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If tightly edited is what you’re looking for, the longest English language work of fiction ever written probably isn’t it.
Silynt fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Apr 21, 2021 |
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Apr 15, 2021 16:03
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The padding remains but generally improves and the goblins are cool and you will cry when they start all loving dying. The ants are awkward and olesm's a dork. I don't remember rape goblins being a thing in the weirder early sections while pirate was figuring things out though so uh
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Apr 15, 2021 16:10
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It's kind of hard to be objective after the first few million words of regularly scheduled web serial, and there are definitely some earlier bits which don't fit right with later canon.
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Apr 15, 2021 16:11
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90s Cringe Rock posted:I don't remember rape goblins being a thing in the weirder early sections while pirate was figuring things out though so uh the first hobgoblin we meet is, uh, not a very good person honestly TWI does improve by leaps and bounds imo. volume 1 is not very reflective of the story as a whole
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Apr 15, 2021 16:29
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Neurophage posted:
TWI never got better before I dropped it. Rather, it adds several new characters that I find less likeable than Erin. Your mileage may vary.
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Apr 15, 2021 16:44
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LLSix posted:TWI never got better before I dropped it. Rather, it adds several new characters that I find less likeable than Erin. Your mileage may vary. They grow on you. You just have to read the second million words, and maybe the third, then you won't be able to put it down until the end. Well, maybe a fourth million words to get over your dislike of some of the side characters becoming more significant. Whoo though, it's not until about six million words that that one king doesn't suck but at least the tolerable characters in their bits have split off now. It's like the three episode test for anime, or the first 30 hours before final fantasy thirteen really opens up and you finish the tutorial.
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Apr 15, 2021 17:41
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90s Cringe Rock posted:They grow on you.
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Apr 15, 2021 17:59
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Erin and Ryoka are the least interesting characters in the beginning (they both vastly improve later), if you're not enjoying the other parts of the story in the first volume, things probably won't change much for you.
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Apr 15, 2021 18:03
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Near the start of TWI Erin says "gently caress you" to Lism and in retrospect I really can't imagine a scene like that being written with Erin as she is now. But also yeah while TWI is a lot of great things... "tight" is not one of them. Imagine if the filler episodes of anime were canon and were the best part of the anime; that's what this is. Which isn't meant to be disparaging; the slice of life stuff is genuinely enjoyable once she's in a regular groove of interacting with people! FWIW rape goblins are definitely not a thing in TWI and the one time I remember it even being mentioned it's not something that happens onscreen and is explicitly prevented.
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Apr 15, 2021 18:24
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TWI is like if Dragon Ball Z devoted a season's worth of episodes to Piccolo's driving test and a few vehicular adventures besides, with a big war sequence at DMV for the finale of the season. It ends with hundreds of innocents dying, but Piccolo becomes recognized as a licensed driver in the eyes of the whole city and Gohan gets a cool robot eye so it's ok. Yamcha finds love after giving up the art of punching men and setting up a flower shop instead, also. This takes up half the season. Neurophage posted:Unrelated to the Wandering Inn, I recently finished Book 1 of Into the Mire, which was very good and the length of a normal novel. Are there any more web novels like it? Short answer, no. I don't think there's anything like it out there. There are worthwhile reads and interesting worlds out there, but nothing written in such an economical yet robust way. Maybe a Practical Guide to Evil is somewhere in that vein? I think the Charlatan side-story showcases the appeal of the work pretty well. Everything in the Extra Chapters section does, really.
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Apr 15, 2021 19:30
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I made it several million words in. The writing does improve, though it never stops being absurdly verbose. I eventually gave up because of that; the highs were high, but I felt like I had to slog through molasses to get there.Argue posted:FWIW rape goblins are definitely not a thing in TWI and the one time I remember it even being mentioned it's not something that happens onscreen and is explicitly prevented.
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Apr 15, 2021 20:17
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Neurophage posted:I started reading The Wandering Inn recently and I'm now about halfway through volume 1. Does it get any better, or should I stop now? TWI prose gets a bit better but stays fluffy and with some extremely awkward constructions. The writer gets better at what they're good at: interesting settings, madcap converging climaxes, and anime-esque archetypal characters. When you say like it, what do you mean? Good prose and novel length? In setting or tone?
