New year reading lists usually recommend the same five books everyone's already heard of. Here's a different approach: stories worth starting in 2025, whether they launched last month or three years ago, selected for quality and accessibility to new readers.
Fresh starts
Pale Lights — erraticerrata
If you haven't started this yet, 2025 is the year. The author of A Practical Guide to Evil's new serial is in its stride — enough chapters to binge, still early enough to catch up and join the weekly community. Dark fantasy with a dying sun motif, dual protagonists with conflicting goals, and some of the best prose in web fiction.
Ongoing. Weekly updates.
Super Supportive — Sleyca
A superhero story about emotional labor that's become one of Royal Road's most beloved ongoing serials. Alden is a support-type hero — think logistics, care, and coordination — in a world where that designation carries stigma. The story examines what "support" means with genuine thoughtfulness. The protagonist is one of the most likeable characters in the genre.
Ongoing on Royal Road.
What We Do to Survive — Glass_Thread
A dark fantasy serial about a village that sacrifices its own to survive a supernatural winter. The prose is literary, the horror is understated and effective, and the story takes its premise seriously without wallowing in misery. New in late 2024, so early adopters in 2025 get the full experience: a fresh community and the thrill of watching a story find its voice.
Ongoing on Royal Road.
Established excellence
The Wandering Inn — pirateaba
The infinite fantasy series. If you haven't started, volume one is a complete arc about an innkeeper who refuses to be a hero and a world that keeps dragging her into its problems anyway. The series is now longer than most epic fantasy canons combined — you don't need to commit to all of it. Read volume one. If the voice grabs you, there's more.
Ongoing. Volume one is a complete arc.
Beware of Chicken — Casualfarmer
The cozy cultivation story that's become the genre's comfort read. A modern person wakes up in a cultivation world and becomes a farmer. The story is warm, funny, and genuinely well-written — not just "good for web fiction" good, but good full stop. Three published volumes with a fourth on the way.
Ongoing on Royal Road. Published volumes on Amazon.
The Last Orellen — Sieley
A slow-burn fantasy about a boy with a mysterious destiny who refuses to engage with it. The worldbuilding is deep, the pacing is patient, and the prose is unusually strong. This is the story for readers who want fantasy that takes its time building atmosphere and character before escalating to epic scale.
Ongoing on Royal Road.
Completed and bingeable
Mother of Learning — nobody103
The time loop masterpiece. If you haven't read it yet, 2025 is the year. Zorian's journey through a month-long time loop — from talented but lazy student to formidable mage — is complete at 108 chapters. The plotting is airtight. The ending satisfies. This is the most reliable recommendation in web fiction: it's finished, it's excellent, and it's free.
Complete. Available on Royal Road and published as books.
The Perfect Run — Void Herald
A completed trilogy about a man who can create save points and uses that power to be functionally immortal, deeply weird, and surprisingly moving. The humor is sharp, the action is inventive, and the ending lands. One of the few web serials to finish strong on its own terms.
Complete. Available on Royal Road.
A Practical Guide to Evil — erraticerrata
Seven books, complete, free. Catherine Foundling's journey from "I'll do what's necessary" to "I'm not sure I recognize myself" is one of the defining works of web fantasy. If you haven't read it because the length intimidated you, start book one. If you dropped it somewhere in the middle, 2025 is the year to finish.
Complete. Available on WordPress and published as books.
Wild card
Godclads — OstensibleMammal
The most aggressively original serial on this list. A world where dead gods are technology, a protagonist who's a scavenger in the corpse of divinity, and prose that demands your full attention. Not an easy read. A rewarding one. If you've been reading web fiction long enough that everything feels familiar, this will remind you what the medium is capable of.
Ongoing on Royal Road.
How to start
Pick one. Read the first three chapters. If the voice doesn't grab you, try the next one. The list is designed for browsing: different genres, different tones, different levels of commitment required. The only wrong choice is not starting anything.