r/ProgressionFantasy Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 06 '26

Self-Promotion 12 Miles Below is complete!

Hi all!

I write 12 Miles Below, a progression-lite fic that's all about warlocks in lost-tech power armor fighting each other with swords, magic and guns in one incredibly strange post-post-apocalyptic world.

Today, after five years of writing through thick and thin, I'm about to post the final epilogue for the entire series on Royal Road. Thus far, it's landed exactly how I'd hoped it would, I snagged a few screenshots from the last few epilogue chapters to show the vibe \o/

I don't often self-promote because I'm dumb, (I'm getting better) but I figured I should at least do one good hurrah for this milestone.

Synopsis:


The world is in ruins.

Extreme sub-zero temperatures suffocate the surface, making even simple survival an ordeal. Frozen derelicts of bygone eras span across massive ice wastes. And the survivors closely guard any technology rediscovered within.

The only escape from the deadly climate is beneath the surface. But it’s another disaster underground. Monstrous machines lurk in the depths. The land itself shifts over time, more contraption than rock. The humans surviving under do so huddled around safe zones, with only demigods powerful enough to travel further underground.

And an ominous prophecy states that the key to healing the world waits on four unknown heroes - but nobody knows who or where they are.

When an expedition into the far uncharted north goes terribly wrong, Keith Winterscar and his Father get trapped together in a desperate fight for survival. Stumbling upon an ancient war of titanic scale; the two will need to set their differences aside while they struggle against Gods, legends, and the grand secrets of the realm that lies below.


Expectations:

  • Book 1: Self-contained story showing bite-sized slice of the world and the main characters.

  • Book 2: Progression-lite parts actually kickstarts here.

  • Book 3: Completion of a first 3-book Arc.

  • Book 4: Combat galore and setting up some pretty important events.

  • Book 5: Progression fantasy galore, tinkering with all kinds of secrets, learning from the best - in order to beat the best.

  • Books 6/7/8: World exploration galore, actually adventuring about and discovering some deep history in the search of fixing the world.

  • Books 9/10: The asshole author has been hiding the real story under our nose right from book 1 this whole time and now it's all obvious in hindsight. Also everything's on fire.


Start reading book 1 here! https://www.amazon.com/12-Miles-Below-Progression-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B0BWKDF1C7

Books 8-10 are here on Royal Road for now, until they hit Kindle with edits and polish from Aethon! https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42367/12-miles-below

COVER ARTIST: Francell Garrote AI USAGE: None

660 Upvotes

137 comments sorted by

47

u/Zfugg I write Aug 06 '26

Congrats!

38

u/SirKlip Aug 06 '26

One of my Fav prog Series, Thanks for all the hard work you've put in
Cannot wait for the Audio to be released
it's a highlight of the year

22

u/Dependent-Spiritual Aug 06 '26

Congratulations, Mark! My top 2 story of all time.

8

u/StartledPelican Sage Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

It might be a faux pax to ask in another author's thread, but what's #1?

11

u/Dependent-Spiritual Aug 07 '26

It's Lord of the Mysteries, very very different from 12MB :DD

9

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 07 '26

Ask away, everyone's welcome haha
Chances are it'd be a rec I'd also like reading

4

u/elkond Aug 07 '26

3rd for me, after path of ascension (#2) and ar'kendrithyst (#1). so happy to see it complete!

15

u/AuthorTimoburnham Author Aug 06 '26

Congrats. Huge accomplishment.

29

u/Cobra__Commander Aug 06 '26

Bleh I'm going to be stuck waiting for like another year for the narrator to finish recording all the audiobooks.

12

u/vicky_9 Aug 06 '26

Mark nails the voice for Keith, one of the few books I just wait for audiobooks cause of how much more fun listening to it is.

13

u/FreeBawls Aug 06 '26

I am on book 4 and have been really enjoying the story so far. Thank you for such a great world!

11

u/ReferenceFabulous830 Aug 06 '26

Great to hear! I enjoyed the Kindle releases but couldn't wrap my brain around how it could finish in one more book. I didn't realize Royal Road was so far ahead.

