Violet

This serial needs a good edit and condense should it ever get published as eBooks (or even in print, the writing, characters and story are certainly good enough); I think we could lose around 20% of it to be honest. I'm still giving it 5 stars even though I stopped caring about back stories and skimmed a fair few of the interludes, it was just too amazing to dishonour with anything less than a five star. The plot was so complex I found myself losing track at points, or picking up on thing later than I should have,mostly because I wasn't paying as much detail as I would on something of shorter length (which is almost everything: as this book is ~1,750,00 words. For context The Wheel of Time is 4,410,036 words and A Song of Ice and Fire has 1,770,000 words as of this review. So yeah, long).

The ending though, I misunderstood a lot. Taylor, from whose perspective we see the end of the main arcs, narrates this in a very different (for want of a better way of describing it without spoilers) way, which makes complete sense narratively, although another interlude perspective from say, Tattertale would have been nice. Perhaps it was just the fact that it was 1am and I had slept that late for at least 3 nights in a row, whilst waking up at 7am (sorry body), in a frantic dash to finish it. That alone should speak for how good this serial is. Now that I've finished worm and I am no longer under the influence of whatever makes me single mindedly finish a book whilst giving me the physical ability to lose sleep and not be overly tired, I'll probably go back and read the interludes I missed and the two secondary arcs and enjoy them.

Similarly to how the last few proper chapters were hard to understand to my sleep-deprived mind, the “entity” interludes were confusing as fuck to my lucid waking mind. Perhaps the point, but a third of what was written in those interludes spread over more interludes would be easier to intake and process, whilst keeping that “this is beyond my understanding, but I kind of get the bigger picture” feeling.

Also a bit more exposition when Taylor joins the wards would have been nice. Felt like I lost touch with who Taylor was, who she has become.

Oh and the final ending for Taylor. yeah. I liked it a lot. Bitter-sweet; (for Taylor more than me in many ways) the best way to end anything imo. yes, taylor dying felt way less bittersweet for both me and Taylor than her surviving. Deaths at the end of books aren't my favourite way of ending things, even if some of my favourite books use it. Feels like an easy way out for the fictional characters and the writer in many ways.

This is a lot of complaining for a five star “book”, but looking at all the praise and 5 star reviews, all that needs to be said has been. When I write a review, it is mostly for my own sake; this is a place to get my thoughts, my likes and dislikes down, and to understand them before they fade from my mind. Worm is so good, I tend to pick out the bad and simply describe the rest as amazing.

Finally, my thanks and congratulations go to wildbow, for their dedication to this web serial and the enormous achievement that is competing it.
Also, here's the eBook version I read:
https://github.com/rhelsing/worm_scraper
Work great on kindle, no real problems, it formats chapter correctly, which is what usually doesn't work when I read stuff I haven't bought.

It only gets two stars because it does a decent job of commenting on social issues. Otherwise, a utterly unreadable book. The plot goes nowhere really, it just kinda meanders around before getting to what it wants to say about the social issues it addresses. I kept see plot points being set up and going, so is he going to.. or .. no? I spent the first three quarters wondering what this book was about. Football...no, A YA books about friends...no, teenage love...no, ahh finally... racism. It feels like 250 pages of some random kid from a random town, with a little commentary on social issues. Took me many sittings to finish- I found myself reading 5 pages and putting it down because of how boring it was. Would have given up within 30 pages if it wasn't required reading.

A tentative 3.5 that rounds up to 4 on pure enjoyment, not on critical reflection.

I found a hardcover of this book in a discount bookstore for only $6AUD. For context, a new release eBook is usually $12AUD at a minimum, and anywhere up to $17. A hardcover, is rare to even find in a store (and a bookstore itself is a dying breed) and is usually $30 at a minimum. So despite a few scathing reviews on GR, I thought I'd give this a try. I was relatively surprised.

I had my issues with the book, but not the same ones many others had. A lot of people though it was slow and info-dump-y, but whilst the first 50 pages were a bit info-dump-y, it wasn't much. Perhaps it is instead the result of the book being marketed as a YA book (which it is, sort of. Its borderline being straight up sci-fi/fantasy, but I think the romance finalised it for me that this was undoubtedly a YA book) , because anyone who has read any fantasy has probably had to deal with a lot more than a mere 30-50 pages of slightly slowed pace. This book was anything but slow, after Paige gets taken to Oxford. Too fast and too little character development if anything.

