Player Comments on Spell of Slumber

Spoilers Below:

Don't read until you finished at least one or more of the epilogues it's definitely worth it. This felt more cinematic than any of the live-action remakes they've been coming out with lately. In all seriousness this story is awesome and I'm really glad that you told it the way you did. I really felt the tension of each decision Aubrynne made wanting her to succeed as Darius mentioned. I felt I was able to relate to Aubrynne and her arc throughout the story was satisfying to read.

Aesthetically the story was well presented and one of my favorite parts about reading it. I loved the map of the kingdoms and the little logo of each kingdom as you entered it. It really helped me visualize each location Aubrynne visited as I got more immersed in the world and the magic system. I also liked that the story was written with a dark background. It made sense thematically and it's easier on the eyes when reading in the dark. Each song before a major section of the plot commenced really added to the experience and made me want to keep reading.

The moments of action were well executed. I sensed the urgency of some moments like the multiple assassination attempts and the race sequence was probably my favorite moment of action other than the climax of course. Minor nitpick I was a bit confused about why Evelithe wanted to kill Corlix before the curse took effect. Did like the gritty more brutal depiction of combat and spellcasting as far as that's concerned.

The other characters were compelling in their own rights as well with the standouts being Madame Spelwinter and Evelithe. Evelithe was a particularly nasty villain and I wanted to see more of her and of Madame Spelwinter and the history of their family line. I feel like they could've had a duel the night of the coronation just to show off the power of Spell singers.

I've read a lot of bad romance in fantasy as it seems to take a backseat to the action that's going on in the story. I loved how you have woven it into the narrative and how Corlix is able to resist the curse near the end because of Aubrynne's love for him and how it has genuinely made him a better ruler for it. I mean there were many impressive Corlix moments, but that one just stands out to me in particular.

Thank you for sharing this amazing story that certainly deserves to be one of the featured stories on the site.

This was genuinely great. Mystic claims that it’s a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but for me, this was much more engaging than the original.

All in all, I recommend this story to everyone who can read. Don’t be put off by the romance genre, it’s great in an action/adventure kind of way too. I also recommend going and finding every epilogue. While the main two epilogues are great, the others reveal so much about the characters and the world that was carefully crafted.

SPOILERS

First, I really liked the world building. The inclusion of the map was a valuable addition and made the world much more real. The places and cultures also weren’t made too strictly realistic, but focused on a single characteristic. This helped it keep a lighter “fairy tale” kind of tone throughout.

Another piece of world building that I really enjoyed was the magic system. Without any real info dumps, except the one where we read the book, we’re introduced to an engaging magic system. We get the requirements: fairy descent, the materials: a spell scroll, and the method: singing. We’re given countless other details, but it’s not overwhelming. We’re not given much at all on spellscreeching, but the protagonist also doesn’t know much about them, so it fits.

I also really like how the alternate epilogues add to world building and details of the story in general. The one where Aubrynne thinks her mother is the spellscreecher revealed a bit about why her mother blamed herself so much for the king’s curse. My favorite one (other than the main one), where you flee to the Unchained Empire was also great. The fact that there was at least one other time travelled there was a twist that I greatly appreciated.

Darius already gushed about the romance so I’ll leave that alone, but the characterization of the characters is pretty great. In particular, I think Aubrynne’s relationship with her mother was realistic and helped to drive the story forward. In fairy tales, it’s easy for the guardian or parent to be flatly portrayed as “evil,” but the mother in this story is sympathetic. She views herself as a failure for allowing the king’s curse and lives vicariously through her daughter’s accomplishments. Personally, I felt the most emotion at the scene just before the final battle when Aubrynne had the option of either accepting or rejecting her mother’s attempt to make amends.

I also liked that even though several characters had already claimed that spellscreechers were incapable of love, through Evelithe’s sacrifice, she proves this false, and through the emperor of the Unchained Empire’s gratitude for the sparing of his parents, it’s proved that everyone is capable of love.

The only thing that I genuinely didn’t enjoy about the story was Tobalt’s speech impediment. To me, it was not really funny and even annoyed me when I had to figure out what he was supposed to be saying. I understand that he can’t lie, and this is supposed to be a clever workaround, but the whole ‘spellscreechers’ can’t lie thing didn’t really come up much and felt like a sort of afterthought.