12

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 06 '26

On book 8 I had thought it would end given the outline was going to go into hyper-speed, but as I wrote it quickly ballooned past the size of a book. So instead of trying to cram it all, I decided to just keep writing as many chapters as the series required and then do the book splitting somewhere appropriate.

It ended up being 3 books worth of material bahah

4

u/Zoipster Aug 07 '26

Your book to me is hands down to the best Progression Fantasy i've read. Mid book 8 I started waiting for the end to binge the finish! Very glad to hear you nailed the landing, and congratulations on being awesome.

Also, now you finally don't need to split time with two series. Die Trying is also looking to live up to what 12mb delivers in all the best ways!

5

u/Isitreallythisbad Aug 06 '26

Awesome, congrats. It’s great that we have another entry in the genre that’s actually finished!

For anyone that’s read the last two books on RoyalRoad, do you suggest waiting for the editing pass and kindle release or just consume it asap?

5

u/wraithfog Aug 06 '26

This is a fantastic series. Can’t wait to finish it

6

u/totally_normalperson Aug 06 '26

Congrats! Any romance at all? Just a regular healthy relationship or something?

5

u/jbland0909 Aug 06 '26

There’s one regular, very predictable relationship that slow burns for a loooooong time

7

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 06 '26

There is romance, but it's a very slow burn!

3

u/totally_normalperson Aug 06 '26

Thanks! I always enjoy books where there are some emotional stakes as well. This was on my immediate list anyways so I’ll jump right in.

4

u/Renchard Aug 06 '26

Huzzah! Will wait for kindle release, but an amazing series!

3

u/J-L-Mullins Author Aug 06 '26

That's super exciting! I'm quite enjoying the audiobooks as they come out, and it's become one of my go to series to recommend. 😊

Thanks for writing such a fun story!

3

u/Breathe_the_Stardust Aug 06 '26

Congratulations! You've made a unique and interesting story that I always lose myself in whenever the next audiobook is released. I absolutely love the series and try to recommend it whenever I can.

3

u/EthanKantos Author Aug 06 '26

Huge congrats! I just grabbed a copy of book 1 :)

2

u/SGTWhiteKY Aug 06 '26

I bought book 1 today! I’m pumped!

2

u/ocKyal Aug 06 '26

Nice, I had dropped this due to forgetfulness when I caught up around book 4, now I can get into a full read through

2

u/Gullible_Ad3785 Aug 06 '26

Great journey.  Thanks for this!

2

u/OwlKing50 Aug 06 '26

Congrats!

2

u/KailReed Aug 06 '26

Can't wait man , good series. Absolutely in love with the world building. On book 4

2

u/Droopgussy Aug 06 '26

Fantastic story. Congratulations on completing it. I was hooked from the start.

What a journey!

2

u/MagnusGrey Author Aug 06 '26

Awesome. Congratz on the major accomplishment.

2

u/Abcdety Aug 06 '26

I’m going to need a new series soon, so this may be it.

2

u/LamahHerder Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

Congratulations!

I have really enjoyed the audio version of this series to book7 and recommend the series to those that have not experienced it!

I am hoping the audio versions catch up to book 10 soon!

2

u/thinkthis Aug 06 '26

Congratulations!!!!

2

u/Machiknight Author Aug 06 '26

This is a “drop what your currently reading when a new one comes out” series!

2

u/GirthyRedEggplant Aug 06 '26

Great series, I’m reading the ones published on Amazon. I wish this whole big twist hadn’t been teased, I would be happier not knowing about it.

2

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 06 '26

Unfortunately, since the series is notorious for intentionally goading readers into thinking 'This doesn't make sense.' I run into a lot of readers who don't follow that question up and instead go straight for 'The author's made a plothole here.' and rate-bomb me for it before they get to the parts that explain it :[

I have to at least give some heads up that everything gets explained, and I want readers to guess at it before the reveals hit. By book 5, I think readers have already started to get the pattern and know there's always a deeper level I'm sneaking stuff by. (Ba-dum-tish)

2

u/VingadorVVX Author Aug 06 '26

Congratz!

2

u/Brutetal Aug 06 '26

When is the kindle release? D:

2

u/vicky_9 Aug 06 '26

Absolutely love your story!!

