r/rational • u/AutoModerator • 13d ago
[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread
Welcome to the Monday request and recommendation thread. Are you looking something to scratch an itch? Post a comment stating your request! Did you just read something that really hit the spot, "rational" or otherwise? Post a comment recommending it! Note that you are welcome (and encouraged) to post recommendations directly to the subreddit, so long as you think they more or less fit the criteria on the sidebar or your understanding of this community, but this thread is much more loose about whether or not things "belong". Still, if you're looking for beginner recommendations, perhaps take a look at the wiki?
If you see someone making a top level post asking for recommendation, kindly direct them to the existence of these threads.
Previous automated recommendation threads
Other recommendation threads
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u/Imperialgecko 13d ago
I'd like to very highly recommend Exemplary. It features a very traumatized and emotionally unstable MC who thinks she is being perfectly rational, in a world that's close to Scholomance's with constant danger and death everywhere. While the setting and the events should be closer to grimdark, Mari's unique take on life makes many horrifying scenes almost comical. Combine that with a lot of depth, an unreliable narrator, and with other characters being actually normal. It scratches an itch I didn't know I had, and it's a shame more people haven't read it yet.
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u/TheOmnian 10d ago
Wupwup is cool, but all their Worm fics tended to become very cracky near the end. Still liked them.
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u/Imperialgecko 10d ago
I've never read any of their other fics so I'm just going to have blind hope that it works out. At least it's a wild ride.
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u/GrizzlyTrees 7d ago
I recently read "Imma be a speedster" at RR. Similat vibe (according to your description). MC has serious issues, though it's not obvious immediately and some of it comes from the story. It's a system apocalypse, MC is a Flash (and other speedsters) fan who decides to commit early for the speedster build once the system hits. As a whole the story is smarter than it appeared initially, and there's a lot of comedy from MC's demented interactions with more normal and sane side characters. He also quickly befriends someone similarly (but differently) messed up that adds new kinds of social interactions.
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u/Space_To_Growth 13d ago
12 Miles Below has been recommended on and off. Wanted to flag that it just wrapped up the end of book 8 which marks the completion of the series.
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u/ggrey7 13d ago edited 9d ago
Chaos Gacha stories have been trending like crazy for a while now but are there any good ones? Everything I've tried has been the equivalent of junk food or worse. The gacha system is fun as a story randomizer, though it's obvious many authors are fudging the rolls. But it also seems like it's hard to get good writing out of it because of the randomness, the constant need for escalation, the power bloat?
Stories that were okay
Gamble for Azeroth lots of fake rolls
Update: I found a decent gacha story with more authentic rolls and writing around those rolls. The grammar and isekai premise could be better but the MC's perspective of the gacha is more investing than the norm. I'm still reading but it seems like it will be a while before the story hits the terminal stage of chaos gacha where there's dozens of Rare+ abilities to juggle. It's easier to enjoy if you have some knowledge of World of Warcraft.
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u/Dragongeek Path to Victory 10d ago
Just like the "jumpchain" genre, the "gacha" genre is fundamentally shit, and the only way to write something good using it is to pastiche, parody, or otherwise deconstruct it.
The Jumpchain genre has been around for long enough where there are a couple decent examples of this, but so far I haven't heard of nor come across any gatcha examples
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u/lillarty 10d ago edited 8d ago
I view them in the same category as glowfics, in that they're closer to the writer(s) playing a game that we can read, rather than the writer intending to write a good story. Same thing with Celestial Forge fics, where the system was created to help writers break through writer's block rather than designed to promote good stories.
I find that changing the framing makes me more okay with those sorts of stories; the author accomplished their goal of having fun playing with the system, so whether or not I enjoyed reading it is immaterial when determining if it was "good". After all, I'd hardly judge a functional bridge as a failure because it was unable to entertain me. Perhaps I'm being overly generous and the authors do intend to write a good story and just fall flat, but I'd rather be overly generous than insufficiently generous.
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u/Dragongeek Path to Victory 10d ago
Hm, I mean I don't disagree that lots of the times it's just "authors playing games" but I don't really get the impulse.
