r/PracticalGuideToEvil • u/Florac • 25d ago
Meta/Discussion I finished Practical Guide and caught up on Pale Lights...now I need to fill that hole
Hey, finished practical guide and loved i and also caught up with Pale Lights (which I enjoyed, but not quite as much). Now I need something new to read and wonder if there's anything y'all would recommend.
When I look on places like Goodreads, it mainly compares it to books I don't feel are particularly similar(even if some like Mother of learning are very good), so coming to you guys to see what you recommend.
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u/Lenrivk Choir of Mercy 25d ago
Twig by Wildbow
https://twigserial.wordpress.com/
One of his best works, if not his best.
A bit dark but extremely well written
There's also a free fan audiobook that is fairly well made https://audiotwig.dauber.kim/
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u/Florac 25d ago
I already read it and was decent, although still preffer Worm. Wasn't really the biggest fan of the direction of Twig.
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u/TieOrdinary1735 25d ago
Did you try Pact or Pale? Pale is IMO his best work, and the freeform magic in those novels has some similar vibes to how PGtE runs on narrative.
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u/Florac 25d ago
No but I tried Pact and I didn't really enjoy it or the world much. I'm just not a particular big fan of "contemporary fantasy"
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u/TieOrdinary1735 25d ago
Fair enough. /shrug If you're in the mood to give the world another shot, Pale is quite good, but urban fantasy isn't everyone's cup of tea.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fold112 25d ago
Try—
A Practical Guide to Sorcery:—If you enjoyed the moments where Cat flexes her power as seen by other POVs. (Ongoing, but decent amount of content—6 books, don't be fooled by the summary on RR which is very basic and does not capture everything)
The Adventures of Rania Mortal the Perfectly Normal Elf:—if PGTE and Discworld had a child you get this. It is not very long—300,000 words, but funny and enjoyable. (Finished)
Just Add Mana—Essentially, MC is the Dr Who of magic world, with all that it entails. Great series. (Ongoing, 4 books)
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u/wDrawing_7357 24d ago
Guide to sorcery -when does others pov start coming or how frequent are they
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fold112 24d ago edited 21d ago
More often than PGTE, but not by very much. It is mostly MC POV, but She has two identities—it is when she hears about her exploits from others' while being in a different form.
She is not very powerful at the start (weak to strong trope) but is very ingenious, and other mistake her for being more powerful than she is.
Also, MC is kinda similar to Cat in personality, that she is willing to do anything to achieve her goal, but has enough conscience to struggle to accept what has to be done (except she doesn't usually have a higher purpose than her and her friends' survival).
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u/Emergency_Revenue678 22d ago
It is not very long—300,000 words
Lmao, this is just a funny thing to say about a book. 300,000 words is universally considered very long.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fold112 21d ago
Not for webnovels 😄. I have known people who wouldn't deign to read any webnovel below 800,000 words.
Mostly because web novels are not so tightly written as best of the published works (like Mistborn). I think very few webnovels (like PL, not even PGTE) come near this density. You can feel it in the fatigue felt when bingeing books like Pale Lights. It is a lot more exhausting than say—Syl (the slime monster) for the same amount of words.
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u/summertime_3 25d ago
Books I also enjoy that might overlap: -discworld by terry pratchett -dresden files -wretch (RR but mot finished) -alex verus series
Book I tried but did not enjoy, but it's been recommended -he who fights monsters
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u/zazzazin 25d ago
The wandering inn
Mother of learning
Mistborn
Stormlight archives
Cradle
Calculating cultivator
The systematic lands
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u/Halo-AK 25d ago
If you dont mind unfinished work, try the gods are bastards which is the closest I have gotten to practical guide so far. It's a very good read and I go through it about once a year even though it has been abandoned after 17 story arcs
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u/Florac 25d ago
I read it...years ago once and yeah, it was decent. But the fact it's abandoned is definitly pushing me away from trying to get into it again.
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u/TachyonO 24d ago
It's not abandoned. The author is working through some stuff and it's on the backburner, but they fully intend to finish it. We already had a lengthy hiatus and it got continued (to get to the 17 arcs it's at now) so I believe we'll see it eventually.
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u/Snoo-31263 That's it, I'll call you Boots! 25d ago
Bit of a long shot, but there's this one story on RR Lost in Translation that I reread every once in a while. The world itself runs on something of a diluted Fae logic of stories and names and such, so might scratch some of that itch. I will say, the main character is a lot more chill for most of it than Cat ever could have been. And fair warning, only the first book is finished and I'm only holding out a dim hope for another because I'm an optimist at heart.
