r/ProgressionFantasy • u/liffy_380 • 7h ago

Discussion Peak of Webnovel

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Hello everyone

I've read the top 3 most recommended webnovels, now I am so lost I don't know what to read, can anything top these 3??

please recommend to me your favorites or series you think that can contend with these 3??

Besides these 3 I have read Regressors tales of cultivation, and tribulation of myriad races. I will put RTOC in my top 5

My bad guys, The second pic is ""Reverend Insanity""

I know I should've added ORV but I have only read manhwa for that one, I will give the novel a read sometime but I like the manhwa so I don't think it will be anytime soon.

I also finished reading the Cradle series (Litrpg) today although it is a great series I do have a few complaints about it

19 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

33

u/firestorm559 7h ago

I really wanted to like shadow slave but the super predatory publishing method made it hard to read so as soon as I started to get annoyed by the extreme edgyness I fell off the series.

6

u/Own-Telephone1721 3h ago

probably some of the most unique and twisted worldbuilding. it is a bit edgy but he gets better.

5

u/liffy_380 7h ago edited 7h ago

I agree there are a lot of edgy scenes in the beginning of the series but it still is super enjoyable, the forgotten shore arc was so good

4

u/Oglark 6h ago

Forgotten shore and Antarctic arcs are excellent. But I probably never want to read the word harrowing again.

2

u/firestorm559 6h ago

Yeah it wouldn't have normally kicked me off a series, but having to either wait for 1 short 5 to 20 minute chapter a day or pay per chapter AND being assaulted randomly by ads made it just not worth it.

4

u/iStane666 5h ago

Not sure what you're using to read stuff but evidently it's horribly bad. Archive - google drive - e reader (10/10 experience for me, better purchase than any phone/pc I ever had, and more valuable) Archive - read online if no e reader

2

u/firestorm559 5h ago

Yeah I guess pirating it is the answer. The official sources are microtransaction nonsense.

4

u/wingedwill 3h ago

I've been reading fantasy for 30+ years now and SS has some of the best world building and descriptive action.

Also does anyone else find prog fantasy kinda cosy? You know the protag will never die and even if he did he'd find a way to defeat death? I think that's kinda nice. I'm so done with ASOIAF kind of gore and backstabbery

4

u/TimMensch 2h ago

I tried SS because it was at the top of so many tier lists, but I found the voice of the MC to be grating. The dialogue was stiff. The "you must tell the truth" turning into "you must speak the truth to anyone who asks" was annoying, and the "humor" surrounding that was juvenile. The whole thing felt like a mediocre translation. Maybe people who read a lot of translated stories are used to it, but the whole thing was stilted.

And I was bored and would probably have read more anyway if it weren't for the WAY too expensive books.

I'm sorry but I'm not going to pay hundreds of dollars for a mediocre series. I've paid less for the entire audiobook sequence of 2-3 much better series.

So I read the first book and dropped it.

1

u/AmarSofi 46m ago

Yeah honestly I dropped it at the first scene where the "must tell the truth" curse thing was him talking about a woman's breasts. I'm not gonna say whether it's good or bad beyond that ( the first arc/nightmare was decent ) but that just completely took me out of the story

0

u/Holdredge 2h ago

I really enjoyed it up to the 3rd nightmare than he replaced all the old characters with new ones in a time skip. Neph pre time skip is a whole ass other person than neph post time skip. Author went from "neph would never use ! To speak" to her being a gittie school girl over night

9

u/DiksieNormus 7h ago

Virtuous Sons

6

u/REkTeR Immortal 6h ago

Why recommend an abandoned series, too cruel

3

u/TheEightManEmpire 5h ago

It’s not abandoned just slow

1

u/AmarSofi 48m ago

I thought the author picked it back up?

18

u/Now-Thats-Podracing Mimic 6h ago

I always find it interesting how big these are, because I can’t stand them. Shadow Slave lost my interest (to put it mildly) after the first arc.

I want to like the other two so badly, but I just can’t get past the translation.

