Worth the Candle

One of the best I've read on RR so far.

Has an interesting/innovative premise for the setting and characters feel very well fleshed out.  Some subtle character progression for side characters and more thorough/in depth progression so far for the main protagonist.

Action doesn't draw out unnecessarily long, overall having a good pace to it in my opinion.  World building also feels ※right※ with not too much extrapolation or meandering fed to the reader like in some other novels. Basically, the story flows naturally where nearly everything introduced has context as for why it's being brought out to bare.

I would say that the writer probably has quite a fair amount of experience sitting in the GM chair and it shows.  Flavor text is abundant throughout giving vivid imagry for what is going on and the game systems don't feel wonky at all (for me at least) as it's something of a conglomeration of pathfinder, d&d, and a hell of a lot of homebrew thrown in.

Story-wise, I also feel inclined to applaud the author.  There's a fair amount of an undercurrent of intrigue and mystery thrown into the mix as the reader is left wondering along with the protagonist as to what exactly is going on as well as why/how and will he find what he's looking for or does he even want to?

(Read up to the end of "Book II" as of this review)

Having read ahead from Alexander's website (up to chapter 165), i would say that the experience starts to wane later on. 

This comes from the introduction of certain relevations that start to cause nearly all the main characters to ponder upon the meta aspect of the story.  It quickly snowballs in such a way that the pacing suffers quite a lot in my opinion.  Said relevations also snuff the mystery/intrigue atmosphere much earlier than expected since the reveal was pretty much unnecessary to plot developments, serving only to paralyze the progression of the story at many junctures.

Characters meander to and fro at every crossroad before deciding to do what they were going to do anyway.  The weight of all of the succeses that June and friends achieve is also rendered nigh meaningless in the face of what they and the audience know.  Furthermore, I believe the story starts to suffer from the protagonist becoming increasingly introspective as time goes on.  He noticeably thinks in circles, often repeating and rehatching old thoughts.  While realistic, it can (and does in my case) begin to chip away at the audience's patience, distancing us from viewing June in a favorable light.  It also serves to exacerbate the pacing problem.

I would say overall, despite these later setbacks this story is still a good read, just not as magical as in the beginning.

This is basically the best LitRPG that I've ever read. The writing and editing is professionally tight, the characters are well-fleshed, and for the most part, the story is engaging, the MC is both likeable and relatable, and (of course) the world-building is very good.
Everybody loves an OP MC, but there's a twist to being OP in Aerb that keeps the tension high that I appreciate 

heavy on introspection and theorycrafting, in a good way

Depression, suicide, relationships, insecurities, group dynamics, grudges, delusions, teenage issues, moral dilemma... this novel got it all. Man this made me reflect on things i encountered in my life more than i expected.

I like this novel because it focuses a lot on what is going on in the head of our MC and that dude is thinking a lot and what he is thinking of what other people could be thinking what he might thinking because the GM might be thinking... and we get to hear all about it. 

Sometimes the ruminations gets a bit much, but later on in the novel it gets better. 

The interpersonal stuff here is what i am missing in many other novels and this novel jumps right into the thick of it.

The worldbuilding is complex, manifold, hexagonal, interesting and sometimes literal xD big plus indeed

i can recommend this if you like convoluted thinking present in all decisions made at any point^^

I like it, it start off kinda slow, with flashback in between chapters. But it still interesting to read. So, no problem there. 

One of the thing that I found interesting is author gave little clue here and there which if you didn't really think about it, it would feel not that important. But will be proven wrong when the pieces start to come together and you can see it have significance for the later part of the story. So there's that.

And..

The MC is not too powerfull even tho he have this game interface to help him get stronger that no one else have.

Hmm.

I don't really know what to say anymore, all is great and I'm having a good time, the style is really interesting, I guess you could say it's a new take on fantasy genre. 

Other than that.. it's on the later part of the story that I have complain about. Well, not really, but you just have to hear me out, i guess?¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, after the story progess more, there so many Drama.. 

But that's the thing with people, right? People are complicated, or is it feeling that are complicated? Nvm

Even tho I didn't really like it that much with so many drama going around at later chapters. At least it feels more realistic this way, and that's probably rare in this website.

So. Props for author for the great story!

I so much enjoyed my experience reading it.

~

Currently at the end of the published story, chapter 221, Targets of Opportunity.

I had read Alexander Wales' stories before. None of this caliber. As he's very obviously in the "capital R" Rationality circle, I think he'll understand when I say: I would be honored to meet the man who is able to contain at the same time (apart from many others) the likes of Bethel, Amarillis and Juniper. Never after HPMOR had I found such protagonists, so full of life, reflection, sensitivity and sheer intellectual power, while still being human in the fullest possible sense of the world. And that's just on the character front, which I understand to be the lowest part (I give 4,5 stars for it), mostly because of LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters making FourLinesAllWaiting (I really missed some characters that are absent for long). Sorry I can't make the TvTropes link work, but you know where to search.

