The trouble with Worm is that although it has a great concept, great ideas, and even great characters, Wildbow's execution of those ideas is a little half-baked/crude, especially as it gets into the later arcs.
He may have improved over the course of his writing career (I haven't read any of his other works yet), and don't get me wrong I've nothing against the guy, but Worm took off not because of his execution/writing but because of the concept people could use themselves (especially with crossovers); it's why many fics are so vastly different from the source material, even when they're just alternate power roulette fics.
Eh I'm very skeptical of this.
Worm took off because it has great world building, and a strong cast of characters that could easily produce many different interesting interactions, and are simultaneous not super hard to write.
Worm could definitely use some editing - but serialized stories tend to run a bit long, and Worm is beyond incredible for a new authors bi-weekly web serial.
IMHO, Worm is hands down better than anything, say, Brandon Sanderson has written, especially in terms of powers & worldbuilding. And that's nominally Sanderson's whole thing.
That was a pretty good one actually.
Aye a fellow Umi no Misaki enjoyer.
And that's a critical failure of a writer: if your work isn't engaging or doesn't hook people from the first few pages, your book could be the most amazing thing ever written in just a few chapters... but nobody will ever read it.
Except... its the exact opposite issue?
Most people tend to agree that Worm's earlier parts are the stronger parts, with the story peaking at the Leviathan and Slaughterhouse Nine Arcs.
Its not like Worm doesn't have a pretty strong plot hook. In the first Arc, 25K words, we meet a relatable protagonist with a chip on their shoulder, have a major fight scene, and are introduced to a fairly original superhero setting.
All the most entertaining fics I can think of have followed that formulae. People give SkySaber/PerfectLionheart a lot of shit, but his stuff often follows a pretty pattern that is successful in stories that those same detractors tend to love.
Perfect Lionheart is a nutcase, but Partially Kissed Hero is fucking
amazing to read. Not in the way he intended perhaps, but its still hilarious.
Nobody has read Worm.
I wrote Worm fics, and even I hadn't read Worm :V
Anyone who can't read a 1.7 million word story in two weeks is a pussy.
Yes, I wear glasses. How did you guess?
The internet has too much Worm content already, don't need any more of it.
Wildbow had the opposite problem in that the beginning started out strong but it began to flag as the story went on (especially when the story went past the whole "local superhero" thing).