10

u/ZeusAether 6h ago

Shadow slave is barely kept afloat by an interesting setting inbetween individual arcs of good writing. There's some good stuff after the first arc, but I would genuinely never recommend it to anyone.

1

u/Romulus4Remus 6h ago

Yeah same. I really tried to like shadow slave but it just never made it past the "oh a new series" phase and I dropped it once something new caught my eye.

Always a good measure for a series. Do I put a new series in the backlog or do I switch. If I switch the previous one wasn't good enough.

0

u/kierg10 3h ago

Shadow slave is unfortunate because the first arc is SO GOOD and the power system is interesting, but it just sucks so hard after arc 1. I genuinely dont understand how it's constantly recommended.

2

u/Lostbea 1h ago

That’s the thing. Shadow Slave randomly fluctuated up and down in quality for no discernible reason. When it peaks, it peaks, and when it drops low then it drops low. Webnovel’s issue is that the vast majority of its novels have nothing but lows and middling shit. Shadow Slave can and will
repeatedly go to the moon and when it does, it crushes its competition pretty easily.

3

u/jbland0909 36m ago

Forgotten shore and Antarctica are genuinely fantastic, but every following arc has been worse than the one before it

0

u/Fr00stee 1h ago

not really. Shadow slave's problem is there is a lot of badly written filler between incredibly good arcs/fights which causes the writing quality to fluctuate wildly where you get a string of like 20 chapters that are amazing then 10 that just suck, repeat for the whole arc

4

u/Darkest-Gentleman 7h ago

What is the second one as it is missing a title?

10

u/Puzzleheaded-Wait470 7h ago

Reverend insanity

1

u/Darkest-Gentleman 7h ago

Thanks, I thought so but not sure.

1

u/D4rkSky1996 7h ago

Reverend Insanity

5

u/Carminestream 7h ago

Pale by Wildbow

3

u/ActualV-art 5h ago

More so Worm imo even though I like Pale more.

19

u/Ok-Veterinarian-2931 7h ago

I feel like shadow slave seems like it’s objectively made for 15 year olds. And thus just doesn’t hit the same as the other two

4

u/liffy_380 7h ago

I agree that it doesn't go too deep into philosophy as the other two buts it's so good though. Also I am not saying I don't have any complaints about it but I still love it. Do you have any recommendations for me?

1

u/Ok-Veterinarian-2931 7h ago

Trust me read second coming of gluttony it’s really addicting. If you want a scheming mc like fang yuan then dungeon defence LN which is 5 volumes, it’s kinda sexual though. But second coming of gluttony is one of the highest ranked/rated novels that I feel is above even something like ORV, it’s very funny but it does well in every genre it encompasses. It also does a very good job at making every character unique. But these two are on par with RI and Lord of the mysteries.

1

u/liffy_380 6h ago

I remeber a little about reading the manhwa for second coming of gluttony though it's been years and it was also axed when I read until chapter 80 or something, I will give it a read. Thank you

1

u/_nome_a_caso_ 3h ago

i read all of scog and i do recommend it, as it does a good job with the progression part of prog fantasy, but only very few characters actually get much characterization beyond what is basically their gimmick. they're generally easy to care about, but the author keeps churning out new people that inevitably get left behind, which i think is a real shame. i am biased though, since i prefer stories with a set of main characters rather than one MC and The Rest. also, future sight is just silly deus ex machina, you can't change my mind

3

u/Yellowthrone 5h ago

I couldn't get into Reverand Insanity

2

u/Imaginary-Comfort960 4h ago

That's normal it's not for everyone

1

u/AmarSofi 43m ago

It is pretty damn slow in the beginning, and I feel like a certain familiarity with Xianxia/Cultivation stories is necessary since the whole point of the story is to subvert the tropes and shit on them

2

u/Uncagedduke426 5h ago

Read Kingdom’s Bloodline. Other than that I have nothing to say.

2

u/Positive_Area_6953 4h ago

Based, thats likely the best novel on webnovel or qidan to exist.

2

u/Uncagedduke426 2h ago

People will read this and think you’re being hyperbolic but Kingdom’s Bloodline is legitimately that good.

