Shade and Flow (A Dystopian LitRPG story)
by Anthony Szide
- Gore
- Profanity
- Sexual Content
- Traumatising content
In the Wastelands, if you were cursed by Shade, you were destined to be shunned, driven away, even killed on sight; you were a creature of darkness, of shadow, cold-blooded and unwanted. But, if you were blessed by Flow, you were the best humankind could offer, a role-model for any sapients.
Loke and Nova were born by the same parents, yet even though they embodied the two faces of the medal, they lived in the same dreadful circumstances, but what would happen if one day the greatest beings of the world decided that the siblings would become their Champions?
A Warning: There is an Anti-hero lead for a reason. So, there's going to be blood, there might be carnage, but there will also be wholesomeness, romance, and affection. But most importantly, there will be Action.
About the LitRPG: This novel is a slow-burn, with a lot of character development, yet the LitRPG element starts in Chater 3 and becomes more prominent as the protagonist evolves his Skill. Further elements appear in Chapter 38.
I'm not a native speaker: If you see any typos, please point them out, and I shall fix them as soon as possible. Thank you!
Release Days: Monday to Friday.
Release Time: ~10:00 PM UTC
Words per chapter: ~3000
- Overall Score
- Style Score
- Story Score
- Grammar Score
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- Total Views :
- 82,054
- Average Views :
- 1,323
- Followers :
- 619
- Favorites :
- 130
- Ratings :
- 161
- Pages :
- 787
Leave a review

Improving author
Reviewed at: Chapter 26: Ethereals
I'm a fan of the author's previous novel and I'm really enjoying it. He is improving his writing in this new book and this new story has a lot of potential. Really looking forward to it. The system is a bit different than usual and this is a plus for me.

Top Grade LitRPG
Reviewed at: Chapter 53: Having a blast
Full disclosure, I decide to support this author directly
I havent rated this perfect. ''Shade and Flow'' isnt as deeply crafted as some of the 5 star works on this website for a few reasons. There's no mind-blowing revelations in a multilayered timeloop.
But I love it in short, here's why I'm supporting this
1. Constant, self contained updates
2. Good worldbuilding and very clean litRPG structure. There's a bit of bloat when items are described but the abilities are not overwhelming like some other works. I love LitRPG but have 25 complex abilities (or literally hundreds...) just makes things tedious. Others have mentionned it but the duality of the setting is extremely well done.
3. A passionate author who's been reviewing his chapters for typos and seems just generally open to suggestions and criticism, and has been interacting with his viewers
Sometimes the luck of our characters seem to be a bit too good to be true; despite the harsh setting. There's some tough moments, but this work doesnt feel ''grimdark''. Fortunately, in the latest chapters, there's a few more moments that our characters explore the consequences of their actions and overeagerness.
Simply put, this makes for a really, really fun serial. The overall flow of the work is smooth and enthralling, a page turner; this makes for a great daily read.
Give it a go!

High quality
Reviewed at: Chapter 20: Learning new talents
This novel is very well polished with an interesting power system the revolves around the concept of light and dark or shade and flow as its called. The characters have depth to them and don't feel like cardboard cutouts and there is an overall good direction to the plot of the story so give it a go. My only gripe is the occasional spelling errors though it's not a deal breaker

Hidden Gem!
Reviewed at: Chapter 46: Offerings
I can't believe I just found such a carefully hidden gem such as this!
The world-building is incredible, the system is unique, the characters are well-defined and feel as if they could come to life, the plot is rich and shooting high without losing itself (for now, though I hope it won't), and finally, it has a je-ne-se-quoi flavor of soft grimdark to it.
Note to the author: might want to add the Grimdark tag? It might work for me.

Mind-blowing System!
Reviewed at: Chapter 53: Having a blast
Okay I found this on Scribblehub, pointing back to here and now that I'm up to date I HAD to leave a review.
This novel's LitRpg System is probably the best I've ever seen. End of the story.
Perfect and credible progression, Skills that DO count, limits in the way they can be used, hard barriers unlocked with outside tools! Crafting allowed outside of the classes and you even found a way to balance it? For that alone you would have gotten five for me. It is simply incredible but if that wasn't enough, a duality in the source of Mana, and Class evolution? I mean, what!? How did you even come up with this!?
But that's not even remotely all.
The action is perfectly done! The battles are true, no dumb fucking numbers when they shouldn't be there, perfectly timed moments, no stupid interruptions. And the Flow of the battle... one minute their studying each other, the next second starts the incredible action sequence which literally takes your breath away.
The grammar has drastically improved from what I read on Scribblehub; I think the author has been rewriting entire chapters, and quite frankly I don't see any horrors like you'd normally find on some other novels written by non native speaking authors.
And then there is Loke, a sixteen years old maniac that is growing on your skin and literally making mistakes as he grows up, mistakes that he has to fix because otherwise his *** world crumbles on his head and you find yourself rooting for him and his messed up family.
Just... incredible.
Thank you for writing this, kind sir.

Endearing and compelling.
Reviewed at: Chapter 43: Another one bites the dust
I've seldom seen such a deep, and well-thought-out world-building juggled with profound and solid character development and entwined with really wonderfully executed action without one aspect clashing or bringing the other down, especially coming out of Royal Road.
I must say, I'm impressed. Kinda sad that it seems so underappreciated; it reads and feels like a true fiction novel.
I can't wait to see how the litRPG aspect moves along with the story, but it could do just as well without it.

I love this
Reviewed at: Chapter 36: The Thermomancer
Its truly what I wanted of a "chosen ones" story, power isn't just handed to them, they have to fight for it with tooth and nail.
The story has some really interesting worldbuilding and it makes me curious about future exploration and progress. So far there have been no true infodumps everything is fed to the reader in a peacemeal fashion allowing for you to rly think about the way the world works.
Its really good and I recommend anyone try it that like a little dystopia combined with magic and stellar worldbuilding.

A solid lit rpg
Reviewed at: Chapter 15: Inception
A really good story so far, keep going.
A very good begining, no plot armor, no power up, no harem so far.
I've read a lot of webnovel, and so far I love shade and flow. Not too slow paced, but not too fast neither.
The story have solid foundation. I will follow this novel

Excelent
Reviewed at: Chapter 43: Another one bites the dust
This is very well done. The pacing is perfect. No slice-of-life meandering nonsence that doesn't advance the story. The worldbuilding is well thought out and executed. The characters and their relationships are rich and deep. The skill and leveling system is unique and well designed. No complaints at all!

I AM OBSESSED!
Reviewed at: Chapter 56: The promised gifts
If you want a story full of adventure, levelling up and evolutions as well as an interesting class system, look no further! Albeit slow-paced at times, I found this story the same day as writing this review and I have already reached the most recently released chapter, 56. The quality for me is akin to Azarinth Healer, The Wandering Inn and Beneath the Dragoneye Moons, if you enjoy any of those stories you will most likely enjoy this one too! I am so excited to see what the author has for us, and I highly suggest to anyone with the ability to help support the author continue their work to do so if they want, again I am obsessed!