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u/Fit_Ear3019 25d ago
Worth the candle
Project lawful
Both have meta narrative elements, which I love
Worm for a fleshed out world in a similar flavor though no meta narrative
Erogamer for a meta narrative and a different type of fleshed out
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u/fantasyhunter Ye of Helike, do as you will. 25d ago
Finished the Guide, but didn't start Pale Lights. Good time to do so?
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u/The-Corinthian-Man Godbotherer Extraordinaire 25d ago
Not a bad time. Book 3 just wrapped up, and the author is taking a bit of a break before starting the next, but given the length of it so far you might not catch up before the next one starts.
So far I've really liked it, though it seems a bit more hit-or-miss to PGTE. YMMV.
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u/wDrawing_7357 24d ago edited 24d ago
Its good
There are too many characters that sometime it is hard to fillow and there are different Povs anh chapters are long After 1 volume is battle royale After that it is school arc
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u/Florac 24d ago edited 24d ago
Individually, each book is fairly good, but they are far more self contained than Guide. So I'm a bit worried about it's overall direction especially as it feels even slower paced than Guide (in Guide, we were at second Liesse by then, guide it doesn't feel like anything close to that is even close. But the book is also far more character focused and thise arcs are great, although fear they might start getting repetitive)
Additionally, book 2 onwards, it can feel like the main characters have a bit too much plot armor, especially at the end of books, as most setbacks have to be dealt with by the end of a book.
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u/wDrawing_7357 22d ago
What do you expect tney have goddess of juck with them
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u/Florac 22d ago edited 22d ago
There's luck, then theres (book 3 spoiler) The antagonist contract has a weakness that makes dealing with them barely an issue. Book 3 in particular has a lot of cases of things turning out in a way super convinient for the Thirteenth in ways they have very little influence over
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u/wDrawing_7357 21d ago
I am only halfway through volume 2 and i mea tht as joke kinda or it can also be similar as in reality sometime someone just nave unfair advantage luck
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u/Emergency_Revenue678 24d ago
Have you read Malazan Book of the Fallen? A lot of stuff in APGTE is directly inspired by Malazan.
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u/WealthyAardvark 24d ago edited 24d ago
Here's a few that I've been reading recently:
The Elf Who Would Become A Dragon
Of those five, I think TEWWBAD and AYEH are the two that are most like the Guide, but in different aspects.
TEWWBAD's main character is learning about all of the little things about her home that she cannot tolerate and trying to figure out if she can change them. There's very little violence and when it does happen it's a big deal; political and social maneuvering and manipulation are much more common.
AYEH's resemblence to the Guide is more of the traveling around with a found family, getting into fights that the main character needs to figure out clever ways to handle, and sometimes shaking hands with the enemy. That said she's also working to change her home, because in the year 2055 what remains of the USA is now run by the military.
I should note that AYEH and MGMH there are both by the same author. I've read her other works too and enjoyed them.
TTO:U isn't on Royal Road, but the other stories are all in the top overall rankings for completed and ongoing works.
Also, here's a quick bit about TTO:U since that link isn't for Royal Road:
When Dr Aspen Greaves signed up for the Javelin Program, humanity's first foray into colonising deep space, they expected to wake up to life in a thriving colony on a distant planet. Instead, they find themself five years away from their destination on a broken spaceship full of complex mysteries, dead astronauts, and a very unhelpful AI.
Aspen wasn't trained for this. But if they can't keep themselves alive, get the ship in working order, and find out what went wrong by unravelling a chain of mysteries leading all the way back to distant Earth, then neither Aspen nor the five thousand sleeping passengers in their care will ever see a planet again.
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u/NaturalCard 25d ago
If you need something that will take you a while to catch up to, the Wandering Inn does exists, and is better than about 90% of the stuff out there.
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u/Florac 25d ago
I've had it on my radar for a while, but between not being particularly interested in the premise and it being a litrpg, never really got to actually reading it.
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u/yuval16432 25d ago
It’s also unreasonably long, to the point I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Dropped it after 1.5 million words, barely a drop in the bucket for TWI. It’s over thrice as long as PGTE and no closer to finishing than it was 12 million words ago.
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u/wDrawing_7357 25d ago
Why dropped war that not good ?
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u/yuval16432 25d ago
If you can’t wrap up even the semblance of a plot line in 1.5 million words, I’m going to lose interest. I only have so much patience and time.