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Apr 15, 2021 20:24
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Yeah I didn't remember that Erin one at all and the dungeon is what I was referring to in the second part. But the notion I was trying to disabuse them of was the idea that goblins are just there to act as depraved grimdark villains. Those examples do not make them a thing, and just to be clear, by "it's not a thing", I mean that goblins are by and large not rapists and we don't get a million or even 2 thousand words about the ones who are. edit: we may have a difference of vocabulary here, so to double-clarify, my use of "a thing" means that the very rare instances of it don't feature prominently in the story at all, and that they aren't any sort of key plot element when they do. If your definition of "a thing" is "they exist" then yeah they're a thing. Argue fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Apr 15, 2021 |
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Apr 15, 2021 20:26
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Oh. Those goblins. Yeah. They're the ones the other goblins hate because they're becoming more like humans and doing human poo poo like rape, but yes, they definitely exist and are awful. And that's definitely not the early stages of the story, either, that's after Pirate's got her tone and setting figured out, please don't read my "the early bits don't represent the real story" as including them.
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Apr 15, 2021 20:35
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Tom Clancy is Dead posted:TWI prose gets a bit better but stays fluffy and with some extremely awkward constructions. The writer gets better at what they're good at: interesting settings, madcap converging climaxes, and anime-esque archetypal characters. Good prose mostly, although reasonable length wouldn't hurt. Into the Mire was genuinely well written, better than many published fantasy novels actually. Argue posted:Yeah I didn't remember that Erin one at all and the dungeon is what I was referring to in the second part. But the notion I was trying to disabuse them of was the idea that goblins are just there to act as depraved grimdark villains. Those examples do not make them a thing, and just to be clear, by "it's not a thing", I mean that goblins are by and large not rapists and we don't get a million or even 2 thousand words about the ones who are. That was my worry, yes. Good to know. catgirlgenius posted:
Practical Guide is the only other serial I'm currently reading. I like it. It's not perfect(bad editing, some of the banter is awkward, I preferred the smaller scale conflicts to the Dead King plot), but it's fun to check up on once a week. I'll keep reading TWI at least until the end of the first volume. Thanks for the feedback, guys.
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Apr 15, 2021 21:16
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Neurophage posted:I started reading The Wandering Inn recently and I'm now about halfway through volume 1. It gets better once the cast is massive and it's willing to spend time on them just loving around doing nothing. There's a couple chapters about Erin teaching her friends to play baseball that are two of the best chapters in the story up to that point. Nothing happens in them. They just play baseball. All of the best chapters are like that.
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Apr 18, 2021 05:18
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Sometimes even a "The two of them traveled around, doing RPG stuff and adventuring. They did a lot of stuff involving stats and systems, but Arnold didn’t really think any of that was interesting, so he just sort of skipped over it mentally."
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Apr 18, 2021 14:54
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Ugh, the loving references in Delve today. Think I might be close to dropping it. That plus the glacial pacing is no fun.
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Apr 18, 2021 20:00
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Delve is weird because it is well written, but things move even slower than TWI, and it updates even less frequently and with far shorter chapters.
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Apr 18, 2021 20:55
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it's like twi but with giant blue boxes that start with things like "include titleawards.h"
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Apr 18, 2021 21:17
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Two new chapters of Worth the Candle up, finally going into the Fel Seed exclusion zone.
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Apr 19, 2021 01:35
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Cicero posted:Two new chapters of Worth the Candle up, finally going into the Fel Seed exclusion zone. Are these the chapters that will finally get me to rage-quit? Let’s find out!
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Apr 19, 2021 02:00
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Sometimes even a Is this some spinoff of the Tower of Somnus? Because if so, I will read it immediately. The Tower of Somnus is amazing.
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Apr 19, 2021 04:12
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LLSix posted:Is this some spinoff of the Tower of Somnus? Because if so, I will read it immediately. The Tower of Somnus is amazing. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42330/tower-of-arnold-a-somnus-story
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Apr 19, 2021 05:22
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navyjack posted:Are these the chapters that will finally get me to rage-quit? Let’s find out!
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Apr 19, 2021 12:01
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I did lol at the ending.
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Apr 19, 2021 12:04
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The surprising thing here is (WtC) that there wasn't a surprise. Normally against the "unbeatable final boss" you'd expect that the hero and his party would manage some miraculous rear end pull to eke out victory. It might come at a high cost, with companions and maybe even the hero himself dying, but "unbeatable final boss really is unbeatable after all; hero dies like a chump" is not how stories generally go.