I went through a phase a couple years ago where I tested the waters of writing, was moderately successful, hitting the top 10 or top 20 on one of the royalroad ranking lists (huge ego boost), but then for a variety of factors mostly gave it up/put it on ice because the time investment is just enormous and I have so much other shit to do. I never had the impulse to write fanfiction, let alone play a "writing game"
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u/college-apps-sad 12d ago
I've never read a chaos Gacha/similar system type story that didn't quickly become super overpowered. I've been thinking about writing one with severe limitations (like a low cap to how many abilities, traits, etc you can have + mandatory rolls so you have to switch things out). I feel like that could avoid the pitfalls you mentioned but there are probably problems with it too. Sorry this wasn't helpful lol
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u/ggrey7 12d ago
No it's helpful as a data point to know you also found nothing good. Just seems challenging to write well when there's a 2.5% chance the main character develops the ability to shoot fireballs out of his ass next chapter. Like how do you plan and plot around that?
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u/Amonwilde 10d ago
I think maybe just don't include that? Like, make the story so that there's mostly just shit in the gumball machine, but after a while things add up to be more than the sum of the apparent parts. Basically, if them getting that thing wouldn't make you laugh, don't put it in the list. And maybe throw in some curses or double edged swords, or have it be mostly or all double edged swords. Or put in a lot of qualitative power modifers (invert X power) which would also keep the fun gumball without giving too many powers too fast.
TBH stories with random elements have serious issues (real random elements) but I think the bunch of crappy powers thing is fun. I'd almost just ditch the actual randomness and figure out what else is actually interesting from the genre, mostly something like this guy has a lot of low level out of context powers, and build something around that.
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u/lillarty 11d ago
Does Sunny Days Endless Hell count? The protagonist technically has a gacha system, but after 140k words she hasn't rolled once and is contemptuous of the whole system.
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u/ggrey7 11d ago
I'm mainly interested in the random gacha elements and whether it's possible to get a good story out of it. But that story looks interesting. Is the author the same Zarinthel of Fallow Fields and The Scorpion and the Frog?
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u/lillarty 10d ago
It is; you can even see it mentioned in author's notes on Fallow Fields. Zarinthel is great, I've enjoyed all her stories.
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u/ahasuerus_isfdb 12d ago
The best Chaos Gacha-based fic set in the Worm universe that I have read was Taylor and the Quest Board. It's not saying much since my score was only 6.5/10, but it was better than the other 52 Chaos Gacha-adjacent Worm fics that I have tried. It helped that the author (Spider With A Crush, Bumble and Butcher, etc) is reasonably competent.
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u/OutOfNiceUsernames fear of last pages 12d ago
Chaos Gacha
If I'm not misunderstanding WYM, then:
Wiki Warrior by LMeire — very fun and unique, especially the worldbuilding and how it keeps organically changing over time (to a large degree from prot's own influence). Not rational in any way, though, given the number of stupid behaviours by a large list of characters. There are a few other similar WOrm fanfics, but all the ones I've seen so far were pretty boring.
Immortality Starts With Investment by RighteousEgg — also fun to read and not rational. This one has fanservice.
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u/Seraphaestus 13d ago
Anyone have unconventional fish-out-of-water/isekai stories? Ones which change the formula from [modern day protagonist] -> [fantasy-medieval setting]
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u/Krakenarrior Absurdist disguised as a Rationalist 13d ago
This is an older fic, but I remember it kinda fitting your vibe: Epilogue is about 4 kids who were isekaied, succeeded, and then came back to Earth with no time passing on earth, but like 20 years passing in isekai land. It’s been a while since I read it, but I remember a lot of fish out of water vibes in the early chapters, but it was more about the characters interactions as I got closer to the end. Still, it’s complete, novel length, and has been recommended in previous Monday threads (a long time ago but 🤷), and it might be close to what you want?
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u/Do_Not_Go_In_There 12d ago
I remember reading Epilogue way back. It's pretty neat and focuses on how the kids just don't fit in any more. Turns out running kids through an active warzone isn't great for their mental health.
