39,327
edits
Web Serial Novel: Difference between revisions
m
separate New Media category
m (update links) |
m (separate New Media category) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
Subtrope of [[Web Original]] and the prose equivalent of [[Web Comics]] such as ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' or ''[[Girl Genius]]'' (among many others) which happen to have distinct [[Story Arc|Story Arcs]]. An author, usually an amateur, publishes a [[Novel]] in many short installments (often daily or weekly) on a website.
Quite often, the work in question is some sort of [[Fanfic]], but sometimes they are [[Web Original|completely original works]]. Most long-form [[Fanfic]] is posted on places like [[fanfiction.net]] in installments, and thus would qualify as this trope.
[[Spiritual Successor|Spiritual Ancestors]] of this trope are the serialized novels which [[Charles Dickens]]' (and ''many'' other authors of that time) originally published in serial form in newspapers and in [[Dime Novel]] form.
See [http://webfictionguide.com/ Web Fiction Guide] for an incomplete listing of serial novels, among other forms of online prose fiction.
----
{{examples}}
Line 16:
* ''[[Aivoton Aikamatka]]''
* ''[[Anachronauts]]'' is a web novel series in which multiple realities converge onto a single planet, and all the consequences that ensue because of it. Thus, its tagline: "[[Anachronism Stew|a web novel series of broomsticks, semiautomatics, and jetpacks.]]"
* ''[[Angry Remembrance]]'' is a [[Coming of Age]] story with an Urban Fantasy bent. Brian Cargill learns that the father he thought walked out on his family actually died a hero--fighting an ancient battle between two warring factions of shapeshifters who call upon the powers of legendary heroes and their nemeses.
* ''[[The Antithesis]]'' revolves around the conflicts of a uniquely-perceived Heaven and Hell, narrated by the main character, Alezair Czynri, who is a member of the "Jury", a sect of non-Celestials who live in Purgatory and enforce "The Code".
* ''[[Arcana Magi|Arcana]] [http://www.fictionaut.com/groups/arcana-magi-universe Magi]'' is a young adult fantasy universe written by H-M Brown. It features a [[Web Serial Novel]] of the main series about a teenage girl, who received a mystical item from one of [[The Four Gods]], and was captured and brainwashed by an [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Evil Company]] to serve their needs. He also wrote ''[[Arcana Magi Zero]]'', an [[Alternate Universe]] [[Short Story]] Trilogy about the beginnings of two teenaged girls, who received their magical items from [[The Four Gods]], and try to understand their place in the world.
Line 24:
** The final novel of the series was only available to read on-line (in English, at least... some European countries printed it into an actual book), so there's that for a novel-length serial.
* ''[http://buildingtales.blogspot.com/ Building Tales]'' is a set of serialised short stories, novellas and, apparently, will contain novels in the future. It is written by the artist of ''[[The Life of Nob T. Mouse|The Life of Nob T Mouse]]'' and ''[[All Over the House]]''.
* ''[[Chaos Fighters]]'', a serial novel series with extreme amounts of fighting scenes.
* ''[[Chakona Space]]'': A [[Web Original]] [[Shared Universe]] [[Furry Fandom|Furry]] setting, based on a Web Serial Novel, "Forest Tales", by Bernard Doove, ([http://www.chakatsden.com/chakat/FT-index.html available here (NSFW)]) that started as a ''[[Star Trek]]'' [[Fanfic]] and became its own series. "Forest Tales" was the first series in the setting, but others have been written, by Doove and an army of Chakat fans. Some of these fans are better writers than others.
* ''[[Cirno and Purple Steve]]'' is the story of Cirno Excalibur, who found a pole in his back yard, got struck by weird lightning, and went with his new talking pole to go fight the demons. It's an experimental adventure story published weekly.