Paige is fighting an injustice that she has barely experienced herself. We get to see everyone else mistreated, but Paige has it relatively easy. She is extraordinarily angry, and she just acts like she is rebelling for the point of the matter. As if she must do it to make up for the lack of fire in everyone else. And I find it highly hypocritical, after gaining insight into Jaxon's character and his relationship with Paige and the Seals. Paige wants nothing more than to run back into Jaxon's arms like a pet, whilst she feels anger towards Warden for nothing more than his continued existence.

Wow. Didn't realise how much anger I had towards Paige's decisions.

The whole clairvoyance thing is interesting, but the amount of complexity felt like it was added so the author could say “HEY! LOOK AT ME WITH MY AMAZINGLY COMPLEX AND SPECIAL MAGIC SYSTEM”. The author has taken a few of trite terms and themes, added a few cool original concepts and mixed them around and called it depth. Complexity != depth. Making 100 different sub classifications for the lesser voyants and giving them long names doesn't mean you have depth.

The setting was magnificent. But it suffers from similar problems as the magic. A few trite themes, a few cool concepts, but no attention to putting them together in a way that works. Instead we get a needlessly complicated bunch of terms that we didn't need, and an effort to change everything and call it depth.

God. I'm making The Bone Season sound pretty bad for a 4 star book. because this book was never boring or slow. I finished in two days, and stayed up until 2am on night reading it. Despite its flaws and short comings, I'd be lying to myself if I said I didn't enjoy it immensly.

I don't know if I can finish this.
post-apocalyptic ya... ugh.
Once the action stops, I realize I hate the characters, the plot, the everything. Sorry everyone, it seems I simply can't like this genre.

So this book is getting a temporary DNF, until I decide to force my way through it like I did with divergent... sigh.

I was ready to stop reading Riyria reading after I finished The Crown Conspiracy. I struggled through the slightly better Avempartha with the promise of better things to come. And come they did. Heir of Novron was a an amazing book (or two), and probably an all time favorite of mine. I'm pleased to find more of that amazing-ness in this book.

And I must admit nothing is cooler than watching the main characters getting manipulated into being what they are and doing what they do, by Arcadius, Rehn and Gaunt's sister(I'm starting to assume that these people are the Elderem Theoremship, considering that Arcadius knows Danbury Blackwater). Oh, and Kine put events into motion decades ago by sending Gwen and her mother to Medford, not to mention befriending Royce and giving him Alverstone.

It wasn't AMAZING. It was barely good.
gasp (its Brandon Sanderson, what is this????)
It had problems. We were at 95% and were still trying to defeat the minor bad guy, which we had been fighting for the whole book up until now. Sanderson was probably wondering how he could possibly tie everything up in three books. And the ending wasn't so bad considering how unlikely it looked to me that all the plot points from book 2 could be dealt with in one 400 page book. But it was done. The ending still wasn't good (and wasn't fully explained), despite the attempts to hide it behind some philosophy, but it was passable given the situation.

It was boring at times, too fast at times and fell apart in the last 15%. It was despite that all, a good book. I've never liked Reckoners much. I'm less excited for a Reckoner's release then any other Sanderson release. I was more excited for Secret History (yummy Cosmere goodies yay!) tbh. I didn't like Steelheart much, I though Firefight was pretty good, but hey, I still read this book within a couples of weeks of release. Reckoners is still good and I'd still recommend it.

The characters were at their best in the series in this book. David felt less flat- I though he didn't have much of a personality in book 1 besides what he wanted. There was much great banter to be had, Megan and David were cute, Knighthawk was cool.

This may very well be the best stand alone novella I have read. Maybe even he best novella I have read. Often with stand alone short stories, I have trouble connecting to the characters and the world, with such little character and world development.

In 175 pages Sanderson manages to deliver to 2 very good character arcs. I guess it helps that there is some established lore to build upon from Elantris, but except for a few mentions of distant lands, this book could be set in another universe.