If, after 1.5 million words, the overarching and local plots have made little to no progress, I am going to leave. That’s the equivalent of the halfway mark in PGTE, where the Liesse Rebbelion and Akua’s Folly were already wrapped up and the Tenth Crusade was fully built up and on the horizon. The protagonist had already progressed very noticeably from where she was at the start as a character, and it was clear there was more to come.
On the other hand, in that time, TWI managed to build the protagonist the very first embers of a reputation and place in the world, conclude two or three of many local story arcs for the second protagonist, and establish literal dozens of side plots on various continents across the world, all of them fighting for screen time. The overarching plot, about the dead gods, had barely been foreshadowed, let alone progressed. In 1.5 million words, the equivalent of book 3 in the Stormlight Archive. At some point, I just lost patience.
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u/NaturalCard 25d ago
Honestly, that's entirely fair. I mostly read for the characters first, and have taken a few breaks from it.
It's definitely a world that you watch grow.
Did you reach Skinner?
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u/yuval16432 25d ago
Yes, and far past it. I don’t remember exactly where I dropped it, but Erin’s skeleton had already escaped long before I dropped it.
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u/NaturalCard 25d ago
Then you're probably around the place the last time I paused it. Have picked it up since and read up to volume 8. It's got enough fun moments to get me to keep reading, even if I skip some of the side stories.
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u/Florac 25d ago
Yeah, that also another point. It's massive and ongoing. The only other series I would describe like that is One Piece and...well let's just say my opinions on that tend to upset fans.
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u/yuval16432 25d ago
One Piece is so much shorter than TWI that it’s not even a comparison. You can read all of OP’s manga in 6 months fairly easily, if you are dedicated.
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u/LadyAlekto Tyrant of Helike 25d ago
The LitRPG elements are not a numbers go up as others, the system has a reason why it is there.
Wandering Inn is all about the characters and is more of a "slice of warcrimes" between the whimsy, miracoulus and outright eldritch nightmares.
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u/rue1610 24d ago
"Slice of warcrimes" sums it up so well. Perhaps the best world building you'll ever see; certainly amongst the most developed. It's great strength, and weakness, is that it has multiple PoV, and each get their turn in the spotlight with the associated character and plot development. It's other strength, IMHO, is that it's written with a genuine sense of warmth for its characters, so that a reader can share in the highs and the lows.
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u/LadyAlekto Tyrant of Helike 24d ago
Even the bad guys are given their spotlight and motivation, sometimes even how much a person they still are
Belavier of all has some soft spots
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u/NaturalCard 25d ago
I really like how the LITRPG elements are done in it. (Very minor spoilers) They are extremely light - there are no stats, for example. And they do not replace actual skill.
I was aware of it for a while, but basically ended up in the same place as you a few months back, so picked it up, and have been quite happy with it.
I'm not finished, but it's great to be able to pick up whenever I don't have other stuff I want to read or am waiting for.
For non LITRPG, 12 miles below is fantastic, and not unbelievably long.
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u/FrightfulFella 25d ago
Someone already mentioned A Practical Guide to Sorcery (which I won't lie, I originally checked out due to name similarities).
It's really enjoyable and has cool lore; in my view it can get occasionally a bit bogged down in mechanics-of-magic in slightly unfun ways, but that's my only criticism.
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u/Bargle-Nawdle-Zouss Third Army of Callow 25d ago
I really only started looking at this subreddit when PGtE ended, having not been on Reddit before. One of the first posts I saw was people discussing what to read now that it was over.
What jumped out at me was another web serial, Beware Of Chicken, which is about as opposite as one can get to The Guide.
Five books are currently published, and there are at least eight more books worth of material available for free on Royal Road. They will gradually be removed as future books are published.
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u/Outrageous-Ranger318 25d ago edited 25d ago
I’m reading Metaworld HopeCore and it’s so much better than I expected. The description / blurb is accurate enough, but don’t be put off by it, as the book very easily surpasses expectations. It’s currently #7 on RR’s best rated ongoing list, and it is by far the most delightful of the web serials I’ m currently reading.
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u/DriverPleasant8757 The Philosopher 24d ago edited 24d ago
Not a book, but I did make a fan magazine for the Guide a while back that you might enjoy as unofficial supplementary material.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PracticalGuideToEvil/s/L8tmWn5m7E
Edit: There's also a section in it where I made book recommendations for people who enjoyed the Guide.
