Waif [A Progression Fantasy]

Information

Status

Ongoing

Year

2024

Author

Alec Lownes

• Essence of Ruin Book 1 on Amazon Now!!!
  Oct 3, 2025
• Wight Chapter 15
  Apr 12, 2024
• Wight Chapter 14
  Apr 11, 2024
• Wight Chapter 13
  Apr 10, 2024
• Wight Chapter 12
  Apr 9, 2024
• Wight Chapter 11
  Apr 8, 2024
• Wight Chapter 10
  Apr 5, 2024
• Wight Chapter 9
  Apr 4, 2024
• Wight Chapter 8
  Apr 3, 2024
• Wight Chapter 7
  Apr 2, 2024
• Wight Chapter 6
  Apr 1, 2024
• Wight Chapter 5
  Mar 29, 2024
• Wight Chapter 4
  Mar 28, 2024
• Wight Chapter 3
  Mar 27, 2024
• Wight Chapter 2
  Mar 26, 2024
• Wight Chapter 1
  Mar 25, 2024
• Wraith Chapter 29
  Mar 22, 2024
• Wraith Chapter 28
  Mar 21, 2024
• Wraith Chapter 27
  Mar 20, 2024
• Wraith Chapter 26
  Mar 19, 2024

Reviews

Community Reviews(10)

• IamKayeRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  It’s still early in the story, but so far it is well written, with several intriguing characters and plot threads. The world building is good without getting bogged down into too much detail. Worldbuilding is almost entirely diegetic, with some of the more complex events explained in a logical manner. (Although our protagonist, the titular waif,  is attending school, it is not used for huge plot or lore dumps)
  Thankfully, there is no immersion breaking “system” or intrusive element like that in the world.
  The work doesn’t have any obvious spelling or grammatical mistakes. Any plot holes thus far are too subtle for me to pick up on. The prose is clean, but serves well to convey mood and intent.
  It is still too early for me to give five stars for characters and plot - though if the story continues with this level of quality, I’m sure it won’t disappoint. So far the cast is fairly small, and I have no difficulty remembering the various characters, who so far have their own voice.
  As a final note, I appreciate how our protagonist is presented. Though in many ways she is not disabled (from a practical point of view), she still appears to be so, and has moments where she feels self conscious and struggles. It was well presented and written.
• AeroliteRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  Style: 5
  Story: 5
  Grammar: 4.5
  Character: 4.5
  Amazing story. Truly messed with my emotions the whole way through. There isnt anything bad about the book, theres just a lot missing. It sorta feels like the author spent years making a well connected fascinating world with a unique premise and then grew bored of writing and rushed the ending. There is SO much in the world that was never touched upon. Entire continents never explored, time travel never explained, GOD HIMSELF and THE AFTERLIFE only mentioned and never delved into. The last book is half the size of the previous ones so Im assuming author was planning more and then just skipped to the ending for some unknown reason... would defo recommend the read but it's a lil disappointing how much of such an amazing world was wasted
• CobaltWolfRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  I am so fucking hopeful for this series. For a bit of context, I've found that authors who are asking for review swaps tend to have something interesting to share. The problem with having your own work be nearly 200k words long is that it makes review swaps extremely limiting. So I tend to ignore the whole swap part and just give the thing a review anyway. And by god, I need more of this.
  The premise is strong. Willow is a girl with a fucked up body that looks like a decaying corpse, and she is trying to become a mage. Starting the story with massive self image issues and a horrid sense of self-confidence gives me a strong hook, and her character is only getting more interesting with the chapters I've gotten through. The other members of the cast are interesting, but she is the reason this story has a 5 in character score. The lore of the world is seemingly dense and has potential to go deeper, although the author has intentionally avoided doing any lore dumps. I enjoy this, because what we are getting feels far more natural and keeps up the intrigue. Willow's story and the rest of the world are already rather unique for a fantasy and extremely dark. This is not a world of whimsy, and I respect that. If this story goes to Fear and Hunger levels of darkness, which I think it can do, I will be floored. However, because it is only 12k words in that I am writing this review I'm reluctant to give it any higher of a rating. After seeing more of the work, that is very likely to change.
  Grammar is fine and well kept, and there weren't any major spelling errors. Style is basic, which is not a condemnation of the series, but it is something the story doesn't excel in like the rest of what it is doing. I tend to rate style lower than the other things when I read through series, as I think most authors avoid getting overly stylistic in preference to making a more coherent story.
  The reason I am hopeful for this story is because as I've found, stories tend to get better as they
• WunycoRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  I initially gave this a 5, expecting a certain type of story. It was dark at times, but balanced, and book 1, by and large, was great.
  Lately the story has basically become one continuous desperate attempt to survive, where almost everyone and everything is out to get you and there seems to be little redeeming in the world. Almost everyone is an asshat, and I wouldn't be surprised if her partner decides to betray her too at this point.
  It's not bad per se, but the way it got here was rushed, and I'm not really a fan of these super dark, depressing, everyone will betray you and everyone is evil (aside from some magical beasts) type ideas. I'll give it a little more time, but if it continues in this vein it's not a story for me.
• kitsunecommuneRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  Really loved the first book but something about the second just made me lose interest slowly. I guess everything just stops feeling as much like a struggle to me. The romance also doesn't really feel like it has any purpose narratively and doesn't really have as much emotion as I would expect (up until the point I read at least).
  Otherwise, the story is well written and pretty engaging generally. Maybe I'll pick it up again and enjoy it at a later point
• AyashiRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 3.5

