The Infinite Labyrinth

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

(Story complete - Book 1 "Shanghaied", 2 "Shortcuts", 3 "Secrets" and 4 "Sanctions")

It is the 19th century, and war smoulders between England and France.

Any hope for a quick end to Napoleon's rampage across Europe ended when the Great Gates opened in 1800. For a fortunate few, the strange world of the Infinite Labyrinth offers opportunities, strange descriptors popping in their minds, informing them of growth, and status beyond that of a mere mortal. The materials and power crystal they bring back foster a new age, both military and civilian. Aether-powered Skyships prowl the skies, as all the great nations blessed by the Gates try to turn the blessings of the Labyrinth into immediate advantages.

But for Jonas, an apprentice leatherworker, his friend Ira, and so many Londoners, the fabled ones that walk the Labyrinth are distant heroes, seen from afar. They fell short when their Potential was measured, and they fill their mundane lives with distant dreams.

One man wants to break the stalemate. The Tyrant of the Dominion of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, has a plan. Eighteen years after the world changed, he will force it to change again. And when civilians are caught in the fallout, the unthinkable happens.

Six people, unqualified, forbidden to ever enter the Labyrinth, find themselves stranded in a distant zone, forcefully turned into Professionals. They know little of what that means, but they have to figure out the rules that are now their lot, for they have little hope to escape their predicament otherwise. They need to understand what the descriptors in their minds mean, what each of the strange piece of gear waiting in treasure chests behind terrible guardians can bring them. They have to become Professionals on their own and rejoin the Empire. They will figure out their new lives one way or another.

But will there be an Empire waiting for them when the Gates re-open? Caught in a clash of empires and high tiers, they will do what little they can. They will step up and do their best.

One way or another.

The Infinite Labyrinth is a slice-of-life litRPG adventure set in a real historical setting. It's a hard, crunchy litrpg. Expect blue boxes everywhere, and the system itself is very mathy.

It started life as a serial. I prepared some proper worldbuilding, with enough details and background for lots of different potential story arcs, but as I wrote, I realized the main story needs to have a definitive end. So, there are four books in total, for a bit under 1500 pages, plus additional side stories, and even maybe a sequel one day.

The Gore tag was added as a precaution because there are a few scenes with some light gore.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2019
Author: Vincent Archer

