The Tournament [A Non-Traditional Fantasy]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Every one hundred years, a mysterious entity known only as the Chauffeur invites sixty-four of the world’s greatest heroes, villains, idols, and monsters to compete inThe Tournament—a brutal single-elimination contest where the winner can have any one wish divinely granted.

Now,in the year 4000, the sixth centennial Tournament is about to begin.The world is still reeling from the aftermath of the Second Human-Mokoi War. Tensions are high with the rise of a new mokoi ruler and whispered sightings of the god-killing White Witch. Even within the vaunted Tournament Corporation itself, something insidious is brewing.

This is not a story of the one person who won this extraordinary event; this is the story of the sixty-three people who didn't.

What to Expect: A massive ensemble cast of sixty-four primary characters, each with their own goals, colliding in a constantly interweaving narrative with no predetermined victor. If this story had one main character, it would be the ‘world’ itself. Tons of world-building, an in-depth, rigorous magical system (that does not demand you understand it to enjoy the story) and a fantasy world unlike anything else.

The first sixty-four chapters of The Tournament are stand-alone stories featuring each invitee just before they receive their invitation to the Tournament. Once the Tournament begins in chapter 65, the narrative shifts to a long-form story-line.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: Heartwontbeat

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 370
Views: 65,509

Chapters(127 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

beaupRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I have read the original draft of this story, and these are my thoughts 77 chapters in:
A massive cast of unique but universally likable characters come together in a surprisingly coherent and deeply fascinating world. Despite how wide in scope and how many characters we meet, the story remains readable. There will occasionally be some experimental chapters but regardless of whether these are hit or miss for you they are few and far between. The fantasy world presented is unlike anything I've read before, for quite a few chapters it seemed like a wild soft-magic system that made no-sense, but as you get further into the story, you start to be able to piece together some rules. Although as a reader I have not reached the point where I fully understand it, it is clear that the author has a clear image of how this world works. Given how it has sixty-four characters to go through, the story is obviously pretty slow paced to start but things really pick up once the Tournament starts at chapter 65 and things progress surprisingly fast paced
Wizardly DudeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I feel like I'm witnessing someone building a literary wonder one chapter at a time.
Let's make one thing very clear. If you somehow missed the blurb entirely and are here to follow a specific character as they grow in power and take on the world, this is not the story for you. If you're here to experience some crazy and epic worldbuilding through a host of interesting and unique characters, then you're in for a good time!
Story: First off, and the thing that intrigued me from the get go, is the premise for this story. I was a pretty firm believer in the old adage that there are no more original ideas, but the author is doing their best to prove me wrong. A truly monstrous idea of writing 64 mini stories, each one focusing on a different character in preparations for The Tournament is such a unique and interesting concept, and I am so curious how on Earth they are going to tie everyone together.
Style: Here is an area some readers may struggle with. The author writes with some very dense, very heavy prose, almost like they are writing poetry at times. Admittedly it is very much not my style, and I struggled a tiny bit at a few points in the first few chapters. However, that's entirely my personal preference, and I never dock stars for that. Even if it's not my thing I can tell it is beautifully written, and if that style of writing is your cup of tea, you are going to love this story!
Grammar: Overall extremely well written, though I did notice a small number of grammatical issues here and there. To be honest parts of this may very well just be the author's unique blend of writing, but it still is a tiny bit distracting at times (for example, there is one particular sentence in the first chapter that contains 7 semicolons).
Characters: Obviously in a story designed around introducing 64 unique characters, you're expecting some well designed and well written characters. And boy let me tell you, the author delivers! My personal favorite is the MC in chapter two, and I
Fenghuang0296Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is an intriguingly experimental and incredibly ambitious story, which is both its greatest strength and a key weakness.
The Characters are definitely the best part of it - and they’d better be, given the premise of no less than sixty-four contestants involved. I’m fascinated by a lot of them and how the author weaves the world into their introductions. It’s a tall order to get a reader to care about this many characters, and for the most part it’s done really well.
Speaking of the world, that gets to the Story; the worldbuilding is top-notch and hints at a rich and expansive world. No complaints and no notes, it’s intricate, well-crafted and fascinating.
I don’t have much to say about Grammar; I noticed and suggested corrections to several errors in the first four chapters, but the corrections were drastically reduced by chapter 5. I’ll encourage the author to go back and proofread the first four chapters again.
Which brings me to (writing) Style, which to me is ‘too much of a good thing’. The prose is evocative and flowery, but too much so, and in some chapters it becomes experimental in ways that make me struggle to understand it. I can see what the author’s going for, and I applaud it, but it’s too ambitious and becomes inaccessible for it. To the author; I highly recommend going back over a lot of your prose and trimming out as many words as possible, to make it cleaner and easier to read.