On the story front, I again have never encountered such a detailed worldbuilding. Mentioning Tolkien is mandatory here, but just to say Tolkien is diminished. I could only say, Alexander Wales spends time on staging / worldbuilding in the way that JRR Tolkien spends on fictional languages. But loose threads are few and far between. It's narratvely very satisfactory for arcs to have a beginning and an end, and as much as the author plays with expectations and post-everything, he sticks to the adequate formulas at the adequate times. Meaning, he's just a very, very good writer and narrator, on the level of Scott Alexander. I've spend quite a few sleepless nights reading obsessively this fiction, not being able to unglue myself from the screen. And now that I'm "finished", I just crave for more.

I'm not sure what RoyalRoad means with "Style", but supposing it means "ellegant, decorative", what can I say? It's both the best riff I've ever read on fantasy themes and narratives (and drinking from the most sources, probably), and the best written. A real-world editor wouldn't have let anyone except an acclaimed writer (say, George R.R. Martin) to run this long. But the fiction needs it, and Wales does it better than Martin.

On grammar and language, because this is an advanced review, I can only say: I'm spanish/english bilingual, with deep culture. I don't need a dictionary to read most general or technical works, just very specific old terms when reading Shakespeare, let's say. Alexander Wales forces me to check a word about every few chapters, which is frankly ridiculous for me. Best of class, much better than both standard curated bestsellers AND academic works.

Story:

exploring a massive world with a lot of different locations. But you're not skipping through each one as though you can forget them. Each part of the stpry is important and might come back in the future.

characters:

its been a long time since i've read a story with characters that seemed this 'real'. Not just exploring their feelings, but the why's and motivations behind those feelings. 
Thank you

This story is incredibly good.  On the surface it's an RPG about an incredibly crunchy/stat heavy system set in a world that's always on the brink of falling apart.

In actuality it's an almost intentionally disorienting story about the main character dealing with depression and loss.  Now, don't let that drive you away.  The RPG sections are done VERY well and I suppose you can sort of skip over the emotional depth (a good portion of which is done via flashback) if you want to.  That said, as much as I enjoy the RPG portion of the book, the parts devoted to broken people trying to fix themselves are where it really shines.

Style
This lost a half star because some of the book was so hard to read that I simply skipped over parts of chapters.  I didn't take more than half a star off because I 100% agree with the author including those sections.  Its more a testament to the author's skill at creating believable characters that I connect with emotionally and then putting them in positions where they have to confront the stupid, immoral or just bad things they've done in the past.  Some parts of the story seem intentionally disorienting (the lack of chapter numbers and the flashbacks in particular left me a bit lost), but they honestly do a very good job of feeding into the overarching sense of desolation and confusion that serves as the foundation of the work.

Grammar
Very good- nothing else to say really

Story
The story is great.  Flat out.  It's almost a metastory, the story of how a storyteller tells a story and using metaknowledge of that narrative to try to gain an advantage while still always being on the knife edge of failure.  It does a very good job of establishing political elements, stakes, and pacing.

Character
The characters are why you read this.  All of them are broken in some way and the adventure is almost more about them healing than it is about saving the world.  As good as all the other elements of this story are, the characters are what take it to the next level.

Summary
This will probably get buried considering I'm posting it like 6 months after everyone else, but just read it.  It's really good.

Review as of chapter 161:

Worth the Candle is a portal fantasy tabletop litRPG by a well known rational fiction author.  The story subverts as many tropes as it adheres to with expert execution of the plot.  You won't find a story on Royal Road with more comprehensive world building.  Even the bizarreness of the world starts to make so much sense as it continually intersects with the narrative and the wide variety of magic systems.

The world’s mystery is derived around the MC noticing many of people, creatures, and items that appear are directly related to RPG lore he invented himself in his own pen and paper games back on Earth. Unraveling this mystery keeps the narrative flowing. There are many flashback scenes to his games he played with friends in his old life and they tie into the plot of the story.

The world happens to be single player; only the MC has a character sheet.  So to put it in video game terms that many may be more familiar with than tabletop RPGs, it is like Skyrim with a mod to allow 5+ followers.  As he levels up, so do his followers and the difficulty of challenges thrown at them.  

The followers are NPCs in the loosest sense of the word, but in actuality they are highly complex real people with their own specializations.  His party works together as a team, each bringing their own skills to make a sum greater than its parts.  But their relationships with the MC and with each other are deeply explored and character growth happens to all of them, some for the better and some for the worse.  Even as we learn more about the MC's past, it changes our perspective of how we view other characters.  And they are so well written!  Character writing is probably one of the author's greatest strengths.

The author is also writing this story for the rational fiction genre and it really shows. The main character is highly logical and introspective as he questions the world he is transported to and the reasons he was brought there. He is a min-maxer and he studies his character sheet in depth, going so far to even do the in-depth math to min-max his build. The litRPG elements have more of a tabletop RPG influence as opposed to the genre’s more common video game RPG inspiration which is quite refreshing for the genre.