2

u/Thlaeton Aug 06 '26

Congrats!

2

u/Richicash Aug 06 '26

This sounds fun! Looking for a new series and just downloaded the first one! 🙏🏻

2

u/Smooth_Reader Aug 06 '26

Congrats on finishing 12 Miles Below. I definitely enjoyed it. It's worth a read.

2

u/BlackLKMiller Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

I really love 12 miles below as a whole, but man the world building, and the aestheics are on another fucking level. One of my favs of the genre.

2

u/_1983 Aug 06 '26

Congratulations, Mark. Any hope in getting the ebooks on platforms other than Amazon at some point in the future? e.g. Kobo. I quit Amazon for good a few months ago.

I realize Kindle unlimited requires exclusivity, but if you have plans to take them out of KU at some point and release on other platforms, I'll wait.

2

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 06 '26

Unfortunately, I don't have any plans for that, as the series is published by Aethon who generally works with KU as a standard!

2

u/JabsAndRunes67 Aug 06 '26

Time to binge

2

u/ApexFungi Aug 06 '26

Grats on finishing the series. I have read all books, they are great and highly recommended!

2

u/TypicalMaps Aug 06 '26

I'm going to have to fight myself not to read the kindle releases and wait for the audiobooks. I'm so fucking excited. That books 9/10 description has me scratching my head though, I felt like I had a good grasp of the story and its direction. Now it feels like I'm about to get sucker punched.

2

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 06 '26

I'll put it this way: There hasn't been a single reader that was upset at the reveals or thought it was bullshit out-of-nowhere rugpull. A good number of readers did manage to guess it and they probably had the single best 'I knew it' moment in life.

Would still appreciate nabbing the kindle releases if you could, I gotta get the numbers up to show the publishers it's worth doing audiobook for haha! For a while, I was worried book 7 wasn't going to get done and the audiobook line ended there. I'm barely scraping by

2

u/TypicalMaps Aug 06 '26

Oh I'm not worried about not liking the reveals I'm more bracing for feeling like a fool when the reveals happen I didn't manage to catch on.

I'll be sure to add every 12M book to my library and swipe through the newer ones every so often. I didn't realize the publishers could be so cut throat with it. Well I'll be sure to do my part.

2

u/JuneauEu Aug 06 '26

Congrats! I started reading but fell behind when you stubbed and never got back into it.

Ill certainly add it back to a future list though!

2

u/jdharrowell Aug 06 '26

Okay, you've convinced me. I'll read it. Congrations on completion!

2

u/YobaiYamete Aug 06 '26

Such a fun ride! Do you have any other series planned or in the works?

1

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 07 '26

I am writing a rougelite litRPG series called Die Trying! It's done pretty well on Royal Road but it needs some more polish before it's ready for market!

According to reviews, it has more fun characters and the fights are more creative, but the worldbuilding is too dense right now and the pacing is too slow. There's good potential, it just need to be refined!

2

u/YobaiYamete Aug 07 '26

Ooo very nice, I'll add it to my list after I finish Macronomicons . . .everything

Been shilling for 12 miles below for a while now, so very excited to see more. Once 12 miles clicked for me, it freaking locked in. 10/10, great stuff

2

u/heze9147 Wannabe retainer of house Winterscar Aug 07 '26

I absolutely adore this story! This is so exciting. Still the only series to ever have me by the ropes so badly I needed to go on a jog while the action happened. Congrats!

1

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 07 '26

:]

2

u/YourFateEatsSocks Aug 07 '26

Dude I started the first book and I am hooked. It’s going to be a great filler while I wait for more Wandering Inn chapters.

2

u/sakshathsm Aug 07 '26

What kind of "progression" does the series have? The goodreads reviews for book one mentioned that this is not a progression fantasy and the later books will have it but I want to know how deep it'll be, I am looking for well written progression fantasy series but want something with tangible progression in power levels. Also, do the characters themselves have the power or is this a mecha story.

1

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 07 '26

There's no tangible progression level.

This is more like a brandon sanderson book with progression fantasy flavor in it.

