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[Immortal-D]

Kinda surprised this doesn't have a thread here, though to be fair, I only learned about it from a random DF Reddit post a couple months ago.  Anyone else follow this story?  https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/

[Wolfhunter107]

I've actually just binge-read the entirety of the first couple of books in the last month, and I'm working on the third at a more sedate pace.

[ggamer]

This book's the fucking SHIT DOG. I've been following it on a per-update basis since... god, before Liesse? When she got in the big fight with Akua.
Here's some material that'll explains the premise well:

In the beginning, there were only the Gods.
Aeons untold passed as they drifted aimlessly through the Void, until they grew bored with this state of affairs. In their infinite wisdom they brought into existence Creation, but with Creation came discord. The Gods disagreed on the nature of things: some believed their children should be guided to greater things, while others believed that they must rule over the creatures they had made.

So, we are told, were born Good and Evil.

Ages passed in fruitless argument between them until finally a wager was agreed on: it would be the mortals that settled the matter, for strife between the gods would only result in the destruction of all. We know this wager as Fate, and thus Creation came to know war. Through the passing of the years grooves appeared in the workings of Fate, patterns repeated until they came into existence easier than not, and those grooves came to be called Roles. The Gods gifted these Roles with Names, and with those came power. We are all born free, but for every man and woman comes a time where a Choice must be made.

It is, we are told, the only choice that ever really matters.”

– First page of the Book of All Things

The Empire stands triumphant.

For twenty years the Dread Empress has ruled over the lands that were once the Kingdom of Callow, but behind the scenes of this dawning golden age threats to the crown are rising. The nobles of the Wasteland, denied the power they crave, weave their plots behind pleasant smiles. In the north the Forever King eyes the ever-expanding borders of the Empire and ponders war. The greatest danger lies to the west, where the First Prince of Procer has finally claimed her throne: her people sundered, she wonders if a crusade might not be the way to secure her reign. Yet none of this matters, for in the heart of the conquered lands the most dangerous man alive sat across an orphan girl and offered her a knife.

Her name is Catherine Foundling, and she has a plan..

Start reading for the exploration of how literal storybook rules would affect a medieval civilization, stay for the stellar worldbuilding, character relationships, and pacing. The story updates three days a week, and as of now there's a fuckin huuuuuuge backlog (four books with what feels like an exponential growth in chapters between books, plus all the side arcs and villainous interludes...).

Click here if you want to start reading!

[Madman198237]

Yes, this book is great. Also, plot twists. Plot twists around every corner. It's almost as if the universe was a storybook universe that loved to play with the audience via totally-predictable (though sometimes not) plot twists...


Oh wait.

[Interus]

It's one of the three webserials I'm reading right now. I caught up to it, then stopped reading back in like June or July to read The Gods are Bastards, and once I finished binging that (which seriously took me 6 months without really reading anything else), I went back to PGtE. I love them both. Also, the authors are both big fans of each other, which I think is great. I think I've got to reread at least the first couple books (or up to whenever Second Liesse is), because there's a lot of stuff I've forgotten, but if I do that, it'll actually just be because I want to read the parts about Arcadia again.

Part of me wants to make a Crusader Kings mod for it, but I seriously don't have the attention span to even figure out how modding the map for that game works. Any time they start talking about princedoms and duchies, though, I get that itch.

[Jimmy]

This series, along with The Wandering Inn and Metaworld Chronicles, are the three regular serial webfictions I follow weekly.

The writer has a great sense of dry humor and characterization, and the themes of the book are good stuff. The main character is compelling, the setting is well written, and the take on the fantasy powers is a great, unique view into what elevates mere mortals to demi-god status.

That being said, Book 4 is the least favorite of the series, in my opinion. There's not nearly as much character development and growth compared to the previous books, but I've got higher hopes for Book 5. Quite likely it's due to the fact that the main character isn't nearly as much of a scrappy underdog compared to her enemies in Book 4, but we're seeing a return to true form in the newest volume.

[scourge728]

ptw

[Urist Mc Dwarf]

I am enjoying the series as well.

[ggamer]

Double update!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

First of all, I fucking looooooove the byplay between Kairos and Catherine. Watching them exchange valuable strategic information that would probably sound like gibberish to anyone listening, just because you need a hellacious amount of name lore and experience to even understand the context. That bit at the end? Fucking priceless. Good to see Cat's keeping a level head about this whole thing.

That extra chapter tho.... I think here is where we're gonna learn why Tariq absolutely refuses to play anything less than hardball with Cat. After having some fun time run ins with the scum of Procer, I'd probably be a little wary too. Plus, that whole "keep the peasants and merchants happy to help reputation & smooth governance" is a hat proudly worn by Callow and Praes.

So who's up next? Now that Cat's got the lay of the land, I imagine she'll either link up w Juniper or head straight to Black. There's still a giant question mark concerning what, exactly, the Army of Callow is doing in Procer, considering that when Cat left Callow there was a giant mass of rubble blocking the closest passage. Plus, we don't really know where Masego is now that he's witnessed his dad's last stand. My guess is he charged through the red vales and Callow followed, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Might as well let ya'll know as well, the comments section is a goldmine of story analysis. I've been active for a hot minute there under the handle Fern, and I imagine some of you fine folk might be active around there as well.