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Apr 19, 2021 13:13
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I finished the first volume of TWI and I don't think I'm going to continue. First volume was like 300k words, I can't commit to 7 million more even if people tell me that the quality improves. I already did the same thing with Worm, where past Leviathan the story was supposed to get drastically better. It actually got worse, but by the time I'd finished the Slaughterhouse 9 arc, I stuck due to sunk cost. I understand the appeal of The Wandering Inn though(stream-of-consciousness fantasy soap opera) and it still managed to hold my interest longer than any RR story I've tried out. How's Pith? I tried a couple of chapters and it gave me very strong Worm flashbacks, albeit with better writing.
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Apr 19, 2021 16:39
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Don't worry that you're missing out on TWI. If it works its way into your head you'll come back anyway, and if not you'll be able to read like an extra novel a week. I could not handle Pith for very long, but not for quality reasons.
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Apr 19, 2021 17:09
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Amazon Vella: Bezos' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjBoQrFgOms
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Apr 19, 2021 17:55
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Megazver posted:Amazon Vella: Bezos' Restrictions on releasing material elsewhere kneecaps this completely.
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Apr 19, 2021 17:57
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Neurophage posted:I finished the first volume of TWI and I don't think I'm going to continue. First volume was like 300k words, I can't commit to 7 million more even if people tell me that the quality improves. I already did the same thing with Worm, where past Leviathan the story was supposed to get drastically better. It actually got worse, but by the time I'd finished the Slaughterhouse 9 arc, I stuck due to sunk cost. Pith... Good but also has its issues. I gave up on it when I got more and more angry at the protagonist at how dumb they were, over things that I won't spoil you on. Also I personally believe the story quality starts to slip about halfway through the first story arc. But it is definitely worth a read.
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Apr 19, 2021 20:12
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Holy absolute poo poo Hungry, you could have this latest chapter of Katalepsis stretch for like the next dozen chapters and I would still be hanging off every word. The downtime just in the hallway house for monsters or attempting interdimensional conquest are both great. Easily my favourite work of fiction I've read in a long time, regardless of form. Jade Mage fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Apr 19, 2021 |
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Apr 19, 2021 22:19
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I too started to hate Pith's helplessly naive cast but it appears that Anabelle has finally learned some stuff. It just seems like she really should have toughened up sooner. But what do I know? If I'm honest my world view largely hasnt changed like hers did. Maybe I would take a while to adapt too.
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Apr 19, 2021 23:39
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Cicero posted:Ugh, the loving references in Delve today. Think I might be close to dropping it. That plus the glacial pacing is no fun. Check out Ar'kendrithyst, someone recommended it as an alternative to Delve and it excelled at that for me.
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Apr 19, 2021 23:48
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ar'kendrythist pwns and is one of my top 5
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Apr 20, 2021 01:12
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First four books of Mage Errant are free. Stumbled across the author's reddit post while looking for something new to read so no idea if they're any good.
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Apr 20, 2021 03:51
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Hungry posted:Restrictions on releasing material elsewhere kneecaps this completely. It's only for US writers, too, which is very strange. I feel like the tokens thing is going to make it difficult, and compound an issue online fiction already has - you can just hop on Amazon Kindle and buy something complete for like five bucks. A few sites have tried the 'pay to unlock chapters' route before but I'm not sure how well it's worked out.
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Apr 20, 2021 06:39
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EDIT: Lol never mind, I found it. Fajita Queen fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Apr 20, 2021 |
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Apr 20, 2021 07:58
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 10:45 |
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:It's only for US writers, too, which is very strange. I feel like the tokens thing is going to make it difficult, and compound an issue online fiction already has - you can just hop on Amazon Kindle and buy something complete for like five bucks. A few sites have tried the 'pay to unlock chapters' route before but I'm not sure how well it's worked out. The pay per chapter thing seems to be working in chinese web novel market, and also to some degree in the official translation channels. Long running big works that get translated, often Xianxia stuff will run into thousands and thousands of chapters. Personally it mostly feels to me like amazon just cynically trying to muscle in on existing markets they are not a part of. Can't have people making money in books or writing that isn't going to amazon in some way. Can't stop what already happened in China but we better make sure we become the only viable avenue for this in America, then the rest of the english reading world soon after, etc.
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Apr 20, 2021 08:15
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