Just curious, here. What are the best LONG (ie. over 15M or so) stories on SOL? I prefer character driven, believable if immersed, sex not required but not boiler plate if there, complete or near would be nice.
And, yes, I have read STD.
Just curious, here. What are the best LONG (ie. over 15M or so) stories on SOL? I prefer character driven, believable if immersed, sex not required but not boiler plate if there, complete or near would be nice.
And, yes, I have read STD.
I respectfully submit my Smart Girls series. It's not exactly a long story, rather several shorter stories that merge into a common stream.
Oyster, dude, I love your stuff. Still have the latest in my que. I believe that I have read everything you have published here, though you do seem a bit repetitive in your themes. Not that those are bad themes, sort of like Lubrican...I still think of him as Beating Off Bob...but you might consider a paradigm shift.
Actually, you might be there with Carlita and Haley.
Most long series, to me anyway, seem to become repetitive and unfulfilling after a while. Exceptions seem to be Lubrican, Robberhands, Oyster50 (blatant plug), and DragoTime. Racheal Ross and Vulgus are also in that list, but unfortunately, she died and I'm not sure what happened with him.
I'm really just looking for other's thoughts on this. Maybe I find something I like.
May I humbly suggest A Well-Lived Life? It's one story, in 17 parts (so far, with a new part which will be posted starting May 1), and 6.7 million words:
https://storiesonline.net/series/1167/a-well-lived-life
https://storiesonline.net/series/1253/a-well-lived-life-2
Lady in Red is already read. Waiting for the next install, though not holding my breath.
Well Lived Life is in the que, but I am saving it to wait for a conclusion, if that is even possible.
Daze in the Valley may fit the bill.
Thanks for the suggestions though.
You might also like this series. It is not quite to 15 MB, but also has not finished yet. The first four books were pretty good.
https://storiesonline.net/series/1080/stupid-boy
Check out Jay Cantrells stories.
I haven't read Daze in the Valley since I read in a review that there's cheating and losing girlfriends involved and that's just not my thing.
However, Runaway Train, Unforgettable Weeks and A Flawed Diamond are all in my top 10 reads on SOL, if not top 5.
You might want to wait with Unforgettable Weeks since it's very much an unfinished story and he's written in his blogs that he might not finish it. That's the same reason that I haven't read Learning Curves since it's the same deal there.
While they're not 15MB, they are long stories, but according to the search there's only 3 stories that's 15MB+ (not including serials of course).
I read in a review that there's cheating and losing girlfriends involved
Only very very peripherally, unless you count the MC living with his several girlfriends. Thinking a bit more, there is some cheating near the start but it does not end well for the cheater.
Only very very peripherally, unless you count the MC living with his several girlfriends. Thinking a bit more, there is some cheating near the start but it does not end well for the cheater.
I might give it a shot then. Like I said, I love Jay's stories and if the cheating is near the start, I probably won't have big problems with it since I haven't had time to get attached to the characters yet.
I guess I always skipped it because I figured that whatever girlfriend he'd have would be a porn actress and while I guess it wouldn't be cheating since she'd just be doing her job, I have some problems with main characters girlfriend/s having sex with other men (whether it's cheating, her job, swinging or orgies), which she probably would have as a porn actress.
Some of the girls do indeed taper off after awhile but he still ends up with like 5-7 of them.
The ending to that series is actually rather brilliant.
I haven't read Daze in the Valley
Don't let the nay-sayers put you off. Come to your own conclusion. Sometimes it is not what, but how.
Don't let the nay-sayers put you off. Come to your own conclusion. Sometimes it is not what, but how.
I've read it now. The cheating did indeed not bother me, as the reader never even got to meet the woman who cheated. Overall, I liked it well enough but like I wrote earlier
I figured that whatever girlfriend he'd have would be a porn actress and while I guess it wouldn't be cheating since she'd just be doing her job, I have some problems with main characters girlfriend/s having sex with other men (whether it's cheating, her job, swinging or orgies)
This still bothered me alot, but it didn't happen until about 145 chapters in. Up until that point I loved it, but after that it left me with a bad feeling. I don't regret reading it though.
I don't regret reading it though.
I'm glad. Jay tends to show the warts where needed, and I can see how showing the less altruistic side of humanity could be off putting to some, even though it is really like that out there. Sometimes a bad feeling can be a good indicator.
I read in a review that there's cheating and losing girlfriends involved
Read that review again, I think you misunderstood it.
What is it about in general? I read the first chapter and am kind of lost.
In a fictional version of our present world, a group of young, exceptionally good male college graduates is hired by a Fortune 500 company, which so far only hired women. The story is told in first POV of one of those 'New Hires'.
As the author states 'This story plays fast and loose with Ancient History and Linguistics'.
Ancient history is also the reason for the existence of a company with only female employees but you have to read it to find out the reasons for the change in their hiring policy. Of course, I could tell much more but not without spoiling your fun to find out yourself what's happening and why.
Why wouldn't they hire only females? According to feminist literature, women do the same work for seventy cents on the dollar. I'm thinking there's a significant savings on labor costs.
I only read the first chapter, but it looks like it is in the same universe like his prior story where only one in ten babies are male and this is some kind of Quota enforced by the government to hire males.
I only read the first chapter, but it looks like it is in the same universe like his prior story where only one in ten babies are male and this is some kind of Quota enforced by the government to hire males.
