6 ms·

Worm by Wildbow is also very much worth a try: http://parahumans.wordpress.com/ http://parahumans.wordpress.com/ Not a fan fiction, like HPMoR, but rather a le

by anatoly 12y ago

Worm by Wildbow is also very much worth a try: http://parahumans.wordpress.com/ http://parahumans.wordpress.com/ Not a fan fiction, like HPMoR, but rather a lengthy novel about superheroes and supervillains that takes the subject seriously and with an incredible amount of inventiveness. It may sound lame, but just try it for a chapter or two.

DanAndersen 12y ago
Seconding this one. I still haven't finished yet (on chapter 21/30 so far) but I've been quite impressed with it. I will say that it's important to get past the first couple sections, as the "high school" setting initially didn't grab me, but once it got into the world of capes it captured my attention. It's just nice to have characters that actually think things through and don't fall for the typical tropes of the genre.
- anatoly 12y ago
  I was undecided about it right up until the big fight with the big L in one of the early chapters. That was so emotionally captivating, so epic and detail-rich at the same time, I was just walking around in disbelief afterwards going "What the hell did I just read?! How... but how...?!"
  - hollerith 12y ago
    >the big fight with the big L If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to know what chapter (the beginning of) that is in.
    - CocaKoala 12y ago
      I don't know what they mean by "The Big L", but the first MAJOR fight against an unstoppable opponent begins in Chapter 8. edit: Oh, as soon as I posted I realized what they meant by L. WHOOPS.
    - anatoly 12y ago
      It's chapter 8 (or "arc" 8 as the author calls it).
nbouscal 12y ago
Worm was so damn good, but I feel obligated to put a warning here. It's not just a lengthy novel, it's an extremely lengthy novel. Starting reading Worm can cause significantly decreased productivity for roughly the next month.
- anatoly 12y ago
  I honestly don't understand how it's not published yet. Yeah, it's extremely lengthy, and may need to get slimmed down in editing, but it's just so good, better by far than most current published SF out there.
  - saraid216 12y ago
    I think Wildbow simply finds it more interesting to work on Pact than to work on editing Worm.
ramidarigaz 12y ago
Honestly Worm is probably one of the best superhero stories I've ever read. Wildbow made a really cool world with some crazy superpowers, and then managed to put an amazing story in it. Fair warning, it's ~1.75 million words. It took me a solid month to read. Another good scifi web fic is Ra: http://qntm.org/ra http://qntm.org/ra. It's about a world in which 'magic' was discovered in 1972 by an Indian physicist. The story largely revolves around the search for what 'magic' really is.
- cousin_it 12y ago
  Fine Structure, the story Sam Hughes wrote before Ra, is also really good: http://qntm.org/structure http://qntm.org/structure
  - saeranv 12y ago
    I second Fine Structure. Sam Hughes does excellent short stories too, this one's appeared on HN before, and was how I was introduced to his writing: http://qntm.org/responsibility http://qntm.org/responsibility
  - danielweber 12y ago
    Fine Structure was fun. However, it seemed to take several weird turns without warning, but acted like they weren't weird turns, just completely normal. Like brain-uploading suddenly appearing in the middle of one chapter. It felt a lot like the author had proven to himself previously that brain-uploading was logically inevitable in the real world and so there was no need to foreshadow it at all.
    - loup-vaillant 12y ago
      Transhumanists tend to share… uncommon assumptions. I for one don't feel that mind-uploading is weird. If we don't blow up ourselves before, its eventual rise is near certain. The lack of foreshadowing probably wouldn't have shocked me. I'd be very excited about how the author deals with the implications, though: while mind-uploading is relatively mundane, its consequences are huge.
Rantenki 12y ago
Wildbow's new series, which is a story about Occult, Diabolism,and explores a world where mathematical precision is applied against magic and deals with the devil, is also quite good :) http://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/ http://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/
zyxley 12y ago