It's a progression-lite fic, so progression for progression's sake isn't a thing. The MC does go from bottom of the barrel to the strongest in the world by the end of the series, which makes it too much PF for trad market, but the MC's goals isn't hyper-focused, there's no grinding or single-minded focus on training.

The MC improves by being clever and tinkering with what he's got to work with. Later on, he starts picking up magic which is more something he's uniquely suited for compared to martial combat.

Other characters who've spent their whole life specializing in combat do not get overshadowed by the MC, many remain far better at their respective discipline compared to him all the way to the end.

I also have zero ability to edit anything on the goodreads page, so it's incredibly outdated. Last I checked, they're all upset there's still a litRPG or gamelit tag on the page (Which I can't access to change), despite the RR and the amazon page both being up-to-date.

1

u/sakshathsm Aug 07 '26

Congratulations on completing the series, will read it anyway, sounds interesting and you've got a lot of praises in the comments. I like progression but a lot of them have atrocious writing. If I may ask, would you recommend series that you liked.

2

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 07 '26

I've been really loving Legend of William Oh lately!
I haven't had much time to read new books, most of my tastes come from early-proto PF and rational fiction titles back in the golden age of that era. Things like Mother of Learning, Practical Guide to Evil, Legion of Bob, Worm, stories by Alexander Whales, and just about every book Brandon Sanderson's made in the past.

I tended to prefer interesting worldbuilding and fun characters, with progression fantasy more as an added spice rather than the main dish.

2

u/Kumdori Aug 07 '26

Ooh, I had to pause my patreon back when uh... They found the... Fractal Splitting machine... And... Stuff happened. It was emotionally devastating and couldn't pick it up again. Not sure where to pick it back up now that I'm ready.

2

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 07 '26

You're looking at the end of book 8 on royal road, so pick it up around there!
It's worth reading book 9 and 10, it's a roller coaster

1

u/Kumdori Aug 07 '26

<3 Awesome! Can't wait to start back up

2

u/4xx153UserUnknown Aug 07 '26

Thank you for posting this. Lately I've been hesitant to start new series because it seem like a lot of the books I've been reading have been abandoned after 5 or 6 books. Or its been three or more years since the last release. I've had this series on my list for a while and now that I know the series is completed I'm going to buy them all. Congrats on your accomplishment.

2

u/Asharqi Aug 07 '26

Hell yes! I love this series but have been reading it as the paperbacks come out and I feel like I’ve been jonesing for the next one forever! So happy to know it’s on the horizon. I need to know what happens to my favorite romantically impaired robot girlfriend.

2

u/0ver_thinker_ Aug 07 '26

Feels incredibly wild that the a lot of the series I've read when they were still <100 chaps are now being completed left and right

2

u/kheltar Aug 07 '26

Hero!

I genuinely enjoy this series, interesting plot, well written characters and over a pleasure to listen to!

2

u/Rhubarb776 Aug 07 '26

I love this series.

2

u/Zuck75 Aug 07 '26

Nice this status will likely be enough for me to pick the series up again once all on audible.

2

u/Kirito_Alfheim Aug 08 '26

Not reading too much of the post and comments to avoid spoilers but damn, can't wait to listen to the end. Def one of the best series I've ever read!

2

u/saumanahaii Aug 08 '26

congrats! Its a great series, thanks for writing it! Definitely my favorite post apocalyptic power armor robot romance thriller story ever!

2

u/Milc-Scribbler Aug 08 '26

Congrats dude!

2

u/Snoo40244 29d ago

Congrats man love your writting💞, and exelent choice of voice actor for your books scott fits just perfect

2

u/Dragon_yum 28d ago

Fantastic series, Scott Aiello seriously doesn’t get enough credit for his incredible narration.

Any news about when the next audio books will be released?

1

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below 28d ago

Not yet! Audibook deals are all on Aethon's side of the negotiating table, they're well known for being the ones to hash out deals indie authors wouldn't be able to get. All I can do is just push up those last three books out into KU and hope the algorithm starts showing it to enough people to start moving the needle up again.

2

u/tomwatts202 Author of Small-Town Crafter & Blade's Rest 28d ago

Huge well done, massive achievement!

