Worm

This book took me two months to finish and it would have dragged on for much longer if not for the folks behind the audio.worm project, I regret only finding it after reading volume 30 (90% through). Before I get into this book I want to thank that group of likely insane fans for the hundreds of hours they took to read and record this behemoth. To any potential reader, I highly recommend finding the fan-made audiobook on Apple podcasts because simply finding the time to READ this whole thing was driving me insane.

This has been a constant in my life for the last two months so I'm sorry if this review runs a little long. I think for a book like this I need to change up my review format, so I will frame this as a Q&A for potential readers.

Q: What is Worm?
A: Worm was/is a superhero web serial novel published between Jan 2011 and Nov 2013, It has 30 Volumes/arcs and was published bi-weekly at a pace of around 80 pages a week. If that doesn't drop your jaw consider it like this: Wildbow was basically publishing a complete novel a month, every month, for nearly THREE YEARS. Reading this in 2023 means reading the presumably edited epub edition (though you can read this chapter by chapter for free online) with minor changes to the original story.

Q: Okay maybe I should have been more specific smartass, What is Worm about?
A: Worm is set in a world where people start getting superpowers, usually this process occurs after some type of deeply traumatic incident. The story follows Taylor Hebert, a high school student who has recently lost her mother in a car accident and is facing a targeted campaign of bullying at school. As a result of the bullying Taylor awakens a power to control all of the bugs in her vicinity and her priorities change. With the purest of intentions, Taylor dons the tights of justice only to find out that the distinction between hero and villain isn't as clear cut as she thought.

If this sounds like every other cut-and-dried superhero premise that's because it is. But Worm is something a little more, It's not obvious from the premise or the early chapters but this is the sort of superhero story cut from the same cloth as Watchmen and The Boys. Taylor's early attempts to fit herself into the mold of a hero run into a series of setbacks that erode her faith in the establishment. She opts to cross the line, adopting the monicker “Skitter”, Taylor joins a group of up-and-coming villains called the Undersiders.

But that's just the premise and early plot, what Worm is really about is escalation. This is a story about someone making all the right decisions at the moment, only to have that decision trigger an even larger crisis, rinse, and repeat until the stakes are beyond global.

Q: What makes this special, why should I read something like this?
A: A concise answer would be the intricate world-building, well-defined characters, and intricate power system. The author delves deep into the psychological and emotional aspects of being a superhero, as well as the consequences of their actions on society and themselves. The narrative is both engaging and unpredictable, filled with twists and turns that keep readers hooked.

Worm has a lot in common with traditional superhero stories, but where it excels is where it subverts the trope and convention of the genre. Characters face realistic consequences for their actions, and there is a constant sense of danger and stakes. The story also delves into themes of identity, morality, and the blurry line between good and evil. The author's willingness to explore these themes in a thought-provoking manner sets “Worm” apart from more conventional superhero stories.

There's something to be said for the medium as well, your standard superhero story has almost always existed within the pages and the conventions of comic books. Worm trades the convenience and artistry of illustrated chapters for the depth and nuance that comes with an all-text story. Every character has a backstory that gets explored, details about the world are plainly stated, and as a reader you are made aware of all of those small things that would have traditionally been hidden in panel art.

Q: Okay you've talked pros, give me some cons, what's wrong with it?
A: I want to say clearly before I dive deep and nerdy into this that If I didn't like this series I wouldn't have stuck with it to the conclusion, I wouldn't be masocistically contemplating reading the sequel either. That said there were a number of things that bothered me enough that I almost DID put the book down, and I am not sure how much of me powering through was due to Worm's overall quality and how much it was me trying to complete a challenge I'd taken on.

The early chapters suck and I knew that going in, I am under the impression that Wildbow went back while editing the epub and strengthened some of these early chapters but that doesn't really impact how good/interesting it is at the outset. Every hero and villain needs their origin story, and at this point in the novel, the story reads like most other fan fiction. It takes a while for the narrative engine of escalation to take hold in the universe; I would wager that it's not until the introduction of Coil and Dinah (nearly 4 or 5 Volumes into the series) that the story finds the beats that will continue to run throughout.

This story was published and planned piecemeal. Wildbow has stated that he would often write himself into deadends and then force himself to write back out just to keep the tension of the narrative going; after all, if even the author doesn't know where this is going how can the reader know? I'm sure that this piecemeal approach allowed the story to benefit from reader feedback in real-time, and to his credit, there is a significant amount of tension surrounding key moments in the story so it's a partial success. But not having a planned story really fucks with the flow of this book, the pacing is all over the place, there are time skips and the additions of whole hosts of never before seen heroes, and the backstory has been delivered in donation-driven interludes that breakup this already gasping story even further.

Another consequence of working from a rough or non-existent outline is that your story runs the risk of losing the reader even at the best of times. There are whole volumes in Worm that I cannot riddle the meaning or significance of, some revelations are buried in detail-rich text and leave you scratching your head for hours of storytime. We never get a consistent villain and the world continues to evolve and confound with each twist. When Wildbow is on the ball this is the most exhilarating part of reading the book, but the quality is not consistent chapter by chapter.

Q: Anything else I need to know?
A: Worm is exciting, varied, and endlessly complex. Just reading the wiki could entertain you for hours and hours. The peaks are high and the valleys are low. I thought that reading the edited epub compilation would mean that I would skip over some of those valleys but I was wrong. Do not go into this book expecting to read something that's been run through with a fine tooth comb, expect some ends to remain loose, and for developments to be nonsensical or even cartoonish. All things told though this is a superhero book at its heart and it's okay to be all of those things.

I really wish that Wildbow had sat down and read this whole series over and just went to town with the red pen. I see no reason why the retail publication had to be the same as the web publication, warts, and all. This could have been a 3,000-page, 4 or 5 Volume box set, and I am positive that all of these arcs could have been condensed into 6-800 page books. Portions of the plot could have been reworked, interludes brought into the primary narrative, and foreshadowing could have been added retroactively. There is so much potential in here and this is not the publishing release I would have hoped for.

I want to talk about fanfic for just a second as well. There is such a City of Heroes RP vibe coming off of this book and I don't know if it's intentional or just a consequence of writing a scenario like this to begin with. I don't say that to put anyone off, but if you're thinking of picking this up you should know that there is a whole fanfic universe that surrounds Worm, lots of readers who write in this universe. Obviously, I am not a contemporary reader but some of the unexplained gaps and surprise characters seemed to be Wildbow folding in some of those fanfic stories and heroes. I could be wrong on that point so don't quote me.

I wouldn't pick this up unless you have some time to kill, all the reviews that say this is nectar from the gods are from serious nerds that have probably already read more comics than everyone you know put together and have been dying for more content. Worm is good, even great at times but there are so many better ways to spend your time. If Wildbow ever comes back to this volume I hope he really considers a partial rewrite and some serious consolidation. I enjoyed this book a lot but I would not recommend something like this to 99% of the people that I know, it just isn't in a state that invites someone to read it.

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.

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.