This is a meta story where the "narrative" of the story itself is part of the narrative which really is intriguing and lends a lot of credibility to the world and the character's actions and reactions. This isn't litRPG written just because stats are cool, the worldbuilding is logical from the ground up and the stats make sense in a narrative way that many other litRPG stories completely lack.

While the story is brilliant, it isn't for everyone though.  The readers who might not enjoy this story are those who don’t like stories with flashback scenes or just can’t get into the deep philosophical discussions.  There is a lot of subtext that is easy to miss and subtle foreshadowing that some may not pick up on.  If you are looking for a pulpy read without thought, then this is not the place to start.

But for those who want to read a litRPG story that actually strives to be rational, this is the closest you will likely get. 

I am definitely going to regret reading this as it has probably cost me tens of thousands of dollars. More about that later; into the review.

I knew about this fiction since a very long time, especially since I was subscribed to the subreddit that it was posted on . Hpwever, the name didn't ring a bell, neither did the author seem familiar, so I gave it a pass. It was a mistake.

Fast forward to when the story was posted on royal road. It didn't have the author as cthuluraejepson, but Alexander Wales. The name seemed familiar, and I went on his website. He had made another nickname for himself, and was the same author that had written Shadows and Metropolitan Man, the same stories that I raved about to my friends. As I went through the list, it seemed that all his written stories were the ones that I had liked and stuck with me such as the Randi Prize. Oh, what a revelation.

I started binging through the novel and stormed through till the last chapter (161).  And what a ride it has been. Somehow, the story touches upon and coagulates widely dissimilar topics into a meta narrative. The "meta" aspect is something that is dealt with so regularly, that I felt that this story should have been the one named "Meta World" (Could we swap the titles?). It includes a range of topics spanning from economics to world building and therapy. 

It is one of the very few "system" litrpgs, where the character actually discloses everything about the mechanisms to his companions. Here, the world that he is transported to is one that highly mimics the ones that he created on Earth as a Dungeon Master. It meshes well into the story as the character and his companions figure how they all fit in to the "narrative" (a word that you will hear often).

The characters are actually what sets this story as the best charterizations I have ever read. The way the characters deal with situations is very realistic. The MC is not the smartest person, he is great in some aspects, poor at others, just how a normal guy would be. The others are not dumbed down either, and not everyone is overjoyed to throw themselves at the MC, with the females ready for a harem, unlike common webnovel tropes. The MC, other characters face a variety of issues from relationship issues, procrastination to depression.

The magic system is phenomenal and has a broad variety. Different species, different magics requiring different costs, just shows how much work has gone into creating it. While revealing too much would be a spoiler, it would not be and understatement to say that the world emerges as a land full of possibilities for the future. Truly makes me want to play D&D. And yeah, for all you flat earthers: rejoice!

Some of the critique would be some decisions taken by the characters that don't really seem optimal given the time they spend on decision making for even trivial stuff. Some world building or character interactions just seem to go on for much longer than what is needed. All of them being issues which can be solved with a bit of editing.

All in all, it is a work of fiction that is so addicting that you can't stop until you reach the last chapter. And this is a positive point unless you really don't have time (like me). As I write this review, I accept my fate that I am not going to clear my interview for Amazon as I have spent the last week just reading this novel instead of prepping for it and I am probably going to regret this for a long long time. Yes, addiction has an opportunity cost. (Interesting tidbit: the author is a former software engineer too.)

I've been following this story for a good while on AO3, but have never taken the time to write a proper review - an oversight which I intend to correct here, because I'd hate for anyone on this site to be missing out on what I think is easily one of the best pieces of web fiction of all time (certainly one of my favourite stories, period).

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hooked pretty much from the word go, but - fair warning - most people will tell you to stick with the story until at least its fourteenth chapter before drawing any conclusions. If you're not fundamentally enjoying it by then, it probably just isn't for you - but if you are, then I feel confident saying that it will surpass your expectations at every turn.

This isn't a story where progress is about unlocking new levels and skills and perks. Well, okay, it technically is, but - more importantly - it's about trying to do the right thing and becoming a better person.

Alexander Wales manages to deftly weave an impressive amount of introspection into the events at hand, thanks to clever use of dialogue, observations, asides, and (most notably) flashbacks - none of which negatively impact the story's strong pacing. The romantic elements of the narrative are handled with a astonishing level of depth and nuance - somehow managing to be simultaneously sincere and deconstructive. Truthfully, the same could be said for pretty much every aspect of the story: its prose, worldbuilding, conflicts and characters. You'll find a lot of twists on classic tropes and setpieces, but there are a wealth of original and evocative ideas to be found here too.

At every level, Worth the Candle feels like a labour of love - and you'll probably end up loving it too.