Transition and Restart, book one: Arrivals

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Ulf Hammargren transits from one world to another, from Sweden to Japan and from the peak of his career to his high school body. He must rebuild his life and live with memories that never were. He must find himself again, find friends again and maybe dare to find love again.

PG13

Observe that this is the first book in a series. The slice of life tag is there for a reason. The story is slow, and the characters unfold as the story is told. If you're looking for an action packed quick fix, then you have come to the wrong place.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2015
Author: StenDuring

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.2/ 5.0
Followers: 105
Views: 117,699

Chapters(40 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(7)

JahnesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Review swap
Overall Score: This is a wonderfully written story that reminds me of many older books I've read. Although I have to admit that it is most unusual by RRL standards, which doesn't say much to be honest, this doesn't make it any worse. It could, under certain circumstances, be quite confusing for less experienced readers, but I'll talk about that later.
Style: Like I already said, the style of this novel reminds me of some older books I used to read in school. Although the bulk of the text is made up of very short sentences, they are occasionally interupted by longer ones. This, combined with the fact that many chapters don't seem to have any connection at first and the irregular mix between actual thoughts in cursive and narrative parts that should have been put in cursive could be the reason why quite a few people can't seem to be able to comprehend just what is going on. Another problem that comes with the seemingly disjointed chapters are the frequent PoV changes that make it extremely hard to discern whose perspective is being narrated.
Now if one is not unfamiliar with this kind of writing this wouldn't pose any problem, but most RRL readers aren't, which is a pity. This is just a guess, but the aforementioned reasons are probably also the reason for its lack of popularity since many people can't understand anything at all.
Story: The story is very interesting, especially since it's fed to the readers in small bits while the rest revolves around the Main Characters' everyday life. Most of it is very slice of life-ish, but it is quite obvious from the very beginning that not everything is like it seems.
Especially the past of the many characters remains a mystery up to this point, but it will most likely be revealed in the later books.
Grammar: The grammar is impeccable and I have nothing to critizise. The author's vocabulary is very broad, allowing him to use varied vocabulary, which is almost always accurately used. It is most certainly better than
DurrendalRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is part of loooong-owed review swap.
At first glance, this is the kind of story I'd put the links to in r/mildlyinteresting. The story is a meld of Slice of Life and sci-fi elements, leanning heavily on the former. The second genre gives rise to rather interesting implications in the story. And then I'd have to go back and remove the link since this is very interesting.
Style is nothing to write home about. Nothing too unusal, daring or outlandish. It is a solid neutral style that compliments the contents and characters. Very stable and flexible in its execution.
Grammar is impeccable. Short, easy sentences that compliment the style and perfect for everyone. Very lucid.
Story is much different from the usual fare in RR. TaR provides interesting and sometimes grimy perspective to the usual stories in its genre. I like it!
Characters are what drive this forward. They have distinct voices that work well within the framework. The neutral narration style does take away just a little bit.
8/10 would read again!
J P KoenigRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is a slow, unhurried story with multiple viewpoints. It is different from most things you will read, very reminiscent of older, classical writing styles. If you like a slow-burn story where you get to know the characters well, this one is for you. If you are after a fast-paced action story, you might want to move on. There is action, and it is well written, but it isn't the focus.
The Good:
The writing style is beatiful, using multiple POVs to build the story over many chapters of varying lengths. The feel of the story is that of an old-school sci fi mystery flavored with Japanese culture. Also, I picked up this story after the line edits were complete, so the grammar is flawless.
The Bad:
It is a slow start and hard to get into. The characters, at first, blur together and are hard to follow. Little is explained (a trick I love, so not disparaging) but everything is learned as the story progresses. However, there is little to 'hook' the reader from the get-go.
TL;DR
Slow start, but great writing and unique style leads to a great reading experience. Definitely worth a read!
86lenolocRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
*** This is for the review swapping… sorry for taking so long. ***
Style: 4 - The style’s not my absolute favorite as I was quite confused in the beginning, but it does well for a multiple POV story. One thing that bothered me though was I couldn’t really tell some characters apart at times. Maybe giving them something to make their “voice” more distinct? The chapter lengths also kind of bothered me as some would be long, and then some would be short but I guessed that was necessary for the chapter titles. Speaking of chapter titles, good job on making chapter titles significant… something I kind of suck at… haha, moving on…