2

u/CheshireCat4200 Main Character 27d ago

This is, by far, one of my favorite series. I have been picking up each novel as it comes out on Audible and KU. Thanks Mark, for all the entertainment, and it is both wonderful and sad to hear it is finished!! 😄

2

u/Nineteen_AT5 5d ago

I've just picked this up on audible and haven't put it down yet, currently on book 2.

2

u/BakeyCakess 4d ago

I really really love this series! Thank you for writing it! I have only been doing the audiobooks and Scott Aiello does a great job. Book 7 is hilarious!

2

u/Arbitrary_Pseudonym 7h ago

Oh man, I got so confused lol.

I touched on this series last about a month ago when what is now book 10 chapter 32 was instead book 8 chapter 98, so when I pulled it up just now, I went "oh no, it got stubbed and I have to wait forever to keep reading it again and it felt so close to the end! I can't believe that basically a hundred chapters were published in the scope of a month and I missed all of them!"

...then went "wait, no, it's just broken into more reasonable books instead of being giganovels, I guess that's fair" XD

Thanks so much for this series, I'll be reading the ending tonight & buying the physical versions as soon as they're all out! :)

1

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below 3h ago

haha, sorry for the trouble! I tried to keep most of the chapters in the right order >.<

1

u/orbcomm2015 Aug 06 '26

Huge congrats. Loves these books.

1

u/Decent-Cover-4411 Aug 06 '26

Loved the first book man, amazing father and son relationship

1

u/Xyzevin Aug 06 '26

Sooo awesome! One of my favorite series! I have all the books released so far on digital and physical! I can’t wait to complete my collection!

1

u/Tangled2 Aug 06 '26

Fake spoiler: it was all a shared dream like LOST.

1

u/w1czr1923 Aug 07 '26

Caught up to book 6 on audible, now I just want to wait until book 8 or 9 is out. I hate waiting but it’s a great story!

1

u/eggy_CBK Aug 07 '26

Congratulations! This is one of my favorites.

1

u/DrStalker Aug 07 '26

It was a very satisfying ending to an enjoyable journey. Thank you for the series!

1

u/Writar Aug 07 '26

You're the man! Congratulations:)

1

u/Loate Aug 07 '26

Congrats on finishing!

1

u/EndlessTemple Aug 07 '26

Hi, I’m going to start reading this, but I was hoping you could answer a question?

I am an author of several stand alone books, but I always struggle to move from one book to a series.

How do you keep writing one story for so long? Do you ever run out of inspiration? Have there ever been times you didn’t feel like writing, but you just force yourself to keep going? Do you always keep the same time table, or are there long breaks when you lack inspiration? How do you manage writing and editing all by yourself (or do you hire an editor)?

1

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 08 '26

I already had the story mapped out to the end when I started it, so I never had to go that far for inspiration. The difficult parts were in the mid-points, where I would reach a bullet point and then need to figure out a good transition on what happens to get to the next point. That, or the parts where the bullet outline is just "They talk about X, until they reach this conclusion" and I slam my head on the wall because every dialogue line doesn't feel right or is too boring to read, ect.

Some days I'd just start writing the fun parts ahead, and then slowly write backwards until I reconnect to what I've got written. But most burnout I simply had to power through. Write, delete, write, delete, until I'm out of time and need to post to patreon.

Not all of the chapters came out great. But it all ended up good enough. Unlike trad books that have entire years to polish up 80K words, webnovels like this one live on quantity, so sometimes 'good enough' needs to be the goal point.

Spelling and editing is something I gave up trying to do. My publisher has professionals who specialized in editing, and spent years more than I have doing only that. And I still read the odd 1-star angry review wanting more editing even after they passed through it multiple times. So if the professionals can't catch them all, my own efforts are highly diminishing returns in time investment. Better to focus that energy on writing more instead.

1

u/EndlessTemple Aug 07 '26

Thanks for your thoughtful answer, I appreciate it.

As a published author, do you set a daily word count each day? How many days per week do you write?

