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Literature / Land Games

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Land Games is a Science Fiction web novel chronicling the events of the Land Games, a battle royale between the children of nine ruling Houses. The contestants fight it out using massive robotic armies in a way rather reminiscent of real-time strategy games. Despite being enemies, most of the players trained together and behave more as friendly rivals than outright enemies. That changes when the sister of Jayle, the contestant of House Jade, assassinates several family members of Seol, the contestant of House Mercury, setting off a heated conflict.

Meanwhile, the indigenous natives try to survive as their planet is turned into a battlefield. The story focuses more on the relationships between the players than the warfare itself. Described by the author himself as Game of Thrones meets StarCraft. It can be read here.


This novel provides examples of:

  • Ancient Astronauts: Reckes discovers a spacecraft that is several thousands of years old.
  • Anti-Hero: Pretty much everyone, since they've been raised to think nothing of marching in an conquering a whole planet.
  • Alien Sky: The sky is dark green at night, pale yellow during the day.
  • Aliens Speaking English: Averted; the Woken speak in their natural language, which Jayle can somewhat understand. They have no trouble understanding spoken English, though.
  • Arms Dealer: Kurai Shade trades units for territory to all the other players. He mostly keeps out of the fighting himself.
  • Arranged Marriage: One between Serge and Jayle, and one between Seol and Brand.
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Due to genetic engineering.
  • Batman Gambit: Reckes uses Mei's feelings to trick her into betraying her allies.
  • Butt-Monkey: Brand. Everyone considers him pretty much worthless.
  • Cult: The Woken in Jayle's territory worship her as a goddess. She has explained to them that she is simply an alien with advanced technology, but they do not think this disqualifies her as a Goddess.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the nine Houses has a specific color associated with it.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: The player's society is extremely imperialistic, regularly invading and conquering foreign worlds. Jayle is pretty much the only one who has a problem with this.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: Reckes Aureus has the lowest social status of Team Aqua, but he's the one calling the shots.
  • Lost Technology: Farseer discovers that the Woken used to have weapons like those of the human players.
  • No Transhumanism Allowed: Averted. Everyone is meticulously designed. Three has been altered so much its been legally declared inhuman.
  • Starfish Language: The Woken communicate by vibrating the air with electromagnetic waves and clicking bits of their shells together.
  • Video Game Caring Potential: Rather than play the game to win, Jayle opts to use her resources to create a peaceful utopia for the natives.

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