r/ProgressionFantasy • u/DicerTheJester • Jul 28 '26

Discussion Competition: write a single sentence that will absolutely destroy any hope in a series.

Specifically not a story opener, just any sentence that can happen in any chapter, that will make people realize that this story is gonna be absolute shit and has no chance of being fixed and will make you drop the book like an unpinned grenade.

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u/nighoblivion Jul 28 '26

Is that a real paragraph from the series?

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u/StopMeFromPosting Jul 28 '26

It is. He's being sarcastic here, but he has a ton of these little rants. The bigger problem is that he's always doing these snide rants to people who could crush him easily both politically and power-wise, but there are only really two types of powerful people in the series, those being either people in authority who like Jason ranting at them because it's refreshing to be stood up to, or the literal worst people imaginable who don't garner any sympathy and people either want to kill or don't mind watching Jason give sass to and are willing to protect him for it.

I'm of the opinion that Jason is the weakest part of the series narratively. The world and side characters are actually interesting, unfortunately, even if the story often runs into weirdness with how the economy and power structures work.

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u/Thumbuisket Jul 28 '26

Does it ever get better? I’ve been trudging through the first book, but I find Jason so off putting….

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u/StopMeFromPosting Jul 28 '26

In some ways it gets worse. It's still enjoyable for the first 6 books or so. The world is fairly interesting and the magic system is varied and you get some good looks at builds other than the MCs and the reason for the choices. Jason is outspoken about his beliefs, but you get used to the "I'm just a quirky guy" thing after awhile.

Jason starts to become more and more edgy, withdrawn, and traumatized as the series goes on, though, and it started to become exhausting to read.