Worm is pretty good, but it runs into the issue that the continuing escalation of the narrative's scope, and a considerable time-skip partway through the story, can (depending on the reader) lose the aspects that drew a reader's interest in the first place. Now that it's finished, it seems like it would work better if edited into a print or ebook format. The narrative could be split into two or three books with each designed to have self-contained storylines, making the differences in focus and scale less jarring. It also has the same basic problem that most superhero fiction does, where a lot of the setting as presented is constructed to allow contrived superhero punch-ups and doesn't make that all that much sense in the context of how the characters and their powers would actually affect the world. This problem is kind of a given if you want people running around in colorful costumes and capes, though, unless it's a setting where superhumans have only just appeared, like in the excellent novel Turbulence (http://www.amazon.com/Turbulence-Samit-Basu-ebook/dp/B00B0LP0VC/ http://www.amazon.com/Turbulence-Samit-Basu-ebook/dp/B00B0LP...).
- saraid216 12y ago
  Wildbow has mentioned the timeskip specifically as something he wishes he hadn't done.
  - Wildbow 12y ago
    Wildbow didn't state that. In fact, he's compared GRRM's issues with later GoT books to the fact that GRRM needed but ultimately decided against/was forced to avoid a timeskip. Wildbow stated that the timeskip suffered for poor execution and a lot of IRL stuff that was going on at the time (including a semi-forced 2 week break from all internet/computer stuff mid-arc), and he intends to rewrite it and cover different bases for the published final version. Source: Am Wildbow.
    - davidgerard 12y ago
      I read the entire comment before getting to the last line :-)
    - devindotcom 12y ago
basseq 12y ago
I'm re-reading Worm currently, and keep thinking about what an awesome HBO/Netflix series it would make. I've been waiting patiently for the end of HPMoR. Have also read Ra, but Ra (and Fine Structure) both start going off the rails at some point, and I find it hard to follow. All need a solid editor, but they're awesome and I can't believe the big publishing houses don't have people looking for stuff like this.
- DanAndersen 12y ago
  I've been thinking the same thing. Worm would be great on HBO or Netflix, an extended drama that could give proper time to let the world and characters be expanded. At the same time I wonder how they could convey all the details of rational thinking, internal dialogue and the like. I think it has the same issue the film of Ender's Game had in that it's just hard to include those details from an external perspective.
  - basseq 12y ago
    I keep thinking what the lead-up to the last big battle would look like. (You know what I'm talking about.) It's usually set to electronica in my head. I think you could tell most of the story non-verbally: a good character actor should be able to get across most of the emotions. Put some more of that into conversations and I think you could get there. (Aside: my issue with Ender's Game was that it felt "small": the whole movie felt like it occurred over a long weekend or something. There was no sense of complexity or time.)
    - TeMPOraL 12y ago
      AD. your issue with Ender's Game - mine was a bit similar. The whole movie felt like the book on fast-forward (you know, videotapes and FFWD button). I saw my friends who haven't read the book beforehand come out of cinema with confusion and not being really sure what the movie was about.
      - basseq 12y ago
freshchilled 12y ago
I'm on my second read through of Worm, and it still sucks my time away almost as badly as the first! I had numerous nights where I'd read until 3 or 4 am when I had to drag myself into work the next day (and read it on the commute).
- davidgerard 12y ago
  I've been reading all the Worm fanfic I can find on SpaceBattles. My goodness there's a lot of it. Some even finished!
jsnell 12y ago
I really like Worm (read through it once, then reread about 90% of it when preparing to write a review). My experience from recommending it a few times is that if people get a few chapters in, it's probably going to be a lot of very late nights of reading. The world building is some of the best I've ever seen, and Wildbow is really good at setting up cliffhangers that just make you read one more chapter. Probably a requirement for the web serial format. I also find the business model to be very interesting as a sign of the times, some more thoughts on that in the aforementioned review: http://jsnell.iki.fi/blog/archive/2014-05-24-book-review-worm.html http://jsnell.iki.fi/blog/archive/2014-05-24-book-review-wor...
JoshTriplett 12y ago
If you're looking to start reading Worm, and you want to do so in manageable chunks, you might try https://www.comic-rocket.com/explore/worm/ https://www.comic-rocket.com/explore/worm/ . That'll let you read it page-by-page (of its 306 pages) and note wherever you stop so you can return later.

