Top products from r/ProgressionFantasy

> There are an infinite amount of different aspects to mana, and the type that you cultivate will determine many of your abilities. There's the classics like fire, air, shadow, etc. but also more abstract types like gravity, energy, life, existence.

Like this a lot!

> The parts I have plotted out will take place on the Island of Paradise, an island rich in ambient mana but nearly unknown to the outside world, and the region of Gavel, a subcontinent defined by the constant war between the resident colonies of powerful kingdoms sent there to establish a hold on the land.

Cool!

> Kiro: a member of the lowest class on the island of paradise, he is one of the few people on the entire planet forbidden from using mana. Though he has above-average latent talent, a mishap in the test he was given has left him, in a practical sense, crippled.

Mm. You mentioned this being similar to Cradle already, and it is. It's just a super common xianxia trope in general, though. Sundered Soul, Hollow Core...you get the idea. It's turning into a really common trope, both in western xianxia and Chinese originals.

> Ok I just realized that he kinda sounds like a copy-paste of Lindon from Will Wight's cradle, but trust me he goes a completely different direction.

If a part of the premise or hero sounds so similar to a famous book that you feel like you need to defend it before you even write it, it's probably going to come across as too similar to readers as well. This doesn't mean you can't draw inspiration from other books - everyone does that - but you may want to have elements that you use to distinguish the story before you get into the tropes that feel similar to the existing books.

> Sera: born on the same day as Kiro, they were thought to be destined rivals. She grows up the prodigy of her generation, using wit and charm and overwhelming force to race up the ranks at record pace. And, instead of rivals, she grows up Kiro's closest friend. Lately, she has been training as a sect apprentice, hoping to gain even more insight on the path of immortality.

I like rivals, but you may want to change the name. This is the same name as the sister from Arcane Ascension and sounds very similar.

> Aetna: a long-forgotten saint of storms and wisdom, she has been slumbering for so long that she has fallen several levels of power. Still, she retains her immortality and hopes to find some treasures that will restore her to her former glory. Some new, not-dead-in-a-thousand-year-old-tomb followers also wouldn't go amiss...

Please just don't make her a thousand year old anime loli. Thanks in advance.

Overall, this book concept sounds cool, and I wish you luck with writing it!

Hey guys!

Sundered Soul is finally released on Amazon. Blurb and link are below. My thanks in advance for checking it out!

Cheers,

Rick

Not all fates are created equal...

Kenji’s only dream in life is to become a great rebirther like his father. But with no talent for the mystic arts, the age-old tradition of cultivating essence by returning things to their newborn state, to grow a second and third time, is far beyond his grasp.


Worse still, he is yet to be rebirthed himself and stands a dullard of a giant among his diminutive peers. Relegated to working the orchards as a common laborer, Kenji settles into a life of lowered expectations; with no chance for advancement and no chance of pursuing the woman he loves.


But when a mystic warrior from a distant land enters his village, pursued by a powerful demon, Kenji discovers a truth about himself that will not only question who he is, but perhaps everything he can become.


With a chance to make his dreams come true, Kenji must choose between following the fate laid out before him…or defying the heavens to forge his own path.


Doing so will mean finding a way to cultivate and fighting powerful enemies to protect the ones he loves, but failure could mean the very fall of the heavens themselves.


Join Kenji as he uncovers the fate of the Sundered Soul…


Sundered Soul is book one in the new Wuxia/Xianxia series by bestselling LitRPG author Rick Scott. If you’re a fan of Asian cultivation stories like the Cradle Series, martial arts fantasy and Japanese style Xianxia such as Princess Mononoke, Samurai Shodown and Sekiro, then this is the book for you!


Read Sundered Soul today!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V79B79G

Spellmonger definitely has combat, but it isn't a progression story in that respect after the traditional sense.

The protagonist starts out as a small village hedge wizard, slowly growing in power and importance until he's eventually a feudal lord and more. So if you consider gaining new titles and ranks in the peerage progression, then you might find it to be a fun read.

You must have a super strict definition of what you consider "progression fantasy" (vs I guess other fantasy that doesn't have strict RPG quantification).

Some other series that I consider progression fantasy and I enjoyed:

• Into the Labyrinth by John Bierce (two sequels are out, although these books tends to be on the shorter side). Like, this book is shockingly short. If I hadn't checked the length after, I would have sworn this was at least twice its 178 pages (which is probably good if the author is crazy like me and considers crazy stretch goals like "adapt this into a feature length film").
  
  
• Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe is a very western magic school progression series.
  
  
• The Fire Within by DK Holmberg is about a good friend that accidentally passes the test to get into magic school, then has to work his ass off to not get kicked out and forced to serve the school as a janitor. (6 books in this series right now)
  
  
• Hollow Core by Gage Lee is basically Wuxia/Xianxia High School (sequel comes out October 29th)
  
  
• Azyl Academy by Chris Vines is another Wuxia/Xianxia High School (sequel comes out November 8th) -- This book has two main weaknesses, the first is the author has way too much meta internal monologue that I think he uses as a "lampshading" trope to justify that a person positioned by a god has a lot of inherent talent (I mean, he already justified it by having a literal god intervene). The other is the lack of a coherent goal (MC just wants to "git gud" because a god told him he would be the difference between a good and bad outcome). But this series is admittedly aimed at "grade level: 5-12" (which seems like a big range to me).
  
