The Wish

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Sarah wakes up in a swamp, naked and afraid. Wait, scratch that. Sarah wakes up naked and PISSED. One minute, she was at the club with her friends. The next, the world ended, and some kind of System initialized... and now it's talking to her. Sarah earns the achievementHow the Hell Are You Still Sane?and discovers she has the passive skillSlightly Crazy. And that's just in Chapter 1...In this strange and dangerous new world, Sarah is given only one path to survival. She must mutate her body to adapt to the environment. If she doesn't, she'll die. If she does, she may have a fighting chance of attaining what the System promises the remnants of humanity: one wish, with which one can have anything one can dream of.

Book 1 is stubbed, as the Audiobook and E-Book will soon be released!

And I'm also still working on the series, it was just a lot goin on the last couple of months. So don't worry the story is not dropped!

∼2'000 words per chapter (the first few chapters are shorter)

Other things to note about this story:- MC is not perfect. She makes mistakes and can lose, but will always learn from her mistakes.- Homosexuality is a thing in this story.- While it is often a light read due to the comedic undertone, it also has it's difficult parts and certain chapters can invoke difficult emotions.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2023
Author: Gonoa

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 981
Views: 81,919

Chapters(16 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

damienrjamesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Well, this is different! A mutation system, can’t say that I have read any of those. That being said, I like the daring nature of the author to take this route.
The Wish by Gonoa is a story where a scientist screws it up for everyone. We follow Sarah at first and as expected she must fight the challenges of this new circumstance she’s thrown into of no fault of her own. In the beginning she gets poisoned, and some of the solutions that pop up are pretty damn funny. To survive and advance she must augment her body via mutation.
Story: a unique take on litrpg. Though you don’t get to see much of the world through her eyes. Also for a good part of the beginning she was alone, so not much interaction/dialogue. We are still learning about how she copes with her predicament, setting up shop for more conflicts to come.
Tone1: Consistent throughout. Makes for a well stitched and coherent story. I also like how the voice for the MC is also pretty thorough. Sarah seems grounded for the most part.
Tone2: There are multiple POVs. I found a hiccup here with transitioning from Sarah to Andrew. Andrew’s part jumped right into it. I think it would be best to label his POV at the very least, considering we start with dialogue between him and someone else. A paragraph or two to introduce the scene would do wonders as well (ease into another POV better)
Grammar: Pretty good. I didn’t find anything that took me away from the story.
Style: Simple to read and easy to digest. No complaints
Keep the adventure going strong. It was an awesome read.
M.H. KadifichiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a great LitRPG story, with a fascinating system that makes sense. The system really adds to the story and adds to the mystery of the series. The mutations are well done and honestly is cool!
Story: In the beginning, there are two separate stories, the first is our MC Sarah as she finds herself in a new environment ( A swamp of all places) as well as a group of people. Can’t wait to see the interactions between the two! It is worth noting that this is series is quite system driven so if you’re not into that it may not be your thing.
Style: The story isn’t flowery or overly descriptive, it is clear and succinct. Not overly descriptive but fast paced with lots of action.
Grammar: No real issues didn’t spot any errors with spelling or punctuation. This was well done.
Character: Sarah is a great main character. She is strong willed and determined. She doesn’t punch her way through everything but is also intelligent. I find that there is a depth to her character. I love how the mutation doesn’t just add power to the character but also changes who they are. The author has really thought how to add the dimensional that is often lacking in books.
NilsimusRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A wonderfully thought out system and with plenty of intrigue to boot.
The brutal situation the main character finds herself in and the near tortuous body horror she endures to survive gives this story a uniquely visceral appeal.
And while the bleak and gritty tone might not be for everyone they certainly make this story stand out. The system itself is full of personality and a gallows humour that suits the story perfectly.
The Wish immediately starts off with a strong hook and then keeps pulling you along. Following Sarah's solo adventure of slowly losing her humanity in a swamp and then swapping to a group of survivors and the trials they face keeps the narrative flowing and gives context to the challenges Sarah is enduring.
The story occasionally swaps between past and present tense. And while it's distracting, these minor mistakes are infrequent and easily drowned out by the overall quality of the writing.
The characters are the weakest link, but this is only natural if the entire cast so far are amnesiacs. Sarah gives off a 'meth-head at a maccas parking lot at 2am' vibe which is just a wonderful change of pace from the usual tropes you see so often on RR.
A fantastic start and can't wait to read more.
SaxifrageRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
With all the chapters already published, we can already appreciate the immense potential of this story. The chapters are long, the world is coherent for the moment and the path taken by the protagonist is really exciting! For me it's 5 stars although I can't judge the grammar as English is not my native language.
W.Z. LeeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I say binge-worthy in the title for a couple of reasons. Gonoa excels at hinting at bigger mysteries while dripping in smaller questions and answers about the system and world. It’s light on descriptions, which is a positive in the genre, allowing the plot and the system to take center stage, moving along at a quick pace.
The system itself is really cool. It’s a very humorous take on wish fulfillment. For example, want denser skin to defend against cuts? Sure, let’s just melt the original skin off first. It’s good that the consequences of overreach are shown very early on.