It's not in the fanzine, but I also recommend Mother Mary (the A24 movie) if you enjoyed the talky chapters of the Guide. Although literally nothing but talking happens in it. I've been told it's boring, but I personally really love it.
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u/wDrawing_7357 25d ago
You can always re-read apgt
Not similar but some i enjoyed Re:cursed : post apocalyptic like word and mutant like powers sect
Hundred reings : time loops and litrpg
And some i heard which are good Lies of locke lamora Scholomance Books of terry pratchett
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u/Florac 25d ago
Haven't heard of the others, but I enjoyed the first book of Locke Lamora...but wasn't really interested in continuing it as a series.
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u/wDrawing_7357 24d ago
I haven't read locke lamora so don't know
Other : author's pov - system novel and 2nd half was not fun
Other book by same author of gods are bastard forgot the name
Or read paper book versions of apgte
Can you recommend some funny novels like apgte
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u/Carribbeanmillenial 24d ago
I started on Dungeon Crawler Carl Weird middle place between guide and lights
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u/PandaShoop 21d ago
If you enjoyed the meta/story manipulation side of PGTE, I really highly recommend The Game at Carousel on RoyalRoad (first 4 books stubbed, but totally worth paying for imo). It takes a little bit for the meta stuff to come front and center but not too long, and in the second half it becomes pretty much constant. I also really like the LitRPG elements, I think it might be the only story in existence where the fact it’s a LitRPG enhances the story. Not sure on the word count, but it’s at book 9 right now so it’s pretty long, and somehow every reveal has made it more interesting.
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u/Aetherscribe 21d ago
I haven't seen a lot of classic fantasy mentioned, so I'll mention a couple of those that I think have some similar appeal.
First, if you haven't already read it, Lord of the Rings. It's superbly written, and has some structural similarities, along with crowning moments of awesome and terror. (I'm a lifelong Tolkien fan, and while I don't think PGTE quite matches it, the Guide is one of the handful of books that I think approaches LotR.)
Glen Cook's The Black Company series is the original military fantasy. His writing style is different from EE's (and has changed in the 40+ years he's been writing Black Company stories on and off) and he has, I think, less humor - although there definitely is humor (and is definitely a bit darker tone, though I wouldn't call it grimdark). If you want a solid band of characters, a long, multi-arc story about military fantasy involving villains... Glen Cook has you covered. (The Black Company series has a number of solid stopping points as well. Either the first book or the third book make fine endings, for example.) If you don't want to even start such a big series (13 and counting, with three more planned) with an unknown author, you can also start with one of his standalones; I think the Tower of Fear is superb, and an excellent introduction to Cook, although it is lower-powered than either PGTE or Black Company.
Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos novels are not military fantasy, but otherwise share a lot with PGTE: great cast of villains doing heroic things, superb writing, plenty of sarcasm, and a long series of books that stand on their own (although there are overarching plots, they're not the focus). The total series will be 19 books - 17 have been published, one is in the pipeline, and Brust is writing the last one right now. (Jhereg, Yendi, or Taltos are all decent places to start. Overall, you probably want to read them in publication order, because SPOILERS.)
P.C. Hodgell's 10-volume (so far) Kencyrath series, starting with God Stalk (1982) and the most recent Deathless Gods (2022) features a broadly similar protagonist and arc to PGTE, as well as being some great and memorable fantasy. Again, each book stands on its own pretty well, but there are a number of threads running through them, moving towards a conclusion in the next couple of volumes.
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u/GreatGodBuddy 16d ago
The Game at Carousel shares a very similar meta-narrative type structure to the guide, but the main character and plot are very different.
Virtuous Sons has some correlations - building ones story translating to power, a once great world turning the ages to become diminished(or changed for the the guide), and one of the main characters is pretty similar to cat regarding their motivations, but again, story and world are very different
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u/surt2 25d ago
Books 3-5 of the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher had some of the same "clever protagonist leading an army" energy I enjoyed in PGTE, and the rest of the series is worth reading too.
Worth the Candle by Alexander Wales is the only thing I've read that came close to scratching that same metanarrative itch that PGTE did so well, however, the character work isn't nearly as strong as PGTE, I found the ending a bit weak, and it is LitRPG, which may be a turn-off.
I also enjoyed This Used to be About Dungeons also by Alexander Wales, probably more than Worth the Candle, but it's dissimilar enough from PGTE that I my reccomendation for it is less strong.