All in all, fantastic job. This is a story worth geeking out over.

Okay, since no one is praising Mystic over here, I'll be the self appointed simper of Spell of slumber.

Mystic, it seems like you're always improving haha. To be fair, I think I like this romance a lot more than that of moonlit waters, which was surprising because I remembered that I liked that couple's dynamic a lot haha.

While lots of people stumble and fall while writing romance, Mystic's one is soaring up the sky effortlessly. The magic of a good romance is for me that the couple has to have a life of their own beyond their romantic interest, but by being together with their loved one makes them a better person overall.

Corlix starts of as a tired aloof person who's pretty much resigned to his fate, not caring whether he died today or tomorrow, while Aubrynne is a person riddled with a huge complex about her magic coupled with a strained relationship with her mother. Their personalities clash hard in the beginning, but somehow Aubrynne's stubbornness gives Corlix hope that he can be cured while protecting him during their journey. Corlix also helps Aubrynne to have more confidence and love for herself. Both characters come out of this story as completely different people and better more self realised ones too. I love it.

One thing that makes the romance also work is that the characters also have other things to do than to flirt, because they need to get the support of other countries. There's a certain amount of branching due to that, a very smart choice to make the story not too linear and maintain this high level of characterization and development we currently see (something actually quite rare in interactive fiction). I like the challenges like the race, super exciting to read. Although those characters have known each other less to than a week, their love for each other is made very believable based on what they went through. Very impressive.

It's also very funny that Aubrynne kinda changed the curse into something less harsh (shes kind of a mixture between a fairy god mother and the prince in the original sleeping beauty story hehe) and that everyone misunderstood her deed as her fucking up the spell. It also added a lot of tension that Corlix didn't know in the beginning that she's a spellsinger while of course harboring lots of resentment to spelldingers due to his curse. It made every interaction they have and every spell Aubrynne cast filled with another layer of tension. "How will Corlix react if he knew the full truth etc"

Then some light critique; maybe one can wave it away due to fantasy bullshit, but I found that the distances and travel time were ehh, very short. One day on a horse, even a very fast magical one, will not bring you to a whole other country that easily. It's just sometimes difficult to believe that Aubrynne and Corlix can cover so much distance. (One exception to this minor critique is that we have also seen them teleporting and stuff. So yeah, just fantasy logic).

Then we have the twist villain, the butler who always misspeaks words, ehh, I was actually surprised, but at the same time I had the feeling that he didn't add too much to the climax to be honest. Unlike Corlix's sister, I just don't think he's a proper foil to any of the other characters like Aubrynne, Corlix or Aubrynne's mum.

Speaking of the climax, I love the climax, although I'm still a bit frowning about the idea that Corlix's sister, who tried to assassinate him even when he was young, that she still somehow loves him? Haha, still not seeing that.

However, the true love's kiss is brilliant. I was laughing and crying at the same time. It was so very fitting for Aubrynne and Corlix to constantly try to one up each other and sacrifice themselves so that the other may live, it reminds me so much of their previous banter.

Fun, memorable side characters too, my favorite side character must be the lovey dovey couple in Romantica. I was squealing through that part so much.

All in all, great story, best romance I've ever read on CYS. (Yes, it triumphs Natalie, Eternal and Innkeeper). The two main leads are just so likeable, their dynamic so engaging with fun action scenes sprinkled in between, that I cannot help but recommend to everyone, even those not that fond of the romance genre.

Well written storygame! This deserves more praise.

Greatest gamebook ive read in my life!
I had some negative comments, but I've forgotten what they were..lol.. No, I do remember but let's not go there. Very nicely written.
Its quite long, but well worth the read, and I like happy endings.

I do not enjoy romance stories. This was a romance story. I enjoyed every second of it

Great story game. I loved it!

Great story game. I loved it!

Truly excellent writing in this! Really enjoyed, thanks for writing. The world felt well-defined and the choices were interesting. It was very creative in the map and story design and although some of aspects of the story followed typical tropes of the genre, it broke others (damsel in distress needing rescuing) which was great.

Great story. I laughed. I cried. I finished it start to finish without stopping and I have a short attention span!

Still simping bout it, still simping

I'm crying, legit crying. Damn you Mystic, damn you with this sappy as hell story that makes me almost want to believe that true love is a thing. Screw you for making me tear up.