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 924
Views: 1,159,510

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

TekknosRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
this is a great story so far love the way everything is more or less
Matthew RobinsonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
An excellent beginning and what is shaping up to be an exciting adventure. Historical setting should make for some fun. The system so far seems fully designed rather than cobbled together on the fly. Some grammar and tense issues in the first few chapters so far, hopefully they don’t get out of hand and the proofreading improves. The two young male MCs seem well developed so far and I think we can count on the other four in their six person group getting fleshed out as well, as we have already gotten background allusions on one. Looking forward to more.
Edit: New Review at end of book 2 Upgraded to 5 stars
The characters have developed more fully but there is still room for a bit more. We are getting glimpses that there is more to the team but nothing that really makes them stand up and scream "I'm a real person not just a figment of someone's imagination to play a role in a story." In book two there is really only one time we have to worry about their lives and it's not really discussed much as far as impact goes.
The history behind the story is phenomenal and very in-depth; Vincent has 100% done his homework and I love the afterwards on the chapters that discuss the relavent history and divergence.
The story line is really amping up. We know that there is a clear goal and story arcs that have been plotted out. There are some clues as to where it is going but nothing definite that will let us glimpse too far. We know certain confrontations are coming (I'm looking at the Zulu here) and I for one am excited to see what happens.
Grammer and Style are always well done. Book 2 was a bit more rushed but that's understandable as it was part of the writathon (should a published book be desired some restructuring would be needed and a few more in depth dives but I think the author already knows this).
For a webserial this is hands down one that I binge once a week.
GraveltonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
The author has also written one of my other favorites on RR, Silvergates, so check that out too. First time I picked this one up, I didn't get very far. I think I was just in the mood for something different, but when I gave it another shot a few months late ... wow I got sucked in. Read through the whole thing in a few days. Thanks, pandemic! lol
Seriously, though, the story description tells you the basic about the period, so I'll spare you a repetition of that. I'll says the system is interesting, not as OP as some, which is a refreshing change. The characters progress steadily and gain loot, explore zones, dungeons, make discoveries, etc. It's a good read. Add in the political elements between the different powers of the world and the context for the story is starting to get filled out as well.
I like it. I generally like alternate history, so having a dash of that in the mix certainly adds to the appeal. Oh and the author has a solid grasp of the English language, fortunately, so the text is mercifully spared the usual RR assortment of misused words, misspelled words, absent words, broken punctuation ... well you get the idea. There are probably a few typos, but I can't recall any so they must have been few and far between.
A few reviewers have mentioned the "American arc" and said it is too different or something. Ok, it's not on the other side of the Portal, so it's not dungeon-diving, and if you are in the story for nothing-but-dungeon, then yes its going to disappoint. OMG the characters live in the world outside the dungeon. A shocker, certainly. More shocking, some of the events require travel outside Britain. I found that whole arc actually a nice side-story as it gave more depth to the world, introduced some interesting new characters, and more importantly, made logical and necessary explorations of some of the mysteries of the portal. I'm not going to say more, because [spoilers], but this is one of the few times I'll say don't let th
KoboldPatrolRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
(as of chapter 15)
This story takes place in an alternate history of the early 19th century in Europe, Napoleon has not been defeated and there is a lukewarm war between England and France. Both countries have access to portals that lead to a huge fantasy world (the 'Infinite Labyrinth') where valuable resources can be found that changed the world. Normally only people with an adventurer class can enter but a group of youths from London is locked in that world after they fled from a French surprise attack on the portal. They form a party and have to fight monsters to survive while knowing almost nothing about the Labyrinth, at the same time they need to find a way home.
Style/Grammar: The story is told in third-person style by an omniscient narrator. The main storyline follows the party of six with Jonas as the main focus (and only internal POV), blue boxes are shown for everybody though. Interludes show what happens to certain other adventurers and politicians on both sides of the now-closed portal. The LitRPG mechanics have not been explained much, but this is intentional, as the youths here know nothing. Those (pretty complex) mechanics are shown in detail in the prequel which basically depicts a 'Labyrinth for dummies' training, but even from the glimpses here they are good. Descriptions are okay but there could be more. Grammar is good and there are few typos; it's hard to believe that the author is not a native speaker, as the prose is better than in many other RRL stories, although sometimes there are strange phrases (which could also be British English?).
Story: By now, the group works together like an adventuring party, has defeated some monsters and has leveled up a bit. Their working together went rather flawlessly and even though there have been dangerous moments their struggle did not feel as exciting as it could have. I can't assess yet whether the pacing is quick or normal (level 10 came easily but I think that's only because successful adventurers re
MahlanichRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
So, first of all, this is one of the better stories here. Especially for people that like litrpg.
The story is great. Highlight of this story, for sure. Based on the real history and actually believable. Didn't see any major plotholes and major reason for reading till the last chapter.
Grammar is fine. Especially for non-native english speaker. Respect to the author!
Litrpg part is original, interesting and believable. Won't spoil it, as it is fun to discover it complexity and details.
Characters are fine. There is developments, no cardboard characters. But it's hard to invest in the characters. Third point of view really hurts this for me.
And ... the main reason, why it's only 4 stars for me (and its main part for most people). Combat. Yes ... action could have been better. With less boring fight etc. But my main complain is, that it's not believable. This chill conversations in the middle of the fight... zero talk about weapon training , like literally no one mentioned it and ... the main insult, is full disappearance of pain in fight, while it is major plot point outside of them. Such a shame, imo.
As a conclusion, great believable world, story, litrpg and characters. With good grammar. But with mmorpg fights. That like 40% of the story, if you exclude status pages.
But author is improving and later combat does get a bit better ( but still no pain). So I will recommend this story. Especially for anyone loving litrpg.
gtrocRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I started reading this story on a whim. Next thing I knew I was 50 chapters in. It is very clear that the writer has a plan for this story and the world feels more real for that plan. Also, I am a sucker for alt-history, and the writer shows a solid understanding of the history he is playing in. The characters fit and react to the world very well. My only issue is that the grammar has a few small issues. Nothing big, just tense and plural issues, easy to read right past. Check the story out, it is fun and the system is interesting.
AlthayasRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Another subcategorie of LitRPG : stories in historical or alternate historical periods. This pseudo Georgian era tale use an interesting period, These last years we had the Téméraire novels from Naomi Novak with intelligents dragons, and especially from RR “Age of Victoria by alstonsleet recently published on Amazon.
The synopsis give a good idea from the tale. I will give my attention to this well-written tale.
RoberhRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
This is a great story, where every book can stand by itself a bit, there are story arcs and usually reasonably interesting conflict.
On the other hand, the author seems to think that writing litrpg means that combat is just numbers, with no strategy or action besides "he casts a spell for 57 damage, 2 blocked". Details that aren't there make the line completely pointless: is it 59, but 2 points were blocked, or 55 true damage? Nobody knows and nobody cares, because between each damage number, there are dozens of not notified attacks, the enemies HP is unknown for most of the combat and, worst of all, nothing affects any of the combatants besides numbers, with some exceptions.
Smaller consequences, like small wounds or a headache for lost mind points, would go a long way to make samey combats a bit more varied.
But this story is cream of the crop writing on Royalroad. I am focusing on the negatives, but the alternate history setting, the system, worldbuilding, secondary characters, story structure and plot are all superb. Just don't expect a great narration of action scenes.
RocksNPebblesRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I like this story, the world, the concept, and found it compelling enough to read 45 or so chapters. 4 stars all around except for the grammar and style for the writing quality.
The focus on the party and use of 3rd person along with the very wooden dialogue makes it difficult to read and the story feels very remote. This makes any intimacy or emotional connection with the characters difficult. I'd often have to reread sentences and had to put in a lot of work as the reader to imagine the world as the descriptions were lacking.
I feel the story would have benefited from POV shifts and first person perspectives within the party, perhaps focusing on one or two characters to help establish who the MC was. The lack of any internal perspectives is part of why the prose felt so distant from the characters, as you have to rely on observation of dialogue and actions to guess how they feel or what they might be thinking.
That said it is a well thought out world and system which clearly shows how it diverges from our history, which itself is a solid story device. And thankfully is not set in a generic medieval adventurers guild walled town.
The world is on the brink and all of these new abilities are just about to wreck the world with new powers who are in am arms race. It is a fascinated story and I wish it wasn't held back by the writing style.
Fast moving, high stakes, solid reasoning, no obvious plot holes, it really is more fun to think about this world than to read the story itself where you're almost pulling teeth in order to get into all the good parts.
MaxsimalRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
This stories claim to fame is it's setting, which feel ok for a bit, but despite making a point of bringing in historical figures, trivia and mores, feels like a patina over the mmorpg style litrpg at it's heart.
And that part of it just feels so dull. The story's writing is ok, but everything feels low stakes and bland. Characters has at most one defining feature, if any, nothing seems like it's all that threatening. Really does feel like an MMO.
Edit: it is getting better as it goes along, and therefore upping it's rating