Transcripts

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Dr Uru'Nav Xant, Department Head of Research, has been detailing his interviews with the newly discovered 'Creator level' intelligent species 'Human'. The Subject of his study, Jasmine, displays many unique and interesting quirks, the most intriguing of which is the incredibly strong 'frequency' she is able to produce with the help of an implanted alien translator. Together the pair navigate their way through cultural misunderstandings, corporate politics, animal companionship and uncover the mysterious circumstances of the human's abduction.

Combining memorable characters, exquisite world-building and an exhilarating pace, Transcripts is an emotional read that will have you ready to take on the universe!Transcripts was previously posted onRedditandPatreon!

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2021
Author: SquiggleStoryStudios

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 1,273
Views: 677,562

Chapters(95 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

AstrilleRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I started reading this a while back and instantly dropped a 5* rating on it. The story is great, the characters grow on you and also continue to grow in depth. The review contest seemed to be the perfect time to put words to my rating as explanation.
The style evolves over time, which is the only reason why I've marked it down a star. It was interesting enough as a transcript to pique my interest but that seems to be lost somewhat throughout the story in place of more traditional storytelling.
The story itself is wonderful and I've taken great delight in recommending it to friends already.
Since it was a while since I've read through it, I can't actually remember how most of the grammar has been so marked as 5* because it can't have been too bad if I continued reading.
The characters are fab. Jasmine is a little unpredictable at times, but who can blame her when she's been abducted and thrown into an alien landscape (quite literally).
Xant steals the show. He's fab. His character evolution is wonderful to watch and the blossoming friendship between him and Jasmine is a delight to follow.
The aliens in general are interesting for reasons other than just the aesthetics. They feel like fully fleshed out characters with their own quirks and personalities, not just furniture to decorate the scene.
All in all, it's a great read and I highly recommend giving it a try.
BeyogiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is about a woman abducted by greys who want her for spare parts and then rescued by other aliens. The story begins when her rescuers install a universal translator implant into her.
While some parts of the story remind the reader of humanity fuck yeah first contact stories, overall the focus lies on cultural (and biological) differences between humanity/the protagonist and the aliens she's interacting with. Of course problems ensue, but since the people involved are mostly well intentioned they generally manage to reason problems out without stupid escalations. The protagonist herself is reasonably proactive in many ways, but sometimes I wish she'd try to head off problems a bit earlier.
The one problem I'm seeing with the story is the central plot element of the translator. It gives the protagonist access to the alien's telepathy, but as a result allows her to (accidentially or intentionally) fry their brains with her emotions. I don't really get why neither she nor the aliens suggested to add a dampener to her implant. There is no reason for her to walk around with a military grade emotion cannon. While the aliens seem to have cultural reasons, as an earthling the protag should be aware of volume dials.
Overall a great story which I can absolutely recommend for reading.
CursedByTimeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
As the title says ....If you haven't started reading this, you are doing a diservice to yourself. The Story is so good. You will find yourself crying and laughing along as the Author expertly expands on the world and its characters. A must read.
Transcripts is a story about a human being force to come to terms with her new alien environment. At first overcoming her difficulties in communicating then understanding a bit of politics and her standing in all that is going own around her. Very interesting take on emotions and their part in social interactions.
DestroyuwRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Sometimes you run into something truly special and this story is one of them. Most novels I have read might be well written but they never could bring me such highs & lows as this story has. It is creative, engaging and emotional. I can't recommend it enough.
Style (5/5): The story originally takes place in the form of reading scientific reports/interviews but although that stays present throughout the story it also becomes more direct conversations as characters relationships get closer.
Story (5/5): Most unique take on First Contact between Humans and Aliens I've seen, especially in that the Aliens aren't inherently hostile. The world the author has built has huge potential in scale and I can't wait to see it.
Grammar (5/5): My errors in this review are likely 100 times more obvious then any in this book. No issues as far as I have seen.
Characters (5/5): There is no such thing as a filler side character, every character involved has interesting facts/growth to them. They become more then characters, they make me think of them as real people.
Overall (5/5): This story has made me cry 3 times within thirty chapters and I got a feeling I would cry again if I re-read them. It has been a long long time since a book has made me have such a strong emotional reaction. Beyond that I am simply enthralled by how their writing pulls me in.
OriginalRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Calls to what it means to be a human with a soul
Ever felt?
Loss
Despair
Helpless
Unsafe
That you are shown train wreck after train wreck so you can't look away
Safe
Free
Hopeful
Loved
Happy
That someone puts you above their very self
To doubt, to live, to love, to lose, to be...
Human
RayyynRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The concept for this story isn't one I've encountered before, so it feels really fresh and new!
Without spoilers, its an interesting sci-fi story with a unique power system. Every character feels unique and not cookie cutter at all. I hope the author can release more in the future!
ReavermonkeyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Ooookay, where to begin?
First of all I started this on reddit, where I encountered squiggles Transcripts. It was only a few chapters long and it was, odd, different weird, and for something under the "Humanity F&^% Yeah!" title (don't wanna break the review rules), it didn't have any human brawn effortlessly smashing aside puny aliens. But it fit, and it was addictive, and so very good. On o the actual review.
Starting with the style, its great! I didn't like the slightly political shift and sometimes found myself a liitle impatient with the POV shift but that says more about me as a reader than the quality of writing.
Grammar, A+ can't really fault it, and in no way did it hinder with any reading of the story, which is all you can ask for really.
Characters, there's a lot to go into here, the characters can feel a little onesided at first, as they're seen through Jasmine's lens. She's an outsider looking in at a caste based society and seeing the roles to begin with, not the people. This changes as she gets to know them slowly, and most of the characters have rhyme and reason for what they do. Plus dogs, I do love dogs, and there are some good uns in this story (They're all good dogs).
Story, so here's where I got hooked, and also where the Humanity F&% Yeah! application comes in. I really liked the idea behind broadcasting of emotion as a means of enhancing communication, and in strong instances as a weapon. It's cute and a relatively unique story thing, (technologically implanted empathy? neat). Far more than this however is squiggles ability to convey the feeling to the reader, the feeling of paralysis clasping at your lungs during abject despair, the shock as hope is suddenly whisked away. the joy in new creations and experiences, the feeling of love from family, all of theses things are put beautifully and a fashion that is understood. Also if you check those you'll probably guess there is some absolutely breathtaking low blows right in the feels in the story
Sam TolanRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I must preface this review by admitting some things. I am not much of a fan of scifi, space opera, or what one normally thinks of first contact. I also tend to avoid anything that even hints to Humans, EFF Yeah. As such, I am not a fan of aliens in general, as I often see them as written as humans but with different features.
I, in truth, started to read this story because of April 2022's Writathon Review contest, and would have likely never given this story a chance otherwise. Over the past few days, I have been reading this story and have come to the realization that I would have missed this story that I came to overall enjoy it.
I'm not a fan of political stuff or modern politics/drama and I found some other elements to the style was offputting. That might be more my personal tastes, but I feel it would be remiss to bring that up since it affected the score a bit.
I noticed some issues with grammar but nothing that hindered my immersion and reading of the story. That alone makes it better than many stories on this website to me for this category.
The aliens are well....alien to us and Jasmine. Each one has their own species and cultural quirks and habits, and each one has their own individual personality as the MC learns more about them.
The story was overall very good but there were many times I had issues, to put it mildly, with how things were treated or brought up. The idea of emotions being used as enhanced communication makes sense but since the MC tends to be overly emotional at times, one would think the aliens, or herself, would put some kind of dampener into play to limit the harm she might be causing others.
I do appreciate the author's ability to make us feel and care about the characters and world. As someone with autism, it is hard for me to get attached at times or be affected, but this has so far made me think long and hard on a lot of things.
Is it the greatest thing ever? No. Is it the worst? No. I would put this story above average for royal ro
LilyVictoriaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Reviewing at end of first arc.
I dunno how but the author managed to get me so emotionally invested into this story. Ahh, I was choking up. Very well done.
The world is cool too, I didn't get overwhelmed by a bunch of unncessasry exposition and explaining but I didn't feel lost with what was going on, but it still felt fresh and interesting.
EamondRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
this review may seem slightly unnecesary given the single chapter posted so far, but having the benefit of the entire HFY reddit backlog to draw upon i cannot recommend this story strongly enough.
Style: the initial format and more personal sections later on are both well done, and despite some heavy subject matter, it's handled well and i rate it officially "not cringe" unlike 99% of the content dealing with emotions on this site. the inclusion of some four legged members in the supporting cast does wonders for the overall tone of the story, and if you have to be trapped in alien space for the rest of your life, it's hard to think of a better companion than man's best friend.
Grammar: the story is well written and unrepetitive, with few errors.
CharactersJasmine and Xant are a fantastic base to build a story upon, and the author does a fantastic job of fleshing out and actually examining the stark differences between humanity and multiple alien factions using their interactions, and the exposition sections about how the alien society funtions are well written and not just.... a bland dump of statistics. some of the generally "antagonistic" aliens come off as rather one note, but the focus and skill is heavily invested in Jasmine and the Supporting Cast, and it pays off in spades. Rynard is a treat.
Story: excellent, and if the author can upload new chapters faster, even better :P