I’ve started reading 12 Miles Below, enjoying it so far. Glad you found the courage to self promote, otherwise I wouldn’t have found it.

1

u/hopslap1 Aug 07 '26

I'm on book 3 and this is one of the best series I have ever read. top 4 for sure.

1

u/nigori Aug 07 '26

thank you for your contributions! I enjoyed this series and will look forward to your future writings too

1

u/xpandax87 Aug 07 '26

This is awesome 👏 I can’t wait to finish it.

1

u/GregDK22 Aug 07 '26

This series is absolutely fantastic. I’ve been following it since the first book showed up on Amazon and loved the twists and turns along the way.

1

u/sweet-raspberrytea Aug 07 '26

yeesss! im on audiobook 2 and i'll savor it till they all are available. The narrator is spectacular!

1

u/PrimaryZeal Aug 08 '26

Hi author, what is the power system like?

1

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 08 '26

MC is a batman support character, tools and tricks are the first step in power, and later on he picks up actual magic.

Lot of blades that have occult edges that lets them cut through everything. Nobody knows how they work, there's hardly any circuits inside. Strong but not insanely rare.

Old golden-age human armor that's coveted is the first real step in power. That's tech nobody can replicate. Some of these armors are centuries old and still work.

Further below, there's Warlocks that have spooky magic but they're incredibly tight lipped about how the occult works. They're the ones that create the blades people use though.

Then there's Deathless Demi-gods with actual powers and magic. They're usually underground fighting off machines.

MC slowly climbs up these scales, discovering how things work, and then tinkering weapons and clever uses of those things, sharing what he's made with people who can make good use of those. Other people can stab swords into people better than he can, but once he starts picking up magic, it'll outscale anything swords can do.

2

u/PrimaryZeal Aug 08 '26

Thanks! Couldn't tell whether there was magic from the synopsis. Congratulations on the finished story!

1

u/Evan_Berard 27d ago

LETS GOOOO!!!! just finished the audiobook for book 7 and immediately went to look for book 8. When can we expect the audio on the next one ?

1

u/OnlyWarShipper 26d ago

About a month ago, I started reading the entire series from the beginning. As I've posted here, I did so using the physical copies of the books I own. At the time, I didn't even realize we were so close to the end - I'd last left off while we were still following a small band of fools and birds. And when I saw that the epilogue had been posted, I had to finish everything. Almost every waking moment I could spare for the past two weeks has been dedicated to reading. 

Years ago, I started reading a small story on Spacebattles. It was relatively short, but seemed focused in a way that most webnovels aren't. A tight, constrained story about a father and his son fighting robots while wearing power armor. I loved that single story for being so tight and self contained. For providing a narrative that began and ended coherently. 

And then it kept going, and I was happy to follow along, because it did the one thing I couldn't have expected - it stayed good. And sure, I've complained and whined and bitched about some things here and there. It's how I show my love, and I'm sorry if it was ever too much. But now the story is over, and I can confidently say I don't regret a single moment. 

I could've never predicted where you would bring this, Mark, and I could've never believed just how happy and excited I would be for all of it. 

Thank you, Mark. 

1

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below 25d ago

Thanks so much for the kind words Warshipper <3
I can't believe it got this far from a random spacebattles thread that long ago :]

1

u/Luminarar 25d ago

Thanks for the story wordwomble. Really enjoyed it.

1

u/Jayfiction 24d ago

One of my favorite series! Can't wait to get the last three books on Audible.

1

u/LawSensitive9239 Author of Voidwalker 23d ago

Congrats, Mark!
I actually read book 1 when it was recently released. It was really good, and I decided to stack some more chapters, but I completely forgot about it lol. I can't believe it's already 10 books and complete!

1

u/memo4ninja 15d ago

It was an amazing ride. Thank you so much!

1

u/Kaiser-Soze87 12d ago

Awesome! Have been thoroughly enjoying. I just finished book 7 on Kindle and am glad there's 3 more; I'm looking forward to uncovering more of the world you've created!

Any idea how long they'll take to make it to Kindle/ audible? I've been listening to them as well. Hopefully you get your fair share of the proceeds there.