Kleo EriliRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is one of the most unusual works I've read on this site. So far The Tournament is some sort of episodic anthology thematically centered around the eponymous tournament that serves as a fil rouge for the narrative – or should I better say narratives?
The chapters introduce the participants of the tournament and so different the people and entities are, so variable are the style and narrative frameworks that are used to tell their stories. Some of it is conventional, some reads like James Joyce decided to publish a web serial on RoyalRoad. Every chapter offers something fresh and new.
It certainly is a daring, flamboyant tour de force in which the author is showcasing their literary prowess. And while I do see the author making some effort, to make it easier for casual readers, like breaking down some of the literary devices and narrative techniques hidden behind spoiler tags, I can also imagine that it will still be to heavy for a lot of readers. The author is definitely taking a risk in basically having a roughly 1000-pages long episodical/anthological intro into the long form storyline – but it's a risk that I very much hope that it pays out, because the quality we can se so far is certainly of the highest order.
SerasStreamsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The Tournament is very non-traditional. We have a huge cast of characters to learn about. A whole bunch of story plot threads that are promised to intersect and overlap in the future. So many different interesting characters where you are immediately going to say "Oh, I like that one!" only to have that favorite replaced a few chapters later by another character you find fascinating. Despite the short time with each character, they are well fleshed out and seem believable.
And we really haven't gotten to the Tournament itself, yet! Still introducing characters.
The author has an ambitious goal in mind. If pulled off well (which thus far it has been) this could go down as a legend in the genre.
Sy_FoxRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a re-post of my review of the draft version to help give a bit of idea what to expect.
----
Interesting concept of story telling.
A dynamic and intriguing world is revealed through the snapshots of the daily lives of its greatest inhabitants. Interestingly enough, the stories are not about greatness but mostly about just getting by.
I guess being the best of the best is not all that it's cracked up to be when you're just part of the crowd ;)
--edit--
Hitting the upper chapters and despite the large volume of work, it still keeps a good pace. Each chapter and characters are unique and reveal new and intriguing details of the world. I'm really looking forward to reading more and finding out what it all means.
To further expand on my initial review, the characters of the tournament are all great and getting to know them more is a big reason why I'm looking forward to seeing the story continue. Sixty-Four participants may seem daunting but everyone reading The Tournament will pick up a grab bag collection of their own to love. Just don't place any bets. This story does not pull punches, favourites, or expectations. From the wretchedly innocent Waif to the irredeemably despicable Vampire any one of the contestants could be the victor.
Now just don't lie and try telling me you don't secretly want it to be the Vampire, you monster.
SyclopskittenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I absolutely love this story!
A series of seemingly unrelated characters living within the same universe who are all suspiciously invited to the tournament.... But why?!
The vibrant cast of characters are unique and interesting. The world is rich with detail and breathes with life!
As an artist I find the abundance and diversity of characters very inspiring and I wish to draw them all! Each time it think I found a favourite character, I go to the next chapter and fa Inlove with a new one!
Some chapters make me laugh, some make me cry.
A well written story about a diverse cast of interesting characters within a fantastical (and sci-fi?) setting!
Veri MerriRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is very intriguing on so many levels, and I'm interested to see more.
The premise is interesting on its own, trying to weave together a story with so many characters and potential individual plots is quite an undertaking, and I'm interested to see how things go once the disparate plots start to converge in the later chapters.
So far, the characters have bounced between fairly standard fantasy faire to truly unique and then even further to something more experimental. Some of the chapters with the more outlandish characters as the PoV are particularly strange and unusual in good ways.
The writing itself is verbose and wandering in many of the passages, lending the story's world color and texture throughout. While the verbose language isn't necessarily my preferred style of writing, I can see the appeal here for those that really enjoy it. It's easy to get wrapped up in the words themselves and lose yourself in the story.
I did notice some occasional grammatical errors, but nothing that took away from the reading experience. Overall, the writing here is quite solid. But I do think the selling point for this one is the world and unique storytelling premise.
Kacey EzellRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This story made me dizzy... in a good way. The author has labeled this a non-traditional fantasy, and that is clearly evident in the fiction's structure. The first batch of chapters are more like standalone character vignettes, and each one is almost poetically lyrical. The author's word choice (and to be honest, word play!) are beautiful, and they cleverly use the poetics of each chapter to further illustrate who, exactly, each of these characters are.
It's not a straightforward story. It's engaging, and consuming, at times brutal, and beautiful. But it's not straightforward. I loved it. Not everyone will, but I did.
PenMeister757Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I like the creativity that the author used when they designed the characters for this story. Each individual feels unique from the other, which gives the audience a different perspective when reading the story. When I finish reading a chapter, I am curious to know more. About the characters, the world and the story.