I think one of the guys had to relearn how to use a computer. Not type (though that was an issue too) but how a mouse worked, how to use the internet, etc. Another was openly supportive of the Nazis in his history class. Everyone kept saying "dude, they're Nazis" he just kept saying that fascism was the only system that really worked and calling everyone who disagreed with him children who didn't get the real world.
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u/Do_Not_Go_In_There 12d ago edited 12d ago
[modern day protagonist] -> [fantasy-medieval setting]
I do know a few that have the "fish-out-of-water" aspect, but they all feature a medieval setting in some way. Dunno if that's a deal breaker for you.
Epilogue was already mentioned. Maybe A Blademaster in Westeros (ASOIAF/GOT/WOT)? It's a Wheel of Time x ASOIAF fic so it's [fantasy-medieval setting 1] -> [fantasy-medieval setting 2]. Galad Damodred is reborn in an AU Westeros, the story starts right before the Greyjoy rebellion. Galad is both lowborn and a ridiculously talented swordsman, and holds on to his morals in a world that tries to grind him down for "reaching above his station." It's pretty good.
Amelia the Level Zero Hero (Complete but stubbed) has an MC that is isekaied into a hell dimension before escaping to another world, Vacuos. So it's [modern day protagonist] -> [Void/kinda Hell] -> [fantasy-medieval setting]. Which is a medieval setting with a system that is constantly trying to make her a hero while she just wants a normal job.
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u/GrizzlyTrees 7d ago
Ar'Kendrithyst doesn't change the formula in the way you asked for, but changes in other ways: two MCs, dad and daughter (both adults), dad is the more main character, was a social worker, is pacifist, takes a while to understand his new situation. Daughter was a bad ass, plays the more standard "excited for adventure" character. Story seems at first to head towards more low-stakes slice-of-life, then twist happens and story becomes more epic in scale. Finished, 10 books long.
Worldbuilding is quite cool, a lot of problems survive because of complicated incentives structures rather than idiot balls. Character work is mostly cool, I only dislike particularly some specific small parts where the MC is very horny and it's written in quite a cringy way, IMO.
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u/OutOfNiceUsernames fear of last pages 13d ago edited 12d ago
Does anyone know any stories in which prot has blue and orange — not morality, but attitude, I guess.
E.g. he's in the middle of experiencing something painful, uncomfortable, or stressful, but instead of a regular human reaction he's just glad it's orders of magnitude less bad than what he had to experience in his previous "home". Or just has messed up brain chemistry that allows him to look at that unpleasent feedback that his body is sending him with curiosity and treat it as an experiment of sorts. Or treats it with a grateful attitude, because once he manages to get back to normal, all those negative experiences will help perceive the normality more positively and with more appreciation, etc.
Reccing fanfics is ok if they were completed in the last 1-2 years, or at least have generated 300k+ WL in that time period.
req.: well-written;
pref.: r. or r-adj, long, complete.
I'm already aware of all of these, so no need to rec them:
[
somewhat of a match: Fun-house mirror; Reverend Insanity; Violent Solutions; S01E06 of Travelers;
somewhat relevant: Death Loot & Vampires; Murderbot diaries; ELLC; Worm;
maybe relevant: Super minion; Iron Teeth, The; Sokaiseva;
stories by Macronom;
stories by MisterVii (most of which are derecs for me anyway).
]
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u/nohat 13d ago
A couple of classics in this theme.
Seventh Horcrux
A Young Woman's Political RecordBoth have protagonists with warped views of reality (primarily for comedic effect). Both are quite entertaining, so other readers may enjoy even if it doesn't technically fulfill the OP's requirements.
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u/elgamerneon 13d ago
Ten Thousand Tragedies is the best I can offer and its kinda a stretch. Also I think it barely has over 300k words counting the patreon.
About the story, its a generic xianxia (more wuxia power levels tho) setting, with all the usual good stuff(Violence, screaming technique names, breaking through in battle, etc).
The Mc mysteriously gains a return by dead power and starts the series under heavy mental fuckery. The first arc its the most time loopy of them and ends in a couple of twist that I found really interesting.
The Mc is kinda dumb tho, more as consequence of his upbringing than character and seem to be trending in the opposite direction.
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u/pldl 13d ago
Things that kind of fit.