by anatoly 12y ago

DanAndersen 12y ago

Seconding this one. I still haven't finished yet (on chapter 21/30 so far) but I've been quite impressed with it. I will say that it's important to get past the first couple sections, as the "high school" setting initially didn't grab me, but once it got into the world of capes it captured my attention. It's just nice to have characters that actually think things through and don't fall for the typical tropes of the genre.

anatoly 12y ago
I was undecided about it right up until the big fight with the big L in one of the early chapters. That was so emotionally captivating, so epic and detail-rich at the same time, I was just walking around in disbelief afterwards going "What the hell did I just read?! How... but how...?!"
- hollerith 12y ago
  >the big fight with the big L If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to know what chapter (the beginning of) that is in.
  - CocaKoala 12y ago
    I don't know what they mean by "The Big L", but the first MAJOR fight against an unstoppable opponent begins in Chapter 8. edit: Oh, as soon as I posted I realized what they meant by L. WHOOPS.
  - anatoly 12y ago
    It's chapter 8 (or "arc" 8 as the author calls it).

nbouscal 12y ago

Worm was so damn good, but I feel obligated to put a warning here. It's not just a lengthy novel, it's an extremely lengthy novel. Starting reading Worm can cause significantly decreased productivity for roughly the next month.

anatoly 12y ago
I honestly don't understand how it's not published yet. Yeah, it's extremely lengthy, and may need to get slimmed down in editing, but it's just so good, better by far than most current published SF out there.
- saraid216 12y ago
  I think Wildbow simply finds it more interesting to work on Pact than to work on editing Worm.

ramidarigaz 12y ago

Honestly Worm is probably one of the best superhero stories I've ever read. Wildbow made a really cool world with some crazy superpowers, and then managed to put an amazing story in it. Fair warning, it's ~1.75 million words. It took me a solid month to read. Another good scifi web fic is Ra: http://qntm.org/ra http://qntm.org/ra. It's about a world in which 'magic' was discovered in 1972 by an Indian physicist. The story largely revolves around the search for what 'magic' really is.

cousin_it 12y ago
Fine Structure, the story Sam Hughes wrote before Ra, is also really good: http://qntm.org/structure http://qntm.org/structure
- saeranv 12y ago
  I second Fine Structure. Sam Hughes does excellent short stories too, this one's appeared on HN before, and was how I was introduced to his writing: http://qntm.org/responsibility http://qntm.org/responsibility
- danielweber 12y ago
  Fine Structure was fun. However, it seemed to take several weird turns without warning, but acted like they weren't weird turns, just completely normal. Like brain-uploading suddenly appearing in the middle of one chapter. It felt a lot like the author had proven to himself previously that brain-uploading was logically inevitable in the real world and so there was no need to foreshadow it at all.
  - loup-vaillant 12y ago
    Transhumanists tend to share… uncommon assumptions. I for one don't feel that mind-uploading is weird. If we don't blow up ourselves before, its eventual rise is near certain. The lack of foreshadowing probably wouldn't have shocked me. I'd be very excited about how the author deals with the implications, though: while mind-uploading is relatively mundane, its consequences are huge.

