Stray Cat Strut [Stubbing Never - lol]

Do you ever wonder the world does not revolve around you and that other people don't give a damn even if you think that way?

No! Then just read this and you will know the feeling. Somewhat.

The story takes place in a world anybody is out for themselves even if there is a semblance of order. Characters are molded to suit this world not for your entertainment. They wouldn't stop and let you (the reader) take a breather because they don't even have that (so why should you?). The plot will never give you any time for slow and methodical pace to get through. No, you should buckle up for a rollercoaster of madness and chaos since the people living in it are in constant state of it.

The world is not something you can just describe by its premise since the premise is just very simple. No, the world doesn't care if you like it or not, you need to imagine a world that's not a stage but a real, dangerous, and lived-in space; that never bothers to tell you its history nor its future path.

Characters will not and cannot stop and say, "reader this is for your entertainment". They just keep on living their circumstances and if you find it enjoyable, then good for you - just let them kill that guy first and they'll just get out easy.

If you want a story that is not supposed to be digested but actually lived through, then by all means, read it. I am sure that the MC will let you know that she won't give a damn if she is your tour guide to this world.

I'm seriously starting to suspect that anything ravensdagger touches is gold. I usually avoid sci-fi (not that it cannot be good, if it's pretty famous I'd probably still read it), but this is not your usual fare. it's great and I love it.

synopsis:

we've got a cyberpunk-y story that's more post-apocalyptic with people getting cool gadgedt powers than anything really futuristic. how it goes is that there are a selected group people who get cool toys from cool op aliens on alien transport express to *test* against waves and waves of other aliens called xenos of all things that love nothing more than to use overwhelming numbers to fight, but tend to be a bit weaker individually. there are many types, and not all are weak, as some are as big as skyscrapers. most of them, individually, are not as much of a global threat... if not for the gadgets, and these gadgets are supposedly pretty advanced. other than that, the society is still not quite futuristic yet, as it's not even spacefaring. so it's not quite cyberpunk-y. it's our society with a bunch neuralink invloved, with stronger ais and stronger computers which lets us use androids. it's what our society would've probably looked like if we were not on the edge of moore's law and the computational power of standart pcs.

(if you don't know what that is it basically means that computers get twice the processing power every few years. because machines are being automated to be more precise and produce much smaller chips as time goes on. however, now is more or less the smallest they can get, without changing anything too drastic, and they can also get pretty heated so we need much better cooling to continue that route. so companies take other routes to increase processing power, like parallel processing and such).

background and characters:

we've got the usual underdog story, hero from nothing main character. a cripple orphan no-shit kinda girl who gets rulebreaking powers for saving a bunch of people. though it's not really that rule-breaking as there are plenty of other samurai. much stronger than her in fact. compared to other humans it is. samurai are even worshipped according to lore since all major religions collapsed after the beginning of the apocalypse. she's not really that smart on an academic scale, maybe clever, but I'm not entirely sure about that the way she's presented. she cares about her 'siblings' or 'kittens' (other orphans), and has a cutsy friend, which I think is more than a friend, though it's not quite noted yet. though she herself is not the usual cutesy character that ravensdagger loves writing about, that doesn't mean she's not likeable. quite the opposite infact. her cutsy friend and orphans take the shine, but we haven't seen much from them either. other characters are being introduced which I believe will mostly be other saint samurais. so far we've got big-brother-longbow and sister gomorrah the nun. maybe more as time goes on. it fits with the pacing.

story and pacing:

the story starts slow. it feels slow, if only because chapters are short and are updated relatively infrequently. the pacing would be pretty standart if you've got a couple hundred chapters to read ahead. if not then you'd probably have to wait to enjoy this properly. insofar (chapter 69-'nice') the story is about the character trying to get her shit together and fighting other aliens whilst saving some humans. it's pretty action packed and the combat seems pretty detailed. I liked it alot, and would hope to go back to it from time to time. the pacing and chapter release is slow, so not every once in a while, but ravensdagger- the author, has plenty of other stories so that's understandable.

