The Acts of Androkles

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Elevator pitch: '300' meets 'Lone Wolf and Cub'. A retired veteran has to keep some orphans from being eaten by horrible monsters.

Androkles, son of Paramonos, spent twenty-five years in the world’s greatest army trying to earn enough money to buy back his good name. He’s battle-scarred, weary, and heartbroken after decades of watching dear friends die, but he survived. He’s ready to retire and be welcomed as a hero, finally able to see the reward he sacrificed so much to achieve.

There’s only one problem: his wife just fled civilization with all his hard-won savings. Now he must pursue her north, through desperate bandits, ravening beasts, and worse. But after he rescues a pair of orphans from starvation, he is faced with his most difficult challenge yet: a question that goes to the very heart of honor. The consequences might be deeper than he realizes, and it’s not just his life on the line…

This fiction page contains the professionally-published novel Obstacles as well as the two complete sequels, Doubts and Burdens. Any time skips are deliberate. Book title is in the chapter heading. Chapters labelled "2.1, 2.2, etc" are chapters that were not posted all at once.

Although the trilogy is complete, I'll return someday to write another book in this series, perhaps several. But for now, please take a look at my new fiction, The Land of Broken Roads. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/69480/the-land-of-broken-roads

Also, my brother Miles has joined Royal Road for the first time and is posting his 4th novel here. It's very good. Please take a look: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/69512/bog-standard-isekai

If you are a publisher and would like to purchase the Acts of Androkles, please send me a DM and I'll have my agent contact you immediately.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2019
Author: Ryan English

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 1,334
Views: 961,790

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

some total kretinRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Formally compelling, gramatically perfect, storywise and characterwise basically a shonen light novel combined with greek mythos with an effective use of tear jerking. I was bawling like a baby at some of the stories and smiling with pride as Androkles slowly became a dad. And the pacing is just right.
Author uses it as a preview of his work, and what a work it is. It is in my mind without a doubt one of the best novels published on this site.
JC1999Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a phenomenal fiction. The quality is great and the story itself is both entertaining and moving. It is a truly epic tale and I can honestly say it has made me pause and reflect on my life and life itself on a few occasions, which isn’t something I generally expect from webnovels. Truly a different kind of story than you generally find on here.
KoooomakimiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
it's very well written with barely any grammar mistakes, so far I'm enjoying the story and am excited to see where it goes from here
MPRRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I enjoyed the story and was able to visualise the characters fairly easily. I liked some of the fantastical elements quite well, too.
I read the whole thing in only a few days and feel confident recommending it to others.
Edited for fifty words: please read the darn book. TY.
hsteinvallRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Anyone not reading this is doing themselves a disservice. Calling it among the best of royal road is an insult, this doesn't even belong here. It is a great book and I'm a richer person after having read it.
kelsengRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is an excellent read. I look forward every to every Tuesday and Friday to get another part of the story. The characters are all fun and interesting, the story is compelling, and the writing is professional. I can't recommend this enough.
RedPineRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The protagonist passes the "not evil" test... with great reluctance. He'll swear, threaten, spank, extort, and swear at orphans, men, and gods, but he winds up honorbound to do good.
Its hilarious, heartwarming, and relateable.
End of if review, on to padding. Setting, worldbuilding, grammar, all good. Pacing is slow and deliberate. Story is long form.
chisaibuRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
These books pull no punches and definitely put the protagonist through the wringer, but the depths of the troubles into which Androkles and his makeshift family fall just makes his rise even more awesome and inspiring. The end of Book 1 made me stand up and cheer. Repeatedly. The beginning of Book 2, like a habanero eating contest, is an exquisitely delicious pain. Can’t wait for the next installment.
Recreation_2Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
The story is excellent for for veteran and new readers.
I will highlight some interesting choices the author made in this story:
1- The time skips are excellently placed, I didn't feel the need to know the in-between too much, which allowed the author to skip, what could have been, many filler chapters.
2- The combat has been grounded to realistic terms, even in the premise of mythology and superpower, making it exciting and raising the tension every time it is initiated.
3. The vocabulary, jokes, curses, and ideologies for each character are perfect. The story is marinated in Greek history, their attitude and whatnot. The author, I have to say, did excellent research on his part.
4. It's grim but not too much, making the stakes high but not sending you to depression valley every couple of chapters.
5. The story's ending is well done, however, I believe that another volume or, perhaps, some side stories were in order, to close some plotlines that have simply been unfulfilled at end of the story.
What happened to the wife that has been hunted from the beginning of the story and her retribution? His family's enemies?
Where is the wedding, flowers' new name and album?
You will not regret reading this story
IpponkillerRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Damn, did I love book 1 of this story. You really felt like you where in a greek adventure, with vague supernatural abilities, a protag that is above the normal people around him, but still plagued by mundane problems and a cast of loveable and interesting characterrs.
Don´t expect to get told much of the world, we get to see it through the eyes of people that already know it and mostly don´t bother to explain something that is obvious to them to invisible readers. This I found really fun, for example finding out if the gods are actually real or just the usual myths, but it could be irritating for some readers.
Overall, loved it, 5/5 for me ... then came the second half of book 2 and the author pulled one of the moves I truely hate ... he switched the genre. Suddenly we weren´t in a somewhat dark adventure story, we were in tragedy slug fest as we got to see nearly all of the characters we have grown to like be thrown into slavery and be miserable ... yay!
I truely despise bait and switches. If you are into tragedy stories, I think you can safely read ahead since I don´t think the writing of the author itself took a hit, but I personally dested it enough that I dropped a series I really liked.