The Four Guilds Of Gravenhall

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The massive castle of Gravenhall rises above the town of Providence like a huge grey monolith, seemingly bigger than every other building in the town combined. It is a beacon of learning and opportunity for hundreds of miles in every direction, drawing hopeful students to its hallowed halls like moths to a flame. Terri Tillerson is one such student, a peasant by birth with no hope of escape from a life of subsistence other than the risk and adventure offered by a career at Gravenhall. But the massive keep hides a deadly secret that will take Terri and her three companions on a journey through intrigue, danger, and even death in a world far more complex and sinister than they ever imagined…

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2022
Author: Bruce Jackson

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.8/ 5.0
Followers: 18
Views: 13,673

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Community Reviews(1)

luda305Royal Road
★★★★ 3.5
I always appreciate when we get a complete story on Royal Road. Only something like 1% of the stories on the site are actually complete, so it's a special treat when we do. And while the story's not great, I think that some people might be able to enjoy it provided they can get over the hiccups that knocked me out of the story.
First is how to treat adventurer guilds in literature. While adventurer guilds make for a convenient mechanic in games, when trying to transpose them to literature, when tends to be a bit more realistic (if that makes any sense), adventurer guilds tend to pose a bit of a problem. Namely, that they don't really make sense under the classic tropes. As such, stories tend to take two broad approaches. One, they avoid any sort of exposition about why the guild is as it is and how that makes sense within the world. In this instance, the reader simply accepts that its a mechanic for the story and we move on. Two, one or more of the classic tropes of the adventurer guild is changed so that it makes some sense. In this instance, some or significant exposition is okay because the guild and how it works will make some sense within the world built. What happens here is that the story appears to utilize all the classic adventurer guild trope while at the same time expositing on it significantly. The end result is a highly unrealistic organization that tends to break the suspension of disbelief.
Second, and somewhat related to the first, has to do with Terri's competence as a graduating member of the guild's training regime (or at least the first phase). In short, Terri has to go to a graveyard and kill two zombies by herself. She's the protagonist so she wins, but the way in which she does so is so absurd that I can't imagine any organization actually giving her a passing grade. It's so bad that, again, the suspension of disbelief is palpably broken.
Finally, the pacing of the story is a bit off. I stopped reading at the end of "Gearing Up - Part T