Worth the Candle

WTC is one of the best works of fiction - works of art - that has ever existed on this platform. I highly recommend it. Really, I cannot overstate how much of his lifeblood that the author poured into this work. It is very clear.

Now that it's over, I look forward to the author's next great work.

I'm not very far along in the story as I write this but what I've read so far is excellent. The story is an eclectic mix of genres so far and it's interesting and makes me want to keep reading to find out more. Grammer, spelling and prose are excellent. The characters are well done and the author makes good use of "show, don't tell". I'll keep reading along and unless something drastic occurs I'll be upping my review to 5 stars after I get further along.

I can easily say this is one of my favorite stories ever, as it touches on a number of things I consider important.

The characters all feel very real, rather than just placeholders with a single defining character trait, each their own person, without falling into any trite cliches. 

 Speaking of cliches, this story does a great job of examining several common tropes of portal fantasy, tabletop rpgs and the like, deconstructing, reconstructing, subverting and sometimes playing them straight when you least expect. 

The grammar and overall spelling is excellent, with the author consistently correcting any slips that are pointed out. 

But more than anything, what truly gets me in this story is the world building. The breadth and depth of the world is truly fantastic. The hundreds of species, the dozens of magic systems, the way societies have organized themselves around the existence of magical items, everything the author reveals, just keeps showing more and more of how immense the world of Aerb truly is. If I have only one complaint is that there is no way this story will ever be long enough for us to see the full scope of what the author has created. 

I've been following this for a while. It's nice to see it on another platform where it can get more exposure.

This is a pretty neat story. If you are a fan of DnD and other such dice-rolling adventure games that require a game master, you will probably really enjoy this. 

I think by far what keeps me reading this story is the characters. These are some of the most authentically crafted characters I have read in a fantasy story. This genre usually is more known for plot and worldbuilding than it is for nuanced characters. Not so with this story! I would argue that the characters are the real shining stars of this story.

The world building is good, don't misunderstand me. It can become a bit cluttered at times due to how complex the world is set up to be, but that is ok because it is merely the stage and props with which the characters bring the story to life. 

Continuity is good. Logical coherence is also good, and of critical importance considering the premise of the story, so kudos to the author on that.

This story has authentically portrayed romance with a twist that I will not spoil for you.

There is abundant action and adventure into new and interesting lands. There are a seemingly limitless number of species. So if you only want the classic human, elf, dwarf trio with maybe an allowance for a few others, this is not for you. All the races in this story are original to the author except for humans. So I hope that interests you. There are creatures inspired by those in other fictions, but none copied directly that I have found so far. 

Also, I know some really hate stories with a "person pulling strings behind the curtain" character that guides the journey of the MC, and this story does have that, BUT it does it in a way that I personally think adds to the story and is very directly and consistently addressed by the main characters such that it is a valuable plot point as well as a character development tool. 

I don't want to give too much away. It's a good story. I say give it a shot.

It does deal with some heavy and unsavory topics like canibalism, suicide, etc. So be ready for a not so light-hearted read. I personally do not reccomend for those under the age of 10.

You can find this story on https://archiveofourown.org/works/11478249/chapters/25740126

So one of the best stories I have read in a long time.  My one complaint and reason I stopped reading for a while is they sometimes get stuck discussing what ifs and theory to the Nth degree.  I'm all for it but it just got to be too much for me.

First I'll say that this novel is my fav. across the 100s I've read. I'm a big fan of meta-narrative stories and this one does a really good job. A lot of stories fizzle out when seen from the perspective of the narration making the plots sometimes irrelevant but not this one.  
Also, this novel falls in the category of what they are calling rational-fiction and this novel seems to be the apt example of the genre. I've not seen a better world building done in any of the recent novels. There might be some minor plot holes etc but the world build around just forces me to keep reading forward.
The fav. part of the novel is the conversations b/w the friends. I'm exactly like the two main friends who love to argue/debate/discuss and reading it was a delight. 

This story is actually really good.  I read dozens of chapters and had little complaints about the story itself.  The grammar is superb.  The writing style is great.  The characters seem to move and make decisions that seem reasonable.

But there is just something about it that made it start to drift away from me.  The pacing was fantastic at first, but there seemed to be no progression, even though they did lots of things.  Very little seemed to change. 

Battle, battle, battle, yet the MC didn't appear to get stronger.  Yet at the same time, he did.  It's a confusing paradox as I'm reading it and typing this out, but I can't help but feel that as much as he battled and had painful things done that the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

But I have to say, the reason I give the story a 3.5 stars for style is the author for some reason puts so many paranthesis all over almost every single chapter.  This massively detracts from the story and distracts me.  If it wasn't important enough for the author to put it in the story, then why is it thrust into our faces as we try to read?  The author would have multiple paragraphs of unecessary thoughts in the middle of an important conversation.  There are even paranthesis within paranthesis!  I truly do not understand the authors obsession with them.  If the story desperately needs them, then write them into the story.  The author is more than capable.  Just unwilling.

Overall, it's a great story.  It just lost the spark for me.  Great world-building and everything else.  Just those damn paranthesis and nothing changing while everything changes.

I began reading this a while ago when the author was starting this out.
I thought that this was a nice refreshing novel different from the normal magic system and differing from the normal mc-get-strong story.

When I really got into the novel, I noticed that I wasn't in it for the normal advancement of the op mc or for saving the world. I was in it for the emotional rollercoaster the author made. There is a large emotional magic carpet woven into the story. The mc doesn't get strong quickly and never really exceeds a mortal. This creates a real tension that pulls you in.

If you want to really peer into human nature and possibly yourself, this novel is a good choice.

I bounced off this story the first time I tried it as I didn't like the first chapter, but by chapter 2 it improved. The main characters are unrealisticly hyperlogical, but it lets the author go into some interesting philosophical digressions so I don't think the story is poorer for it. The final chapter is a real steaming turd which detracts from things, if you thought the whole metafiction thing didn't make a lot of sense and couldn't see a way for it to tie it up nicely, neither could the author.

I really love this story. 

It feels very human, in a good way.

How the characters interact, how cultures intertwine, and how the world just feels so alive.

It's a fantasy story where the characters aren't fantastical. They make mistakes, they have awkward habits, they mess up their sentences, and have to define to each other what they meant when trying to get across an idea.

It's very raw, very human.

Not just the character development is good though, the world itself is grand, and the author is extremely great at setting up scenes that are easy to follow and imagine. Also the different magic systems and their requirements are dope af and show that intense thought was put into the world over the course of years.

Thank you author for the story.

10/10 highly recommend.