Farhan

It is undoubtedly true Lynch has masterful prose and Locke and Jean are a very entertaining duo. The plotting does seem strange though like Lynch just had to keep adding elements because the book wasn't long enough and then there's a whole side adventure in the middle of the book. By the end the threads kinda wrap together but don't know if it was all that satisfying.

It's been a year and a half since volume 8 ended and here we are another 3 million words later. Mainstream author's like Sanderson get applauded for incredible work ethic and fast output, but to put it in perspective Pirateaba has written more in the last 2 years than the entirety of the Cosmere combined.

Anyways, I thought the ending of Volume 8 was awesome and didn't know if it would be topped, but Volume 9 was insane and did it somehow. Sometimes a story needs a good reset to give it new life and take it in new directions, and while at the time the end of volume 7 seemed like it was doing that for Volume 8, (and then the end of Volume 8 was more of a welcome return to form for Volume 9) I think the end of Volume 9 flipped the whole board over to give an interesting direction for Volume 10, and I will be there no matter what !

This series has been such a fun followup to Cradle so far. It's not quite uh ‘literature' and even less so than Cradle but it knows exactly what it is and has a blast with it. I liked that this book had a more compelling villain than the first one, but it does make me question if the gang is fighting Superman in book 2 where do you go from here. The future villains that have been setup I'm not feeling too confident on. I do wish there was a stronger focus on character development and relationships between the crew, I think that would really elevate it but I get its hard to juggle that with an ensemble cast.

I enjoyed the first book more and think it did some things better, but this sequel also does some things better. From a power progression side, I think the first book was more satisfying. This book has its moments but less so in comparison, Rei only gets one big powerup and it's kind of unearned but makes sense story wise. I also think spending the whole book in the tournament was unnecessary and really bogs it down a bit, and slight spoilers but it looks like more of that is in the future and I don't know I feel about that..There are some interesting plot lines that are set up for the future which will be interesting to see play out, and my main worry of how relevant the rest of the cast will be as Rei outpaces them gets solved. I liked the focus on the characters and relationship development more in this book and it's nice to see characters that have logical discussions with each other, understand their faults and grow from them. Will be anticipating book 3

The webnovel that started it all!

With all the webnovels I've read, I never read through Worm even though it is probably the novel that started or made popular the genre of webnovels. It's weird because I love superhero stories so it should have been a no brainer that I would devour this. However to the me 8-10 years ago who decided not to read Worm, it was because I couldn't get over the fact the main character's superpower was controlling bugs...which I thought was lame. It's interesting how my brain chemistry has changed over time and when I found myself thinking of it all these years later, I realized I don't care about that anymore. I've grown up!

Worm was a great read, with a lot of interesting super powers, and facets of the world that are slowly unveiled. Taylor is a fascinating protagonist, with her anti-hero mentality, and probably has joined the ranks of my all times favs. Even though the power to control bugs doesn't seem compelling at first (looking at you me of yesteryear) she finds innovative ways to use it and be a compelling presence throughout the story among both heroes and villains. The story basically starts off with a fight and escalates the scale and stakes of the conflict with every passing arc, culminating in an explosive dynamic finish, but there are moments to breathe sprinkled throughout where the character work shines through. I do think there are parts that drag, and characters and plot lines that could have been handled better, but I think it's pretty forgivable for the author's first work, and also considering the webnovel format basically didn't exist prior to this. The ending was epic and resolved satisfactorily, not quite as good as A Practical Guide to Evil, but somewhere close. I think I will be reading through all of Wildbows other works and of course the Worm sequel at some point.

Nothing actually happens in this book. It's just the same thing over and over with a toxic and completely unlikeable main character. And then it just ends without resolution in an open ending. I guess you could get something out of this if you're looking for commentary about the human condition, but at no point did this book entertain me.

I though this book was amazing..until I I reached the end. Now don't get me wrong, the ending was great too, I just felt it was too hurried. It just ended so suddenly with that cliffhanger and I think the book could have been longer. So overall, this book suffers from the same problem as most books that are the second in a trilogy, where it seems like there could be more in it that is instead being saved for the final book, but the writing is still excellent.

This book has a common complaint that the ending is predictable. I agree with that assessment. In fact I'd say almost all the individual elements that compose this story have already been done before. And yet, put together it still makes for a fascinating read. I had a good idea where the story was headed pretty early on but I immensely enjoyed the journey there.

I'd best describe this story as My Hero Academia meets Invincible. Yet where it really differs, is with the main character Matt. Matt was a refreshing character in this story, and the genre as a whole, being power less in a world where everyone isn't, yet with sheer determination and force of will, not being powerless.

Overall, I'm excited to see where the sequel goes.

Honestly my opinion after the end of this volume, the longest of them all, is that the controversial ending of Volume 7 improved the story and gave us a more interesting Volume 8. SO MUCH happened in this Volume and there were so so many great moments and interesting plotlines. I think many of the characters in this hugeee cast really came into their own in this volume and that was just awesome to see. The end of this volume was unlike anything I've read in fantasy, and was like what it was like to watch Endgame, but in novel form and with even more epic scope. It's left me questioning where we even go from here but I have trust my expectations will only continue to be topped in the future.

