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Seconding all of the recommendations. Wildbow (author or Worm) has a number of other works (Twig got rave reviews; I’m uncommon in liking Pact) And, if you lik

Seconding all of the recommendations. Wildbow (author or Worm) has a number of other works (Twig got rave reviews; I’m uncommon in liking Pact) And, if you like those… I’ll also recommend Practical Guide to Evil (and that author’s next and in-progress work, Pale Lights)

shnock 2y ago
Extremely strong recommend of Pale Lights, Unsong Strong recommend to all of QNTM's, especially their SCP work (linked), Ra, Fine Structure. Also to PGTE, Worth the Candle Recommend to Worm. Check out r/rational!
- embeng4096 2y ago
  Adding another rec for Worm, "There Is No Antimemetics Division", Worth the Candle (protag was annoying but overall world building got me invested). Also add "Mother of Learning" to the list!
  - RangerScience 2y ago
    I quite like WotC all the through, although it definitely changes... "tone" over time? It starts as one thing, but by the middle it's much more clear that it's a therapy exercise for the author that got wonderfully out of hand. There's a lot more talking through issues and emotions as you get deeper in. The author's next major work ("this used to be about dungeons") is same-same-but-different; it's lighter-hearted, almost FRIENDS. MoL is great and pretty consistent in vibe all the way through; IMO the protag goes from kind of insufferable to a stand-up guy. Quite a good romp to scratch that "creative solutions with magic" itch.
  - zeekaran 2y ago
    Mother of Learning is practically D&D porn. Also I love the magic system. If we ever get deep dive VR games, I want to be in the MoL world.
imperfect_blue 2y ago
I read Practical Guide to Evil to the end. It started out amazingly strong, but suffering from increasing worse pacing problems as the series progresses, where the plot progression slows to a crawl with increasing amounts of build-ups and sidetracks. Also every second character is LGBT, which was deeply distracting when reading it because of how much it's emphasized. I'm normally not be bothered by such things but APGtE did it especially badly.
- kurisufag 2y ago
  I consistently confuse PGTE with `How to Succeed in Evil', which is talked about far less often, and every time someone mentions the former I try to re-find the title of the latter and wonder if I somehow phased into an alternate worldline where it doesn't exist. I'll put in a rec for HtSiE, it's nothing special but wrt rational fiction there are some classic scenes. >Also every second character is LGBT, The people who write these things live in spaces on the internet (or, rarely, in real life) where that's true, and they can't quite seem to grasp that it isn't normal.

shnock 2y ago

Extremely strong recommend of Pale Lights, Unsong Strong recommend to all of QNTM's, especially their SCP work (linked), Ra, Fine Structure. Also to PGTE, Worth the Candle Recommend to Worm. Check out r/rational!

embeng4096 2y ago
Adding another rec for Worm, "There Is No Antimemetics Division", Worth the Candle (protag was annoying but overall world building got me invested). Also add "Mother of Learning" to the list!
- RangerScience 2y ago
  I quite like WotC all the through, although it definitely changes... "tone" over time? It starts as one thing, but by the middle it's much more clear that it's a therapy exercise for the author that got wonderfully out of hand. There's a lot more talking through issues and emotions as you get deeper in. The author's next major work ("this used to be about dungeons") is same-same-but-different; it's lighter-hearted, almost FRIENDS. MoL is great and pretty consistent in vibe all the way through; IMO the protag goes from kind of insufferable to a stand-up guy. Quite a good romp to scratch that "creative solutions with magic" itch.
- zeekaran 2y ago
  Mother of Learning is practically D&D porn. Also I love the magic system. If we ever get deep dive VR games, I want to be in the MoL world.

imperfect_blue 2y ago

I read Practical Guide to Evil to the end. It started out amazingly strong, but suffering from increasing worse pacing problems as the series progresses, where the plot progression slows to a crawl with increasing amounts of build-ups and sidetracks. Also every second character is LGBT, which was deeply distracting when reading it because of how much it's emphasized. I'm normally not be bothered by such things but APGtE did it especially badly.

kurisufag 2y ago
I consistently confuse PGTE with `How to Succeed in Evil', which is talked about far less often, and every time someone mentions the former I try to re-find the title of the latter and wonder if I somehow phased into an alternate worldline where it doesn't exist. I'll put in a rec for HtSiE, it's nothing special but wrt rational fiction there are some classic scenes. >Also every second character is LGBT, The people who write these things live in spaces on the internet (or, rarely, in real life) where that's true, and they can't quite seem to grasp that it isn't normal.