Waterstrider

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The galaxy is large, and there are plenty of places to hide.

Cyrus Yu has fled his home-world for the outskirts of alien space. Perhaps, he thinks, in this distant corner of the universe he might find what he is seeking. Or perhaps it will find him. Tseludia Station is a melting pot of various races and cultures, and the presence of a rogue martial artist might become the fire to light the powder keg.

Readers can expect:

Martial Artist Progression

Water-themed power set focusing on movement techniques

Plenty of action

Extensive world building and loads of alien races

A world set after the extinction of humanity.

Updates:

Every Weekday

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: River Fortress

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 488
Views: 182,713

What readers say about Waterstrider

“I've never left a review before, but this is a criminally underrated work, and I hope it receives the support it deserves. Per the title, the world is very intricate and manages to convey a sense of real life. The novel actually speculates on a wide variety…”
Average119Royal Road5.0 / 5
“Waterstrider is about being unable to escape from your past. The story of Tseludia Station itself is intricate and exciting, but this merely makes it a worthy vessel for the stories of the characters who have made their way here. Spanning across an entire g…”
ProgrammaticalRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(6)

Average119Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've never left a review before, but this is a criminally underrated work, and I hope it receives the support it deserves. Per the title, the world is very intricate and manages to convey a sense of real life. The novel actually speculates on a wide variety of ideas including xianxia, constructed habitats, differing cultural norms of species with differing modes of interacting with reality, political reactions to large groups of refugees, as well as
transhumanism, the validity of vengeance, the dangers of artificial intelligence, and how controversial research proceeds
among others.
While certainly none of these ideas are unique to this book, they are combined well and the author manages to form some original ideas in how society would operate and react to the such phenomena. It manages to mirror real life in that organizations are rarely uniform, alliances are composed of people with competing interests, and third parties often involve themselves even in something as simple as a
gang war.
I want to reiterate that this is worth reading and taking a chance on. While it's not the best work on this site, it's likely better than the hundred LITRPG isekai novels that seem to be released every day. The author updates regularly (so far, at least).
STYLE: There's nothing particularly memorable about the style, other than that the author is very good at building and resolving tension naturally. They also make good use of multiple perspectives to support the main narrative without getting lost in side stories. I'm a big fan of the author notes with each chapters which reveal some of the behind-the-scenes of how the story came about. The lore snippets are also a nice touch.
STORY: The narrative is proceeding well, with clear hints of where the story is headed and the relevant agents and entities gradually being introduced. The story moves along at a good pace, with a good mix of slower scenes and action-packed events. After each chapter, I genuinely want to read more even thou
ProgrammaticalRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Waterstrider is about being unable to escape from your past. The story of Tseludia Station itself is intricate and exciting, but this merely makes it a worthy vessel for the stories of the characters who have made their way here. Spanning across an entire galaxy, stretching back centuries, a literary universe like few others is revealed through the people that inhabit it. I do not mean it lightly when I say every character could have a book written about their stories. It often feels like they already have.
What does that mean in this context? What sort of world is shown? Waterstrider is a fascinating first look into a world as large as the Cosmere or Middle-Earth. Mech pilots fight cultivators, ritualists flee the void-strewn wastes of a twice-apocalypsed planet, gods command an interstellar empire in a war against extragalactic threats. The magics are intricate and numerous, but connected by fundamental mechanics that make them feel like cohesive parts of the world, rather than disjointed and clashing. People have long memories, and longer histories, with an extremely dense timeline stretching to before the universe was formed. Characters feel real, informed by their bizarre cultures and lengthy backstories, the aliens truly alien. Inhuman species are unique, never merely set dressing. Those that share societies will act similarly, but others will come from worlds with wildly different norms. Their biologies are strange and important, not just exotic costuming. Everything is important, if not in this story then in others, and that vitality, that realness to every piece of lore, shines through.
Waterstrider is one of the best books I have ever read on Royal Road. At its heart is a powerful theme, written into every character and plot in a way many webnovels lack. If you want something that goes deeper than a leveling screen, you're in the right place. And if you are interested in exploring its world and the depths it has to offer, I urge you to join us here, at the
thebenaiahRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is one of my favorite stories on Royal Road. To be honest, I was skeptical of its quality at first due to the lack of reviews. The story is good, really good. It is not your typical cultivation story it does not focus too much on the "progression" part of its tags. There is progression, but unlike many stories on this website, the progression is not the only thing that makes the story most interesting. The world-building and characters are each unique, and I've never read anything like it. It is safe to say that this story is going on my favorite list.
As for the author, I am amazed at your tenacity with this project. Despite the low readership, you are pushing forward and creating something truly great. In my experience, many of the stories on this website that are at the level of an officially published book have low readership.
Please finish the book; I have to know what happens at the end of it all.
AuwildthingRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Very good read! .... Make the effort and you will be rewarded!
I don't do many reviews, but this one is worth it!
A great blend of a SF and cultivation without the flood of blue boxes with numbers going up. Amazing expansive world building with cultural backgrounds for a multitude of races, religions and government.
A bit slow to start, but soldier on and you will be captured by a mature storyline of many facets that draws you in and gets you invested in the characters and their stories. It is obvious the author has great grasp of, and enjoys creating a detailed Universe, and there are hints of so many back stories that could be (and hopefully will be!) explored. I can see this universe easily expanding into something like the The Four Horsemen universe, with other authors framing stories within it.
I have high hopes for this Author and the Universe he is creating, there aren't enough stories of this quality.
Very well written and edited, a joy to read in that sense!
Excellent for first time publishing a story.
And so I have to pad out the 200 words, 1 1 was a racehorse 2 2 was 1 2 1 1 1 1 race 2 2 1 1 2
Polybius85Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I normally read stuff on here without signing in, made a account just to tell you guys this one is worth a read.
Ofcourse not perfect, but a lot better then a lot better then 95% found on this site in my opinion.
For some reason RR wants 50 words at least? thats a bit odd... maybe to block some kind of bot?
LadVladRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
This review is based on the chapters currently released. The author has a bad case of withholding information for the sake of mystery, information that might actually make me invested in the story. So I will continue reading and updating this review as my opinion seesaws back and forth
Story is very heavily front-loaded, it just infodumps on you about these new alien races and their culture and their religion and by the time I slogged through it all I actually surprisingly managed to remember 75% of it. Very cool world. Author has Tolkien level backstories here. The plot itself however.
The first 50 chapters are a major slog as characters just do not exist, it as if the author is making an effort to make me not care about anyone ever with the constant withholding of information and only vaguely hinting at backstories, not even the two main protagonists are all that interesting.
The next 50 chapters remedy this, now characters actually have personalities introduced and are actually interesting, the magic system is finally truly showcased and it is pretty cool
The next 50 chapters after that ruin it again. A war has started, why? I do not remember and I binged this series just this week. Must not have been the most memorable detail. A convenient plot device to move the plot is out there somewhere, hiding, stirring up trouble from behind the scenes, what could this irrational chaos agent's goals be? Who knows, remember we love Mystery! here.
This is also not a progression fantasy if I have to be honest. The character at the beginning is on the verge of being the second highest rank (in the physical world) and already has an indestructable sword. Theres not much progress to be had.
Cyrus is also quite confusing a character, hes painted as someone who wants revenge against those that took everything from him, and then it is revealed that hes actually not as devoted to his revenge as it seems, this makes him more complex as a character but also makes the story very shakey