I think with time travel stories, there's only so many different twists people can come up with and it's evident in Lost in Time, because the main twist has already been done before and if you know enough time travel stories, can probably figure it out. However, the lynchpin of the conclusion, the final “twist,” I think I've seen done in time travel stories, but not the way it's done here, and gives it a very satisfying ending. Given that, I think this book is a worthwhile addition to the time travel genre. And personally just because I love time travel stories, this book was very entertaining to me and I was very invested in seeing how it all wrapped up.

My only gripe with the book is that the marketing is pretty misleading and the actual book is very different than what I expected. You're lead to believe that the time traveling to the past is very important, and that dinosaurs and everything would be a large part of the book but they really aren't. In fact you're also led to believe that Sam is the main character of the book but he really isn't. There's a line in the book's description that says "But he can't give up, because he has to save his family who are 200 million years in the future" which makes you think he would do something to save his family somehow. But in fact it's him who gets saved by Adeline, the true main character of the book. Sam doesn't really contribute to the plot at all so his time in the past is largely irrelevant. Everything about the marketing makes you think it's super important, that Sam contributes significantly, but it's Adeline the story revolves around and the present timeline that's relevant. I am not sure if this was done on purpose to hide the twist, but it was just strange having this disconnect between the description of the book and the reality.

3 million words (like 30 books!!) and 3 years later, I finally complete this series. I was first intrigued to read this because the core concept of the story is super unique and fascinating. The “magic” system of Guide revolves around Stories, and classical story tropes. There is naturally Good vs Evil, and the story tropes that are typical actually manifest in the world, with fate shaping itself so those story beats are followed, and are used by both heroes and villains to achieve their ends. A simple example is that sometimes, a hero is thrown into impossible odds, and whoever is doing the throwing, knows the hero will win because it is only natural for heroes to overcome impossible odds. The protagonist weaving and manipulating stories for her goals is very satisfying to witness. This makes the Guide at times immensely familiar, because what reader is not familiar with knowing saying “This couldn't get any worse” is immediately followed by things getting worse, yet new because of how those tropes are baked into the setting and story.

I don't think it's ever taken me this long to read something, this normally would be like a 2 week affair, so I ended up reading this series in spurts. I actually read the first two books twice because I forgot what happened and wanted to get serious about finishing it. I think it took so long because at times, it was hard to get through, but it is very worth it! There are a couple things I think the Guide does better than ANYTHING I've read.

1. Characterizations and dialogue
The main character, Catherine, and her friends are all well developed, each with their own motivations and personality. And put together is really where this story shines, because I have never read anything that so easily demonstrates the chemistry between the cast, their witty dialogue and funny banter. Character development and interaction is really what drove this series for me because it was always interesting.

2. Argument and philosophy
This goes along a bit with the previous point, but I have never read anything where argument was so complex, I could never decide which way I was leaning in an argument. More than once I thought to myself how does the author even come up with these arguments, because it always made sense when explained to me, but I could never have done it myself. It's interesting because you can't write clever characters without being clever yourself, and the author is definitely clever. I think this is so strong because the characters are so strong, and the author knows them so well.

3. Enemies to lovers
Haha this one is a little different from the other points, but generally speaking, enemies to lovers, is usually just dislike to lovers in most things I've read. This is I think the truest example of enemies to lovers I have read because they are most definitely enemies in the beginning, with a huge enmity, and very very good reason for that enmity, and there is a slow-burn that takes pretty much the whole series to resolve. It also develops into one of the best redemptions arcs I've read.

4. Epithets

At which point Lord Bujune and Lady Rania both accused the other of being the Emperor in disguise, and the meeting devolved into protracted argument until the final quarter hour had passed.” – Extract from the minutes of the fourth meeting of the Red Fox Conspiracy, as taken by the stenographer Shamna Mehere (later revealed to have been Dread Emperor Traitorous all along)

I thought I'd like this book a lot more than I did, but the characters were not very compelling and the relationships very typical YA. The plot was also kinda eh it was in the water...really?? that actually made me laugh . It was a quick read though and fun if you turn your brain off. Also the constant christ-it-was had me banging my head WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN

Overall, I thought this was a fantastic read. The part of the book that strikes out to me the most is the fantastic world building in this novel, it's really cool to read about a culture entirely based on living in/around a tree, and clear the authors have put a lot of thought into it and the lore of the world. It's a very unique setting. The story I don't think is groundbreaking as a whole, but there were twists I didn't see coming, and it was a fun time. Character interactions, action scenes are all excellent, and the novel is generally very well written. I especially liked the interactions between the main character and the demon in his body, very reminiscent of Venom. The ending of the book was satisfying and unexpected, and I'm excited to see where the story goes from here.

My one major gripe with this novel is that it's marketed as progression fantasy, and feel free to disagree, but this is NOT progression fantasy. I would even hesitate to call it progression fantasy adjacent but I could see an argument made for it. It's just regular fantasy, and damn good one at that, but progression is not part of it. The magic system has been designed in a way that there could be a progression focus in latter books, but it's really not there in this one. I will say though, I think progression fantasy fans would still like the novel.