Author Note / Update
Added 2025-05-24 16:27:37 +0000 UTCDear Patrons,
The posting this week so far has been lighter than I wanted. I just went on antibiotics yesterday for strep throat, so I should be recovering this weekend. Next week will hopefully be a heavy release week for both HTG and RoD.
I also wanted to open the floor since we are past the half way point on RoD book one. If you have any complaints or concerns about the book so far, please don't hold your punches. If you disagree with someone's complaint, feel free to say so, or if you agree but don't want to speak, give it a heart.
Thank you!
Respectfully,
Godric
Comments
To be fair, you could patch almost all of this with a chapter titled, “You again.” Jimmy standing before his sgt, “Novak requesting… “ “Denied.” “Novak requesting…” “Denied.” … jimmy approaching the off-worlders, “I need to talk to…” “we can not talk to you right now.” The protagonist isn’t supposed to succeed so much as try, fail, and eventually reach a low point and change. Though it would be nice to see more Interaction with the fox, anyone who has crate-trained a puppy can imagine its response to being confined.
sdf
2025-05-25 10:36:53 +0000 UTCI’m enjoying the story but there are frequent times when I feel frustrated that Jimmy takes his time over things and dithers, or if he doesn’t think it through about maybe just listening to the all powerful AI rather than interrupting - he’s a soldier he should have experience with listening to blowhards talk and talk I imagine! But I also feel that this is an excellent foundation from which Jimmy can grow and progress. Too passive? Watch your friends die a bunch more times maybe that’ll light a fire under him. Being a witness rather than proactive protagonist? Again, watch all he holds dear get crushed by pitiless foes and the machinations of uber-powerful beings, might force him to grow. Ideally this or some other incident, or maybe Cortez sits down with him and talks him through how being amazed at your bench press growing is great and all, but actually doing something about his predicament is better… If this would happen sooner rather than later would be best I think. Can’t have a protagonist be the passenger in his own story. He needs to take the wheel!
Tom C
2025-05-25 08:38:49 +0000 UTCRegarding agency In real life when a devastating event happens, we are often just a witness of it and while everything happens we're just keeping our heads down in fear and wait for everything to be over. Because obviously we don't want to die. But then there are a few individuals that don't do that. Instead they act and do the things we don't dare to do. This is why story's put the focus of the story on these people. So we can read how it would be like in their shoes as an "actor" instead of a "witness". The protagonist in this story often acts more as a witness, then as an actor. The first "gate" pretty much starts with him "witnessing" how all his friends are hero's when the shit hits the fan. During the second gate he is once again mostly "witnessing". The exception is when he decides to fight the boss. BUT abyss takes over and the protagonist just gets dragged along for the ride, and is mostly a witness of everything that follows after it. In the current arc the protagonist is just a sack of potatoes that is conscious of the events that happen around him. Also in conversations Jimmy often stands there as a witness rather than a participant. For me myself this has not been the big issue. But I can understand that readers will take issue with this. And personally I think this story would've been much better if Lieutenant Tenny was the protagonist, because she does "make plans" to "get a grip". Which brings me to my biggest issue with the protagonist. He is so fucking passive during the times he does have control over his life. Instead of trying to get a grip of his new situation (like during those 3 weeks time skip) he just shifts the responsibility to Dorliac. And just idles forth waiting for the next disaster to happen. I m pretty sure that if "Respec on Death" happened to Lieutenant Tenny she would make sure she got to the bottom of things and make plans to tackle the problems that were obviously going to come to her doorstep. Which is why she would be more qualified as a protagonist in this story. She is behaving as an actor and not as a witness.
Peter Adams
2025-05-24 19:47:38 +0000 UTC