Key thought: If you are offended by normalizing sexual harassment, then I would recommend you steer away from this book.

Ok, the premise of the story is great, including the basic parts of the characters. I was super into the story until the sexual harassment started... and didn't stop .... and still didn't stop ... and somehow still didn't stop.

I made it through volume 1 and chapter 6 of volume 2 on sb before deciding that I was disgusted enough by what I saw that I did not want to keep reading. 

Style was pretty good, but the constant crude language does takes off a lot of points here. I liked how the interactions with people and monsters felt life-like. I really did not like how all of the monsters were designated by such vanilla crude terms. Rather a turn-off. 

The story was fresh while also hitting themes I am familiar with, for a very decent showing. I especially liked the story beginning with a visit to a museum, then themes of companies cutting corners and doing sloppy work, then the plot structure involving PMCs etc. I especially think the rules around how PMCs and other military organizations interact with Samurai are well-thought-out. 

I was distracted by grammar or spelling about once to four times a chapter, sometimes more. Maybe it is because I read this all in a day or two that it sticks out to me so much to me, but my sense of the grammar is definitely not polished. 

Characters: bitter disappointment 

This was a massive problem for me and outweighed the other sections. First, real actual sexual harassment is a big issue to me personally. At first Cat seemed like a decent person, but then she showed her lack of respect for others' sexual autonomy. She sexually harasses every single girl she thinks is cute incessantly, and does not take any correction or requests to stop. Furthermore, she has little loyalty in word or thought to her girlfriend through these same "coming onto anyone cute" actions. At the same time, she gets in Daniel's face when he does a much more minor version of what she does all the time. 

All of the good interactions between Lucy, her and the kittens towards the beginning lost like all of their magic, because of my disappointment in Cat. There was the start of something that could have been truly great there. Now, all that is left is a bad aftertaste.

Fair warning to start i am a fan of a few of the authors other works. However, I can definitely recommend this story. No noticeable spelling or grammatical errors, one of if not my favorite story on this site. The world is a joy to read about, and to the author, Thank you for Writing!

Even though there are negatives (A LOT), this book is actually very fun to read when you need to relax your brain. (The .5 star (which should be around -100 or so, is for the main character, read below)).

Stye:

The style is fun to read. Turn your brain off, ignore the main character, the inconsistencies (easily solved problem *(Enemies who aren't actually a threat if a little thought is put into it, and scoiety that wouldn't exist (America is going that way, but only 1 trillionth of what is in this book...and they are probably around a decade from another civil war / collapse), and have a great time. (This is not sarcasm): It is surprisingly difficult to put down, and I anticipate new releases.

Story: HERBICIDES (and strategy) and the enemy wouldn't be a threat. But otherwise, it is really fun. The family dynamic between the MC and her Kittens, girlfriend (and other two, who should also be girlfriends) is actually very good. The other Vanguards (refuse to call them samari, because no one other than Weebs (even Japanese Weebs) would actually allow themselves to be called that -- the one who tried to invent the name would be lynched and kicked from every group of Vanguards (other than one formed by Weebs)) are really fun to read about. Deus Ex is adorable, and the fire nun (missed a major reference by not calling her Sister Hellfire (she could make a group of five other flame lovers --- though the author may be sued by marvel, lol)) is awesome. The story is a good read.

Grammar: The author is experienced, or has an editor/proof reader. There are very few spelling/grammar errors.