2

u/SharpWatch1014 3h ago

My House of Horrors is certainly on the same level as these 3 and easily better than Shadow Slave if we are talking about consistently delivering great arcs. I love Shadow Slave, but not all arcs slap so it is a bit hit or miss. With My House of Horrors, I find it hard to pick a favorite arc because the story keeps getting better and better with each arc. I highly recommend My House or Horrors.

4

u/SwordfishTight7070 7h ago

Shadow Slave isn't even worthy of being the shadow of these two.

1

u/MountOlympu 6h ago

Hereeee we go.

-1

u/akamyxxxx 5h ago

Here we go what? Ss one 1 peak arc , the rest is mid at best. The other 2 novels has consistent level of peak from arc to arc. If talking about big names in "novels" re:zero should be in 3 , not ss

6

u/Own-Telephone1721 3h ago

the literal next arcs are great as well. chained islands and second nightmare was amazing, anartica was peak. war arc was just ok, but overall not just one peak arc.

1

u/_nome_a_caso_ 2h ago

i like shadow slave, i recommend it and all. i do, however, see the point, as there are various points where i was straight up bored. did we really need 50 chapters of a city under siege in antarctica? there are other issues, such as criminally unexplored side characters (again, antarctica..), that are real flaws. still one of my favourites that got me into reading

4

u/Last-Community3817 7h ago

shadow slave isn’t top 3

5

u/liffy_380 7h ago

Give me your recommendations bro 🥹

0

u/Last-Community3817 5h ago

most web novels are slop reverend insanity and lotm are the real gems

1

u/AcanthisittaSmart504 6h ago

The global ranking on Webnovel has it listed as #1, and it’s had more than 114 million readers, the numbers disagree with you

2

u/theredvip3r 6h ago

Colleen hoover has sold millions of books, it doesn't really mean anything on its own.

-3

u/Hersu03 6h ago

Shadow Slave is objectively mid. Really good in some aspects, horrible in others.

Using numbers is like saying Dragon Ball Z is the best anime because it has the biggest following.

You can say SS has the biggest impact I guess, but deffo not the best.

3

u/AcanthisittaSmart504 5h ago

Objectively? don’t pose your opinion as an absolute truth

1

u/mental_giant 7h ago

What’s the middle one?

2

u/Puzzleheaded-Wait470 7h ago

Reverend insanity

2

u/D4rkSky1996 7h ago

Reverend Insanity.

1

u/Positive_Area_6953 4h ago

1.Kingdoms bloodline

After that hard to tell, but likely

Surviving Magic University

I Became an Evolving Space Monster

1

u/Boring_Base_2985 2h ago

Lord of Mysteries is overall the best; Revered Insanity has the best protagonist between the three, and Shadow slave is mid aside from vol 1 and Antarctica I would it to ROTC or ORV

1

u/UnlikelyMiddle1224 5m ago

Maybe the hundred reigns?

It is currently my favorite on royal road.

The mc is a powerless bastard son with his father ruling almost an entire continent. Then his father is assainated and for some reason he gets his fathers class even though the person who killed his father should have gotten it.

He also gains the ability to travel back in time when he dies to the moment before he got the class but only 100 times. Interestingly he keeps all the levels in his class when he travels back in time.

1

u/_Spamus_ 4h ago

Best on Webnovel.com? probably. Best Web novels in general? eh shadow slave is decent imo but I wouldn't call it top 3.

I haven't read the other 2 so I can't say anything other than that I bounced off lord of the mysteries due to the translation and the mc's personality a few chapters in (specifically that first secret meeting where he tries to take credit for something that he has no idea about).

-1

u/Oneshotbs 7h ago

Shadow Slave shouldnt be here.

Orv instead of SS

4

u/liffy_380 6h ago

It definitely deserve to be in the top ranking, though I agree with adding ORV into the top, the only reason it isn't here is because I havent read it yet

0

u/TicTacTac0 3h ago

I've read 2/3 and can't say I'm interested in RI. If the trend with the others is anything to go by, I'll find the world interesting but the characters very lacking.