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  • (review) Super Supportive by Sleyca

    From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jun 11 12:59:07 2024
    Super Supportive by Sleyca

    An orphan sets out to become a superhero, only to discover there's far
    more to the career than he knew.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/may-be-the-devil
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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  • From Chris Buckley@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Wed Jun 12 03:21:55 2024
    On 2024-06-11, James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:
    Super Supportive by Sleyca

    An orphan sets out to become a superhero, only to discover there's far
    more to the career than he knew.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/may-be-the-devil

    Yes! As I've said before, I consider _Super Supportive_ to have some
    of the best world-building and character building I've seen for years.
    It's amazing to find such a gem in the webnovel format. The last time
    I saw such a knack for getting characters "right" was Murderbot in
    _All Systems Red_. And that was primarily just the main character there;
    in _Super Supportive_ (_SS_)there's a host of well-done side characters (James for his review only saw a few good side characters; several more get
    introduced just after he stopped reading.)

    _SS_ isn't for everybody; it's very slow and character focused. But
    those who like it, really like it. Many get involved. A major chapter
    might get 2000 comments in Patreon, about the same on a fan run
    Discord channel, and then a 1000 more once it gets released for free
    reading on Royal Road a month later. A more typical chapter (Sleyca
    comes out with roughly 2 chapters a week) might only get a third of
    that.

    As James said in the review, the "superheros and superpowers are good"
    surface view is being gradually devalued as you read carefully more.
    It's even worse than what James said - he was wrong when he said
    superpowers were given to those who volunteered and worked hard. The
    Avowed are not volunteers; they are involuntary draftees based on
    genetics and can be summoned by the aliens at any time. All this is
    well-known on Earth, but the implications and the purposes of the
    aliens are not really understood by Earthlings and much less by young
    Alden. The story will definitely be turning darker; my prediction is
    it will be pretty soon, within 200,000 words (it's at 800,000 now,
    roughly 3-4 novels.)

    The hard questions of worthiness of sacrifice are just beginning to be
    explored now. Sleyca obviously has a well-developed idea of where she
    wants to take her themes, the question is whether she'll be able to
    continue writing at such a high level. The Patreon readers are pretty
    clearly worried about burnout and are urging her to write less!

    Chris

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  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to alan@sabir.com on Wed Jun 12 03:53:21 2024
    In article <lcsiijFiuo4U1@mid.individual.net>,
    Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com> wrote:

    surface view is being gradually devalued as you read carefully more.
    It's even worse than what James said - he was wrong when he said
    superpowers were given to those who volunteered and worked hard. The
    Avowed are not volunteers

    If I was not in Dance Season hell I'd go back and reword the review a bit.

    The situation about powers is complicated: our hero works towards getting powers, is repeatedly warned the odds are against him, gets lucky. Kids of supers have better odds of being selected than do regular people but it's
    still dice rolls. One family in particular has worked out to game the
    system but the powers they chase involve luck manipulation.

    (also, people can swap powers if they want... as long as they act
    quickly)


    The hard questions of worthiness of sacrifice are just beginning to be >explored now. Sleyca obviously has a well-developed idea of where she
    wants to take her themes, the question is whether she'll be able to
    continue writing at such a high level.

    I didn't come across anything that unabigiously IDed the author's
    gender, so I have them down as "unknown".

    The Patreon readers are pretty clearly worried about burnout and are
    urging her to write less!

    Some people have just the one writing speed....
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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  • From Chris Buckley@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Wed Jun 12 14:31:20 2024
    On 2024-06-12, James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:
    In article <lcsiijFiuo4U1@mid.individual.net>,
    Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com> wrote:

    surface view is being gradually devalued as you read carefully more.
    It's even worse than what James said - he was wrong when he said >>superpowers were given to those who volunteered and worked hard. The
    Avowed are not volunteers

    If I was not in Dance Season hell I'd go back and reword the review a bit.

    If you do, the one other mistake you'd be lambasted for in the Patreon is saying that Joe was nicknamed by Alden. "Joe" was what he told Alden to
    call him by (names are important.)

    Joe is an interesting character, as you say. He's currently on the
    outs with the vast majority of readers, though I would disagree. (If
    we had to predict who would be on Alden's side and who would be on
    Team Antagonists when we finally get to the main conflict, I would disagree with most reader's placements.)

    The situation about powers is complicated: our hero works towards getting powers, is repeatedly warned the odds are against him, gets lucky. Kids of supers have better odds of being selected than do regular people but it's still dice rolls. One family in particular has worked out to game the
    system but the powers they chase involve luck manipulation.

    (also, people can swap powers if they want... as long as they act
    quickly)


    The hard questions of worthiness of sacrifice are just beginning to be >>explored now. Sleyca obviously has a well-developed idea of where she
    wants to take her themes, the question is whether she'll be able to >>continue writing at such a high level.

    I didn't come across anything that unabigiously IDed the author's
    gender, so I have them down as "unknown".

    Buried in the tens of thousands of comments is a reply from Sleyca
    that her preferred pronoun is "she". Not much is known about
    Sleyca. She claims to be a web designer living in the Pacifc time
    zone. She's unfamiliar with Patreon (before this novel - my estimate
    is she's grossed over 250K so far with it). My guess is she's an
    established author, whether it be several Kindle Unlimited ebooks or
    something much more impressive.

    The Patreon readers are pretty clearly worried about burnout and are
    urging her to write less!

    Some people have just the one writing speed....

    But her chapters keep getting longer, and her releases keep getting later!

    It's an impressive novel, IMO. Most readers are still viewing it in terms
    of black and white, good vs evil. But I think she's set up a beautiful
    world underneath that of grays, of hard choices both in the past and to come. I'm looking forward to it!

    Chris

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  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to alan@sabir.com on Wed Jun 12 14:39:47 2024
    In article <lctppoFok0vU1@mid.individual.net>,
    Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com> wrote:
    On 2024-06-12, James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:
    In article <lcsiijFiuo4U1@mid.individual.net>,
    Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com> wrote:

    surface view is being gradually devalued as you read carefully more.
    It's even worse than what James said - he was wrong when he said >>>superpowers were given to those who volunteered and worked hard. The >>>Avowed are not volunteers

    If I was not in Dance Season hell I'd go back and reword the review a bit.

    If you do, the one other mistake you'd be lambasted for in the Patreon is >saying that Joe was nicknamed by Alden. "Joe" was what he told Alden to
    call him by (names are important.)

    That was fast enough to fix.

    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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