I already tried that over at BSN a while ago but people thought I was talking about webcomics and the thread got ignored the moment I pointed out the difference.I'm an avid reader of web serials and I was wondering if there others like me here. (Statistics say there should be.)
My favourite web serials at the moment are (click the titles for more details):
1.
The Gods are Bastards is still fairly new but it is such an excellent mix of high fantasy and the Wild West, it took the first spot immediately. The characters are all believeable, the setting is interesting, the story leaves you wanting for more and overall it's really funny. There are serious moments as well of course... but so far every chapter made me laugh or at least smile a lot. The serial is still ongoing with regular, fairly long updates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
2.
Worm is very dark superhero fiction. It needs to be said, this isn't just grim and realistic, it illustrates the horrors possible in a world where people have superpowers. The story is great, unpredictable and captivating. The characters are human, with their weaknesses and blind spots despite their powers. The world in this setting isn't a happy one and some supervillains are actively trying to make it worse. There are some funny spots in the story but overall it's more about actions, consequences and morality. Very, very good read... but beware the trigger warnings. Worm finished a year ago and clocks in with about 1.75 million words. That's Wheel of Time length.
3.
A Practical Guide to Evil is a YA fantasy novel about a young girl named Catherine Foundling making her way through the world – though, in a departure from the norm, not on the side of the heroes. Is there such a thing as doing bad things for good reasons, or is she just rationalizing her desire for control? Good and Evil are tricky concepts, and the more power you get the blurrier the lines between them become. Updates every Wednesday.
4.
Superpowereds is realistic superhero fiction, set in a world just like ours... only with superheroes. It is all very organized and regulated though, so to become a superhero, you need to go to college and attend the (secret) courses there. The story shows the life of 5 former "Powereds", people who had no control over their abilities and who are ostracized and pitied by society. Through a secret procedure they attained control and became supers but have to hide their past from their friends and rivals. Good balance between realism and humor, the characters often give me flashbacks to my own college time and the story works on multiple levels. There's of course the coming-of-age element and the pressure of becoming a superhero but in the background there is a lot more going on, which leads to some surprising developments. The story is ongoing, updates Tuesdays and Thursdays and also has a spin-off called
Corpies, which starts after the 2nd year of the main story.
5.
Twisted Cogs is best described as italian Renaissance with magic and a dash of steampunk. It is the turn of the 16th Century, and the world has entered a golden age of art, invention, and architecture. This renaissance of literature and learning in Europa is suddenly thrown into overdrive when a chosen few “Stormtouched” begin displaying supernatural abilities. Torn between the age’s burgeoning love of science and the dark promises of magic, Europa has become a powder-keg of clockwork and sorcery. Elena Lucciano doesn’t care about increasing mankind’s knowledge or exploring the mysterious workings of magic. Even though she herself is Stormtouched, Elena doesn’t have high ambitions. All she wants is for her mother to be proud of her, for her teacher to accept her, and to become one of the best artists in all of Italoza, content to ignore all thoughts of science and magic. Unfortunately for Elena, the tides of invention and magic are sometimes not content to ignore those who ignore them… Twisted Cogs updates every Sunday, with the occasional NSFW chapter as bonus.
6.
Pay Me, Bug! is an almost classic space opera. If Oscar Wilde had written in a Space Opera in the 1970's it might have looked like this. A "great heist" caper set in the far future, featuring cunning smugglers, star-spanning empires, cheerful amorality, evil cyborg slavers, and a hyperintelligent bug. Reading this story was just fun, it hit all the high notes of action, suspense, humor, likeable characters and science fiction. The serial is finished, spanning 42 chapters and a follow up with 12 chapters has been started but there have been no updates in a while.
7.
Curveball is superhero fiction. Written by the same author as Pay Me, Bug! it is both serious and funny, showing some very realistic consequences if superpowers were real. Politics and government agencies influence the story just as much as the retired superheros do. "When America's greatest hero is murdered, his former sidekick must discover who did it... and why."
Curveball is released in monthly issues with 4-6 chapters each.
There are a lot more web serials I read, like
Legion of Nothing,
The Monster They Deserve and
Starwalker. There is also
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which is technically fanfiction but somehow better than the original. Another really good example would be
The Metropolitan Man which is Superman fanfiction set in 1934. Definitely worth a read... but when it comes to fanfiction I probably should create a seperate thread. ^^
What are you reading?