Rantenki 12y ago

Wildbow's new series, which is a story about Occult, Diabolism,and explores a world where mathematical precision is applied against magic and deals with the devil, is also quite good :) http://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/ http://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/

zyxley 12y ago

Worm is pretty good, but it runs into the issue that the continuing escalation of the narrative's scope, and a considerable time-skip partway through the story, can (depending on the reader) lose the aspects that drew a reader's interest in the first place. Now that it's finished, it seems like it would work better if edited into a print or ebook format. The narrative could be split into two or three books with each designed to have self-contained storylines, making the differences in focus and scale less jarring. It also has the same basic problem that most superhero fiction does, where a lot of the setting as presented is constructed to allow contrived superhero punch-ups and doesn't make that all that much sense in the context of how the characters and their powers would actually affect the world. This problem is kind of a given if you want people running around in colorful costumes and capes, though, unless it's a setting where superhumans have only just appeared, like in the excellent novel Turbulence (http://www.amazon.com/Turbulence-Samit-Basu-ebook/dp/B00B0LP0VC/ http://www.amazon.com/Turbulence-Samit-Basu-ebook/dp/B00B0LP...).

saraid216 12y ago
Wildbow has mentioned the timeskip specifically as something he wishes he hadn't done.
- Wildbow 12y ago
  Wildbow didn't state that. In fact, he's compared GRRM's issues with later GoT books to the fact that GRRM needed but ultimately decided against/was forced to avoid a timeskip. Wildbow stated that the timeskip suffered for poor execution and a lot of IRL stuff that was going on at the time (including a semi-forced 2 week break from all internet/computer stuff mid-arc), and he intends to rewrite it and cover different bases for the published final version. Source: Am Wildbow.
  - davidgerard 12y ago
    I read the entire comment before getting to the last line :-)
  - devindotcom 12y ago

basseq 12y ago

I'm re-reading Worm currently, and keep thinking about what an awesome HBO/Netflix series it would make. I've been waiting patiently for the end of HPMoR. Have also read Ra, but Ra (and Fine Structure) both start going off the rails at some point, and I find it hard to follow. All need a solid editor, but they're awesome and I can't believe the big publishing houses don't have people looking for stuff like this.

DanAndersen 12y ago
I've been thinking the same thing. Worm would be great on HBO or Netflix, an extended drama that could give proper time to let the world and characters be expanded. At the same time I wonder how they could convey all the details of rational thinking, internal dialogue and the like. I think it has the same issue the film of Ender's Game had in that it's just hard to include those details from an external perspective.
- basseq 12y ago
  I keep thinking what the lead-up to the last big battle would look like. (You know what I'm talking about.) It's usually set to electronica in my head. I think you could tell most of the story non-verbally: a good character actor should be able to get across most of the emotions. Put some more of that into conversations and I think you could get there. (Aside: my issue with Ender's Game was that it felt "small": the whole movie felt like it occurred over a long weekend or something. There was no sense of complexity or time.)
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    AD. your issue with Ender's Game - mine was a bit similar. The whole movie felt like the book on fast-forward (you know, videotapes and FFWD button). I saw my friends who haven't read the book beforehand come out of cinema with confusion and not being really sure what the movie was about.
    - basseq 12y ago

freshchilled 12y ago

I'm on my second read through of Worm, and it still sucks my time away almost as badly as the first! I had numerous nights where I'd read until 3 or 4 am when I had to drag myself into work the next day (and read it on the commute).

davidgerard 12y ago
I've been reading all the Worm fanfic I can find on SpaceBattles. My goodness there's a lot of it. Some even finished!

jsnell 12y ago

I really like Worm (read through it once, then reread about 90% of it when preparing to write a review). My experience from recommending it a few times is that if people get a few chapters in, it's probably going to be a lot of very late nights of reading. The world building is some of the best I've ever seen, and Wildbow is really good at setting up cliffhangers that just make you read one more chapter. Probably a requirement for the web serial format. I also find the business model to be very interesting as a sign of the times, some more thoughts on that in the aforementioned review: http://jsnell.iki.fi/blog/archive/2014-05-24-book-review-worm.html http://jsnell.iki.fi/blog/archive/2014-05-24-book-review-wor...

JoshTriplett 12y ago

If you're looking to start reading Worm, and you want to do so in manageable chunks, you might try https://www.comic-rocket.com/explore/worm/ https://www.comic-rocket.com/explore/worm/ . That'll let you read it page-by-page (of its 306 pages) and note wherever you stop so you can return later.