Aperio had been a slave for as long as she could remember. She toiled away in the palace of her masters, her body forced to obey, her mind no longer caring that she did. Her only joy was the small inconveniences an error in her work could bring, the resulting punishment a small price to pay. When the news came she was to be sacrificed in a grand ritual, she welcomed it—for most, death was a cause for grief and mourning, but for Aperio, it was her only way out.
However, during the final stages, something went wrong. Fate intervened, and Aperio found herself in a world she no longer knew, with powers beyond her wildest dreams. No longer a slave to the Empire, she set out to find her place in the world, and enjoy true freedom for the first time in her life.
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Please do keep in mind that this story is a training exercise for me, if you have any critique that extends past ‘it’s garbage’ I would love to hear it.
Cover art by creadfectus : https://linktr.ee/creadfectus
Synopsis help from Etzoli.
You can also listen to this story as read by Tome Raider here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYoZTednnnoh-IZlDgraqjAO12GcflvEN
One of the best fantasy series I have read in the last decade.
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If you want to forget a few hours and sacrifice a few brain cells then this is a perfect story for you ! It only saddens me I can't give it 6 stars.
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I’ll write a more complete review later as I am currently not in a state to do so, but I just wanted to praise the character development of this story. Not many stories with a powerful main character manage to retain the character’s sense of both strength and reality, and this story does that perfectly. Nobody is perfect, and having that be a source of the main character’s struggle is so incredibly well done.
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Forgotten is possibly the best story I've ever read. I give this book five stars only because I can't give it six.
However, it's not one that will appeal to everyone. The pacing is slow, the MC, Aperio, has a very alien feel to her (which makes sense when you find out who/what she is), and there's a lot of emotional angst and drama that never really gets fully resolved. If you are expecting high-intensity, fast paced, OP MC does cool MC things, you won't get a lot of that. Though, I will mention the term 'relativistic baseball' just to give a lower bound on what level of OP we are dealing with.
What we have instead is a gripping psychological and emotional drama, and an absolutely brilliant tale of discovering oneself, or perhaps, choosing who one wants to be when given absolute freedom to decide what that might be. Instead of a plot-driven story where a protagonist must react to an outside force, and the story centers on the events that happen along the way, we have a character drama where Aperio must simultaneously come to terms with who she once was and the very costly mistakes she once made, figure out who she is now, and decide what she wants the future to hold.
Forgotten, is, at its core, an archetypal example of 'OP MC done right'. How do you make an all-powerful character interesting? You give them challenges they can't overcome just by hitting things harder. Or you have the rich kid who wants something no amount of money can buy.
And what does Aperio want? It's hard to say, since, even at this point in the story, she's still trying to figure that out, but it seems to be some combination of love, acceptance, family, and belonging.
And that's the secret that makes her so compelling. Despite being very much nonhuman and, at times, difficult to understand or even comprehend, her wants are still wants baked into the very heart of the human condition, and you can just feel her struggle as she grieves for her past mistakes and tries to make amends, to be someone different, someone better than just the sum of those errors.
And the ultra slow-burn romance subplot is absolutely perfect in its execution. A perfect showcase of two people brought together by the whims of fate (which, if you know, you know the irony of this phrase), each genuinely seeking to better themself and their partner. To become the best each of them can be, and to be absolutely adorable the whole time. To learn to completely drop all pretenses and egos and just be themselves, without hesitation or reservation (Yes, I'm referring to the end of Book 6, again, if you know, you know), knowing that their partner will completely love and accept them for who they are and despite their flaws.
In short: It's not for everyone, but if it's for you, you'll love it. Personally, I read the entire thing in a weekend and my goodness I still want more! I hope we get much, much more. May the All-Mother Provide.
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Let me start with, I haven't gotten up to the current chapters yet, still in the mid 70s. So far this is well written, the characters are interesting and likeable. The MC has some very serious issues that she is working through and between chapter size and the sheer volume of sh*t she needs to work through it has been a very slow moving plot at this point.
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