Shades of Perception: A Progression Fantasy Epic

Shades of Perception, Book 1

De: FiniteVoid

Narrado por: Kevin Kemp

Reality was objective—until they shattered it—in the first installment of this mind-bending fantasy series.

In a world where thoughts shape reality, Vern watches as the laws of physics crumble around him. But while others embrace mysticism, this scientist sees an opportunity to reverse engineer the new rules governing Victorian Elmhurst.

Marked by an elder god's rune burning in his mind and racing against its corruption, Vern forges his own way. Armed with years of scientific knowledge, he develops a unique power: the ability to perceive and manipulate Balance itself.

As he navigates gothic streets and political intrigue, Vern uncovers terrible secrets: immortal societies vying for control, cultists wielding reality like a weapon, and cosmic horrors that jeopardize humanity's very understanding of existence. With each encounter threatening to shatter his mind, he realizes that in a universe gone mad, perhaps ascending to godhood is the only path to sanity.

The first volume of this steampunk fantasy series—with almost a million views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2025 Suyash Pratap Singh (P)2025 Podium Audio

Slow-burn/horror/thriller.

The book is well writen and the story is interesting at times, but it took the first 2-3 hours just to explain an eldrich phenomenon, and as the book continued a majority of what the mc magic was being described and deciphered was all more or less in his head. The magic being what the mc sees and is more conceptual and not so much quantifiable, just got me bord and uninterested. I still dont get how his powers work other than what he thinks things should be is how things change to being but is in limited scope for the most part cause it comes at a cost of migraines, which he pushes past anyway to make big changes. The whole thing just reminds me of lord of mysteries.

Boring

Yeah I'll have to agree with the more negative review. This book is definitely well written with so many details. The narrator did a fantastic job, women voices aren't the best but overall he's a decent storyteller. Some how though even with all that greatness this book comes off boring. I'm about 4-5 hours into the story but I'm so damn bored. And I get that this is a slow burn type of book, that the more you listen potentially the better it gets. But honestly if you can't wow me within the first few chapters I don't see the point in wasting my time. Maybe I'll continue listening, and my opinion might change if I do. But yeah I probably won't.

This book scratches an itch that's hard to reach

The author here gets more cerebral than most authors do in progression fantasy. The magic system is not plug-n-play, it rich and vivid and full of potential. Powers depend on perspective, and how u see the world. Obviously, everybody sees things differently, and some ppl r more imaginative than others ...so if u like getting into the intricacies of magic systems then u will probably really like this story.
Besides the magic system, there's also a sensible MC who has reasonable motivations. AKA the story flows and the MC doesn't make terrible decisions just for the sake of moving the plot along. There's an event happening in this world, and the MC is experiencing it with everyone else. He's not especially knowledgeable about what's happening, and as a reader u learn as he learns, n he's a really smart guy ...that's his whole thing.

I like the magic system, I like the MC, I like the story, I like the world-building. The pace is a slow burn so far, but I think book 1 laid a foundation, n subsequent books will have a lot more action.
All in all I think they did an excellent job with this one.
Highly recommend checking this one out!