Rating: M
Genre: Fantasy/Superhero
Status: In progress
Link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/63759/super-supportive-superhero-system-novel

I'm not always the biggest fan of royal road fiction. And im not a superhero fan (I never watch the marvel movies or get too into that stuff). So the fact that im LOVING this fic is perhaps telling.

This is an actual *Story* so far. With characters and motivations and a complex world. Its not driven by the lit rpg elements, its just a story that happens to have a few of those thrown in. Similarly the story isn't revolving around the superpowers, those are just a facet of the world that causes problems and benefits.

The prose of this are engaging. I got hooked after only a few chapters and as soon as I finished it I re-read it. The characters are complex with different (sometimes conflicting) motivation. We get a good deal of show don't tell (Though like all stories its not perfect there) and there's good hints of further complexity to come.

About the only 'down side' of this, is it is still early days. Off to a great start but we're still in the build up part of the story. But if it continues in this vein it would be the sort of book id actually buy in real life.

 

Can you give a summary?

 

mmm some strange and very suspicious sounding aliens have changed human society by giving out "super powers" (via a lit rpg system) to very select humans in return for the humans with super powers periodically serving them to do quests. The powers are so cool everyone dreams of getting powers.

When not doing quests those humans act as heroes (or villains) on our planet. Our main character has a very tragic encounter with them in the very first chapter, and after that has a very specific vision that if he ever gets powers he doesnt want to be a *hero* but to be a *side kick* who essentially supports heroes.

It is very character driven. For example it is only in the last chapter that our main character has actually gotten powers (I dont consider that a spoiler since its essentially the description of the story)

 

It’s very classically “Royal Road“, in terms of the
premise. Whether that’s good or bad is up to the reader.

The writing is where it stands out, imo. It’s damn good if we’re comparing it to the burning trash pile that makes up the majority of fiction on that site.

Still, it’s only 75k words in, and the main character is just now

Spoiler

beginning to come into his abilities.

I actually think the pacing is alright, but given how much story there is yet to be written, there’s still a lot of room for the author to fuck up.

I‘ll give it a tentative 4/5, and revisit it again later once there’s more to read. I do like it so far, which is more than I can say for anything else ongoing on that site that’s not written by a DLP author.

 

I loved the byplay between characters. Best part of the story imo. Writer doles out information as required and adds a little bit of humor to keep it lively.

Worst element of the story is that it is a litRPG. The last few chapters were obsessing over numbers and stats.

4/5 from what I've read so far

 

I'll add i'm rather a fan of the alien sub-plot. I dont really consider this a spoiler really but out of an abundance of caution...

Spoiler: spoiler

I'm a real fan of how at first the aliens just seem like a passing aside 'ohh aliens came and gave us power!' but as you read between the lines it sort of becomes apparent (imo anyway) that the aliens essentially soft-conquered earth. It reminds me rather much of the colonial powers who divided up india and china in the 19th century..... only with less force heh. Essentially lots of 'trade deals' that are unbalanced and then a lot of 'superior' alien culture that the elite kids learn in special schools to ape the alien ways. That kind of things. And average joe schmoe their life isn't impacted much (other than some more poverty?) but the higher you go the more clear it is that earth govs seem to be in a subservient position to the aliens. And said aliens are essentially exploiting us in one way trade deals. ITs pretty minor under the radar in the story but im amused by it

 

I'll bump this for some more attention. It has gotten much longer and the quality is staying top notch

 

Spoiler

I think you're overplaying the exploitative nature of the aliens. They're less exploitative than "erstwhile" colonial countries are today. If anything, they seem to favour isolationism? I'd say the relations are closer to what an open HP wizarding world would be. They don't mind the Avowed doing anything as long as it doesn't directly cause significant harm. The Avowed either chose to or were compelled by normals to ape USA in the middle of nowhere.

Spoiler: Latest in Super Supportive

Story definitely peaked too early with the alien arc imo. It's now living to its promise (a superhero story) but I don't find it as interesting. There is a lot of character interaction, but it seems to go for marvelling at the protagonist's achievements (and his capacity for despair) and muddled character setup for something much later. A small ploy akin to those pulled by the Velras would have maintained the strength of the narrative (the makings of which seem to be coming together recently).