* ''[[Color Shock]]'' is a tale of two cities. One is an unmappable, black and white maze called the city of all cities where street addresses are replaced with dates that mysteriously stop right before the millennium and musicians play the only color in the world into existence. The other is a high-tech metropolis where three teenage gangs (the Reds, the Blues, and the Greens) fight with colored solid light they can throw from their fingertips. In both cities, a mysterious force seeks to blot out all the color in the world forever. [http://colorshock.blogspot.com/ Here's the link, till I get around to making a page].
Line 32:
* ''[[Decembersville]]'' tells the tale of a young girl who is sucked into a world of freaks, murder, and mystery.
* ''[[The Descendants]]'' is a [[Superhero]] story formatted in such a way that it's a comic book without pictures.
* ''[[Deucalion Chronicles]]'' is a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] [[Space Opera]], with time travelers, mages, androids, werewolves and more all rubbing elbows and often as not beating the crap out of one another.
* ''[http://www.pc-productionz.net/dimensionheroes Dimension Heroes]'', a web novel series skewed towards a younger demographic featuring five teens who discover futuristic battle suits and are subsequently thrust into an adventure in which they must save their world from colliding with a parallel dimension.
* Similarly, ''[[The Dionaea House]]'', which was told in segments appearing on different websites, every October for three years.
Line 50:
* ''[[Hackett]]'' is a serial novel that details the adventures of an interdimensional taskforce that works for (and with) the titular Hackett.
* ''[[Ilivais X]]'' can be summed up as the tribulations of a slightly psychotic young woman and her [[Humongous Mecha]], the titular Ilivais X.
* ''[[The Impossible Man|The Impossible]] [http://www.fictionaut.com/groups/the-impossible-man-series Man]'' is a comedy web novel also written by H-M Brown, about an Anime and Manga Store owner and the random antics he gets into.
* ''[[Interviewing Leather]]'' is a short story about a freelance writer for a music magazine who is sent to interview a supervillain.
* ''[[John Dies at the End]]'' got started as a bunch of self-proclaimed "retarded horror stories" written as Halloween specials. However, it was taken offline when it was published in book form.
Line 56:
* ''[[The Kingdoms of Evil]],'' in which an [[Ordinary High School Student]] finds out he's the [[Big Bad]] of a [[Crapsack World]]. Hilarity and [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]] ensue.
* ''[[Kira Is Justice]]'' is partially this, except the author is bad at updating in a frequent basis.
* ''[[Last Mage]]'' is an [[Urban Fantasy]] story about Elijah Valentine's struggle to protect the Earth from forces Humans cannot comprehend.
* ''[[The Last Skull]]'' is a comic-book-inspired series featuring "teenaged superheroism, explosions and time-travel".
* ''[[Legion of Nothing]]'' is a web novel about the descendants of [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] superheroes who inherit their grandparents' powers and take on their costumed identities.
Line 65:
* ''[http://www.metamorcity.com Metamor City]'' takes place in the same world, and features short stories (and so far one novel, "Making the Cut") in its podcast tales.
* ''[http://writetocreate.tumblr.com Memetic Narration]'' is a recently started serial involving a third-person omniscient narrator that the main character hears in his head and internet memes that come to life in darker and edgier forms to cause trouble (Pedobear causing the rape and murder of a little girl, for instance).
* ''[[Mirrorfall]]'' - a geeky urban fantasy series whose [[Playful Hacker]] main character who is more likely to sneak off and look at Tropes than do her [[The Men in Black|Men in Black]] paperwork.
* ''[[My Little Pony Chronicles]]'' is this. It updates somewhat sporadically. Is essentially an [[Adaptation Expansion]] of the 80s [[My Little Pony]] cartoons.
* ''[[The Mystery Sphere]]'' - a strange but interesting story about a pirate accused of the theft of a nobleman's dragon.
Line 84:
* ''[[Small Problem]]'' is a blog written by a woman six and a half inches tall.
