The ARC Project

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

A town watchman for the magistrate of a poor residential district stumbles upon something much deeper than he expected.

Information

Status
Completed
Year
2021
Author
LooseLeafOolong

Tags

ADVENTURESCI-FISUPERNATURALSOFT SCI-FI

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.2/ 5.0
Followers
58
Views
32,893

Chapters(80 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(3)

  • Monologuing RadioRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    An interesting premise of cyberpunk and dystopian Japan combined. The story is fast paced, almost breakneck speeds. The first few chapters immediately grab your attention and establish a city of monolothic skyscrapers and high-tech, corporate ruled empires.
    Style
    Fast pace often doesn't mix well with detailed story telling. This is not a problem in the slightest for LooseLeafOolong, who packs in pieces of the world with each character action. So far, the story has not devolved into any monologues (any that I have noticed) or frustratingly long descriptions of surroundings. Any combat or action sequences that happen are easy to visualize and follow along. Simply put: clean and concise story telling.
    Grammar
    Flawless.
    Story
    There are relatively few stories that effectively utilize (or use at all) the technology-dystopia (not limited to cyberpunk) genre. World building is top-notch as mentioned in 'Style', allowing the setting to be easily imagined. As of chapter twelve, the story has picked up it's main plotline. I'm waiting excitedly clicking on F5.
    Characters
    Characters are living and breathing. We focus on YF, our main character, and his spouse. They carry on life in a broken world only possible from corporate domination and infestation of poverty. You're met with increasing curiosity over each character. From the questionable position of the law enforcement, to the common person compared to the elite. How society evolved around the heirarchy of this world, creating cultists and gangs, all reminiscent of Japan's criminal organizations.
    I found 'The Arc Project' a great read. Highly reccomend to people who enjoy gritty action and the technology-dystopia setting.
  • KrzdRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    It's weird.
    The story is interesting and intriguing, I really liked it, however....
    it feels like every chapter should be 2 pages longer just to explain the characters conclusions and motivations.
    A lot of times the character comes to conclusions that are major plot points, which aren't explained at all. And 3-4 chapters later, you can guess the thoughts of the characters due to his actions.
    The world building is also very sparse, apparently the cities have levels? But it's never explained how many there are, if they have proper separations and which level the character is on.
    Later on there's some technologies that just exist,
    for example the clocking fields in the last chapter, they just get accepted, where are they from? Why did no one have them before? Are they rare?
    without getting acknowledged or introduced, making it a bit confusing of what's possible in this universe.
    Time is also an information that's kinda rare for the reader. You feel like 3-4 days went by, and all of a sudden a character references how it's been 2 weeks or even a month.
    Overall, I did really liked the story, it's surprisingly captivating, despite the significant lack of information the reader has.
  • betoRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 3.5
    The Arc Project has a weird style. Its written without any real glimpse into the minds of the characters. Its closer to a theatre play's script, than a written work to be read. This is very painful to witness in the first chapter, where we don't know anything about anybody. Even more so, because it seems like a character driven story.