Character Score: Now for the problem: The Main ... 'charcter'. She is stupid, to put it plainly. She makes Issei from Highschool DxD seem like Einstein x Tesla ^ Elon Musk... If not for the AI, she wouldn't know which end of the gun to point towards enemies (maybe not even how to spell such a complex word: 'gun'). She acts like a hard-ass bitcth, yet has no spine -- she never once 'thinks' (or her approximation) for herself, only listening to the AI, the Nun, her Girlfriend, every politician and CEO... The worst part for me (though this is purely subjective, with being Polyamourous) is that she refuses to hook up with the AI and Nun (even though her girlfriend likes them, and has seriously (not the usual sadistic 'test' which is actually an excuse to get mad at their significant other, which most girlfriends do) suggested that they at least have a threesome. The main ... 'character?' is 'loyal' *(meaning that she doesn't want to share, but pretends it is because she loves the other girl too much and it is some noble bs).

I don't think that there is a single part of the story where the MC thinks for herself: She only listens to the AI (who suggests weapons, tactics, gear and keeps her alive), the Nun (who is intelligent), her girlfriend, and the Politicians / CEOs (Example, the sewer storyline. If someone was thinking for themselves, they could easily solve it without having to do glorified fetch-quests for those in charge).

Now. I may make the story sound bad, but that is only the main character (and a few GLARING plot abysses (much, much larger than holes) -- but the story is very much worth reading :)

I was recommended this story a year ago and put off reading it. Boy, do I regret it! I've really enjoyed the first three books and am eager to see where things go. As the subject line says, the story is terrific and Cat’s an awesome protagonist. I would like to see her get a break and consolidate all her gains. It's been, what, five days since she became a samurai? Crazy. 

Just over all lacking could've been real good.

There are a bunch of other reviews here going into details of most anything I could say, that is of course if one ignored all the inane reviews with 5/5 stars in each category.

1. The main character: The mc is a sock puppet to such a degree that it harms the story. I swear the little background and possibilities to shape her is eroded away the longer the story goes on.

2. Technology and story world physics are inconsistent with logic holes and more often than not it's just silly.

3. There is a super annoying gimping and dumbing down of possibilities. Often with the main character actually talking to herself going something like: I don't know what to do I have no ideas, blah blah blah. When she could have easily have solved things if she'd not so obviously been restrained by the author. No one is that damned unimaginative. I'm not talking about the mc not coming up with new solutions either. She could just apply prior things. Sadly though the mc is barely one dimensional.

F it! Honestly I feel beyond sad because this could really be a great story but it feels like the author is torpedoing it on purpose.

One of the best stories I've read on plotgenre.com.

The characters are great, the point system is a very original idea, and the worldbuilding is very indepth.

The point system is probably my favorite part of the story, very cool to imagine what could be done with it.

Can't wait for more :)

I'm not an expert on writing on any kind, but it feels very well written and it just flows nicely. This could be the end of this review and if you just want to know if it's worth reading, I heavily recommend it.

The main problem I had with SCS is the glacial increase in combat ability forced by main character's acute refusal to spend points on getting stronger.

In contrary of the talk in later chapters about being higher tier and helping newbies, Cat is literally still one of the "baby samurai", the only difference between them is access to exotic grenades to punch up (50 points class I, don't remember how much class II cost, 150?) and combat experience. Or more like combat predisposition, since the entire story is barely a few weeks at this point?

It feels like she didn't spend more than a few thousand points on actual, permanent combat power since the very beginning, most of her "build" could be bought after the first incursion, literally the very beginning of the story when she had 5k points. Armor, gun and augments from Sunwatchers + exotic grenades when needed. That's it.

For frack's sake, she nearly has 100k on hand later in the story and her strongest equipment is still a mech for 20k she can barely use, not to mention it's main strength is killing weaker models.

I also disliked having to constantly skip sidestories irrelevant to the story, but that might just me a "me" problem, it would seem most people enjoy them.

Well written, fun, and a breath of fresh air as it is some sort of litRPG without actually being litRPG.

I'd recommend it to any cyberpunk fan.

My only recommendation is thay I think long term character development will be an issue, as everything is going fast (only a few days passed in 70+ chapters). Even though the main cast is diverse and interesting, without in depths development in time they will become stereotypical. You can only enjoy so much sex jokes and cat puns, even though I love both.