I like that the system mainly plays things with a straight face, while saying the most insane stuff (it’s through prompts and not verbal, but you know what I mean). Once in a while, there’s snark, but I appreciate that it’s not constant. Snark is so overdone in this genre.
In terms of the plot, so far it follows the MC, Sarah, in her attempts to get out of a spatial anomaly while trying to survive a dangerous world. Once in a while, there’s a POV chapter from Andrew with a group of other survivors. These serve as a good way to see other powers or learn more about the larger world.
No noticeable grammar issues. One small critique is that I’m more used to blank lines between paragraphs. But the paragraphs are short and easy to read so it’s not a big issue (maybe it even looks bad since the paragraphs are short).
One more thing. I'm not really familiar with the Mutant MC subgenre, but I think the system is set up well for it.
Wonder mystery readerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
So like special mutations will they get a addition to them like for the tail will it gain another mutation to it like split to two tails or like the tip of tail be like a poison tip like a scropion stinger why dont give a try to give the special mutations additions
JuliiiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
First of all: I am a personal acquaintance of the author and am helping him with editing from time to time. Therefore, my review is probably a little bit biased.
If you still want to read what I’ve got to say: I really, really like this story. It’s the first time that I’m reading LitRPG and I also don’t play any games so the genre is very new to me. But this story somehow managed to captivate me.
Story:
As mentioned, the setting of the story is very new for me. I like how one doesn’t really understand what world the story plays in from the beginning. Some things get clear over time. But still the reader doesn’t know what really happened and why things are as they are after 30 chapters. This leaves a lot of room for imagination which I really appreciate. I like how the story and the characters in it evolve over time.
Sarah is alone in a swamp in the beginning and it seems like she can never come out. But she manages to do so and becomes a part of a community.
And as the circumstances change, new struggles arise and the character of the story changes.
Style:
I really like the fast paced and short chapters, as it never gets boring and also flows smoothly. Nonetheless, I never feel like I’d miss something because of the pace.
You see the story happen through the eyes of two different characters and I find it very impressive how the author manages to show the difference in these personalities through two very distinctive writing styles. Seeing the story through two very different perspectives also gives a broader impression of the world the story plays in.
Grammar:
There is the occasional spelling or grammatic mistake but considering the author isn’t a native English speaker it’s really good. It doesn’t detriment the story at all. The author has a broad vocabulary and manages to describe situations very fittingly.
Characters:
I like the character of Sarah the most because she is very powerful and knows what she wants. She never gives up and doesn’t let anything take her
Lord of treesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I like it, becouse it follows humans after they forgot everything about human advacement and civilisation.
They are like incredebly smart cavemen with superpowers trying to carve out a place in the world and I really like that concept.
Of course we mostly follow our mc, a fighting maniac, whose story isn't super inflenced by not knowing what a microvave is.
Still she behaves a lot like a wild animal, especially in the beginning, which is cool to see
KagenaoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
As far as I have read, the story is interesting. The plot is unique for me because I haven't really read anything with this kind of plot before.
As for characters, Sarah is funny, and the system too. I like how the author adds some comedic relief to the story which makes me chuckle sometimes.
As for critiques, I don't have much, the only thing is.. Yes, the grammar. Grammars is really one if the most difficult thing in writing, especially if English is not your first language, I relate to it as I too have trouble with grammar. But overall, the story is fantastic. You should give it a read!
Kenny CelicanRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Let me start by saying that Wish isn't in my normal go-to genre. That said, I had to drag myself away from the story to write this review, so that's a clear indicator that Gonoa has something good going on.
Regarding the Story, since System-heavy progression stories aren't my normal fare, I can't be sure how original or not it is, but it's definitely a solid idea and Gonoa is presenting it well. There's a bit of a prologue that I've only read part of, because RR dropped me right into Chapter One when I clicked 'start reading'. Thing is, due to the nature of the story, where the POV characters don't really know what's going on, that wasn't a big issue, and as noted, the story pulled me along.
As for Grammar, there are some choices that are technically grammatically correct, but really sound weird to me, and can occlude the author's intent. There are a few other places where I think the Grammar is actually incorrect, but Gonoa's intent is still clear, so that's actually less of a problem than the oddball yet correct bits. Edit: the Grammar in the later chapters has smoothed out considerably, to where there’s only one minor hiccup every few chapters. I’m not sure if Gonoa went back to fix earlier chapters, because the story is still pulling me forward!
Regarding Style, there are quite a few spots where Wish could really use some TLC by an editor. Gonoa's voice is rapid fire and punchy, which is a good thing for a story like this, but there are some wording choices that interfere with that. They don't interfere with the storytelling, but they can put a problematic emotional distance between the POV characters and the reader. Of course, that might be intentional for some characters (trying to avoid too many details, because Spoilers), but for Sarah it seems like an odd choice. Edit: much like the Grammar in Wish, the Style has really found its footing as well!
Sarah is, as the blurb notes, the major POV character, and she's definitely a capital C Character. As noted earl