, fight back, choose his own form and decide or not to stay true to his principles.
The protagonist isn't the only thing being carefully forged, what you're about to read is the 3.0 version of the story, with more words, more lore, more skills, different characters' interactions, and better writing. It was already good in the previous versions, but T. B. Mare have managed to surpass themselves
Style:
The writing is sprinkled with imagery, a lot of metaphor, and comparisons, and it seems the authors have sacrificed a bit of the original poetic charm for better clarity, it's a bit sad in my humble opinion, but I think more people will like it that way and the chapters do benefit a lot of the upgrade in clearness. There are still a lot of vivid descriptions -not quite enough to throw shameful words like "purple prose"- and the fights are well written, what more could you ask?
Story:
That's an isekai story with some aroma of alien monsters, Mesopotamian and Japanese mythology. We're moving away from the common greek gods and their infamous infidelities and pettiness that have been wrung out by fiction to border on Inanna's cruelty and lust the spirits' malice and bloodthirst
Book one, is, for now, what I like to call "the grind phase", the protagonist is in a survival situation where he can hone his skills before meeting people and society. There are a lot of mysteries concerning the worldbuilding, especially because figuring out what will be the authors' interpretation of the myths is, if fun, quite impossible. Compared to the previous versions there are more explanations concerning the lore and the power system but there are still some subjects l
Mister Majick ManRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Having been reading this since the original, I can calmly and reasonably say good job. Fantastic work of considerable value. These authors are dedicated to the quality of their content and will likely get better still. I await this future with rapt attention. I cannot comment on the story as each version made so far has blurred together, and I have the privilege of being host to a gestalt greater than any individual following shall possess. I believe however, that it may be worth your time to examine the contents herein.
Thus says the Fickle Ferryman, and I bid you all, farewell.
NatsuoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I am not an avid connoisseur of fantasy but this story is just so good that i got along for the ride.
The rewrite is even better than the original.
My thoughts on the book are, that it is a refreshing take in what is a generally stale genre, most fantasies are self interest power fantasies but STF has you take a back seat as you observe Lukas.
Living his life in what is essentially an unfamiliar world with nothing to his name, his story is a tale of his travels and the hardships he face.
The characters are awesome, plot is great and the world can suck you in, so be prepared for a grand adventure across the lands of magic and myths.
Highly recommended.
The chaos bringer aka mikieRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Who am I kidding, it's the best I have read, superb storyline, awesome fighting scenes that make you feel like you are actually in the book watching the fight, and way easy to understand.
This is a work of art, please keep up
I think I am gonna cry the day this book ends😢
comeby493Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Interesting read. I like to to the MC becoming more and more OP. Hopefully he gets strong enough to fight the various kings and more. Sounds like he still has a long way to go. Still worth a read and there are some funny moments to be sure. Worth it for sure!
magicbeansRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Book 1 was phenomenal. One of the best things I've read in a long while. The kind of thing that you'd want to binge in one sitting.
Characters
They say characters can make or break a story. And by god, this has one of my favorite characters, perhaps ever.
Inanna - The closest standard of comparison I can think of is Madara from Naruto or Gilgamesh from Fate. A genuinely bad person by any standards- cruel and without morals. But she is so goddamn compelling to read. I'll avoid spoilers, but her dialogue has been some of my favorite portions in an already epic book.
Lukas - The main character of the story. His progression has been great to watch. The Lukas at the end of Book1 is basically a different person (in a lot of ways from the start). It's some of the clearest and most visible character growth I've seen. I've not always loved his choices, but I can accept them. He isn't Inanna after all. He also actually uses a functioning brain outside of combat. You know those stories you read where the main character meets new people and basically spills out his own story to them? Nope. Lukas straight-up lies when needed, probes for information in believable and interesting ways, and genuinely feels like he is thinking here (something that is sadly missing from a lot of LitRPG). I also like that he isn't instantly fearless and able to make good decisions, this is something that gradually develops through the story.
Tanya - The almost main character. Bit of a curveball, when the entire story moves away from the main character for Five. Whole. Chapters. She is compelling and has a great backstory. And unlike the prior version, these five chapters DO link to the main plot. But they are the kind of chapters that you just want to get over with (like some of those POVs in Game of Thrones). And then when you near the end of the book you realize how necessary they were and how much they added. My emotions to Tanya and co went from indifference to enjoyment. But her initial chapters
BooboRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Found you from your works on ff.net about a year or two ago and have loved everything of yours that I've read since and this is no exception. I read the draft version of stf and I really enjoyed all of it so when I read that you were rewriting it to be a lot better and longer I was really excited. This has exceded expectations and I love how much more fleshed out everything is, especially the yokai!
BookKoboldRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I really enjoyed reading this story. The way the main character ended up and his head guest. Book 1 was beautifully done and I look forward to book 2! 10/10 fun little story. I hope we get a whole universe fleshed out to us and it end at book 50.