Thresholder

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

This is Perry's third world, or fourth if you count Earth. In the first, there was Richter, a brilliant scientist who gave Perry a working suit of power armor before dying to an attack by an adversary that seemed to come from nowhere. In the second world, he became a knight fighting in a war against a callous enemy. There are others like him, thresholders, always in opposition, and it's becoming clear to Perry that this is going to be his way of life, hopping from world to world. Now he finds himself in a place that's doing its best impression of Victorian London with the serial numbers filed off, with a new enemy that will test all the knowledge and power he's accumulated so far.Cover art is via MidJourney, lettering by Zerovirus. The title, "Thresholder", comes from JayTee.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2022
Author: Alexander Wales

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 2,786
Views: 258,860

Chapters(40 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

BerderRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Is good. Don't know how it slipped past me that the author of Worth the Candle had written a second book and has a third ongoing. It reminds me of Larry Niven's Ringworld in both plot and writing style. In plot, because the characters travel through strange, distant lands, trying to make the best of what they find as they pass through. Also because there actually is a ringworld in the story. There's just kind of a classic science fiction feel to it.
IdentityRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This isn't just about world hopping and gaining power while making friends along the way. Wales's works aren't like that.
It's always about having a mixture of different yet similiar elements and exploring that difference in various ways. Be it magic artifacts and their application in battle, or entire societies and political systems, how they work and what problems they have to deal with. Finding solutions for these problems and discussing hypothetical scenarios, sometimes establishing systems to take care of those in need of care, parts of those were already in previous works. Thresholder takes it to another level entirely.
Thresholder takes a closer look at what cultures different worlds with different histories, tools (like magic instead of technology) or dangers would have. How it would influence the world views of their inhabitants, and how an outsiders perspective might perceive these cultures. It does this by often giving us multiple such outsider perspectives to show how others might perceive different worlds and the actions of the people within them.
Ideological differences and theories are abound here, and that's pretty damn amazing if I do say so myself. Political talks and cultural problems we wouldn't ever have bring a lot of interesting discussions to the table, while those more interested into action can look forward to some scenes heavy with combat.
While I rate this highly overall and recommend it, I detract half a point on story because it doesn't quite feel like the overarching plot has been sufficiently built up despite being quite deep in. The person focused combat with few external threats also feels like it could've been used to explore the worlds further, though that's just my opinion, I'd say it deserves full stars overall, with half points detracted here and there depending on which book we're talking about.
JakestilesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This author knows how to build worlds. He will paint pictures in your mind and fill you with interesting ideas. And the characters are compelling too. This isn't his very very best work, but you will still enjoy it, and then want to read everything else he's written, and then read them, and not be disappointed.
LuminstateRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is written with excellent prose, and is very readable. It has a really interesting concept, I love the juxtaposition of magic and technology and supernatural. Lots of mysteries and story hooks that made me want to keep reading. The flashbacks are well-placed, and the ways the different cultures the protagonist has encountered are portrayed are nicely done, there's a lot of thought that has gone into them, and the small culture shocks the protagonist keeps coming across.
MakinRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Thresholder is a story that takes place across "episodic" worlds, with the MC picking up powers and experience as he travels from one to the other, and fighting enemy world travelers.
I'm not a fan of the first world due to the seemingly random characterization before Perry (the main character) is properly explained. The world itself isn't fleshed out, the world's unique cast might as well not be there and eventually you're just reading it for the action scenes, with the story being carried by Marchand, Perry's armor slash butler.
The second world gives the characters more room to breathe, and it's based on a slightly less written-to-death universe, allowing for very original situations, a proper development of Perry in contrast to an even more pointlessly aggressive and mercenary ally thresholder, and a really, really good ending.
It really feels to me as if this story simply wasn't Alexander Wales' main priority when he started it during NaNoWriMo, and later had to write it alongside This Used to Be About Dungeons (which stayed good) and a WTC worldbuilding document. Once Thresholder became his only story, it instantly shot back up to his expected quality of writing.
So the start might be rough to get past, but give it a chance. Lean on based March to carry you through it.
Ontological WeevilRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Alexander Wales does it again.
The main character is a bit empty and I think Wales is struggling with trying to impress him with attributes. That's probably the weakest part of the story, but to honest, it doesn't matter as readers prefer to insert themselves into main characters.
I think the main character can benefit from being a bit more dogmatic — or at least have more defining personality traits and principles.
The story is far from done. I'm fifty or so thousand words in and it needs a few hundred thousand more to really flesh it out.
Update: I keep liking the story more.
ThecariusRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
An absolute work of art. Writing is as high quality as ever - multiple steps above the most popular works on RRL. Expect satisfyingly long chapters and a meaty, well developed plot and cast of characters.
If you have read This Used To Be About Dungeons or Worth the Candle, be ready for another great!
TuliusIIRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Really good novel, the author is already experienced and you can see that in how well he writes the characters and how he does the world building. The only thing i was not liking was the fact that the history of the first 2 world did not get released in the novel, but the author started doing the .5 chapters where flashbacks happen and that got the 5 star for me.
mrasiteren1Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I loved worth the candle. I didn't like "This used to be about dungeons" because it was too "slice of life" for me. Chalk that up to personal preference.
This story though has everything I want. Good prose. MC who gets more powerful (scratch that progression itch, you know? Wouldn't call it progression fantasy though.). A larger mystery that is being unraveled thread by thread. Interesting setting.
I must commend the alexander Wales for his creative use of magic items. I have never seen someone comeup with so many original ideas about them.
Best of all I'm not going to worry that the story won't be finished or the quality dropped low later on. As the author is a professional writer with a very good track record. I just hope I can get as much of this goodie (in terms of length) as I can. A lengthy story like "worth the candle" would be amazing.
Thank you alexander Wales. I wish my currency wasn't so valueless compared to use so I couldn't provide some patronage for your work. But I want you to know I used my free audible selection for worth the candle 😁
LuzanelLRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Thresholder is a novel that embraced the concept of hero obsession.
How far does a hero goes to achieve his/her primary objective? How many lives can they cross and still bem a hero?
Perry and Marchand hop worlds and narratives, and we see how the Search becomes the Quest. Where all culminates and ties to the conclusion and yet, at the end, what now?