  Technically a good story, no grammar errors, syntax is good, the story is overall quite self-consistent, and the characters do feel realistic enough to be (at least) engaging, but the story itself is ... a little too dark for me.
  I avoid [Grimdark] stories out of personal preference and I'd say this one definitively qualifies for such a tag. The crippled protag might have been stated but I wasn't expecting the borderline torture-porn, casual deaths, nor the decadent politics underlining everything...
• UnderloadRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 3.5

  It's far too early to say what kinda story it is. We have our mc, a worm inflected (jk) girl who's thiner than a week old corpse. At ch-6 she's just showing potential to be a somewhat scary, one of her kind, living dead. She's not a zombie, just someone who shouldn't be alive because of a disease that has 99.999999℅ fatality rate.
  The disease is a fairly decent and exciting plot armor. If it's really the virus that makes her special then I can see a future where she and a lot of other mages try to use and experiment on her for the so called greater good, by which I mean to serve their selfish purpose.
  The story hasn't progressed far enough for me ro review the characters yet. However, all the characters introduced were quite lackluster to be honest.
  I have left some comments in the chapters that the author can think about. Otherwise, good luck with the story. Remember, this is your first story. I hope you finish at least one book of the series. It'll be good for you.
• Cody BaylissRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 3.5

  The book has a great concept and interesting story. The characters for the most part feel fluid, and the world feels full of secrets. The book does have problems, the grammar can be someone bad at times and the plot beats are very sudden and feels like you don't get much information on how it affects the world other than the main characters. Story gives me a feeling of someone with a rich imagination, still cutting their teeth on how write. The best way I can put it is, I think this is one of the first stories the author has written, and they are still learning how to write stories well. Whilst the story has been in need of some minor polishing across the whole the first book, it still flows well and is enjoyable to read. But the end of the first book is sudden, and jarring. Past that the story starts getting not quite as great. I'd say this is a good story. The author still has room to improve, and if they decide to rewrite this book in the future with new skills, I think this could become a great story
  200 words needed.
  A a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a. A a aa a a a a a a a
• spunionringRoyal Road

  ★★★ 3.0

  For the most part this story is pretty decent. You may actually really love this story if it is up your alley. But for me, there were a few things about it that just kept bothering me until I dropped it.
  The progression concept for the "waif" is really cool, but the degree of OP that the character is set up to become feels excessive to me. If you are looking for OP power fantasy stuff then you will like this.
  Also if you like crunchy magic systems, then you should probably check this out. The writer goes pretty deep on developing the magic system, with lots of terminology and definition for how the underlying mechanics work. If you like the idea of exploring magic as a science, then this could be a real gem for you.
  There aren't very many characters, and they stay feeling pretty basic. The Family. The Friend. The Professor. For the most part they are exactly what their role needs them to be, without much flavor. Oddly, it quickly seems to position itself to be an academia story, which seems like it would have led to a richer ensemble, but it doesn't seem to develop any characters or plot around that.
  The MC herself has some depth in a lot of ways, mostly around being a "waif", but beyond that she seems inconsistently portrayed. Is she 12? 25? Its not really clear. Most of the time she's insecure and shaky, but then randomly she is the most confident, casual, assertive person.
  The last thing I will say is that the biggest problems for me as a reader are that it palpably feels like whenever the story is "supposed to have a storybeat" it just happens whether it makes sense or not. Multiple times, something happened and it felt like it made no sense for the setting to be considered believable, or it made no sense for the MC or another character to make a decision, but it just happens because that is the scene that is desired at the moment. For me this led to me not feeling invested and putting it down.
• StrunkRoyal Road

  ★★★ 2.5

  I don’t know, what other people think the  premise of this story is supposed to be. But to me we have a very flawed character with weak magic and especially multiple disability’s and a weak body which both needs to be overcome and/or worked with. It makes an interesting protagonist. Yet at chapter 22, I believe he is on the way to fixing all his flaws and issues in a matter of a year and on top of that become the most powerful mage in this world as well, and that uniquely so in a way only he can do.
  Short we go from crippled weakling to power fantasy so fast, that I don’t even know why they use this cover for the story, or put such emphasis on „waif“. I personally am just disappointed cause I was genuinely excited to follow this character struggle to power despite his flaws, but rereading the description the author never planned for it. This unfortunately though means, that I don’t like him as a character anymore, and in result this story, even though its well written, has good pacing a decent cast of characters etc.
  If one likes the fast story from zero-to-hero powerfantasy (that comes as a surprise to its world) than that’s a good choice