[Immortal-D]

ptw

I am enjoying the series as well.

Glad I'm not the only one!

Might as well let ya'll know as well, the comments section is a goldmine of story analysis. I've been active for a hot minute there under the handle Fern, and I imagine some of you fine folk might be active around there as well.

For sure.  I do wish the chapters had tags so I could actually go back and find stuff.  **Book V discussion ahead, for those not caught up**  For example, I vaguely know the name Nauk, but don't recall much about him.  Would be nice if I could easily find his screen time from the War College or the first battles.  Similarly with Abigail, I want to reread her fight against the Fae, and when she infamously (if unjustly) earned the reputation for eating them, lol.

Edit: As an aside, V Interlude I is the first time we've see what manifestations of Night (staff, crows) can do to mortals, if only in passing.  Back in the Everdark, Rumena had mentioned that staring at pure Night as Catherine did would have made normal folks go crazy in a second, while she only got a headache.

[Immortal-D]

Our first showing of Night's power.  Gotta say, I'm unimpressed.  Breaking the river like that would have been child's play under Winter.  Now a similar use of power has left Cat more vulnerable than we've seen her since she first became the Squire.  Yes she can enjoy the benefits of being mortal, but the cost seems pretty steep.

[Interus]

For sure.  I do wish the chapters had tags so I could actually go back and find stuff.  **Book V discussion ahead, for those not caught up**  For example, I vaguely know the name Nauk, but don't recall much about him.  Would be nice if I could easily find his screen time from the War College or the first battles.  Similarly with Abigail, I want to reread her fight against the Fae, and when she infamously (if unjustly) earned the reputation for eating them, lol.

I really don't remember that much about Nauk either, other than that Cat was really upset that time he almost died, and I at least remember when that was. Also, I think he was the one who couldn't control his rage. Funny thing about Abigail is that I remember her from, I think, the battle of Second Liesse, but she apparently had already shown up and gotten a promotion by then, and I'll have to take Cat's word for it on that. Actually, a lot of what I "know" about both of them is stuff that was brought up in the most recent chapters when describing them, and I'm just like "Uh huh, sure, that sounds right." I remember their names, and the events described sure sound familiar, but if they said that the whole "preventing a riot by giving out beer in Liesse" thing had been Archer's idea instead of Abigail's, I wouldn't be able to contradict anybody.

I like this story, I've just read a LOT of stuff since these previous events happened.

Of course Winter could have done that easily. The ice cracking under you and plunging you into freezing water is explicitly a Winter thing, and easily falls within that domain. I'm not even sure how it works with Night, other than pumping a lot of power into something to break it, and maybe decay and entropy are linked to Night like they are to Winter. I thought it was "cool" that trying to use that much Night power in the middle of the day turned out to be a bad idea. There's probably other uses that are better suited to this new magic, and it should be interesting to see what she can pull off after sunset.

Side note: I'm gonna be disappointed if Cat loses an eye and gets a funny hat. I like the staff because it builds into this priest mystique she's got going on, but I don't want her to become Odin (it happens).

[Urist Mc Dwarf]

When you first started talking about losing an eye and getting a hat, my thought was Mat Cauthon. I just finished rereading Wheel of Time...and actually, ta'veren and Named are basically the same thing.

[Urist Mc Dwarf]

Anyone else really excited to see if this is the Prince's Graveyard?

[Interus]

Mat was one of the characters I was thinking of actually (Hung in exchange for wisdom, a raven on each shoulder, a strange spear and hat, he obviously borrows a lot from Odin, though I didn't realize it until the very end with the "Half the light of the world" stuff because it was so gradual and I was pretty excited when I figured it out) and there's a character in another series I forgot the name of, something to do with gates and alternate worlds that provide magic, who also has a magic spear, trades an eye for knowledge, and has a raven giving her advice. I don't know any myths about Odin having an awesome cape though, which is probably Cat's biggest artifact right now.

I saw the comments mentioning this might be the Prince's Graveyard, but I don't remember much about it. I know the name has shown up a lot in the chapter headers, and I recognize the phrase "7 princes and 1" that somebody brought up. I think I just assumed that the "Prince's Graveyard" was that battle they mentioned where Nauk shot the Prince, though I don't think anybody ever actually called it that, and they had another name for it, iirc. Going in, I guess we know Cat wins (or it at least shows off how she does battle now) and a bunch of Princes die if it is that battle, but I'm pretty excited to see how it all plays out. There's a lot of moving parts coming together, and I'm hoping Hakram and his army will show up for it too.

Sometimes I really get into the politics of this series too. I liked a lot of the stuff going on in Procer and the Dominion, or at least I found it interesting. Leaders being forced to make decisions they don't like in order to maintain at least some control over the situation. (I probably shouldn't say I "liked" that the one guy had to whip his son, but I did like the reasoning) Plus, Cat recently learned that the Bard might be influencing the Augur, which means she could be orchestrating this whole thing, since at least some of this is because the Augur said it was necessary.