No, those two stories have nothing in common.
Why wouldn't they hire only females? According to feminist literature, women do the same work for seventy cents on the dollar. I'm thinking there's a significant savings on labor costs.
Well for one thing, the feminist literature is mostly wrong on this issue.
If you correct for education and certain life choices (marriage, children), the difference all but disappears.
For unmarried, college educated (degree), childless women who put their career first like most men do, the difference drops to less than 5 cents.
Married women and mothers tend to put other considerations above their career, they demand more flexible hours and more time off work. While they trade lower pay for those things, the things they trade lower pay for cost their employers money in other ways.
The same issue in Germany. woman are more likely to only work part-time and although the husband/partner can take maternity leave (60% pay for 12 months) instead of the wife, in 95% it is the woman who takes maternity leave.
The whole gender inequality pay discussion is false and damages feminism as a whole. You can't throw low paying jobs in the same bracket as high paying jobs.
even with unlearned jobs opportunities you have a big canyon between possible payments.
A hairdresser earns nearly nothing and a garbage-truck-driver lives a comfortable life. Both jobs have the same graduation requirements, but one is primarily female and the other primarily male.
Married women and mothers tend to put other considerations above their career, they demand more flexible hours and more time off work. While they trade lower pay for those things, the things they trade lower pay for cost their employers money in other ways.
In the UK, junior doctors resisted the government's initial new contract proposals because they wanted women who took time off to have and raise a family to accumulate experience points as though they'd been doctoring all the time, so if/when they resumed their medical careers, they'd likely return at a higher level and compete on level terms with doctors who hadn't taken time off.
The government caved in. As usual with the NHS, patients weren't a consideration.
AJ
Why wouldn't they hire only females? According to feminist literature, women do the same work for seventy cents on the dollar. I'm thinking there's a significant savings on labor costs.
Many people keep spouting that figure from certain US employment stats, but they can't find a single employment set of rates that do not have both genders being paid the same. Last year I saw a report where someone did the comparative analysis of gender average wages of only waged staff and without overtime or other special allowances, and the result was less than a cent. The two biggest variations between the two sets of stats were due to salaried staff (i.e. middle and upper management staff) and overtime with bonus for night shift and weekend work being the next two. With the management staff they found there were variations due to experience and performance bonuses where most men put in longer hours to earn bigger bonuses.
I'd love to see an income analysis based on the splits between married and unmarried men, but they don't have that info.
I've started reading New Hire after the discussion here and am enjoying it. It's fun, and sometimes kinda funny.
I've bookmarked it, but got caught starting Arlene and Jeff. Oh, the humanity.
At least that aught to allow my que to rebuild. I might also be dragged back into the MORFS universe.
Getting the "feel" of a story and what route it takes is difficult to get from a little blurb on the story page for epic-length stories.
So how about a little insight into the different top ten or twenty from the longest stories.
1. Six Times A Day
- dropped at chapter 6 or 7,
- couldn't find the strength to continue, it felt like 90% sex.
2. Deja Vu Ascendancy
- on hold on chapter 23, started another story while reading this and got sucked into the other story more, now I have to probable reread from the beginning
- it is a path-to-godhood kinda story with a guy who gets more power with each attempted suicide (which gives him more brainpower because he doubles his personas with parts of his other selfs from other universes)
3. Arlene and Jeff
- on hold on chapter 375, probably dropped
- very interesting characters but the plot moves on a snail's pace.
- You can make your wedding bachelors degree after finishing this story.
- too. much. harem. slaves
4. Three Square Meals
- on Hold on chapter 9, has decent update rate, so I decided to hold it for now
- Half-alien guy feeds his girls sperm and their bodies change, is more consensual than it sounds ^^
- firefly-like space adventure
5. and 6. Wolves and Dragons Saga
- Only read book 1 of 5 for now,
- it was an interesting story about genetic enhanced humans who where stationed on the moon when a cosmic phenomenon changed the timeflow between earth and moon for some hundred years and they find themselves in the future on a devastated earth, secretly ruled by vampires. It escalates into an intergalactic war.
- the enjoyment of the story is hampered by plot-driven stupidity of the characters on a grand scale.
- especially if 95% of the issues could have been averted by declaring martial law. The moon base wasn't a civilian city, a US Senator would have no say in how things run when you get transported hundred years into the future and your government doesn't exist anymore.
8. Flight of the Code Monkey
- dropped after chapter 7
- interesting premise with 2 POV main characters but gets hampered by the slow pace because of sex scenes. (example: in one chapter the character had to go to his station to report something, a thing of maybe a paragraph right? Especially after a full blown sex session the night before. Nope, the MC has 3 sex encounters that morning.
- also, the accent of one of the characters pi***es me off
14. Second Chance
- finished book 2
- doover-kinda story where the MC switches to other bodies after he dies.
- very fast-paced and action-oriented, unfortunately not very much in the "just living your life" category.
15. A Fresh Start
- finished
- the magnum opus of do-over stories
- from his school years, to college, to the military and finally politics.
- he was kind of a slut in school but was true to his wife since college, not a harem or polyamory story
18. Magestic
- finished
- another masterpiece.
- The protagonist is not the one who got a do-over or time traveled, it was his buddy. he is just the viewpoint.
- from the 80's to the 2020's an epic journey in trying to make the world a better place and stop a big desaster.