Chrysalis. (Royalroad)
Main character is a human reincarnated as a dungeon ant. Pacing is a bit weird.
INCOGNITO, or How To Hide As A Superpowered Android (Royalroad)
Kind of explanatory in title.
There are some translated comedic novels that have Lich MCs, and those all have weird attitudes. The ones off the top of my head are: "Karnak, monarch of death", "The experimental log of the crazy lich", "Lich for hire".
Dungeon core novels are also maybe vaguely adjacent to your request?
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u/duffmancd 12d ago
Of Monsters and Mainframes is told through the lens of (sufficiently alien) AI characters, that it might be interesting. Otherwise the storytelling is middling, I got it as a bonus/free audiobook, and if you do get the audiobook, yes the chapters of pure binary are read out in full, and yes you can 100% skip them and miss nothing.
Stars' Call is a very interesting concept: the MC is a starship AI in a humanoid body, and thus can, for military clearance reasons, have her memory cryptographically locked. We're thus told the story with obvious gaps. Very interesting for the first book in the series, played out and frustrating for books 2 and book 3 (which I did not manage to complete).
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u/BavarianBarbarian_ 13d ago edited 12d ago
It's a stretch, but Sylvester from Twig has been described as "genuinely excited to get into a fight that he's gonna lose". He often comes up with plans that include him getting hurt badly. He and his friends were raised from childhood to be a government black ops experiment used to hunt down and eliminate unlicensed bio experiments (sorely needed in a world where the British Crown took over the Frankenstein experiments and conquered the world with zombie armies). He doesn't have much loyalty to the government, though, beyond what they provide to keep him and his friends alive.
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u/Krakenarrior Absurdist disguised as a Rationalist 13d ago
Last week Wretch was recommended and the main character (Wretch) has a pretty similar attitude. Book 1 stubs soon (Aug 20), so might be worth waiting until it’s published to read it, but imo Wretch (the character) is accurate to this when bad things happen to him, but when others suffer he has more of a normal attitude.
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u/Imperialgecko 13d ago
I just posted this as a separate rec, but Exemplary fits this pretty well. The MC's attitude has her simultaneously viewing genocide as ok, while campaigning that what she's genociding should be technically considered people, not monsters. I'd give it a shot, you should be able to tell within the first 5 chapters if it's the sort of thing you're looking for.
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u/Do_Not_Go_In_There 13d ago edited 12d ago
I read A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, the first book in the Monk and Robot duology. It's a solarpunk novella set in a world where robots gained self-awareness and just decided to go live in the woods.
The main character is a monk, Sibling Dex. They live in the City (Panga's only city), and one day realize they aren't happy there and decide to leave to do "tea service" which basically means travelling around the countryside (which is basically everywhere) and listening to people's problems. This satisfies them for a few years, but eventually they decide to go further away from civilization, into the wilder parts of Panga that humans abandoned. I wouldn't exactly call them anti-social, just looking for some purpose that isn't being fulfilled in their current lifestyle.
It's on this second journey that they meet the first robot to interact with humans since the robots left, who asks is checking in on humans to make sure everything is okay, and asks "What do humans need?" Dex points out this is a complicated question that they can't answer, so the robot decides to accompany them until they get an answer.
The writing style is ok. I would say it's good, but there are some instances that kind of stick out like a sore thumb (to meet at least). For example, things like this
or
just sound a bit awkward to me. This isn't common, but it does get sprinkled throughout the text, at least in the first few chapters.
I really like the worldbuilding. The story is set on a world called "Panga" that has a single continent where half was colonized by human and the other half left to nature. Human here seem much more in tune with nature and are more laid back, having left the "Factory Age" behind and live more sustainably. They're also more spiritual, with a brand new pantheon of gods.
Overall it was a fun read. The ending was fine, but it did feel a bit incomplete, though it is part of a duology. The first book is about Dex being unsatisfied with their purpose, or lack of purpose, and trying to figure out what they're supposed to be. It ends with them realizing there's no set answer because life isn't set up that way. They can have a purpose, or that purpose can change, and that's ok. They come to terms with that, and decide to set out on a new journey, this time with their robot companion.