The Eightfold Fist

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

THIS STORY HAS BEEN REBOOTED AS MY NEWEST STORY - DESTINY MARINE. If you liked this story, I highly recommend checking it out.

[RoyalRoad April 2022 Writathon Winner]

[RoyalRoad November 2022 Writathon Winner]

200 years ago, man attempted to play Godand unleashed the mysterious energy field known as the Rddhi, inadvertently ushering in two centuries of warfare in the process. In the present, the successors of the former United States once again spiral into war. Included among the vast resources necessary for the growing war machines are those students of the next generation who can freely manipulate the Rddhi, granting them psychic abilities.

Enter Isaac, a student attending the New England Confederation's Rddhi development program to avenge his father's death in the First American War. A chance encounter after school gives him the opportunity of a lifetime.

Storm clouds darken over the world. The approaching Second American War will just be one theater in humanity's final conflict. Join Isaac as he ascends the path of the Eightfold Fist and seeks its ultimate prize - Godhood and enlightenment - against a backdrop of technological rediscovery and feuding ideologies.

In sum, a progression fantasy-inspired story set in a post-post-post apocalyptic 1930s-esque world.

This story returns December 19th!

Chapters will be between 2000-3500 words.

Chapter 79.5 is a glossary to keep track of characters, locations, and the like.

Season 1 - “The Great American Japanimation” (Chapters 1-)

Isaac of the New England Confederation unlocks the ability to manipulate the Rddhi, bringing him into the wider world of colorful characters, psychic powers, and political intrigue. Along the way, he and his friends will battle enemies and threats including, but not limited to: spies, smugglers, revolutionaries, serial killers, state security forces, ambitious elites, estranged family members, old flames, mobsters, gangsters, hallucinations, mental health, recreational drug use, a particularly long shojo interlude, lab experiments, international politics, love dodecahedrons, creative differences, overdue VHS tapes, and...Piper.

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2021
Author
Pope Evaristus

Tags

ACTIONFANTASYADVENTURESLICE OF LIFESCHOOL LIFEMULTIPLE LEAD CHARACTERSLOW FANTASYWAR AND MILITARY

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.4/ 5.0
Followers
65
Views
75,692

Chapters(175 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(1)

  • ringeRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Full disclosure, I don’t believe the story is perfect. It has its share of flaws which I’ll get to, and by no means am I saying there’s no room for improvement. However from the first few chapters it became obvious to me the author put a lot of thought and effort into the setting, pacing, and characters of the story, which is something so rare that I wanted to keep reading to see if it was a fluke or not. I’ve read up to chapter 40, partially so I could safely leave a review having covered a meaningful chunk of the work, but also because it’s an easy story to read because the author takes the time to properly structure the narrative. I didn’t see a review for this story which is crazy, because in my personal opinion it is head and shoulders above anything else I’ve read on Royal Road to date. The author definitely deserves more attention so I’m rating this 5 stars across the board, though the context I’ll provide below is probably more meaningful. It’s not a masterpiece but it’s good. Good enough I wanted to write about it.
    Style:
    The story stays in third person, switching points of view as it fits the narrative. One of the story telling devices I’m personally not fond of is lore/setting information dumps, and the third person narrator occasionally switches to a totally omniscient one in order to convey historical information about the setting. However even though these are kind of jarring to read since they tend to happen frequently, I understand the necessity of it since the setting is an alternate history and there’s a lot of background info to cover. Generally speaking I didn’t find the shifts in perspective and the occasional encyclopedia blurb to be that distracting, though it might have been nicer if there was a more organic way to work that information into the story.
    Story:
    For the first chunk of the narrative, the story is episodic. You might call it a ‘villain of the week’ format. There is a background macro narrative concerning world affairs and the syst