Story: 5 - The pacing is kind of slow at first, but the story’s interesting. I wasn’t “really” interested at first, had to give it a couple chapters for me to be fully invested, but it makes for a pretty good sci- fi and had me going huh, at times and woah, at times. I like all the elements put into this story and I really enjoyed how it was “slice of life”.
Grammar: 4.5 - I thought some sentence could be structured better, or have commas, but other than that it was good.
Character: 4 - In my opinion the characters were so-so I guess. I liked their background, and I liked the interactions they had with each other. I think that their conversations were very “real” like how people would actually talk to each other. One thing though, kind of just my preference, I didn’t really like their names. I know that the main character’s name is Ulf, but you kept writing it as Urufu-kun and that really bothered me because no one was saying his name so you could’ve just wrote Ulf instead. Also like how the characters would have “-kun” or “-chan” or “-san” when you were just explaining what they were doing instead of actually having someone say “ ‘Hey Blahblah-chan!’ Bluhbluh waved towards the girl.” it would be more like “Blahblah-chan got up on her feet and started running towards the door.” Just kind of bothered me because I didn’t think it was necessary an
hasan9206Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I'll have to admit that this fiction really confused me at the start, I found it hard to figure out what was going on and I'm not a fan of the font being used (yes I'm a fickle person, font type effects me more than it should) but I decided to stick with it anyway, and I'm glad I did.
After reading as many fictions and novels as I have, finding something different that works is a challenge in it self, and I have to say that this fiction ( the name is too long so I'm just gonna refer to it as Arrivals) is a really nice change of pace.
I don't want to give too many details to avoid spoiling the story, but I'd recommend giving Arrivals a shot and to stick with it for at the first couple of chapters before you decide to drop it. A good slice of life with sci fi elements is something I have always enjoyed, add romance and an unpredictable plot to the mix and you have the makings of something truly great. ( The fact that the author has apparently got the 2nd books all worked out and is working on the third one is a big plus )
WhoCaresRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
WC's Mutual Review~ As of: epilogue
Overall: 4/5 A wonderfully written, and atypical story that really really needs to be uploaded to places where the readers would appreciate it more. The community on rrl has very narrow tastes, but I hope coming into contact with stories like this one will help the community mature and diversify its interests. The grammar is near perfect and the insights into Swedish culture are incredibly informative. The start is very slow and disorienting but if you push through it, the plot becomes complex and mysterious and watching the dots connect is fun. However, the lack of a 'hook' or anything to keep the reader interested (especially in the beginning) is sorely felt. The multiple third person narratives also become very bland and the characters could use some distinctions.
Style: 3.5/5 I love that you've used multiple POVs and that it has been executed well, but the third person perspective bleaches all the color from the story. You see, if you use third person then your story itself needs to make up for the blander narration either through third person omniscient going into the character's mind and speaking with a similar tone, or through engaging action and plot. But since your story has a very slice of life feel to it in the middle, the narration trudges through pages of uninteresting, normal stuff with a bland voice. Also, because your narrator doesn't adopt a character's voice, their personalities tend to mingle and mix which makes it even more disorienting. Also, fix some of the font size issues in the early chapters please.
Story: 4/5 I love the mystery and the drama and watching all the dots connect is amazing. Looking forward to reading the sequels :p But, you should really consider touching up your prologue to make it more interesting. If you wrote a prologue based on the spa, for instance, I think it would capture your readers far better. Also, although the swedish cultural insights are interesting, making them seem better t
kariRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
It seriously does not make sense in many places…
Maybe its me or maybe ur writing style is too confusing? But it would be rated higher if the story did not frikkin confuse me all the time!
Ive read d first 15 chapters till midsummer’s eve 2040 (coffee is served)
Firstly, the POV’s change constantly & initially u dnt even knw whose POV it is!
Then the dialogues are not easy to follow. I mean who is saying what. That needs to be fixed too.
Ur initial 1-5 chapters really need a rewrite even if u don’t rewrite the rest of it.
The story concept is interesting but there are flaws. M hoping the further chapters improve on the above aspects. M still gonna continue reading tho.
It’s a change of pace from the other story’s here.
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That said, I’m not reading any more of this (stopped at ch. springtime in summer)