Recommendations Female Protag in an Action/Adventure/Sci-fi/Fantasy Novel

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/28687/the-last-science-se
Drama Action, it's slow paced story and drama heavily, rarely into action but it happen it be very devastating and captivating, vivid, sometime can be horryfing and usually take long chapters, very intense. I suggest try first tens chapters, it's slow to build tension between charaters and as story continue the stack is higher each time.

 

Oof sounds intense thanks!

 

I want many people read this, I love it. Plenty of baddass characters and mages are women, so you might love Rachel, the twins Kendra and Liliy or Cinza.
Forgive me for I will give you one of good review of the story. Credit belong to original review poster - Mundane.
Realistic Character Driven 1st World Magic Novels
How would our world change if real magic was introduced? If you were one of the first to gain access to magic what actions would you take to shape this new world?

The Last Science is a story about exploration and discovery driven by a cast of realistic and diverse characters who respond in natural and interesting ways to events far beyond anyone’s prior experience.

It is full of wonder and wonderfully written and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Characters

At its core The Last Science is a character driven story.

The first book has two main point of view characters and the second switches to three new points of view. This is interspersed with multiple interludes which give temporary new points of view to add additional color.

Each of the main point of view characters is distinct and their chapters reflect that with very different tones. Some of the characters are passive and mostly just react to events, some are driven with a clear purpose and take actions to advance that purpose. There are a range of ages, world views, genders, sexualities, cultures, and motivations all represented. This is diversity done in the best way where it adds texture and detail to the story, reflecting the actual complex world we live in.

All characters (not just the main PoV ones) grow and change as events unfold. Some characters experience grave trauma and emerge weakened and damaged while others use the experience to become stronger and more resilient. Some learn from their mistakes; some keep making the same mistakes in different ways. Motivations and goals change and adapt over time.

Minor characters you might dismiss as token clichés reveal their depth overtime and challenge your initial assumptions. Characters who are young act young, sometimes being impulsive and irrational. Harm and conflict arise from ignorance and the best of intentions do not always result in good outcomes. There are betrayals that destroy relationships and pure selflessness which empower them.

This realistic character centric writing extends to both protagonists and antagonists. All sides in the various conflicts in the story are given strong detailed and realistic motivations for their actions. There are no cartoon one dimensional bad guys here for the heroes to beat with a clear conscious.

World Building

The Last Science is a rationalist work of modern fiction set on Earth. The magic in this story follows a set of rules, those rules do not change, and characters in the world can understand and apply those rules.

It is set in modern day Pacific Northwest USA and incorporates this fully into the story. There are the obvious things like cell phones and social media but also less obvious things like school boards, gangs and card-based board games. There are lawyers, journalists, politicians, law enforcement, package delivery men, preachers, talk show hosts, and many other modern-day occupations represented.

Why magic is introduced into the world is of the central mysteries of the story but the method by which it spreads is known and explained. It allows for a steady but slow dispersal of magic into the world. This spread changes over the course of time in direct reflection of some key events.

The magic has a significant amount of depth and complexity to it. None of the PoV characters fully understand it and over the course of the story what is possible continues to expand. The magic is split between instant “spells” and permanent “rituals”. There are multiple known categories of magic and most characters have one or more types they are good at types that are very difficult if not fully impossible for them to use.

Society and the way in which groups organize themselves are central themes. Some of the characters are literally attempting to build new societies from scratch. The methods of doing so are explored and there are multiple examples which have different levels of success. There are fledgling democracies, effective totalitarian total information control dictatorships, capitalist driven markets and full on magic cults.

Plot

The story is told mostly in real time with few significant time jumps. The focus slowly expands during the books from the initial tight view of a small town in Washington to the local, then state, national, and even international stage as time goes on. Each expansion is meaningful and not rushed, only occurring as the plot dictates.

The overarching plot remains focused on the basic question of what would happen if real magic was slowly introduced into our world. This is augmented by smaller sub plots some of which are personal: what is Alden looking for, can Rachel succeed as a leader? Some are larger, like who is responsible for the deaths in the trailer? Some are fundamental and philosophical: what is magic capable of, what rules does it follow, who should control it, should it even be controlled?

These various levels of plot and conflict are interwoven over time to steadily build up to satisfying climaxes and resolutions. There are no filler scenes or pointless tangents. The pacing adjusts to fit the action, sometimes it is a slow build to a boil, sometimes it is frantic and action packed.

Meta

Etzoli is clearly writing this as a set of Novels rather than as an unending serial. She has already shown she can write a complete story with Epilogue (If you have not already you owe it to yourself to go read it, it is amazing!) and that trend continues here.

This is a story that will reward your faith and payoff your investment. There are very subtle hints placed early in book 1 that become clear many chapters later.

At the time of this review Etzoli has updated The Last Science on schedule for a year and a half without fail. You can trust that she is writing this as a labor of love, and she has the discipline to not stop until it is complete.

Take the content warnings seriously, there are some extremely well written but very dark scenes in this story. The subject matter is always treated seriously and with respect, but this is a story that does not shy away from some of the very horrible things that exist in our world.

Conclusion

The Last Science deserves to stand at the peak of the best modern web fiction.

Stop reading these mundane words and go read some real magic!

 

yes it is but the author stopped writing there and is now on the app dreame and is now with 232 chapters. Oh and I understand your dislike for yuri as I feel the same about yoai its cool

Here's another one "reincarnated as a fox with a system"

Here's one that's not yuri "reincarnated as a fox with a system

is this about someone saving humanity or wouldn't kill someone if threatened?

 

Oh yeah I think someone recommended Reincarnated as a Fox with a System to me on a different thread but I totally forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder!

 

Yes but not exactly, it tell story how humanity respond to magic, how society respond to change. Magic can bring wonder to the world, just think the possibility of such power can help humanity for better like solving world hunger, to clean air pollution and other breathtaking discovery for mankind. But magic is also personal power that can make people with sufficient skill and training to conjure fireball, force field, lightning, dimensional bridge and other powers from their fingertips that can not be taken away or sealed. The key is no one to teach them, they are essensialy the first generation of mages, each spells and rituals they created are from study and experiments and some people fear them and their magic because thet think magic is uncontrollable and it didn't help that some of mages experiment spells end up in catasrophic failure.
You got people who mages who are willing to intergrate to goverment and society (in the first place they are legal citizen of the nations), rogue mages and in other side you got fanatic crusade - terrorist who violently oppose magic and mages who are willing to brutally hunt them down.
Like gun powder and nuke, magic can bring wonder and miracle but it also bring problems. With new power and tool humanity and society will change for better or worse.