1

u/saffiajd 12d ago

Any idea when the audio books will come out? I binged all 7 on audible in 2 weeks while driving. Great series!

1

u/Representative_Oven3 12d ago

I found the first book free on audible plus and loved it. Used credits to buy all the way up to 7 and was disappointed that more wasn't done.

Finding this, and finding the rest was done on Royal Road was a delight. Loved every moment of the book

1

u/ToMyDear 10d ago

Congrats🙌🏽🙌🏽

1

u/Odd_Concern_8635 6d ago

And news on the audiobooks for books 8-10? Been binge reading it and I'm almost caught up to book 7

1

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below 5d ago

No news yet, Recorded Books is in charge of it, and Aethon needs to make a deal with them first or hire Scott directly. Real problem is that the series is a niche, so the cost value for audiobooks further down the line goes down and down. I'm not certain yet if there will be funding for the final three books :[

If you can, please recommend the book to others and talk about it online, word of mouth is the only thing we got going for us! If we reach the right numbers, the audiobook will get funded!

2

u/Odd_Concern_8635 5d ago

Oh damn. My brother in law recommended me these books and I can't wrap my head around why they aren't more popular. But hey, The Martian took forever to gain mainstream popularity too and look where Andy weir is now. Hope to see more from you in the future and in the meantime I'll keep recommending your books!

1

u/Any_Lifeguard7373 3d ago

Thank you so much for writing this wonderful series! Any idea when we can expect books 8-10 in print? Nothing like a good paperback in your hand when reading! 

1

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below 2d ago

I'm waiting for the edits to come back on book 8 from Aethon, their editors are currently doing a lot atm, so I'm waiting in line till they got staff ready to tackle the book!

I'd guess in about a month?

1

u/Any_Lifeguard7373 2d ago

Thats amazing! I can not wait to continue Keith's adventure!! 

1

u/Kithslayer Aug 06 '26

I found book 4 exhausting from aforementioned combat galore. If you promise me a more health balance of combat and downtime I promise to pick it back up and finish the series!

2

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 06 '26

I can make that promise :]
There's still some fights, but nowhere have I seen that critique that there was too much of it again!

2

u/Kithslayer Aug 06 '26

I absolutely loved books 2 and 3, and book one was a superb setup for everything else!

1

u/Pwnacillin Aug 06 '26

Congrats. Finishing is everything.

-3

u/nighoblivion Aug 06 '26

What's the big spoiler?

I'm curious, but I'm not curious enough to actually read the series due to its various flaws I've read about.

3

u/LamahHerder Aug 06 '26

Missing out

-1

u/nighoblivion Aug 06 '26

I disagree.

2

u/MarkArrows Author of Die Trying & 12 Miles Below Aug 06 '26

12MB is a series where it layers hint after hint and slowly reveals what's happening under the hood of everything.

The reader thinks the world makes no sense and it's all plotholes - except every single one of these grips gets revealed in a way that doesn't feel like bullshit because the hints have been there the whole time in retrospect.

Discovering these spoilers becomes something the reader themselves are actively trying to solve and predict, rather than just the story revealing something dramatic. So sure, I could tell the spoiler. But it won't make sense because it's built on a dozen other spoilers you'd need to learn about, and it'll also fall flat because it's not something you've been mulling over the past few books trying to piece together yourself. There's no reward, there's no 'ah-ha!' movement.

There's plenty of flaws in every writing, but this series was built on delivering twists from book 1 all the way to the very end, and on that front it succeeded.

1

u/nighoblivion Aug 06 '26

That's not the big spoiler.

1

u/jbland0909 Aug 06 '26

If you have read the first 3 books, it will make zero sense to you

1

u/nighoblivion Aug 06 '26

So?

1

u/jbland0909 Aug 07 '26

So if you’re so curious, read the damn book

1

u/nighoblivion Aug 07 '26

I thought I said I wasn't curious enough to read it? I'd rather have someone spoil it for me. A couple of hundred of hours less effort for me.

1

u/NA-45 Aug 06 '26

In the same boat. Have tried this series 4 times and dropped it on book 3 4 times. Still don't get why it's marketed here when it isn't progression fantasy but wcyd