* ''[[SPARK of Tyranny]]'' is a [[Space Opera]] with an [[Anti-Hero]] [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|Type II/Type III]] Captain and his [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]], struggling against the [[Xanatos Gambit|behind the scenes machinations]] of the [[Humanoid Aliens|Kilon]] [[The Federation|Federation]], which has created a [[Vichy Earth]].
* ''[http://stonesoulserial.blogspot.com Stone Soul]'' is a high fantasy serial written similarly to the print fantasy serials of yesteryear.
* ''[http://www.nickscipio.com Summer Camp]'' is a series of very long novel-length erotica/ComingOfAge stories, initially set at a nudist camp. The story is compelling enough that during my [[Archive Binge]], I ended up skipping most of the sex scenes, or at least just skimming them quickly to check for plot points.
* ''[[Super Stories]]'' is a new series about superpowered people trying to leave their mark on the world.
* ''[[Tales of MU]]''.
* ''[[Tasakeru]]'', a serial novel series using warring [[Petting Zoo People|humanoid animals]] as allegories for human conflicts. It's described as "''[[Redwall]]'' for teens and young adults."
* ''Tales of the Big Bad Wolf'' is an example of a Fairy Tale and Fantasy trope mixed together using the Red Riding Hood story as the entryway into a larger number of other stories [http://talesofthebigbadwolf.com here].
* ''[[Tech Infantry]]'', an earlier project involving the author of ''[[Associated Space]]'', a collaborative series of stories by multiple authors set in a future world that combines elements of the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' and ''[[Starship Troopers]]''.
* ''[[Teds Caving Page]]'' was presented as a spelunker's series of journal entries revolving around a mysterious cave and a creature inside (the actual cave being "Freeway Cave," as the author originally discusses [http://web.archive.org/web/20050502091828/http://www.caves.org/soapbox/printthread.php?t=646 here] and is reposted [http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=762310&page=2 here]. The original story is intentionally left unfinished, leaving the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. The story was later used for Thomas Lera's short story [http://duks.s3.amazonaws.com/Thefearofdarkness.pdf "The Fear of Darkness"], a backdated hoax that attempts to explain all of the supernatural elements of Ted's story with an added chapter.
* ''[[3:1 Ratio|Three to One Ratio]]'' by [[Half Demon Cali]], a supernatural genre written-out graphic novel about a ghost who is given six months to survive on Earth while wearing a human skin and living with a [[Tsundere]] martial arts girl.
* ''[[Three Worlds Collide]]'' by Eliezer Yudkowsky, a science-fiction [[First Contact]] story concerning the ethics of deals with aliens of very different morality.
* ''[[Ultimate Sleepwalker|Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams]]'' and ''[[Ultimate SpiderWoman|Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With The Light]]'' are both based on comic book characters, but since the author is so bad at drawing that he makes [[Sonichu|Christian Weston Chandler]] look like Leonardo da Vinci, they're in prose serial format instead.
* ''[[Unlikely Eden]]'' is a weekly updated Web serial told from the alternating points of view of two 10-year-old girls. The story begins with the destruction of the girls' home which forces them to escape into the surrounding area. They immediately run afoul of the residents of a small outpost and through fortunate coincidence, they encounter a crotchety old trucker and his teenage ward, who become their only friends besides each other. Throughout the course of the story, they gradually begin to learn the complicated sequence of events that led to the destruction of their home. From prophecies to roller skates to robot teddy bears, there's never a dull moment.
* ''[[Wingspan]]'': based on the [[Chaotic Good]] angels [[Fallen Angel|fall]] theme with a twist; did you know the Christian idea of redemption had [[Power Perversion Potential]]?
* The longer [[Whateley Universe]] stories would qualify if anyone cared to run them through a word counter. At the least, they are web serial novellas. In a sense, the stories make up a single, multi-author work with [[The Rashomon|many stories covering the same events from different points of view]]. It is infamous for being [[Entry Pimp|EntryPimped]] and [[Trope Overdosed]] to toxic levels.
Line 116:
[[Category:index]]
[[Category:Web Serial Novel]]
[[Category:
| |||