Web novels are becoming all the rage bit by bit. Just like the name says, they’re original stories posted on the internet, as opposed to fanfiction, which is based on an existing property. The medium is not necessarily new, as people have been sharing their stories online since the World Wide Web became a thing.
However, apps like Wattpad, Tapas, Patreon, and more have enabled authors to make sharing their work a smoother, more lucrative experience. They can cover a wide variety of genres too, be it romance, comedy, horror, or science fiction. If sci-fi has seemed rather samey lately, check out these stories for something fresh, new, and exciting.
7 Embers Ad Infinitum
If the ‘web novels’ title didn’t give away that they’re from the internet, the authors’ usernames would. Written by Cuttlefish That Loves Diving, aka the 'Lord of the Mysteries', Embers Ad Infinitum combines sci-fi tech, setting, and beasts with fantasy tropes through magic and intrigue. The world has been reduced to a blasted hellscape called the Ashlands, where people live in secure facilities run by former companies like Pangu Biology.
Shan Jianyao, a resident of Pangu Biology’s underground complex, claims to know a way out of the post-apocalyptic Ashlands and to a new world without monsters and mutants. People just need to find special keys hidden across the land to open the door to this new realm. His proof? It came to him in a dream. His doctors say he’s crazy, but there may be something to his visions.
6 Oh My God! Earthlings Are Insane!
From the mind of The Enlightened Master Crouching Cow comes Oh My God! Earthlings Are Insane! It's a lengthy story about alternate dimensions, a looming disaster, and a hero attempting to change his world’s fate. Meng Chao was a citizen of Dragon City, a large metropolis that moved to the Other World to fight their invading forces. Sadly, they failed and were destroyed.
However, Meng Chao gets a second chance when he’s sent back 50 years in the past when Dragon City was still on Earth. His mission: to avert its fate by contributing to society through his tech and teaching. It’s harder than it sounds, as pre-transfiguration humans are very different to the people Meng Chao knew. In other words, they seem insane!
5 Super Detective in the Fictional World
This entry kind of sounds like an isekai, though it's more like a time travel tale with extra steps. Fans of the portal fantasy will find Icy Plain's Three Elegance's Super Detective in the Fictional World much more familiar as it does actually involve traveling to another world. Instead of being a medieval land or futuristic space civilization, the new world resembles the real one with a twist.
Luke, an ordinary American kid, finds himself transported to an alternate version of the USA. Everything looks the same, except all the fictional heroes from his favorite movies, shows, and more are real, from their looks to their superpowers. While he’s powerless himself, he has a plan to join the heroes' ranks: become a detective by using his handy Super Detective System to figure out crimes.
4 The First Order
The names aren’t going to get that much better. The Speaking Pork Trotter’s The First Order is a more dire post-apocalyptic tale, where what’s left of humanity live in walled-off city states or scattered villages. The strong rule with an iron fist, and the weak either try to survive or die. It’s in this brutal society that Ren Xiaosu was raised.
He spent his life fending for himself, only trusting people as far as he could throw them. Then, after a twist of fate, he gains a special advantage over the rest of humanity: superpowers. Will he use them to force his will on everyone? Or create a better world for others? Check it out to find out.
3 The Oracle Paths
Arkinslize warns readers that The Oracle Paths starts off slow as it does some world building. It’s not often a writer does that. It’s a world where things are slowly getting more chaotic and out of control. That’s when an alien spaceship arrives out of nowhere and gives humanity an advantage.
Their Oracle Bracelets will tell the wearer exactly how their life will turn out depending on which choice or direction they take. People like lead character Jake Wilderth can now know figure out what to do to achieve their dreams. The problem is that not everyone can be #1, and people can make dark decisions if it means getting ahead. The aliens’ gift may just finish off mankind for good.
2 Supremacy Games
Written by MidGard, Supremacy Games follows perennial loser Felix Maxwell. As a particularly hopeless human in the universe, the only way he could make it in life was to scavenge for treasure. One day he gets more than he bargained for when he uncovers a powerful being that tries to possess his body.
For the first time in his life Felix gets a stroke of luck. The force of the attempted possession sent him back 20 years in the past and gave him back his youth, with the being trapped within his soul. With his knowledge of the future, and the being’s power, Felix is determined to rewrite history and become the hero he hoped he’d be.
1 The Mech Touch
Finally, Exlor keeps things simple with The Mech Touch, a story about the joy of mechs. It takes place in a future where every military force has a bunch of the giant robots. Only a few people have the mettle to pilot one, and Ves Larkinson isn’t one of them. What he does have is a keen mind and the Mech Designer System.
With this know-how, he gains a reputation as the best mech designer in the galaxy. Even so, the market for giant war robots is very competitive, and not everyone is happy with humans using them to gallivant across the galaxy. Ves has to get around the battlefield both figuratively and literally to stay in business.