  To me "normal" length book is 300-350 pages.
  
  > why aren't established fantasy authors rushing to deliver?
  
  New niche (niche-ier?) genre labels appear all the time, so there are probably a ton of fantasy stories out there that have that "progression" aspect to it that you are overlooking.
  
  Seriously, just climb down through Amazon's category labels to the bottom of fantasy limb and read there.
  
  The difference between "fantasy" and "progression fantasy" is how much the author details the main character(s) montages.

Welcome :)

It is usual to add a link to the book or your website so that it is easier for readers to find it. I searched and I hope this is the one you mentioned in the post: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TFSC77N/

I am a fan of this style also.

The Novice: Summoner: Book One (The Summoner Trilogy 1)

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Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) This series takes place in a school like environment.

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The Hound of Rowan: Book One of The Tapestry Very YA, but Fun.

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The Emperor's Blades: Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, Book I A lot of the book takes place in a "school"

Nathan Thompson's SoulShip has an interesting combination of cultivation, magic, and technology. "Mana" is one of the things cultivated and can also be used to cast spells.

The book is otherwise quite excellent.

Kinda in order. Keep in mind I don't read the translated Asian novels because most of the translations are hot garbage and I just can't get used to those.

Cradle from Will Wight- Excellent writing and plotline, it's what got me into this subreddit in the first place. No need to say any more, this is a stable of the sub.

Mother of Learning from Domagoj Kurmaic- Also really solid, the story is a few months away from finishing, highly recommend.

Metaworld Chronicles from Wutosama- The author took a generic isekai plotline and twisted it. The writing might not be completely as good as the others, but probably competing for personal enjoyment right up there with Cradle. It's not as popular as the others, but read the first few chapters and give it a shot if you want.

Arcane Ascension from Andrew Rowe- Very solid too, but slightly inferior to Cradle imo. Probably because I read Cradle first. Honestly, the book is quite forgettable since I don't remember the plotline, but I still remember it being good.

The Traveler's Gate Trilogy from Will Wight- It gets really wordy at times, and I get confused by the plot sometimes because I get impatient and my eyes skip a few lines or so. Still solid, but the weakest one out of the ones I've read.

[Cradle]
[Mother of Learning]
[Sufficiently Advanced Magic]
[Street Cultivation]
[The Land]
[The Divine Dungeon]
[The Dark Herbalist]
[Ascend Online]
[The Way of the Shaman]
[The Wheel of Time] (Low Quality)
[I Shall Seal the Heavens]
[A Will Eternal]
[Coiling Dragon]
[Patrick Rothfuss] (Author)
[The Thousand Li]
[Savage Divinity] (Low Quality)
[The Dao of Magic]
[Dante's Immortality]
[Forge of Destiny]
[Veilverse]
[Way of the Immortals]
[Sundered Soul]
[Edge of Eons]
[Soulship]
[The Wandering Inn]
[Delvers LLC]
[Dodge Tank]
[World Tree Online]
[Life Reset]
[Viridian Gate Online]
[The Crafting of Chess]
[Reverend Insanity]
[I Eat Tomatoes] (Author)
[Er Gen] (Author)
[The King's Avatar]
[Against the Gods]
[Martial World]
[Dragon Heart]
[Purple Days]

I really enjoyed the Ten Realms series. The stats aren't really brought up that often and you never see a character sheet of the two main characters. Right now there are 4 books in the series and the author is working on the next one.

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Week-Curse-Realms-Book-ebook/dp/B07F7QQGZ9

Maybe Hollow Core (School of Swords and Serpents Book 1) by Gage Lee? Definitely "Another World".

There are a number of Sci-Fi Lit-RPG stories out there. Two of my favorites are

The Game -- www.thegam3.com Aliens contact earth, turns out the galaxy is run based on RPG rules. The MC builds his own AI, and joins the game to try and carve a place for himself among the stars.

Phantom Server Trilogy MC receive an invite to try a new hardcore vr game far from earth.

Perimeter Defense Series

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For more traditional fiction

Troy Rising by John Ringo - A grocery store clerk leverages a black market human delicacy to forcibly uplift Earth. Lots of progression of Tech, crazy ideas, and space battles.

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Immortals-Divine-Xianxia-Cultivation-ebook/dp/B07WW1V9FF/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YT17RL6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6

Azyl Academy by Chris Vines is a new one. https://www.amazon.com/Azyl-Academy-Elemental-Gatherers-Book-ebook/dp/B07TFSC77N/

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Week-Curse-Realms-Book-ebook/dp/B07F7QQGZ9

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A9EPX5I/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0

I think this fits. Been waiting on book 2 for half a year after he's said that he was done tho.

The Contractor

I will just mention that I happened upon this post and was surprised there was an audiobook available

see, I checked out the page for book 1 as one does and saw no audio format listed, so just assumed none existed

by making this combined pack, discoverability is really reduced